Going once: Bolt’s baton
LONDON 2012 has left us all with some unforgettable memories, but for those who like something a bit more tangible and, well, soiled, help is at hand.
You’ll need deep pockets, however, so if you baulked at the price of tickets to the Olympics, then the auction of Games artifacts, from a signed Bradley Wiggins cycling jersey to an official torch used in the relay, may not be for you.
A basketball used in yesterday’s men’s final between the USA and Spain, and therefore caressed by the sweaty palms of LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, was already fetching more than £3,000 yesterday, with a day left to bid.
Offers for a relay baton used by one of the medal-winning teams in the historic men’s 4x100m race, in which Usain Bolt and pals torpedoed the world record, were nudging £2,000, while a statue of London 2012 mascot Wenlock (pictured) dressed as a Queen’s Guard, staggeringly, exceeded £4,000. The Capitalist would expect a real Beefeater for that.
More miserly punters can snap up used shuttlecocks for £125, for when you want to throw a match in the privacy of your own garden, and warm-up bibs worn by those superstar basketball players are around £100. Bargain.
LOOKS like the first lady of track cycling, Victoria Pendleton, fancies trying her hand as a pop star now that she’s hung up her lycra and helmet. And she’s not the only one; David Beckham, Team GB boxer Nicola Adams, Jessica Ennis and Sir Chris Hoy all channelled their inner Freddie Mercury as they mimed along to Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now in a tongue-in-cheek video for sponsors Adidas that neatly taps into our collective grief at the end of London 2012. Sob.
ARNOLD Schwarzenegger’s been having a grand old time at the Olympics. First he was snapped careering round Piccadilly on one of Boris’s Bikes, and yesterday he got to meet the haystack-haired man himself on a ride over the Thames on the new Emirates Air Line. The former Californian governor said it was “an unbelievable experience” to see the city again, having last visited in March 2011. Said a gleeful Boris: “When Arnold said he would be back this summer, I had absolutely no reason to doubt him.”