I returned to London just in time to get to the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics – not the real one of course… I was at Victoria Park which is the closest public park to where the actual Opening Ceremony was. Vic Park was heaving with people as you would expect. Lots of people… not a lot of food outlets or enough toilets! I estimated that the wait for fish and chips was about 2 hours long. Regardless, it was a good night. We were close enough to Stratford to see the ambient light from the stadium and watch 60ft big screens at the same time. When they showed James Bond and the Queen on the screen we could see the helicopters flying over the stadium and see 2 people jump out of them. Absolute magic!

The Red Arrows fly over Victoria Park

The Red Arrows fly over Victoria Park

My biggest problem is that I never know which country to support. I cheered for the Aussies because I lived there for so long, I cheered for Team GB because I am British, I cheered for Papua New Guinea because I grew up there, I cheered for Myanmar because I love that country, I cheered for North Korea because if their athletes didnt do well they would probably pay a higher price than any other nation… talk about divided loyal!

I had tickets to a number of events. First up was Gymnastics. Great seats with a brilliant view. Got to watch the preliminaries. Sad part was when the Egyptian girl injured herself but for the rest of it, I enjoyed watching it.

Injured Egyptian Gymnast

Injured Egyptian Gymnast

My second event was Judo. I was enjoying it until the English competitor came on. The crowd went mad. Cheering was really loud as you would expect but when the English competitor lost, the crowd booed and that ruined it for me. It seemed very unsportsman like. Cheering someone on is great, being disappointed when they lose is understandable but booing is not on as far as I am concerned.

My 3rd day of the Olympics was quite manic – 3 events in one day. Women’s hockey. First up was a rather subdued match with Japan and South Korea which Korea won 1-0. The second match was much faster… Australia vs USA. Finding the need to support Australia, I’m happy to say Australia won the game 1-0. I had expected it to be a 5-0 white wash but the US played a tough game and the Aussies werent playing as well as I expected.

Hockey.... Australia shoots and scores... 1-0 AUS vs USA

Hockey…. Australia shoots and scores… 1-0 AUS vs USA

Following the hockey I had to bolt from Stratford into the city where I got to watch the Beach Volleyball. Some really good games were played but again I got to hear the crowd boo during the GB/Russia match when Russia won the first point.

US Supporters at the Beach Volleyball

US Supporters at the Beach Volleyball

USA vs SPAIN

USA vs SPAIN

From Beach Volleyball it was out to the Swimming at Stratford to watch the likes of Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Missy Franklin and James Magnussen swim. The swimming was great despite the fact that we were up in the rafters. It would have been nice to have been closer to the action but it was great to be there.

Mens 200m Medley Relay Final. 1st Phelps, 2nd Lochte

Mens 200m Medley Final. 1st Phelps, 2nd Lochte

To be honest, the booing from the crowds turned me off a lot of events and so we sold a pile of tickets. I didnt end up going to 5 or 6 events that we had tickets for because the crowds had put me off. I have complained about the English reaction so far but I have been told that the reaction was similar from some Eastern European countries and in some cases people were ejected from the venues because of their behaviour. The most high profile example of this was the guy who threw the bottle just before the mens 100 metres final.

One day I couldnt miss was the Athletics in the stadium. We had seats in the 2nd row and were up close for the high jump, pole vault and mens 4×400 metres heats. Atmosphere in the stadium was everything I expected, lots of cheering and lots of happy people. At one point I went outside and was talking to a woman who turned out to be the mother of the Belgian high jumper who had won gold in Beijing. Unfortunately she only managed to come 5th in London but we felt the need to cheer for her after I had met her mother 🙂

The final event we went to was the Closing Ceremony and that was magical. It was slightly marred at the beginning when we were trying to find our seats. Walking around the outside of the stadium was packed with people and was a little slow going so we were walking at the same pace as the rest of the crowd. A young woman came up behind me and started making rude signs behind my back. Unfortunately she didnt realise that my friends were behind me and could see what she was doing. When confronted, she and her friends got abusive because apparently I was walking too slow!?! I was walking at the same speed as the rest of the crowd so go figure! We didnt let that spoil our night because quite honestly it wasnt worth it.

Stadium just before the start of the Closing Ceremony

Stadium just before the start of the Closing Ceremony

The Closing Ceremony was excellent. We had “C” seats that we got through the original ticket lottery and set us back £150 each. Apparently there were “D” seats that were sold for £20.12 but I have no idea where they were since we were in the very back row. Being in the back was a bonus though. We had a birds eye view of the stadium, could see everything and could stand up whenever we wanted without blocking someones view.

My overall impression of the London Olympics? It was good but it wasnt as good as the Sydney Olympics. I think part of that is for cultural reasons. The Aussies saw the Olympics as an opportunity to have one big party and everyone partied with everyone. It didnt matter who you were. Sure there were a couple of things that went wrong. I remember there being a fight in Martin Place that closed the Martin Place outdoor pub area down for a bit and eventually resulted in more security but the atmosphere was still party, party, party. In the UK, people are more reserved than the Aussies so that whole party atmosphere didnt exist except amongst your own group of friends. Still it’s over now and it’s now over to Rio in 4 years time who will no doubt host the greatest olympics ever 🙂