Olympics Fever - LONDON 2012

The Olympics are finally here!!!!!

Go! Go! Go! Wiggo! Mo! Jess and Jessica! Team GB! USA! USA! 

Ok, I’m going to be honest. I was cheering for Mo Farah over the American to win the 5K. I’m not becoming less proud of my country or more British; I’ve just been caught up in Team GB fever. I’ve never felt overwhelmed by the Olympics before, but this year the events are taking place just an hour away, we have no fewer than 25 channels showing every single event, and I actually have time to watch TV. Also, the commentators are fantastic, especially for athletics and swimming.  They're all so professional when analyzing races, but as soon as the competitions start, they cheer so loudly their voices crack, jump on furniture, and high five like high school kids. They’ve caught me absolutely hook, line, and sinker with their enthusiasm and the compelling stories of some of these British athletes. 

Mark Foster and Clare Balding: together with Ian Thorpe made the best commentating team of the Games!

When we took this assignment we knew the Olympics would be here this summer, so started the process of getting tickets about a year ago when the first ticket lottery was held. If you win them, you buy them in the ticket lotto, so we were conservative the first time around. No one knew the odds of obtaining any particular ticket, and in retrospect we were way too conservative. We only won (as in, won the opportunity to pay for) a men’s semifinal soccer match to be held in Manchester. I’m glad we got those tickets, at least, but I wish we had put in for 20 events instead of four and either tried to resell tickets we didn’t want or suck up the cost and go to all of the events! The rest of the ticketing process was as frustrating. After the initial lottery there were a couple other smaller lotteries (we didn’t get anything) and then a series of first-come-first-serve tickets sales up until the Olympics actually started. (You just had to be tenacious in checking the ticketing website and willing to invest serious time searching for tickets.) A few months ago Katherine won us tickets for a US women group stage soccer game (again in Manchester), then I found tickets to a women’s handball quarter-final match that were especially appealing because that event was held in the Olympic Park (you needed a ticket for an event just to get into the Park so that let us get in and have a look around!) After several failed attempts, Katherine suddenly found beach volleyball tickets as well - the first event of the first day of the Olympics! We joke that she earned her stay for at least another week with that bit of brilliance! 

The Olympics have taken over most of London and spilled into other parts of the UK as well: in northeast London, the Olympic Park contains the Velodrome, Basketball Stadium, Copper Box (handball /fencing) arena, the Olympic Stadium for athletics, the BMX track, Eton Manor (Paralympics), Riverbank Arena (field hockey), and the Water Polo Arena. Outside of the Olympic stadium but in London there’s Wimbledon for tennis, the Horse Guards Parade for beach volleyball, Eton Dorney for rowing, ExCel Center for a bunch of stuff, Earls Court for volleyball, Greenwich Park for equestrian, Hadleigh Farm for mountain biking, Hyde Park for triathlon and distance swimming, etc. Plus, the soccer matches take place from Glasgow to Manchester. Whew, that’s a lot. 

Almost a year after the ticketing process started, and after staying up late to watch the opening ceremony, Katherine, Chris and I headed into London early that first Saturday morning to go to our beach volleyball games. There was truly a different feel to London that morning. Strangers were smiling (← weird) and talking on the train AND on the underground. We were (and continue to be) impressed by the legions of volunteers all dressed in purple and pink shirts with straw hats and smiles. These Olympic volunteers were everywhere we went, and always helpful.

Horse Guards Parade is seriously right in the middle of downtown London. 

8 AM on the first day of the Olympics - Beach Volleyball!

The queue to get into the Horse Guards Parade venue was epic (and well moderated by the volunteers!) There must’ve been 5,000 people in line waiting for the venue to open. Once it did, the line moved smoothly and amazingly fast through security. We never thought we’d make it in on time but we were in our seats about 5 seconds before the first serve. The weather has been rubbish this summer, so Chris lucked out that the morning dawned sunny and warm… it meant the ladies were in their typical teeny tiny bikini uniforms. What inequality, though: the men wear baggy shorts and t-shirts! The volleyball was thrilling to watch, and we also really enjoyed watching the volunteers who frantically raked as much of the court as possible during every time out. The DJ got everyone in the crowd clapping and involved… we loved every single minute of it. With a view like this, how could you not?!

View of Horse Guards Parade with the London skyline directly beyond.

We were able to see two womens' and two mens' games that morning.

Loving the sun and the sand.  Are we still in England?!

The beach volleyball session ended around noon, so we grabbed some food and took the underground a few miles away to get a spot along the men’s road cycling course. We sat in the sun for a few hours at a spot along the barrier that was 3km from the finish line.  A lot of people took advantage of the free event - by the time the cyclists came through, the crowds were four deep along the course as far as we could see. 

First sign of the lead riders!  Look at all the people along the course.

The first people to whiz by at 30+ mph were the eventual gold and silver medalists Vinokurov and Uran Uran.  A few minutes later a group of about 20 flew by, and a few minutes after that the peloton roared through. They went by so fast I don’t know how Katherine picked out Bradley Wiggins in the main peloton, but pictures proved she was right!   Watching the road cycling in person was a little crazy.  The riders come past at 30+MPH which pretty much feels like WHOOOOOOSSSHHHH and they’re gone.  An astounding number of support cars and motorcycles lag a few seconds behind.  Seeing the groups fly by is exciting for a second but disappointing after hours of waiting.  Even if you manage to identify a rider or two as they whiz by you don’t have any idea about what’s going on in the overall race.  The appeal of going to see Tour de France was significantly diminished after watching our little 200-meter stretch.  Following on TV allows a much better understanding of the race as a whole, which to me is more enjoyable.  That said, it was still worth waiting for a few hours in the sunshine to watch an Olympic race for free!

Vinokurov in front (where he'd stay).

US's Phinney trying to break away from the second group of riders. He'd end up just out of the medals.

The main peloton.

The following Tuesday the three of us took a train up to Manchester for the US Women versus North Korea (yes, they put the correct flag up this time) soccer game at Old Trafford, the ridiculously famous Manchester United football stadium.  Just a fun tidbit: Katherine went to the same high school (Mercy, in Rochester) as the US’s giant of a forward and top goal scorer Abby Wambach. We went all-out decorating ourselves with flags and facepaint, and our seats were close enough to see the player’s faces.  A few things struck us about the game experience:  the turnstiles to get into the stadium were tight.  Like, ‘glad I don’t weight 20 pounds more or I would’ve have fit’ tight.  Also, food and drinks were really reasonably priced!  There was no Panthers Bank of America Stadium gouging going on at all, and I wonder if this was just for the Olympics or if that truly is a cultural difference.  Women’s soccer at this level is really good to watch and although the US women could’ve stepped it up a little in the second half, they held on to their 1-0 lead.   The atmosphere at the game was absolutely brilliant.  Anytime North Korea fans would start a chant the US fans would drown them out within seconds with USA! USA! USA! (The only chant in our repertoire, unfortunately.)  We were so impressed with the transportation (free shuttles everywhere), organization (flow of people), volunteer support (anywhere you turned), and security (everyone got patted down) of the game.  There must’ve been a thousand workers.  The US women would continue to dominate and eventually took home gold in a final match against Japan.

In front of Old Trafford in Manchester.

Katherine and me in full face paint :) 

Katherine's brilliant paint job.

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US vs. N Korea - we'd end up winning 1-0.

If you haven’t been watching sports this summer, know that Team GB is having a fantastic year of cycling.  It’s so fun to watch the British back their sweetheart ‘Sir Wiggo’ who just won the Tour de France with Team Sky.  Tracy Villano, a friend from Little Rock who moved to England a few months ago, Katherine, and I made our way back into London for the Cycling Time Trial on Thursday.  It was a long day of train rides, the underground, walking, and waiting but it was cool to see each of the men whompwhompwhomp by (that’s the sound their time trial bikes and big wheels make).  I liked it better than the group cycling because there was at least a few seconds to identify and start cheering for the person coming at you (in time trials each rider is on their own instead of in a big pack like road cycling).  Again, we were in the dark about how each rider was faring overall.  Sporadic phone internet updates let us know that the UK riders were moving fast and on the way home read that Sir Wiggo and Frume had placed gold and bronze!!!  We were a part of history as Wiggins became the most decorated British Olympic athlete of all time!   It’s hard not to be endeared by the skinny drummer-in-a-90’s-band look and sweet sideburns of the champ. 

Katherine and Tracey on the sidewalk waiting for the time trial to begin.

People lined up at least three deep for almost the entire course!

FROOOOOME!

WIGGGGGOOOOOO!

Up to this point we still hadn’t seen the Olympic Park in London, so were excited when the following Tuesday arrived.  We’ve had a guest trade – Katherine left to travel with her sister for a week and my best friend Brett Rollins arrived from the States.  Chris, Brett, and I headed back to London on Tuesday to get our first view of Olympic Park and to get into the Copper Box to see a Women’s Handball Quarter Final.  I’ve never seen quite so many people; there was an absolutely packed sea of people moving out of the Park as we were going in, I guess because the morning sessions had ended.  It was good to get to see all the venues in person, but we were a little disappointed there wasn’t more to do in the park once you were in.  I guess they didn’t really want hundreds of thousands of people hanging out for hours after the event for which they had tickets, but after all the work of getting tickets and getting down to the park we really wanted to hang on to the moment for a while! 

Inside the Olympic Park: the Velodrome.

Inside the Olympic Park: the Bascketball Arena.

Inside the Olympic Park: the Orbit (left) and Olympic Stadium.

Fortunately, the handball game made up for any other disappointment.  None of us had ever seen the game before and we’re still not quite sure what the rules were or why certain fouls were being called.  The following description is in no way guaranteed to be accurate, it’s just a first-timer’s impression of the game: there are six people and a goalie on each side. Like basketball, the teams seemed to run a sort of zone offense and move the ball mostly by passes, but sometimes by dribbling and sometimes just running a few steps with the ball.  Like water polo the players are allowed to totally hack at anyone who has the ball as long as they’re in between the ball and the goal.  It’s similar to ice hockey as there are line changes on the fly.  It seemed like rugby with the roughness and lack of pads. The opposite of soccer in that the players are told to get up off the ground even if they have broken or sprained something (no playing dead in this game!) And finally, unlike baseball in that they are encouraged to put some tacky substance on the ball to help them grip it.  We absolutely loved it, and the game was within a few points the entire time. Spain ended up beating Croatia in the last few minutes, much to the joy of the group of Spaniards cheering “Es-Pan-Ya” as loud as they could the entire time.  Fantastic.

If I played handball...

No fear, no mercy: Handball.

Chris, me, Brett at the handball game.

We were glued to the TV when we weren’t actually at an event.   Every single competition aired here on one of the 25 Olympics-specific channels.  Of course we watched swimming and athletics, but also watched other sports: kayaking, dressage and show jumping, and archery to name a few.  We were so into the Olympics that our ‘dinner at the table’ rule was suspended for the duration.  The most amazing night was when team GB took home three Athletics gold medals in less than an hour – gorgeous Jess Ennis in heptathlon, Greg Rutherford in long jump and AMAZING Mo Farah in the 10k meters.  The announcers couldn’t contain themselves.  Take a minute to watch this, I guarantee it will make you smile (the people jumping all around are the commentators, with Michael Johnson on the right): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1stKv6Axb6Q.   They were giddy, as was the rest of GB.  I’ve never seen the British so proud, so outwardly happy, and so unabashedly excited.  I’d go so far as to say this summer has sort of changed the way Brits feel about themselves.  Our triathlon friends were especially excited for the Brownlee brothers, who took gold and bronze in the Olympic Triathlon.  The motto of these Olympics was “Inspire a Generation”.  I think the positivity surrounding the Olympics, the fact that (for the first time in history) every country was represented by at least one woman, and just the overall success of Team GB really may do just that here.  Great job, Team GB, and great job USA for kicking major butt and leading the medal count!  I promise to cheer more for you in Rio!!