Sochi 2014

I'm now in my third week of Rosetta Stone Portuguese and am really enjoying it so far.

While my long-term goal is definitely Rio 2016, I've also applied to volunteer for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. I don't speak any Russian, unfortunately, and there isn't really time to learn more than a few words before any interview I might have, so I don't suppose my chances are very good. I thought I would give it a go, however. There appear to be some roles where Russian isn't a requirement, but I'd imagine that there aren't a large number of these positions available. There's nothing to lose by applying, however, and this is my current status:

Sochi 2014  - Processing Application!

Apparently the first step in the selection process is an English test, so I should hopefully be able to get through this without any difficulty!

Sochi looks like a fascinating place and volunteering at a Winter Olympics would be brilliant fun, so fingers crossed!

Team GB Parade

My Games Maker adventure isn't quite over yet!

Our Greatest Team Parade

On Monday 10 September, the Our Greatest Team Parade will be taking place in London to recognise the achievements of the Team GB Olympic and Paralympic athletes. Following a ballot, I am one of 9,000 very lucky Games Makers who have been given a ticket to watch the parade from a special reserved area of the The Mall. This is such a huge privilege and an extremely exciting way to end my Games Maker journey.

The parade will start at 1.30pm at Mansion House in the City of London. If you're interested in attending, click here for more information on the Mayor of London site. It should be a fantastic day!

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!