The Sitting Down Sports Collection

In 2012 I really wanted to do something that celebrated the Olympics coming to Britain. When I did them I had no idea what a fantastic event it would turn out to be, but I certainly wanted to create something that celebrated such a momentus event.

Doing something using the five rings was an obvious start, but I certainly didn’t want to run into any copyright problems - the Olypic rings are a protected device - I was sure there would be all sorts of merchandise available using the rings. But I did like the idea of five circular devices...

As the event came closer, I remember some television banter, probably from an Australian comedian, saying how the “brits are only good at winning sports where they sit down’. A bit of googling revealed this was in fact a widely held belief, and also partly true! We really are good at sitting down sports!

This seemed like a really good idea to illustrate, and so I started to make my selections - and cycling was an obvious first choice - we are really good at cycling!

Next came Equestrian, lets face it we brits love horses, we really are ‘a nation of animal lovers’.

Then rowing, lets face it, we are really really good at rowing!

I then had to put in sailing - as an island nation sailing is a must.

My fifth one was trickier, and what proved to be a most precient selection, given how the games went. I decided a wheelchair athlete would be good - which given how well the Paralympics went - and which I personally enjoyed watching more than the so called ‘main event’. It was a pleasing choice.

So there we go. We won gold medals in each of my selected events - in fact we won hatfuls!

Maybe I should find a way to do an edition in gold!