Olympic Opinions Part 3

This is the final part of a series of 3 posts, part 1 can be found here and part 2 is here.

Soon after the Olympics had finished I thought it would be safe enough to return to Westfield shopping centre in Stratford.  A place I go to quite often, but had avoided like the plague during the Olympics.  The centre itself opened in September last year and still to this day can’t believe I am still in Stratford when I am there.

I should explain at this point that my Nan lives in Stratford about a 15minute walk from the Olympic park and Westfield site now known as Stratford City.  Therefore my whole life I have been to Stratford and to be honest it is not the nicest, most scenic or friendliest place. Whilst the ‘old’ Stratford unfortunately has not changed much, the ‘new’ Stratford couldn’t be more different from what existed before.

Getting back on track, since September the public has been able to get close but still a fair distance from the Olympic site, with any up close access blocked off.  However with the ticket offices open near the park it is now possible to get right up close to the perimeter fence of the site which provides a great view of the aquatics centre (main image above). Around 2 weeks ago was the first time I had been bothered to take a look and the first time I had been there since it was really possible to get that close.  With these views and then going to the viewing area on the top floor of John Lewis in Westfield, I was amazed with the park and almost the magic it seemed to be giving off.  It was now harder for me to believe all this was the same place I had visited for the last 21 years and during the Olympics, Stratford of all places was the center of the world!

Could this park in front of me really be the place where Bolt, Ennis, Farrah, Phelps, Hoy and Wiggins were competing and winning medals just a week before?  It just didn’t seem real to me.

Luckily my family and I were able to get tickets to go to the Paralympics, originally we just wanted to go in and have a nosey around the park before the ‘legacy’ programme began, but we decided to get tickets to an athletics event so we could also go inside the Olympic stadium and experience an event. Obviously being a ticket holder would build excitement for an event but at the time of purchase I was still sceptical about the whole thing. Obviously this is no longer the case and I am fully ready and excited to see what the London 2012 Paralympics has in store for us.

This morning I went into London for the Paralympic torch relay.  The relay was delayed by around 2 hours so I went to the leg starting in Maida Vale, past Lords and round Regents Park rather than the leg going through Trafalgar Square. I was glad I chose to do this as the crowds were light (only around 50-75 people) but the atmosphere was very friendly and the torch bearers were posing for photographs and talking to the spectators, something that probably wouldn't have been possible in Trafalgar square.  Once the torch reached it was over in seconds but it was worth it and one of those experiences where I can say I was there.

Me with the torch and one of the torchbearers.

For the record I have now seen the Olympic opening ceremony fully and despite the boring parade of nations it was definitely a show to make you feel proud of this nation, even if people internationally might not have had a clue what half of it was about. For me the cauldron was a wonderful piece of design and really did well to capture the spirit of the Olympics.

Will the channel 4 coverage will be as good as what the BBC did for the Olympics?  What will happen in the Paralympic ceremonies? Will Britain hit its medal target? Will Boris Johnson be seen dancing again? remains to be seen but all I know is that the scene is set for a new group of British heroes to step up for the most popular Paralympics ever and that this time I can be a part of it.

Can we do it all again in 2016 instead of Rio? Please?

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And finally don't forget to tune in to the opening ceremony at 8pm on channel 4, if the torch eventually makes it!

Olympic Opinions Part 2

This post continues on from part 1 which can be found here.

After waking up I returned downstairs to see that the Olympics were still on TV and there was no sign of it going away. So I decided to sit down and see what all the fuss was about. After a short period I found myself shouting at the TV cheering on team GB cyclists in the Velodrome. This pattern continued throughout the day and I was thoroughly enjoying the sport and at times my mum explained the rules to me which was a first!

However I still wasn’t sold on the whole hosting the Olympics business. Yes, the sporting action was good but then it was also good in Beijing 4 years ago, and that had no effect on my daily life or the city I live in.

So what changed my mind?

The first thing which for me made the Olympics special was watching the athletics and in particular ‘super Saturday’(Day 8) as it is now referred to as. The day where Britain won 6 gold medals, 3 of which occurred in the Olympic stadium sending noise levels through the roof and bringing a new passion and a new found sense of national pride to the country. As Britain hit 3rd in the medals table behind the huge nations of USA and China, our Olympic stars became national heroes with ‘face of the games’ Jessica Ennis winning the Heptathlon and Mo Farah winning his first of 2 gold’s in long distance running. However these stars were expected to do well. For me though the memory will always be Greg Rutherford winning gold in the long jump, he was an outsider for the win but the sheer noise and support of the crowd pushed him on to get gold.

This was the first time I had considered and wondered about the effect of, as British Airways say ‘home advantage’ (#homeadvantage) and It was clear to see that this was definitely a factor in Britain's amazing success of 29 Gold medals and 65 medals overall. The crowd were helping the athletes to perform better which in turn was making more of the country take notice and get behind team GB.

So I was sold on the sport and the effect of home advantage yet I was still not convinced. Mainly due to what I thought would be a heavy burden on the transport and in particular the central line of London Underground. Which for those who do not know runs from east to west (or west to east) across the middle of London,providing a direct route from the west and central London direct to the Olympic park in Stratford. It also just so happens that from where I live (5-6 miles away) the main connection to London is the central line and I had to travel through Stratford into London during the games.

Now I’m not going to lie, it was definitely busier than it would be normally at that time of day, but nowhere near as busy as I was expecting or as much as transport for London would have you believe before the games began. But that was not the biggest surprise for me, the atmosphere on the train was amazing. The London underground isn’t exactly know for its friendly commuters, but during the Olympics complete strangers were talking to each other on the train and I personally was talking to an American family on their way to see handball at the copper box in the Olympic park.

Unfortunately by this stage the games were pretty much over and I had spent most of it either trying to avoid it or being suspicious of it. How I had finally seen that actually the Olympics wasn’t this monster that’s going to be a right pain and in actual fact did something for London which no money or any other event could. The Olympics was a brilliant showcase of what London can be, a friendly well organised city that gets behind the athletes who give their all for their nation. It also showed the world the best of British, our athletes, our venues and our capital city. Most importantly though the world got to see the best of our people, from the ‘games makers’ who helped the athletes, to those who helped visitors around the Olympic park and also those who stood outside stations and local sites with big pink foam hands to direct spectators where to go. But also the spectators inside the venues who cheered on the athletes (from any nation) and created the atmosphere across the city that will probably never be seen again after the summer is over.

At this stage I still had not seen the opening ceremony fully or with sound. The closing was the first ceremony I watched fully (with sound too!) and I was impressed. Whilst the singing and the chosen artists may not have been the greatest or to everyone's taste (Jessie J & One Direction -Ouch) , the show as a whole was a real celebration of Britain and the perfect way to see out an Olympics that had gone so well and meant so much to London but also an Olympics that I feel I missed out on.

Part 3  leads onto my excitement for the Paralympics and the final reason my opinion changed- seeing the completed Olympic park-albeit from a distance.

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Olympic Opinions

Here is part 1 of my story into how my opinion of London hosting the 2012 games changed completely in 10 days and why I think the whole nation eventually ‘backed the bid’, even if it was too late.

I write this post less than a week before the start of the 2012 Paralympic games and to be honest with you I couldn’t be more excited about it!

However 5 days before the start of the Olympic games back in July my feelings couldn’t have been more different. The price of hosting the games, the potential disruption to daily life for Londoners, the fact I don’t even like athletics, cycling, tennis, gymnastics etc. and also the fact that most people cant get hold of ticket despite living less than 5 miles from the Olympic park.

So what happened?

Well to be honest there are several reasons why I feel mine and the majority of the nations opinions of hosting the Olympic games completely changed. But for me it occurred later on than most as I was on holiday in Florida and whilst out there despite the dodgy NBC adverts advertising the controversial ’tape delay’ coverage of the opening ceremony, I couldn’t have cared less about it and the games as a whole. Hoping to avoid the games and somehow manage to stay on holiday for an extra week to avoid the whole thing.

My plan to avoid the games didn’t start well, to be honest it sort of failed before it started! Got to an Italian restaurant in the middle of Kissimmee, Florida sat down and right there was a TV showing NBC, yes I was now parked in front of a TV with the opening ceremony on. It was almost as if someone had planned to make me watch it as a punishment for something. Fortunately (or unfortunately thinking about it now) there was no sound so I didn’t have to suffer a full audio-visual olympic assault. The next day I was lucky enough to visit Discovery Cove to swim with dolphins (a must if you ever visit Orlando or central Florida!) and after hearing my British accent all they wanted to talk about was the opening ceremony. Great!

Much to my dismay the holiday ended far to quickly and it was time to return to my expectations of the chaos in Olympic London. Hours long immigration queues, longer traffic queues trying to fight the other motorists in the non Olympic lanes and almost being forced to stay at home to ‘get ahead of the games’ . The actual outcome was very different!

At immigration I was able to Walk straight up to the desk with no queue, had a mini conversation with the immigration officer and off to baggage reclaim in less that 5 minutes. Strange I thought, although it was 7am Friday morning half way through the Olympics.  Again there was next to no traffic or congestion and got home in good time. However what I witnessed when I returned home was amazing. There was my mum glued to the TV watching the coverage they had, I was to tired to remember or to care what was on.

In part 2 I will continue the story and reveal the factors that initially changed my view and then what made me excited about the Paralympics and what drove me to start purchasing memorabilia.

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