![Veteran Great Britain diver Tom Daley. Picture Getty Images Veteran Great Britain diver Tom Daley. Picture Getty Images](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/AFKkRPHwQbXhqFfb42nFTx/3fb3ed0d-d3aa-4f87-a293-1a5a9c077f9c.jpg/r0_157_3521_3587_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
TIME flies, but the memories are still largely intact. Touch wood.
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As the Paris Olympics kicks into full swing, I've found myself reflecting nostalgically on events 12 years earlier, when the world's greatest sporting extravaganza was held across the English Channel.
I was lucky enough to be part of the Fairfax Media team that attended London 2012, and I can't help feeling a tad envious of those journalists on assignment over the next couple of weeks in the French capital.
London was easily the best gig I've covered. I've never worked longer hours, nor enjoyed what I was doing quite so much.
It was full-on, but unbelievable fun. And I'd be surprised if any individual witnessed more live action than this columnist, because if I wasn't actually reporting on an event, I was racing between arenas and stadiums to sample as many sports as possible.
It wasn't just the spectacle of the world's finest athletes competing that made it so special.
Fairfax Media had a great team, assembled from around Australia, of reporters, photographers, editors and support staff, and it was a privilege to work alongside them. They were champion people.
And London just happens to be a city that I love, having paid it my fair share of visits over the years. In 2012, I was the right person in the right place at the right time.
I was never really that fussed about Rio (too much crime) or Tokyo (too many Covid restrictions), although had either of those been an option, I doubt I would have knocked it back. But Paris ... that would be merveilleux. If only.
Anyway, I'm tipping an iconic Olympics.
As was London. As I cast my mind back to those glorious late-summer days in 2012, when temperatures nudged 30 degrees and the Poms were abuzz with Olympic mania, I asked myself what was the highlight?
What was my fondest memory?
Before the Games had even started, I'll never forget making my way to Wimbledon for a Lleyton Hewitt press conference.
Arriving early, I noticed that Roger Federer was in the court next door, having a hit with a training partner. So I just sat on my own, courtside, for 10 surreal minutes, as the GOAT went about his business. In my disbelief, it was only belatedly that I realised Maria Sharapova was on the adjacent court.
As well as attending the opening ceremony, in ensuing days I was a face in the crowd as Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt and Sally Pearson won gold medals, as well Lake Macquarie sailors Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen, after a long trip to Weymouth.
After filing my last story and returning my laptop to our office, I jagged a ticket to the basketball gold-medal game, in which the United States superstars beat Spain.
But looking back, I've come to the conclusion that my favourite recollection was not of an Olympic triumph, nor the three weeks I spent in London town. It was a moment in the carpark at Sydney airport, when the trip was over.
My daughters were both divers at the time. Good enough to represent their state and pair up to win a national synchronised junior title. Their hero was an English teenager, Tom Daley, who was always going to be a crowd favourite in London after debuting at the Beijing Olympics as a 14-year-old.
My girls already had Tom Daley calendars, and I was entrusted with buying his book (times two) while I was over there.
It dawned on me that I might be half a chance to get him to autograph both copies, when he appeared at the "mixed zone" for post-event interviews.
Now a middle-aged journalist asking a kid for an autograph is a tad embarrassing/ unprofessional, and my first request was given short shrift by his (grumpy) coach.
But the next day young Tom obliged and signed two personalised messages.
And that's why I'll be cheering for the now 30-year-old, who was named this week as one of Great Britain's flagbearers for what will be his fifth Olympic campaign.
It's the least I can do. After all, he helped me return from London with two special mementos, and the gold medal for best dad.