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.