We at RollOnFriday Towers (OK, well mostly me) have been utterly consumed by the Olympics. It's not so much about the sport, although I have fallen for the sinister, black-clad keirin pacemaker chap and now know more about horse ballet than I ever thought possible. Rather it's the culmination of four years of intense training. An effort more immense than most of us will ever understand, for just one shot at victory. For some it's all down to 9.63 seconds.
So to celebrate the greatest sporting show on earth (and in an attempt to tenuously link law with the Olympics) I have started a list of legal Olympians,and their loved ones, past and present:
Lawrence Okoye
The Croydon born, 20 year-old discus thrower (and one of the biggest chaps in a sport not known for petite participants) is also a law student in waiting. Okoye deferred his place at Oxford University for a chance to compete in the Olympics. He was disappointed to finish 12th in this week's final, but he's a young man in what's traditionally a sport for the oldies (well those in their late 20s and early 30s). Now he's faced with that common conundrum: does he commit himself to the discus? Return to his burgeoning rugby career? Or head to the City of dreaming spires to learn about Donoghue v Stevenson?
Garry Herbert MBE
Herbert is a former cox, who led the handsome Searle brothers to their gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. The picture of him sobbing through the medal ceremony is one of the more iconic Olympic images. Following his coxing successes, Herbert smashed the image of rowing as a posh man's sport by training as a barrister, before moving to work in private wealth at Goldman Sachs.
You will know him from his excellent turns as an excitable BBC rowing commentator.
Sarra Hoy
Ok so she's not an Olympian herself but as Sir Chris "thighs" Hoy's wife, she surely contributed enormously to his amazing success. When she's not cheering on her husband, Hoy works as an
associate for Clyde & Co in Manchester, specialising in catastrophic personal injury.