By the time you read this I will have spent a week as an armchair athlete, the only physical challenge being to ping the remote control to decide which sport to watch on TV.

The duration of the Olympics awakens something in me that lies dormant for the four years in between the games.

It is the only time I take the slightest bit of interest in activities like discus throwing, long jump and archery.

It is the only time I watch athletics, horse jumping and gymnastics of any sort, the only time I sit through bouts of power lifting and the only occasion I tune in to bizarre activities like pole vault and canoe sprint.

Despite the controversy that always surrounds the Olympic Games, I enjoy watching it.

There’s so much to take in, it can be exhausting deciding what to watch and when, changing channels to catch crucial moments.

It can lead to late nights, as you don’t want to switch off when things are hotting up.

We armchair athletes don’t just sit there getting fat on pizzas. We emerge with an encyclopaedic knowledge of sailing and rowing terms, we learn the principles of dressage, the tecniques of power lifting and the rules of synchronised diving.

York Press:

Power play: Oscar Albeiro Figueroa Mosquera of Colombia celebrates after winning gold in the men's 62kg weightlifting 

We get to know which flags represent which countries - knowledge that comes in useful for TV quizzes.

And we learn a lot about the host country, not only the bits the PR teams want us to hear.

Already I have listened to senior figures in Brazil writhing uncomfortably while being quizzed about the extreme poverty and high crime rates in the favelas and the unacceptable amount of raw sewage being discharged into the sea.

The Olympics sucks us in from the moment we arrive home from work. You no longer, flop down and say to yourself: “Oh, what rubbish is there to choose from tonight?”

You know there will be something, whether table tennis, shot putt or trampoline, to spark your interest.

And, of course, there’s the fastest man alive Usain Bolt, whose 100 metre race pulled in 20 million viewers in 2012.

That’s more than X-Factor and Strictly put together.

I have to confess, however, cycling in the Velodrome does nothing for me at all. I’d rather watch a re-run of Lewis that I’ve seen 30 times before.

Handball isn’t something I’d rush home for either and badminton has always left me cold.

But the rest I will happily watch, even boxing, which usually repulses me. If there are Olympic medals up for grabs I can sit through the gory spectacle.

I remember the last Olympics, even my husband - who is allergic to all sport - showed some interest.

So for the next couple of weeks I will be among the millions of people around the world who will be enjoying the sight of the world’s greatest sportsmen from an armchair.

In fact, us armchair athletes spend so much time watching - neglecting housework and other domestic duties - that, to be honest, we deserve medals ourselves.