Back To Reality

It's been two weeks now since the end of the Games, and it's about time that I write a "final post".

The purpose of this blog was to share the excitement of being a Games Maker in the London 2012 Olympics and document the entire experience from beginning to end. There may well be further posts and this blog may even evolve into something else over time, but my journey as a Games Maker has come to an end and, very sadly, I need to write a conclusion.


Pins and other gifts for being a Games Maker

I originally applied to be a Games Maker because I was incredibly proud that the Games were going to be in London and I wanted to do anything I could, in whatever tiny way, to help make them a success. It was a true honour to be selected and it has been a real privilege to have been part of the Games Maker programme and the greater Locog team.

From the day that the International Olympic Committee awarded the Games to London, right up to the actual opening ceremony, many people predicted that the Games would be a disaster and a national embarrassment. Yes, of course there were problems and monumental challenges to overcome but Locog, and the country as a whole, rose to the occasion and put on an Olympic Games that we can all be proud of.

Speaking for myself, being a Games Maker was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. For more than two weeks, I lived and breathed the Olympics and I loved every second of it. Every day was a surprise and completely unpredictable. I saw and experienced many amazing things and did things that I never imagined that I would do. I also met people that I would never normally meet, from all walks of life and all corners of the world.

The pre-dawn starts and extremely long days were disorientating and exhausting, but the pure excitement and pleasure of it all was like rocket fuel. In previous Olympics, there have been high levels of attrition with volunteers, who have become bored or disillusioned after their first few days, but this was not a problem with London - we were all enjoying ourselves too much! Within my team (Event Services) we had an attendance rate of over 90% for the whole two weeks, which is extraordinary. Over the course of the Games, we were offered small gifts (which you can see in the photo above) as rewards and recognition for our efforts. Although these were much appreciated, I believe that they were only a small contributing factor in the high attendance rate. What really got us out of bed in the morning was the feeling that we were making a difference.

We all wanted the spectators to have the best possible experience at the Olympics and, for the most part, I think they did. I think this is partly due to the outstanding work that the London ambassadors, London transport workers and "final mile" volunteers did. From the moment that the spectators arrived in London, they were greeted by friendly, smiling and helpful people who guided them on their journeys to the venues and kept the transport system flowing smoothly, despite the hundreds of thousands of additional people coming into London every day. Certainly by the time that the spectators arrived at Greenwich Park everyone seemed to be in a fabulous mood, which must have been largely due to stress-free journeys. This made our jobs significantly easier, as we took over the responsibility of caring for the spectators for the rest of the day.

From customer satisfaction surveys, London 2012 staff and volunteers received a 93% "excellent" rating on helpfulness and after the first few days we certainly seemed to be earning a good reputation with the public. Many spectators wanted to thank and compliment us, which was incredibly gratifying. On my journeys home in the evening, it seemed like everyone wanted to talk to a Games Maker. By the second week of the Games, strangers were coming up to me in the street wanting to shake my hand and thank me for what us volunteers were doing. One couple wanted to have their photo taken with me, just because I was wearing a Games Maker uniform and what that represented. On my penultimate day, a taxi driver stopped in the middle of traffic and yelled "Well done Games Maker!" over to me. I was glowing with pride all the way home - work doesn't get much more rewarding than that!

I think some post-Olympics blues were inevitable and I certainly felt some when it was time to return to the real world. I washed all of my uniform for one last time and put it all carefully into a box, together with all my other Olympic souvenirs. Even things like unused meal tickets and old shift schedules have special memories that I want to hold on to. So, what next? Well, next weekend I will be going back to the Olympic Park as a spectator, rather than a volunteer, to see the Paralympic athletics, which I'm very excited about. In the longer term, I have already started making enquiries about volunteering opportunities at the Rio 2016 Games and am planning to begin Portuguese lessons shortly. I really hope that I will be able to take part in some way.

As I write this, over 6000 people have read this blog at some point, and I would like to thank all of you. I hope that I have been able to share some of the excitement and fun of the Olympic Games, as well as providing a behind-the-scenes view of the world's greatest sporting event. With any luck, perhaps I will be able to do so again in four years time.

If you are a Paralympics Games Maker, have a fantastic time and try to savour every moment of it. You're about to have the time of your life!

London 2012 Day 16 - Greenwich Park

Sunday was the final day of the London 2012 Olympics and I was very sad to put on my Games Maker uniform for the very last time. My adventure was coming to an end and I didn't want it to finish.

The last event at Greenwich Park was the women's modern pentathlon and the medal ceremony for this event would actually be the last one of the entire Games. The weather was perfect, as the arena was prepared for the jumping part of the event:

Preparing the arena for the jumping

Interview area

For a brief time, I had to man the "Kiss and Cry" area, which you can see in the photograph above opposite the TV interview area. This is where the coach stands and watches his/her athlete compete.

Britain's most likely chance of success was Mhairi Spence, but unfortunately the horse she was allocated for the jumping proved to very highly strung. She fought very hard to keep it under control, but it still clipped several of the jumps, which put Mhairi at a significant disadvantage for the combined running and shooting.

Samantha Murray of Team GB did fantastically well. She started the combined event in fourth place and despite struggling in the shooting part of the first lap, managed to make great progress in the running part of the second lap. As she entered the arena for the last time, the crowd went nuts when they realised that she had managed to get up to second position. I have never screamed so much in my life and the noise of the crowd was deafening. Laura Asadauskaite, the world number one from Lithuania, won gold but Samantha Murray did brilliantly and managed to secure a silver medal for Team GB in the very last event of the Games

Samantha Murray being interviewed by Clare Balding

After the medal ceremony, the arena cleared and it was time go home. We had one final debrief, said our goodbyes and left Greenwich Park for the very last time. The reality started to set in when I used my Games Maker Oyster card at the DLR station and the "soon to expire" message came up on the machine. How sad!

London 2012 Day 15 - Greenwich Park

Saturday morning was a bit strange in Greenwich Park. All of the equestrian teams and their horses had gone and their was definitely a different atmosphere about the place. It was time for the men's modern pentathlon. Although there is horse jumping involved, modern pentathlon is a very distant cousin to the equestrian events. It's extremely exciting but completely nuts!

In the morning, the athletes were over at the Olympic Park, doing the swimming and fencing parts of the event. In the afternoon they made their way over to Greenwich Park for the horse jumping, running and shooting.

While we waited for their arrival, the victory team practised the medal ceremony:

Rehearsing the medal ceremony

Once the athletes arrived, the first thing to do was assign them with horses. All of the names were put in to a champagne bucket and chosen at random. One of the peculiar aspects of modern pentathlon is that the athletes have never seen their horses before and only get to spend twenty minutes with them before jumping.

Assigning horses to athletes at random 

The jumps are set a lot lower than they are in the equestrian jumping events, but given the situation, it's a miracle that the riders get round the course at all:

Modern Pentathlon jumping

At one point, a South Korean rider was thrown from his horse and the horse fell on top of him. For a very scary thirty seconds, the rider didn't move and then he eventually got to his feet, staggered over to his horse, get back in to the saddle and completed his round.

After the jumping, the arena was cleared of the fences and prepared for the combined running/shooting event. This was a staggered start and the position of the athletes depended on their performance so far:

After leaving the gates, the first part of the event was the target shooting, using laser guns. The athletes must shoot all five targets successfully before they can start their first 1000m run:

The athletes then re-enter the arena, shoot again and then do another run:

In total they must do three rounds of shooting and three 1000m runs. The athlete who then crosses the line in first place is the winner. It does get a bit chaotic as the event continues, with people running both inside and outside the arena, whilst others are shooting, all at the same time. It's very exciting, however.

David Svoboda from the Czech Republic came first, followed by Zhongrong Cao (China) and then Adam Marosi (Hungary):

Men's Modern Pentathlon medal ceremony

London 2012 Day 13 - Greenwich Park

Yesterday (Thursday) was the final of the individual dressage, where Team GB won Gold (Charlotte Dujardin) and Bronze (Laura Bechtosheimer).

My team was stationed by the Blackheath entrance to Greenwich Park all day, so I don't have any photos or videos of the event unfortunately.

Instead, I thought I'd show you some general behind-the-scenes photos from Greenwich Park:

If you've been impressed by the quality of the TV coverage from the various Olympic venues, then you have the OBS (Olympic Broadcast Service) to thank for most of it. They provide nearly all of the coverage from all of the events, and then this is shown by the various international TV companies, such as the BBC, NBC in America, Channel 9 in Australia, etc.

The OBS have cameras all of over Greenwich Park. They even have a huge, 1.5Km long cable suspended over the park for the Sky-Cam, which provides all of the amazing overhead shots. Here is one of the several camera boxes in the top of the arena:

Camera box at the top of the Greenwich Park arena

This rather eccentric chap is in charge of the arena area and controls the horses and team members coming in and out. I don't know his name but he's a real character and all of the riders seem to know him well, so I imagine that he must do this job at various international equestrian events:

The arena director

Earlier this week, all of the Greenwich Park Games Makers assembled in the arena for a group photo. This is a picture of everyone coming in:

Games Makers entering the arena

The Greenwich Tavern is the pub right outside the entrance used by all of the workforce, as well as the teams. It's always packed at the end of the day and quite often you will see the riders in there, still dressed in their riding gear:

Outside the Greenwich Tavern

Last night was particularly busy (and a bit sad), as yesterday marked the end of the equestrian events at Greenwich Park. As I left in the evening, horse boxes were already lining up, as the horses and teams started moving out. On Saturday and Sunday, the modern pentathlon events will be taking place and a whole new bunch of people will be taking their place.

London 2012 Day 12 - Greenwich Park

Wednesday was the final of the individual jumping and, following Tuesday's gold, hopes were high that Nick Skelton might win another.

The magnificent course for the final day of the individual jumping 

Nick Skelton was one of the last riders to go and the tension in the arena was high. It was all too much for the spectator sitting next to me, who couldn't bear to watch...

Too nervous to watch

It looked like Nick Skelton was going to win, but then his horse sadly clipped the very last fence, which moved him to fifth equal position. The poor guy looked devastated, but the crowd still gave him a standing ovation..

Standing ovation for Nick Skelton

Every medal day at Greenwich Park, the names of 20 Games Makers are drawn out of a hat to line the stairs leading up to the flag poles, as the guard marches the flags up during the ceremony. On Wednesday, I was one of those selected. It was still fun to do, but it would have been even nicer if it had been the Union flag, rather than the Swiss flag that was being raised up the tallest pole!

London 2012 Day 11 - Greenwich Park

Wow, I've got some catching up to do, so my next few posts will resume the events from this week.

Tuesday was the medal day for the team dressage and the British team won gold, due largely to an incredible round by Charlotte Dujardin. This was the first Team GB gold at Greenwich Park and the crowd was ecstatic.



The crowd after Charlotte Dujardin's round

Apparently, Dressage normally draws a more conservative and restrained crowd than was present on Tuesday, who behaved in a very un-dressage-crowd fashion when waiting for the medal ceremony to begin!..

The atmosphere in the arena was fantastic. All the team did extremely well but Charlotte Dujardin was definitely the best rider of the day:



Charlotte Dujardin entering for the medal ceremony

Team GB win their first Greenwich gold

The best celebrity spot of the day was Clare Balding, who walked straight through our end-of-day debrief!..

Clare Balding on her way home!



So, so tired!

My apologies for the lack of blog posts these past couple of days. I've just come home from another incredibly long day with a pre-dawn start and I'm simply too tired to write more than a few lines. Tomorrow is a rest day and I'm going down to the Olympic park to watch water polo and go up "The Orbit". I can't wait! Normal service on this blog should resume shortly!

London 2012 Day 7 - Greenwich Park

Today was the second day of the individual and team dressage Grand Prix and my team was manning the stands all day.

I had already been impressed by the skill involved involved in the dressage part of the eventing, but what I saw today was on a whole other level. How on earth you train a horse to dance and skip like they were doing today is beyond me.

Today I also got to see my first Olympic record being broken. Charlotte Dujardin from Team GB smashed the Olympic Grand Prix dressage record, scoring 83.7. This has put Britain in gold team medal position. It's a shame that I wasn't filming, because the crowd was ecstatic and the noise they made must have carried right across the river.

Here's a photo of a very happy Charlotte Dujardin, just after her round:

Charlotte Dujardin having just broken her record

Tomorrow, it's time for team and individual jumping.

London 2012 Day 6 - Greenwich Park

Just a quick blog entry, as I'm desperately tired and there's not too much to report on today.

This morning my team was assigned to the west stand and, in particular, the atheletes' section. This is where any of the equestrian teams can grab an empty seat and see their team-mates or competitors in action. Even with free seating, this is harder to manage than a regular stand with paying spectators, as the teams have many different types of accreditation to check and not all of them are valid for access to the west stand. We had quite a few important people without the correct type of pass that we had to turn away. As you can imagine, this requires a delicate touch, a considerable amount of diplomacy and doesn't always go down well.

This is a photo of a couple of Danish supporters who got my morning off to a good start:

Danish supporters

The weather was great this morning, but quickly worsened after lunch. A huge shower competely soaked us, which made the afternoon fairly unpleasant, as we were then relocated to the corridor under the VIP section, where was no sunlight to help dry us out.

Here's hoping for a better day tomorrow!

London 2012 Day 4 - Greenwich Park

Following a rest day, yesterday was my third day at Greenwich Park and my first medal day. It was going to be an exciting day, because it was time for the showjumping climax of the three-day eventing and the GB equestrian team were starting the day in second place. As the Queen's granddaughter, Zara Phillips, is part of the team, there was also a good chance that there would be royal spectators.

The day got off to another excruciatingly early and decidedly unglamorous start:

Waiting in the rain at Tring station

After signing in and a team leader briefing, I located my team for the day and we headed off to the West stand, where we were to man the entrances, show spectators to their seats, control traffic on the stairs etc. We took position at 08:00am and it didn't take long before things got extremely busy. It was a capacity crowd (23,000) and everyone wanted to get in as quickly as possible. At some point in the morning, the royals must have entered just to the left of us, but we were too busy to sneak a look. An extremely large and uncommunicative man with lots of accreditation and an ear-piece appeared just behind us in the stairs and remained there for the next two hours. We were obviously going to be working under the close attention of a royal protection officer.

As Team GB took to the arena, things got a little quieter and we were able to see some of the action. They all did extremely well. Zara Phillips clipped one fence, unfortunately, but the rest of the team had flawless rounds.

Zara Phillips starts her round

In the bottom of the picture, you can see the pole from the fence that she hit

Eventually, at 1:30pm our relief arrived and we were able to grab some lunch. In the afternoon, we were going to be stationed outside the arena doing crowd control, so I thought that the rest of the day would be more mundane. I couldn't have been more wrong!

Part of our area contained the accessibility lift of the stadium and one of our duties was to assist the lift operator. This proved to be extremely useful when it was time for the medal ceremony. First of all the guards arrived right in front of us to march the flags to the opposite end of the arena:

The Flag Guard about to

Then we got to see Prince William, Harry and Kate as they went past us to enter the arena:

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, together with Prince Harry 

From the top of the accessibility lift, we then got the most incredible view of the medal ceremony. First the medals entered the arena just below us:

The medals arrive

We were so close that we could almost touch them as they reached the top of the stairs. I never imagined that I would be so close to an Olympic medal before!

Medals entering the arena

We were also very close to all the photographers..

Photographers waiting for the medal ceremony

New Zealand won the bronze medal, then it was time for Team GB to collect their silver..

Team GB going to collect their silver medals

On the screen immediately behind us, we got a good view of Princess Anne giving her daughter her medal..

Princess Anne give Team GB their silver medals

..of the German team being given their gold, and then of all the teams together..

Teams GB, New Zealand and Germany

At the end of the ceremonies, the spectators began to leave and we helped people requiring assistance out of the arena in the mobility lift. Once the arena was empty I performed a last sweep of the ground floor before closing the list for evening. As I walked along, I suddenly noticed the Royal party walking towards me in the opposite direction. Apparently, they had been to visit the horses in the stables and had decided to leave through the arena:

The Royals on their way home

It was then time to go home. On the way out of the arena I bumped in to Mike Tindall, who aside from being a member of the England rugby team is also Zara Phillips' husband. He was being inundated with requests for autographs and photographs but was extremely friendly and seemed like a genuinely nice guy:

Mike Tindall signing autographs

I also met Lucinda Green, who is one of Britain's most successful equestrians..

Lucinda Green outside the arena

Then, just as I thought the day couldn't get any more surreal, I bumped into Princess Anne once I had gone through security to check out for the day. She was walking straight towards me and said good evening as she went past.

Outside the park, there was something of a party attitude and lots of the riders were walking around and talking to their supporters. Here is a photo of one of the Swedish riders, speaking to some fans..

Swedish rider talking to fans

The sound of police sirens then came down the road, as my new friend Princess Anne headed home for dinner. She obviously didn't see me, otherwise I'm sure that she would have given me a lift to the station..

Princess Anne heading home

Every day that I've volunteered so far has been something different and completely unpredictable. You never know what you're going to be in for as you enter the park in the morning. The early starts, combined with being on your feet all day is exhausting, and the work itself can be quite stressful at times (how do you relocate a lady having an attack of vertigo at the top of the stands when there are no free seats?) but I'm enjoying every minute of it.