A missed opportunity 06/08/12

I left early this morning to head back to my hometown - Cheltenham. It was my cousin's wedding and my uncle was due to pick me up around 2pm. This not only provided me with an opportunity to catch up with my family but also a bit of a break from the hectic life that came with living in London.

I used the couple of hours I had at home to chase up some leads and finish off interview questions. Earlier this week I designated athletes for our group (myself and the other Worcester University students) to contact and try to arrange  interviews. There were nine Worcestershire athletes competing in the games - so three each seemed manageable.
One of our lecturers, Alison Marsh, had managed to get tickets for the rowing and in a previous meeting in Worcester, had told us she would try to contact a BBC Hereford and Worcester reporter who was at the Olympics. If she was successful see would see if she could gain any information or contact numbers, but so far have not received a reply.

We are still constantly trying to make contact and have used social media like Twitter and Facebook to message the athletes directly, as well as using the internet to find email addresses.

The three athletes I am trying to contact are:

Strong gold medal hopeful, track cyclist Jessica Varnish, world championship silver medalist from the Bromsgrove area.

Swimmer Amy Smith from Kidderminster who is competing on July 28, August 1st and Ausgust 3rd.

And finally volleyball player Rachael Bragg from Kidderminster.

With my plans taking shape, it was time to leave for the wedding. I kept in contact with the BSU students to see what they were up to whilst I was away.

I was sitting in the reception room with my Uncle when I got a Facebook message from Pat. He told me they had just gone down to the Team USA basketball practise to interview the likes of Lebron James and Kobe Bryant.


Typical... I went away for a day and an opportunity of this magnitude had arisen. These were, with out a shadow of a doubt, some of my favourite athletes of all time and I thought I may have had the chance to meet and interview if I had stuck around.


In some respects I think it was lucky I was wrong. Pat went on to tell me that they got in through a Team USA contact from Dallas and for them to get in they had to show their BSU student IDs and American passports, neither of which I had. If that hadn't of been the case, I think I would have beaten myself up about it for quite some time, so in a sense I was relieved.

There has been much debate in the basketball world about this team being on the same level as that of the 1992 Dream team. A team which featured the likes of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird who are highly regarded in sports, many believing they are the best sports team ever assembled. They featured eleven hall of famers and beat each opposing team at the Olympics by an average of 40 points.

Kobe, the now 34 year old Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard, recently claimed he believed that the current 2012 team could beat the 'Dream Team', sparking a lot of criticism. However, it seems he was not the only member of the team that believed this, even though it was his comments that made the headlines:

If you want to read more into it, here is a documentary on the 92 Dream Team that was recently released. I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of any kind of sport. It is worth adding that since 92, basketball has become a much bigger sport across the world. A big reason for this is being Michael Jordan. This year, the USA has much more stiff competition coming from countries like Spain, Turkey, Argentina and Russia - who's team were just not developed enough to compete with them ten years ago. I won't go into any more detail as you can do that yourself if you are interested, but here is the link to the documentary:

http://vimeo.com/44164302

Yes, it goes without saying that I was incredibly jealous of CT, Alex, Pat, Brandon and Michael. Having passed through security they walked straight into the practise and spoke to not only the players, but coaches and assistants as well. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity, one I'm sure I will always reflect on - thinking I should have been there. But it is just one of those things.


Instead, when I got back from the wedding, I did manage to catch the Andy Murray game where he dismantled Roger Federer in straight sets. 6-2 6-1 6-4 to claim an Olympic gold medal for Team GB.

Murray, like the many other millions who watched it, claimed he drew inspiration from Mo Farah’s 10,000m run last night. “When I’m training and I’m fresh I can run the 400 metres in 57 seconds” he told Sue Barker of the BBC. “Mo ran it in 53 seconds after running 9,400 metres, he has such incredible fitness”.

He went on to say that this was his greatest tennis achievement to date, securing the Gold medal for Team GB – he has another chance to claim another tomorrow in the doubles with his partner: Laura Robson.

Just a few weeks ago Murray lost to Federer in the Wimbledon final in 4 sets, 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 4-6 where he showed a very rare glimpse of emotion to his British fans. The public's opinion on Murray has changed hugely in the last couple of years, there's been a lot of criticism surrounding Murray about his generally grumpy demeanour. English comedians openly joking about him, with the newspapers also getting involved calling him Scottish when he loses and British when he wins. All that being said he has really turned himself around in the public eye, and no, not just because he's started winning.


Fans have renamed Henman hill, 'Murray Mound'. The famous hill just outside Wimbledon that was named after Tim Henman, Britain's best title hope before Murray.

Just one month after the heartbreaking loss at Wimbledon he's managed to overcome it and capitalise on the rematch he earnt today. Yes, he doesn't get the prize money of £1.1 million and the Olympics are not anywhere near as highly regarded as Wimbledon in relation to the ranking system but if you managed to catch the game you will of seen how much it meant to him personally. Could this be the confidence boost that will drive him on to winning his first grand slam?

Despite the disappointment for myself personally this morning, it had been a good day. My Cousin had an incredible wedding, I caught up with some of my family that I hadn't seen in nearly a decade and I'd sorted an interview. Renaldo Lawrence emailed confirming he would allow me to interview him and his son – Andrew a British basketball player competing in the Olympics. This was huge, my first interview with an athlete. I was unsure whether Andrew would attend and doubtful because of his training and game schedule but also thankful of the opportunity and hoped – even if it was just Renaldo and his wife, that they could provide a good insight and perhaps relay my further questions to their son. I have created two separate interviews so that I can pass on the questions directed at Andrew if he does not attend.

I was packed and ready to leave for early tomorrow – my train leaves at 7am.