It was great to see a number of personal bests from Team GB athletes at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics:

Amy Williams – GOLD in the Women's Skeleton! First Team GB Olympic Winter gold medal since Women's Curlers in 2002.

At a recent visit to the Joseph Witaker School in Nottinghamshire I was shown powerfully again the power the International Inspiration programme is having on young people here in the UK.

Two technical delegates from the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) visited us at the London 2012 Organising Committee for the first time last week. As the Sports Manager for Weightlifting for the Games, I’m delighted to say they were very impressed with what they saw!

This week we've been excited to see the first of the Olympic Stadium's lighting towers lifted into place. This means the the Stadium is now at full height - 60m above the field of play.

 

The Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games represent a real opportunity for Deloitte UK. As Official Professional Services Provider to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, it's our last chance to experience all the different sides to a Games before it happens for real here in 2012.

Deloitte people from the UK have had several different roles in Vancouver and Whistler – as official volunteers, seconded to the organising committee, taking on delivery roles at Games time, and supporting our Canadian firm’s client programme at events. It's experience they're bringing back to inform the jobs they do for London.

In among the excitement of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, Seb Coe, Tessa Jowell and Sir Keith Mills hosted a reception in Vancouver to update members of the Olympic Family on progress to date on the International Inspiration programme. Stars of the show were 17-year-old Mikyle Chaitsingh and 16-year-old Diandra Joseph from East Mucurapo School in Tobago – just two of 3.5 million young people already involved with the programme.

Like young leaders in the other 11 current International Inspiration countries, Mikyle and Diandra are helping to promote sport and PE to other young people and to encourage them to get involved. They explained the programme to an audience of 140 people.

 

On Saturday Amy Williams won Britain's first solo Olympic Winter Games gold medal for 30 years. It was a fantastic moment and this picture really captures the joy and elation that she, and the rest of the UK, felt when she won.

Flying through the air with back flips and twists, getting judged for style and difficulty… sound familiar?! Nope, not diving – it's aerial skiing!

The London 2012 blog is featuring Olympic Summer Games athletes writing about their winter sport equivalents. But every now and then an athlete becomes renowned by actually picking up a second sport. Team GB cyclist Rebecca Romero was previously an Olympic rower; U.S. basketball legend Michael Jordan dallied in baseball. Triathletes, decathletes and modern pentathletes clearly all have a pretty diverse range of skills.

That said, there have only been about 15 people to compete in both a Summer and Winter Olympics. Four of these athletes won a medal in both Games. And there has been only one person who managed to win the in the same year.

I can't believe there are only a few days left of the Vancouver Winter Olympics – I've really enjoyed watching all the action over the last 10 days or so and cheering on Team GB. They’ve all performed brilliantly and Amy Williams’ gold was the icing on the cake so far!

Whilst I enjoy watching all winter sports, I have to say that the one I have a particular soft spot for is the figure skating. I really enjoyed the performances from Sinead and John Kerr and Penny Coomes and Nick Buckland yesterday – they all did fantastically well, achieving seasonal bests.