Nick Westby: No time to reflect as spectacular year of sport continues to roll

It has only been a week, but it has been hard to adjust to life outside the Olympic bubble.

No longer is the accreditation around my neck a badge of honour.

No longer do I rub shoulders with medal winners and champions.

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No longer is a security check required for every building I go into... although that is not necessarily a bad thing.

What I miss most is the diversity of an Olympic Games and the places where I could sit and do my work.

Tapping away at the laptop while a basketball match develops in front of you, while Michael Phelps qualifies for another final or while the United States’ women’s 4x100m team shatter a world record just 20 metres away, is the kind of ‘office’ I could get used to.

I apologise if this sounds self-indulgent but London 2012 for a sports journalist who likes every sport under the sun was the ultimate career high, like covering a World Cup final for a football reporter, and everything after that will struggle to live up to it.

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No disrespect to the palatial surroundings of YP Towers, where urban chic meets obscure 1970s architecture, but nothing can ever quite compare to having the best seat in the house for the pure sporting theatre of Olympic competition.

The fall from such heady heights of the crowning of champions and the winning of medals has not been easy to handle.

But, in time-honoured tradition, the sports editor’s boot was aimed squarely at my backside within 10 minutes of my return and I was told in no uncertain terms to shake it off and get moving again.

He’s right, of course, sport is an ever-evolving beast and with football supplements and match coverage to plan, plus preview spreads on Leeds Rhinos and Yorkshire County Cricket Club to come over the next week, the hard-working hacks of the sports desk just do not have time to listen to the amusing story of me and the water polo player in the mixed zone.

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It’s a good one, but I’m going to have to leave you hanging.

For this column is about what’s coming up.

And you don’t have to look too far into the post-Olympic future to see what a marvellous weekend we have in front of us.

As if the second weekend of the football season was not enough, we also have the Rhinos in the Challenge Cup final on Saturday, and Yorkshire in the Twenty20 finals in Cardiff on the same day.

Leeds Rhinos are regular visitors to Wembley on the final Saturday in August.

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This is their third successive appearance in the Challenge Cup final and that piece of silverware is the only thing missing from the trophy cabinet of the era’s dominant force.

This Yorkshire cricket vintage, by contrast, are novices when it comes to finals. This is their first Twenty20 finals day in 10 years of the competition, and while the crash, bang, wallop format of the game might be as much of a lottery, Saturday’s semi-final and, hopefully, final represent a real opportunity for this promising young squad to get on the trophy trail.

Beyond next weekend, autumn dawns and the countdown begins to what for me is a sporting event second only to the Olympics – the Ryder Cup.

Played on the final weekend of September at Medinah Country Club, in Chicago, Illinois, the only downside about a Ryder Cup is that is lasts for just three days. Or four, if it is played in Wales, in October, in monsoon season. My golf shoes have only just dried out.

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But Chicago in September should be much brighter, and as well as the stunning scenery of the Windy City just an hour away, the golf that is played will be of the highest order.

The sporting drama is of an unparalleled magnitude.

From the first tee time on Friday morning to the last putt sunk on the Sunday evening, every shot is cheered or jeered by partisan galleries.

There is as much at stake on every hole as there is in a penalty shootout in football – the nerves and tension are that acute, and the stakes are that high.

Even if you are not a golf fan, I urge you to work a groove into the armchair for these three days alone.

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You will be hooked by the competitive nature of 24 men who will go hammer and tongs at each other for 72 hours, and then share a beer in the clubhouse come Sunday evening.

It is the closest thing to a 100m final as you are going to get over the coming months.

By a quirk of the scheduling, golf’s US PGA Championship last weekend was drowned by the final throes of London 2012.

Even another convincing major win by Rory McIlroy was lost among performances from Pet Shop Boys and the Spice Girls in the closing ceremony.

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Fortunately, golf gets another say with the biennial team competition.

Away from the fairways, the rugby union season is almost upon us.There are just two weeks, in fact, until another promotion campaign begins for the region’s teams.

Also in September and October, and at the risk of more bemused glances from my colleagues, the NFL and NHL seasons, respectively, get underway across ‘The Pond’.

Plus, if you’ve been so moved by the Olympics, then the Paralympics are only nine days away.

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Stadiums and venues in the east end of London are practically sold out already, underlining further how the nation has been gripped by sport this summer.

I am still pining for the heady days of the Olympics, but with so much to look forward to there is no time to look back.