Winner(s) of the Olympic Memories Alpha-H comp

It's time to announce the winner of the second part of my Alpha-H giveaway - the best Olympic memories comp (the winners to Part 1 were announced here). I really appreciated the effort you all went to in sharing your memories, so much so that I have decided to post them all here for you to read (if you are interested - if not, skip past the bullet points to see who the winner is).

• My fave moment was the incredulous win by Steven Bradbury! It looked like the race was in the bag until that very last moment!
• The Olympic moment that sticks in my mind was in 1996 I think, when an unfortunate diver messed up his dive and did a painful-looking bellyflop - the male Australian commentator exclaimed "Awww, right in the Jatz Crackers!"! It made me cringe but it was unexpected and hilarious and so very Australian!
• My favourite Olympic memory is competing for Malta at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I have wanted to go to the Olympics since I was young and to get the experience was so surreal. I met so many fantastic people from all over the world and even had my birthday there! I love the Olympics because they bring the whole world together for a couple weeks. You don't have to be a world record holder to be there. It is all about participating. 
• My favourite moment was actually in 1976, when I was only 6-7 years old. But I started Gymnastics when I was about 4 and still watch it every minute I can now, still so passionate about it. But when Nadia Comaneci scored the perfect 10 in the Montreal 1976 Olympics I became infatuated with her. My dream had been to follow in her footsteps, she inspired me and her story still does.
• My favourite Olympic story is Sydney 2000 when princess Mary met prince Fredrick in a club and when she started dating him she did not know that he was a prince. Such a lovely love story a girl next door from Tasmania met a prince from Denmark in Sydney. I love the fact how princess Mary has transformed her looks , she is a natural beauty and inspires me a lot. The Olympics must be a special moment for them now as that's what brought them close and I am sure they are in London know embracing their anniversary .
• My standout memory is when Canada won the Ice Hockey gold in Vancouver two years ago - I was living in Canada at the time and my BF and I were moving on the day of the final - not just across town, but 400kms! The whole day was scheduled around making sure we would be at the other end and be able to be in front of the TV to see the TV, we literally finished unpacking the truck in time to sit down and have a beer and watch the 3rd period and see Canada win!
• You didn't mention if it could be winter Olympics or not.... so I'm going to go with my favorite Olympic moment that was in the winter Olympics. The classic Stephen Bradbury moment where he won the 1,000m speed skating in 2002 after the other competitors were all involved in a collision. It's just so classic to imagine how elated he would have been, to think an Australian could win a gold medal in speed skating. Not in his wildest dreams. It's kind of amazing - anything really is possible :)
• My favourite Olympic moment is when any of the Australians win a medal, especially Gold medals or if they break a world record, it makes me feel proud to be Australian.
• favourite Olympic moment would be Roy and HG's funny commentaries
• My favourite Olympic moment is Nadia Comaneci scoring perfect 10s in the gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Although only 2 years old at the time, the replays during my youth as a gymnast have made this stick in my mind and it still gives me goosebumps.
• My favourite Olympic memory is Eric the Eel, I'd forgotten about that until I watched the video!
• I love that story of Eric the Eel. I remember watching it and thinking how great it was that everyone was cheering and supporting him. I also love the story of Steven Bradbury, who won gold in the speed skating because everyone else feel over. This changed the term 'buckley's chance' to 'Bradbury's chance' for a while.
  But I think my favourite Olympic memory was from 2000, when Roy & HG had their Olympic commentary show The Dump. Sport has never been so funny, and I wish they were part of every Olympic Games.
• My favourite Olympic memory would have to be Nikki Webster at the Sydney Olympics opening ceremony, I have no real recollection of anything but! I was 8 and I had always wanted to be like her and sing at the Olympics! Although I will admit, now that the London Olympics are over, the Spice Girls were much much cooler with their personalised taxis in the closing ceremony!
• My favourite Olympic moment was when Steven Bradbury won gold at the 1000m speed skating event at the 2002 Winter Olympics. He battled defeat and injury in previous years, but he persisted and his courage was inspiring.
• I have to say the most memorable event for me, was watching the kiwi Mahe Drysdale race in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He is one of New Zealand's best single scull rowers and watching him struggle through the final heat was heart wrenching. He got very ill at the Olympic village and spent time at the village hospital. He was gaunt, exhausted and lost weight. He still won bronze and everyone was surprised he did that well. London 2012 was made even more special when he got the gold!
• One of my favourite memories is of Keiren Perkens at the 96 Olympics winning gold for the second games in a row in such a grueling event. I was also blown away by Anna Meares in Beijing, to come back from breaking her neck to win silver was astounding then to back it up this year and beat her arch rival Victoria Pendleton who is the person that beat her in Beijing was fan-freaking-tastic. Oh and the look on Sally Pearsons face when she crossed the line and didn't know yet whether she'd won gold then her reaction was priceless. Just realised that I picked three QLDers =D

This one didn't qualify as it ended up being from the Commonwealth Games but I still thought that it was worth sharing!

• Ive given this question a lot of thought and my favorite Olympic memory goes back a few years. I cant tell you what year it was but i think it was in the 90's...so yes a long time ago. An Irish boxer had won gold and for some reason they could not get the Irish Anthem to play so after several failed attempts this guy jumped up and grabbed a microphone and started to sing. He say the song "Danny Boy"...It was one of the most moving things at the time and i bet that Boxer always thinks of that moment whenever he hears that song. OK...my post above got me wondering exactly what year this was and i wondered if i could find a YouTube of it but it appears I've made an error and it was actually a commonwealth games and not Olympic.....
  
  As an amateur, McCullough participated in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea and was asked to carry the Irish flag because he was the youngest member of the team at 18 years old. He went on to win a silver medal for Ireland at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, and a gold medal at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, The medal ceremony for his Commonwealth title was marked by an unusual incident. A technical problem with the public address system made it impossible to play the recording of the Northern Ireland anthem, Londonderry Air. The New Zealand official in charge of the sound, Bob Gibson, promptly took the microphone and sang the anthem unaccompanied, using the politically neutral lyrics to "Danny Boy",same tune

Some really great memories - thanks for sharing!

I have chosen Madeleine Scerri's answer as my favourite - this was her memory:

My favourite Olympic memory is competing for Malta at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I have wanted to go to the Olympics since I was young and to get the experience was so surreal. I met so many fantastic people from all over the world and even had my birthday there! I love the Olympics because they bring the whole world together for a couple weeks. You don't have to be a world record holder to be there. It is all about participating.

I was a medal presenter at the Sydney Olympics and that was a surreal experience so to actually compete must have been out of this world! Congrats Madeleine, you have won the Alpha-H Liquid Gold Perfecting Daywear!

There was actually another answer that really surprised me so I am going to award a runners up prize to sakina. I thought this response was a great take on the question:

My favourite Olympic story is Sydney 2000 when princess Mary met prince Fredrick in a club and when she started dating him she did not know that he was a prince. Such a lovely love story a girl next door from Tasmania met a prince from Denmark in Sydney. I love the fact how princess Mary has transformed her looks , she is a natural beauty and inspires me alot. The Olympics must be a special moment for them now as that's what brought them close and I am sure they are in London know embracing their anniversary.

Congrats sakina - you prize is a bottle of The Original Alpha-H Liquid Gold

Thanks once again everyone who entered! I will now contact the winners by email.

Just a heads up I am on the look out for some guest reviewers to trial some skincare ranges for me. That post should be up in the next few days so keep your eyes out for it.

Why I love the Olympics so much: my memory of being a medal presenter (+ giveaway alert)

As you may have noticed, I have been running a couple of Olympic themed competitions (this one has closed but this one is still live if you would like to enter to win some Alpha-H Liquid Gold goodies). I though that I might share with you my special Olympic memory.

During the Sydney 2000 Olympics I was Medal Presenter - not one of the people who placed the medals on the athletes necks but one of the girls who carried the tray of medals - and it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Unfortunately it was back in the days before digital cameras became mainstream so I don't have any photo's to show you. I took one roll of film of photos but have since misplaced the prints. However, I did manage to find a picture of myself online from the National Library of Australia Collection. As I don't have the copyright permission to reproduce this image I can only provide you with the link: http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an23419631. In the photograph (you will have to take my word that it is me), I am presenting the gold medal so I am the third girl along in the line.

The medal presentation teams were split up according to height and then were assigned to sports with similar height. As I was in the shortest team we were assigned to gymnastics - probably the sport with the shortest athletes (well, apart from jockey's). In addition to gymnastics, I also presented medals for Synchronised Swimming, Fencing and European Handball.

In the lead up we had deportment training to learn how to walk properly; were taught makeup skills as we had to wear quite heavy makeup each night; we were invited to watch the dress rehearsal of the Opening Ceremony and we were in the Closing Ceremony. It was such an exciting time of my life!

Up until this point I hadn't really seen much gymnastics so it was a real eye opener for me. The strength and flexibility of these athletes was absolutely incredible.

Four moments stand out in my memory from this experience, that I will share with you.

The first one actually occurred just before the Olympics. It was at the Telstra Swimming Trials - the selection event for the Olympics. They also used that as a test event for the medal presenters to get some training before the Games. I was sitting in the holding room waiting for the next presentation when in walked Grant Hackett. I was like omg (internally of course, externally I was cool as a cucumber!). Then behind him walked Ian Thorpe so I was like OMG! Then in walked John Howard so I was like OMG!!! Now, I was 19 at the time so quite awe struck.

As I mentioned before, prior to this I was unfamiliar with gymnastics but I was about to get acquainted with a couple of the superstars of the sport. One of these was Alexi Nemov from Russia - every one of us girls was a bit in love with him - he was just gorgeous!

Alexi Nemov wearing a medal I might have
presented to him!

 The other superstar I became acquainted with was Svetlana Khorkina. I think just about all of us were shit scared of her! This brings me to the second memory that I want to share with you. We were standing in line waiting for the presentation to go ahead. I was carrying the gold medal for this one. I think Russia were expected to win gold but were beaten (I can't remember who by). I was standing there holding my tray of gold medals when Svetlana walks up to me and picks up one of the medals. I promptly shit my pants because we had been taught not to touch the medals - it was protocol that the athletes be the first people to touch the medals (they had to be manoeuvred onto the trays using the ribbons). I was freaking out thinking what the hell was I supposed to do if she didn't return it - would have been a bit awkward getting to the presentation being one medal short! But she then tapped the medal, huffed and dropped it back on the tray - situation avoided!

Svetlana Khorkina and a medal she won
(not stole!)

The next memory I want to share with you came from the presentation of the gold medal for the men's European Handball. In high school I had dreams of going to the Olympics for Handball. I had been invited to try out for the NSW team but never did as I snapped my ACL playing soccer (and in all honesty I don't think that I was good enough!). But, as host nation, Australia got automatic qualification for every team event so at the time I had thought that it was my best opportunity to go to the Olympics. Since I had an interest in Handball, I 'bagsed' carrying the gold tray for this presentation (we had an agreement between the presenters that if there was one particular ceremony you particularly wanted to present a medal on, you could 'bags' it!). The was a general rule that you would only carry a maximum of 5 medals on a tray at once as they were quite heavy. However, this presentation fell on the last day of competition when all the team events were being presented, so it was all hands on deck as there were not enough presenters available to split the load. This meant that I had all 15 gold medals on my tray at once. That was a hell of a lot of gold!

The delegate presenting the medals to the athletes for this particular ceremony was Juan Antonio Samaranch so I was super excited about that. The teams involved in the ceremony were Gold - Russia, Silver - Sweden, Bronze - Spain - so a very vocal crowd. When we entered the stadium the athletes were directly behind me. So, as soon as I entered, the crowd saw the athletes entering and erupted in the most roof raising cheer. Deep down I knew the cheer was for the athletes but it honestly felt like it was for me. I think I experienced the biggest rush - I was on such a high! I'm guessing it is what it is like for rock stars to perform live. Once that ceremony was completed we had to rush to assemble for the closing ceremony -which brings me to my final memory for you.

In the closing ceremony they used the volunteers to act as a human wall to prevent the hyped up (and possibly drunk!) athletes from charging onto the stage and interfering with the entertainers. They had two rows of the normal volunteers then a third row of us presenters. I think it was because our uniforms were more formal we were made the final row between the entertainment and the athletes. That meant that I had a completely unobstructed view of the show from approximately 20 metres from the stage! It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! I got to shake hands with most of the entertainers as they left the stage. Kylie performed 'On a Night Like This' and I swear for about 3 months afterwards I teared up every time I heard the song as I was so sad that the Olympics were over (now it is a happy song for me and we actually used it as our farewell song from our wedding). Once it was over we got to mingle with all of the athletes who remained behind afterwards to party. I traded the Akubra hat from my uniform with a Canadian athlete for their jacket. I kind of regret doing that now, though. My reasoning was that I could always buy another Akubra afterwards but of course they were special ones made exclusively for the Olympics so my uniform is now incomplete. Oh well - its not like I will ever wear it again!

So, those are my memories and now you can see where my fondness of the Olympics comes from.

If you have any great Olympic memories (and they don't have to be of you - anything to do with the Olympics) make sure you enter them into my giveaway so you can go into the draw to win a bottle of Alpha-H's Liquid Gold Perfecting Daywear. The details of teh giveaway can be found here.

Join the Aussie gold rush and win gold (liquid gold, that is) thanks to Alpha-H

Well, the Olympics are in full swing now so I thought that I would have another competition, one where you can win gold...lots and lots of lovely liquid gold. That's right, Alpha-H have kindly sponsored this competition and have provided a whole bevy of Liquid Gold prizes for you to win.

There are two parts to this competition - a random drawing from all entries and then, if you are feeling particularly lucky or creative, a prize for the best answer. You can enter both parts or one or the other, it is up to you. If you enter both then you have the chance of winning two prizes.

Part 1: Two winners will be randomly drawn

You can get up to 6 entries into the random draw - one entry for completing each of the following:

• Follow me on Google Friend Connect
• Follow me on Facebook
• Share this competition to your Facebook wall
• Follow me on Twitter
• Tweet the following 'Join Join the Olympic gold rush and #win lots of Liquid Gold thanks to @AlphaHQ and @skretchs http://nblo.gs/ArZaA  #giveaway'
• Follow me by email

If you would like to enter the random draw then let me know in the comments section which of the above you have completed (and please include your Facebook and Twitter names so that I can follow up). The prizes:

1st Prize: Liquid Gold Skin Perfecting System RRP $99.50

The first randomly drawn winner will receive Alpha-H's Liquid Gold Skin Perfecting System.
Alpha-H has spent a decade developing a system of therapeutic cosmeceuticals which target the key factors of ageing as they manifest in the different layers of the skin. These formulas are now available for the first time in a unique three-stage course of night time treatments.... the Liquid Gold Skin Perfecting System. Each formula: Liquid Gold Prep & Prime, Liquid Gold Original and Liquid Gold Radiance harness the unique corrective effects of pharmaceutical grade Glycolic Acid, herbal extracts and antioxidants to provide overall renewal of the skin. Liquid Gold products are free from detergents, parabens, kojic acid, hydroquinone, artificial fragrances and colours.

2nd prize: The Original Liquid Gold RRP $57.50

The second randomly drawn winner will receive the original Liquid Gold.

Alpha-H’s world renowned skin refining solution. A powerful night time resurfacing and firming lotion for the skin. This exclusive complex jump-starts the skin’s metabolism, tightens enlarged pores, and delivers lighter, clearer and more even skin tone. Also an effective treatment for acne when used in conjunction with our other acne solutions.

Part 2: Tell me your favourite Olympic Memory or Moment

For those of you who would like the chance to win a second prize then I'd love for you to tell me one Olympic moment that stands out, whether it be Cathy Freeman lighting the flame or the standing ovation Eric the Eel received for completing his 100m freestyle race (if you haven't heard of Eric the Eel you must have a read about him here or have a look at this video on YouTube - I thought that it was a real feel good moment of the Sydney 2000 Olympics!). The memory or moment can be whatever you choose, just tell me why you chose it. I will choose my favourite response from the answers and that person will win:

Liquid Gold Perfecting Daywear RRP $89.95

Liquid Gold Perfecting Daywear is a high performance Hyaluronic Acid rich treatment which attracts and binds precious moisture to the skin; helping to swell surface cells and plump out fine lines and wrinkles, giving the skin a fresh youthful appearance. More than just a serum, Liquid Gold Perfecting Daywear is an instant hydrator and skin illuminator. Microencapsulated bronzing spheres burst on application releasing a blend of mineral pigments and natural light reflecting particles leaving the skin with a radiant healthy glow. Suitable for all skin types Liquid Gold Perfecting Daywear is particularly beneficial for dehydrated ,prematurely ageing, mature, uneven complexion and lacklustre skins.

Rules

Just a few rules to the giveaway:

• the competition will run until 8.00pm AEST on Sunday August 19th
• the winners will be announced on the blog and notified by email
• the competition is open to all subscribers of the blog, both Australian and International.

Good luck and thanks for entering!