My First Olympic Interview 03/08/12

I got the train back to London at 6am this morning, texting Renaldo throughout the trip trying to finalise a meeting time and location. We ended up deciding on Stratford station at 1.30pm, but even then I wasn't sure whether it would be just him or he'd bring his son Andrew with him.

I had about an hour to spare when I got back to the flats so asked Alex and CT if they wanted come with me to help record the audio.

We thought about filming it, but because I was unable to get access to Team GB’s practise and had no useable footage of Andrew that would complement a small documentary we decided against it and just brought mics. Stratford was manic as usual. Located right by the Olympic village and Westfeild shopping centre, it was the busiest place to be in London.







The first game starting soon after we agreed to meet, we had around 20 mins. I was just pleased to finally have a time and place for an interview – rearranging could mean missing out on the interview all together. If you’ve read my previous posts you’ll know Renaldo and I had already met back in Manchester at the GB vs USA game, so I knew who to look for. Although at 6ft 8 and well built, it would have been hard to miss him.

 After quick introductions and a bit of a chat about how the Olympics had gone so far, we headed off to find a quiet spot to carry out the interview. The streets were rammed; people dressed in their teams kits and colours were singing, chanting and buzzing around so it was not a good idea to start the interview outside. Renaldo’s wife suggested the café in Marks and Spencer’s so that’s where we headed.

No luck – too busy. We did find a spot with a seating area around by the women’s section however and with time running out – we didn’t have much other choice. We set up our equipment and this is how the interview went:

Looking back I got the main questions that I had wanted in the interview. But there were a few others that due to being a bit rushed and flustered at the time – slipped my mind. For example: what position he played and his actual size. Not only that but I felt I should have asked more questions to his wife and looked at how a mother deals with the challenges of having an Olympic athlete for a son.
 But as he was in a rush, I thought I'd leave details like that for future correspondence by email.

After the interview he asked a few more questions to us about what we were doing in the Olympics, where we were from and where we’d be publishing the interview. He mentioned the magazine MVP, the only British made basketball magazine.

Coincidently I had interviewed the editor of the magazine – Greg Tanner for one of my modules in my second year at university. I gave him a contact number and told him I’d send the finished article over to Greg to see if he’d want to publish it in next month’s edition. Renaldo then went onto show us the app which he had made about his son.

He had documented every game Andrew had played, the build up to the Olympics, along with pictures, news articles and videos. It was all very impressive and showed how much pride he had for his son. Renaldo went on to say that he thinks Andrew will appreciate the time he has taken putting it together once he is older, adding there were not many 22 year olds who were able to compete for their country in the sport they love in City they were born.

Here is a link to the upcoming documentary on Andrew Lawrence. Courteys of www.hoopsfix.com

Once we were done Renaldo reached for his bag and pulled out a small white piece of paper.

He told me one of his family members had been unable to attend the game this afternoon, so he and his wife had decided to give me the ticket. I couldn't believe it.

Renaldo told me he had a planned this all along with a spare ticket and wanted to see the look on my face when he gave it to me. He apologised to Alex for not getting him one but he had not known he was coming. Alex told me to go and have fun, he had been to see the USA practise I didn’t get the chance to go, so he just bragged about that a little. I was buzzing. Not only was I going to see GB vs China, but also Nigeria vs France and the likes of Tony Parker, Al Farouq Aminu, Nicolas Batum and Boris Diaw.





I thanked Renaldo and his wife sincerely, they had only met me once before and had been kind enough to give me the ticket. With that ticket I could get into the Olympic village and the basketball arena. They’d helped me out much more than they knew and I was extremely grateful and a bit shocked.

After saying goodbye, Alex and I went to find CT and the guys before I headed off. We went into the GB official store whilst we were waiting for them where I bought a Team GB t-shirt. We met up with the rest of the group then rushed to find some batteries for my camera so I could take pictures at the village and the event. No one in our group had managed to get tickets for an event in the Olympic park yet so I was very excited.

I was already running late, so had to rush. Previously I had been outside the Olympic park to collect my tickets for the boxing, which was located in the Edexel arena but I'd never been inside. Waiting in the queues I got a few snaps of billboards decorating the buildings outside of the park. Getting through security was not as long winded as I had expected and within a few minutes I was off again.

Once inside, the atmosphere really hits you. It was rare to find someone not dressed up head to toe in their country's team colours. Many had their face painted with their national flag, people were chanting their national anthems and everyone seemed happy.

I have to comment on how impressed I have been with all the volunteers at the Olympics, I haven't met a single one who hasn't been smiling and helpful. The guys on the microphones giving out directions were even making jokes and having fun whilst working. One guy said "Can I get a cheers because this is the last hour of my shift" and people did. People socialising and having a laugh with strangers in London, what was going on?

I didn't see as many athletes walking around as I'd expected, but I did get a peek of the BBC studio, whilst I was there a group of Team GB supporters were chanting Gary Linkier's name trying to get his attention. I also saw Sue Barker live on air.

I was rushing though, so I didn't really soak up the atmosphere as much as I'd have liked to. The basketball arena was on the other side of the village so I didn't get to the event until half time of the France vs Nigeria game. I climbed the extremely steep staircase to the top of the bleechers, shuffling past spectators to my allocated seat.

I managed to hang around by the entrance barriers around 20 rows up for a while to take some photos which you can find on my flickr account - I've only posted a few in this blog.





 As much as I wanted to see Tony Parker and other NBA stars play in the match up, for me it was all about the Great Britain game. I've been following GB Basketball since I was 16 when my Dad took me to a game at the NIA in Birmingham. I had only just started playing the sport myself. I've seen Team GB across the country many times since then and watched them battle to qualify for the Olympics in their home country. Basketball is one of the few sports where automatic qualification for the Olympic Games is not given to the home country and the host nation have been made to jump through many hurdles just to participate in the Olympics in their own back yard.



Admittedly, Basketball is not a big sport in the UK compared to Football and Rugby. Back in 2006, when the GB basketball team formed, it received near to no media coverage. This has very steadily improved as the sport has increased its profile. Websites like www.hoopsfix.com, www.mvp247.com and television coverage of the British Basketball league on Sky have helped with this greatly, but there is still a lot left to be desired.

Only two years ago, it looked unlikely GB basketball would compete in the Olympics. If you'd like more information here is a great interview of the team back in 2010 from MVP magazine:

For more information the whole article is located here: http://www.mvp247.com/2010/09/patrick-baumann-interview/


Coming into the match, GB were 0-3 having lost narrowly to 2006 Olympic champions Spain by one point as well narrow loses to Australia and Russia.
It goes without saying, this was a huge match for the team and a win would (I hope) help to inspire future generations to pick up a basketball.

It didn't start off well for GB, who went down 7-0 in the first minute of the game to China. China are ranked 10th in the world as opposed to GB who are down at 46th. They weren't going to give up that easily however, with Nate Reinking - the oldest basketball player at the Olympics at 38 drilling a three pointer to bring the score level at 10-10. Things only looked up from the point on, with unlikely hero Kieran Achara going off for 13 points and making 3 huge blocks in the first half. His contributions energising the team who were without star player Pops Mensa Bonsu.

Andrew Lawrence warming up


For those of you who follow basketball, you'll know GB won that game, and what a game it was. I won't go on into a full match report, but you can find my article on the game here:

http://bsuatthegames.com/team-great-britain-claims-first-olympic-basketball-win-since-1948/

Thanks to Renaldo I had witnessed GB's first Olympic victory since 1948. I felt I needed to give my thanks so I sent a thank you message.




After all they'd fought for over the past few years, despite only one win at the Olympics - I feel it was a successful campeign for the team who had fought extremely hard just to be there. With incredible coverage of basketball - on everyday thanks to the BBC, I sincerely hope it will inspire children to go out and play the sport. I'll be creating an article on the legacy of Britsh Basketball after the Olympics soon, so for those of you that are interested - please subscribe


For those of you who would like a quick insight into the state of basketball in Britain, Radio 5 Live have done a radio package on the subject which you can find here. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01mnyyw


It was pretty busy on the way home, the full capacity of the 12,000 capacity stadium all pouring out at the same time. I had stayed in the venue for as long as possible, attempting to find tickets for the USA game later that evening. This meant the crowds were no where near as bad when I left.

This was likely to be my only chance I would have to explore the Olympic village, so I wandered around for an hour or so. I bumped into a number of basketball stars including GB's Pops Mensu Bonsu, Nate Reinking, Robert Archibald and Coach Finch. Obviously, the first thing I did was ask for a quick interview, but each athlete was in a rush to get off to a cool down session which I was a little disappointed about.







I got some interviews with volunteers and workers inside the Olympic village. Asking about the athletes they had seen, the atmosphere, people's attitudes, the hours they were expected to work each day and for those of them that were paid, how much they were paid per hour.

Shattered, I went to bed around 5.15am. It had been a long day, but the best day I’d had in London so far. When I got in I went straight on the computer to finish the surveys for my work home which took me until 4am. Finally I had the chance to write up a story on my experience of the day and send it to Kait to try and get it published. You can find the link to the article earlier in this post. 

Tomorrow I’d check the edit, write up the transcript to my interview and talk to MVP editor Greg Tanner about getting my article on Andrew and Renaldo Lawrence published.