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:
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.
Drafted in 1979 - the same year as Magic Johnson, not many
people know the story of South Carolina native Renaldo Lawrence. Father and
mentor of upcoming GB point guard Andrew Lawrence.
The former player for the then National Basketball
Association’s - San Diego CIippers, travelled from the United States to be
at his son’s every game at the Olympics, alongside his wife.
“It’s been amazing, because never knowing where children are
going to go and what they’re going to do when they grow up,” Lawrence said. “Actually
seeing him step out onto the court I think was absolutely fantastic. Just to
play against the calibre of players that he’s been playing against and just to
compete. He’s actually shown that he’s at that standard now so that was really
nice to see."
Before the Olympics, Team GB played Team USA in a sold-out
17,000-seat arena in Manchester. Subbed in half way through the first quarter, Andrew
made a statement.He looked comfortable
bringing the ball up the court, even with NBA All-Star Deron Williams tightly
guarding him.
Using a Robert Archibald screen he drove, crossed Williams,
and kicked it out to Nate Reinking, who converted the team’s first three of the
game. Not a bad start for the young point guard from Charleston University.
“That’s his nature position, it’s what he does in college in
the States and it’s what he can do,” Lawrence said. “You have to be given a
chance and he took that chance.”
Renaldo has had many roles in Andrew’s life, first as a
father and second as a coach and mentor.
“We used to play out in the yard with his Mum and sister and
I used to be able to really frustrate him on the court, but not anymore.”
When asked if he could still give his son problems one on one. Smiling,
he shook his head.
“Oh no he would kill me now,” Lawrence said. “The first time
I got beaten by him was the first time I thought I needed to quit. Which was
what I did.”
Renaldo played in the NBA with the Clippers for half a
season.
“I played until about mid-season and then I got cut,”
Lawrence said. “I then spent a few years overseas, two years in Finland, two
years in South America and various other places.”
He also played for British teams: Steven A’s, Crystal Palace
and Blackmill and when he retired, he became the assistant coach at the
American school at Cobhem.
Great Britain selected a twelve man roster for the Olympic
Games. With much controversy surrounding the selection, Devon Van Oostrum’s
exclusion from the GB team came as a surprise to many. With shooting guard Mike
Lenzly’s injury problems, it all but cemented a place for 19-year old Oostrum. With the invaluable experience of the Olympic Games now
under his belt, Andrew undoubtedly has the edge over the younger Van Oostrum
for the starting role at the one spot. Could this be a rivalry for years to
come?
“I’m not into rivalry but I think he should be the starting
point guard,” Lawrence senior said. “Or if not, the seconds starting guard. I
don’t think there’s anyone else on the GB team that has his set of skills at
the moment and his expertise in what he does. I think he should be the starting
point guard.”
Renaldo has questioned GB’s ball rotation, believing some
veterans have shown a slight lack of trust in his son.
“The ball rotation has improved slightly, but there is still
a lot to be desired. I think they need to trust the younger players more. When
you have been around a group of people for so long, with the older guys, you go
with people that you know.
“Andrew wants to run. He’s the most unselfish player you’ll
see in your life, so he’s going to give the ball up. He’d much rather pass than
score.”
A question often asked of Lawrence is what advice he would
give to young, aspiring basketball players who wanted follow in his son’s
footsteps.
“To be quite frank with you, you need to go to the States,
or you need to go to Spain,” Lawrence said. “You need to go somewhere where
basketball is played on a consistent basis. I hope that because of the Olympics
things will get better here but I think that the problem here is that you have
to pay for everything. Kids have to pay and kids don’t have the money. Whereas
in the States everything is open and in Spain everything is open and free.
That’s a real problem in this country.”
Olympic Basketball commentator and former NBA player John Amaechi
complimented Renaldo on the upbringing of his son.
Renaldo returned the praise saying that “he has done a
pretty good job” with his work for the BBC.
Andrew was the catalyst of GB’s first Olympic Victory since
1948. Finishing with a team-high six assists in twenty one minutes, the most
he’s played in this Olympics. Leader of the team Luol Deng, finished with just
six points but showed trust in his teammates to help carry the offensive load,
including giving the extra pass to the 22-year old Andrew, who finished with 6
points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals.
Renaldo is also a big fan of Deng. He tweeted after the
90-53 win against China: “You will never find a more humble nice guy than
@LuolDeng9. Thanks for mentoring Andrew”.
Those are strong words Andrew’s original mentor, who hopes
to see his son in many more Olympics to come.
It’s finally here, the day I go to my first Olympic event! The round 16 welterweight and flyweight category for boxing. CT and Alex were both hyped to see the two American fighters who were competing. Their names were Errol Spence Jr – 7 times USA national champion and Rau’Shee Wareen.
I hadn’t realised that there was actually a British fighter competing too, but more on that later!
Once we arrived at Edexel, our first point of call was to look for tickets to buy for the coming week. We had heard rumours that the box offices at venues sold on tickets for any unused or recyclable seats where people had either not turned up, or left early. The IOC especially wanted to fill the seats that were in camera shot for obvious reasons, but unfortunately, at the time there were none available for any events at the Edexel. We did bump into another American who had a similar idea to us. He had previously been to every Olympics games for the past 30 years and told us he had had no problems getting tickets on the day at any other games. He had used his usual ploy of wearing a Statue Of Liberty hat accompanied by an A4 size sign with ‘I need tickets’scribbled on the front. He had just hung outside of events and pestered (within reason) people for a spare ticket. This was fine for him of course, because he only needed one, but the chances of getting three tickets to other events for ourselves were pretty unlikely. He had managed to get into the second half of the USA vs Tunisia for just £5 using the ‘recycle’ tickets system. A system where tickets become available once an event has started due to someone leaving. This is traceable as you have to scan your ticket as you leave, and as soon as that happens that person’s seat becomes available for recycling. Since the games started in London the American had managed to get into an event almost every day. This was pretty impressive, Alex and CT and I thought about doing it for a few events like basketball, athletics and the next round of boxing (particularly if our guys got through).
As you can see we were in South Arena 2. Inside there was a whole room dedicated to boxing history as well as sections for plasma screens showing previous bouts and places to buy merchandise -
we even got to try on the gloves and head guard.
The seats we’d been allocated were pretty incredible, they were in the lower section, almost ringside. When we went to sit down we found that one of our seats was missing. We had tickets to row 10, seat number 111, 112, 113, we found 111 with no problem but 112 and 113 didn’t actually exist. Luckily there were 2012 workers nearby who told us we were now entitled to an upgrade! So we managed to go from row 10 to row 4, this was our view.
It was around this time, just when the first bout was about to be announced that I got an email from Renaldo Lawrence, son of GB basketball player Andrew Lawrence, telling me he was now available to sort out the interview I had been planning all week. He wanted to meet tomorrow, the only day in the week I won’t be in London due to my cousin’s wedding. This put me in a tight spot as I didn’t want to have to keep bothering him with emails, so I thought CT and Alex might want to do the interview for me if I send them the information. I’ve seen the quality of their work and thought this would be a great opportunity to utilise their skill to benefit the both of us. Luckily they didn’t have anything planned for that evening so it is just a matter of me emailing them my questions and hoping Renaldo doesn’t mind meeting with someone else for this first stage of the interview. You’ll find it on here tomorrow I hope! So anyway, back to the boxing, the BBC had created a video on the ins and outs of boxing for those of the crowd not familiar with the sport. They then proceeded to go through all the British medal hopefuls and past greats.
And after half an hour, with the seats filling up and noise building – it was time for the first bout. The bout of USA flyweight Rau’Shee Wareen. This was one of the most tightly contested fights of the evening, resulting in an unfortunate loss for the American by one single point. Coming out strong he won the first round 9-6, then narrowly lost the later two 7-5 and 6-4.
Sure enough, it was the Brits go next. The decibel level reached a new peak for the night as GB's Josh Selby entered the arena. Chants, cheers, clapping, flags waving, everybody stood up to welcome to the homegrown boxer.
“SEEEEEEELLLLBBBBBYYYYYYY” the crowd repeated over and over. I was only in the crowd and my adrenaline was pumping like I was about to step in the ring myself. I felt great sense of pride as the GB fans created a truly incredible atmosphere which I was sure helped the young boxers confidence. Sebly won three straight rounds to advance into the next round.
Next up was Eroll Spence Jnr in what was inevitably the fight that would make the headlines. Eroll, USA’s best chance of getting on the podium in boxing made his way into the ring to face Indian fighter Krishan Vikas. With relatively few Americans in the house, India’s supporters drowned out the “USA! USA!” chants coming from small patches in the crowd. Obviously I had CT and Alex shouting in my ear the whole time, they were both getting hyped as punch after punch connected with the side of Vikas' face. Even then there was an Indian couple behind us giving them a run for their money with their chanting, but it was all in good fun. Spence had fought well for two rounds, with the scores relatively close, this was the decider, where it was time to cash in on those four years of hard training. Spence Jr came out with furious aggressiveness landing combos left right and centre. Even when Vikas grabbed him to try and slow him down you could see Spence attacking the body, trying to earn those valuable points. 10 seconds left. Spence approached with a left jab, then again, weaved then planted a huge right hook on Vikas's jaw. That was it. Game over. I thought it, CT and Alex thought it, even the Indian fans behind us quietened down. Both fighters touched gloves then slowly walked over to the back of the ring where the ref awaited the decision. “And now, the winner of the 59kg bout is…” The ref flung Spence’s hand into the air as Americans cheered and applauded. “In the Red corner, India’s Krishan Vikas!”
No… surely that can’t be right? But sure enough the ref, who looked slightly confused himself, brought Spence’s hand back down and lifted Krishan Vikas' arm into the air. Shock and anger filled the arena, it was a controversial decision to say the least. Errol's face went cold, he looked round to his coaches in confusion, then to the ref. Even Vikas looked dumfounded. As they left the ring you see could how emotional Errol had become as he tried to hide the fact he was crying.
When the bouts had finished and we made our way back to the station where we bumped into Errol Spence Jr's Mum and Dad, who CJ and Alex had met previously in Dallas. The Ball State students had arranged many of their future interviews the year before the Olympics and a lot of them, I was told, came from a media day in Dallas. Obviously, I was itching to get an interview. To get a reaction from the fighter's parents would have been really valuable, but after discussing it with CT I decided against it. His mother was clearly upset, although she wouldn't show it and his father did not look in the mood to chat. CT advised me that in situations like this one, it is best just to leave it for another day - which would prove to be very sound advice...
Errol’s coach was also there and did not hide his disbelief. He was annoyed he had not been able to secure tickets for himself for the bout and so had to watching it on the television in the pub. Once the referee hoisted Errol’s arm into the air, he went outside to ring Errol's parents and congratulate them. It wasn’t until he spoke to Errol’s father that he heard about the controversial loss. He repeated and repeated his disbelief and he wasn't alone. Team USA had offically filed an appeal for the bout after what they felt was an inaccurate result.
If you were following the fight, you'll know that later that evening the appeal was approved and Errol went into the quarter finals to face Russia's Andrey Zamkovoy.
He lost the first round 3-4, the second round was scored 4-5 in favour of the Russian, and the final round also went in Zamkovoy's favor 4-7. The final score was 11-16.
@ErrolSpenceJr tweeted: Came up short tonight good fight! thanks everybody for the love n support #GODIsGreat #TeamUSA time too start my pro career
What a story to stumble accross at my first ever Olympic event.
It has taken me a while to get to the stage where I felt happy to publish this blog, working with BSU students on content whilst at the games left me with little time to complete my own work. But there will be much more to come, so if you enjoyed this post please subscribe!
You can also find more of my stories as well as the other students I worked with about boxing and other Olympic sports on www.bsuatthegames.com
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.
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:
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:
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.
I woke up this morning at 7am to browse the Olympic site for tickets. The hugely critised site has been teasing us since we arrived in London, advertising tickets that weren't actually available to purchase. Many times we had selected the tickets we wanted, clicked the reserve button to find out that ‘no tickets are available’ or that ‘this site is currently under maintenance’. I don't want to know how many times we have clicked that refresh button and cycled down through different events trying to salvage a ticket from somewhere.
This afternoon consisted of chasing leads, being frustrated we couldn’t get into Olympic park to meet a contact and watching as much of the Olympics on TV as we could.
The Judo was the surprise success for the British that morning, with Genna Gibbons getting to the final against US reigning champion Kayla Harrison. This obviously roused a bit of tension in the flat as the athletes took to the floor, but unfortunately it was pretty clear from the off that the USA had it in the bag, it was good banter between us and the American's either way.
We had been inside all day up until around 2pm and CT was getting restless, pacing up and down and jumping around the flat. We decided we’d waited long enough and it was time to go and get some work done. The plan was get the tube down to the Olympic village to look for interviews, possible spots to film and try and buy some leftover tickets (or scalping as the American’s call it). If that failed we’d go down to Hype Park, get some food, soak up the atmosphere, do some vox pops of fans and take some pictures that we could use for our respective blogs. We took the tube from Farrington down to Liverpool street and got off at Marble arch, heading the Hype Park first.
There was live music from Lawson (I don’t know who they are either) as well as four big screens with multiple sports showing. Before we could get into this area however, we had to go through security where we were frisked and they had to conduct a full body search.
Aaron Wise, a student from Worcester looked particularly uncomfortable when the security went frisked him, so I thought I’d be funny to try and get a photo of him looking uncomfortable. It wasn't until the security guys saw me with my camera facing them they stopped what they were doing and ran over, demanding to delete anything I’d taken of them and make sure I deleted it. I tried to be sneaky and claim that camera hadn't actually been on, but they weren't satisfied and went through all my photos. Yeah... Should really have noticed that huge sign at the entrance saying no photographs.
It was surprisingly empty once we arrived inside the actual park and as you’d expect, prices were ridiculous - £3 ice creams, £11 hot dogs and so on.
We did bump into one of our BSU students however: Katelynn Thys. She had been out all day looking to do voxes and other interviews with volunteers and members of the public.
We were all pretty hungry so Aaron recommended we went to the Sherlock Holmes pub, a classic British pub located just by Trafalgar Square.
As I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts, the traffic has been nothing compared what we were informed it would be by the British media. No major traffic coming into London, no squashed, sweaty tube trips glued to each other like a pack of sausages, or at least not yet. I've been really impressed so far. Even approaching the Olympic village crowds were not overflowing.
After arriving in London at 12pm, first point of call was claiming a bed to stay in for the next few days. The BSU team had separated themselves into two groups and set up a rota so they can interchange between London and Worcester effectively. We all gathered in the hallway once everyone had grabbed their luggage from the coach. Leader of the project, Ryan Sparrow, handed out keys to rooms. Aaron and I had both been nervous about what we were going to say on air and had discussed it on the trip up. The show went out to over 1 million people so we didn't want to mess it up! We went up to meet Chris Taylor, known as CT - the BSU sports leader and Alex Kartman. The interviews themselves were conducted via telephone and broadcast live on air. CT rang up the producer of the station 102.5 WMDH, Indiana. It was 9am in the mid west on "TheMorning Brew Show" a que was given for when he would be live, he passed the phone over to us... Bang, just like that we were on air to over one million people. In the interview we spoke about the our favourite athletes from the United States, what it felt like to have the Olympics in Britain. Several times we were asked to repeat words and do American accents. CT told us we'd be able to access a recording online which we could use for our portfolio and/or blog. Aaron had also planned a trip to the States next year, including going through Indiana, 102.5 WMDH invited him in for work experience, a fantastic opportunity. You can listen to it here http://rope.wmdh-fm.fimc.net/Brew-Podcasts/londoncalling.mp3
Next up was collecting the tickets that CT, Alex and myself had ordered in the previous week. We headed straight for the Olympic Park. This was the first time we had headed into town on this trip and we knew that much of the Olympic area was cornered off due to the amount of people passing through attempting to get to events. Luckily we were collecting tickets and therefore allowed through to the box office. The first thing that stuck out for me was the friendliness and helpfulness of the volunteers who were interacting with crowds, starting chants and really adding to the atmosphere. All tickets for the Olympic Games are being sold online so there are no horrendous queues but we still had a bit of a wait - as a result I got talking to a volunteer who I originally had asked for directions to the box office. It wasn't an interview as such but he went on to tell me he personally was being paid just over minimum wage and had really enjoyed the first few days despite the long hours working almost 12 hours each day.
Once we had collected the tickets we headed straight back to the flat where we were met by PR student Kait Buck, she was helping us with outlets for our stories which we got to work with straight away.
Tomorrow our plan is to look for tickets for any event in Olympic Park so that we can and get stories from athletes, fans and volunteers within the grounds.
It's now less than one week until the Olympic games. One week until we are in London. The remaining Ball State University students arrive tomorrow and our first group meeting will take place on Wednesday.
Just a few short weeks ago when my course leader approached us in class about this opportunity, we were all sceptical about whether the project would actually go ahead. Us? Second years, going to the Olympics? It was all very surreal. But sure enough the bursaries we had applied for had arrived, this was it, the American's had arrived and we leave for London on Thursday - not really knowing what to expect.
With such a short time to prepare we had clambered around looking for leads, contacts and interviews. Press passes were out of the equation, after ringing the Olympic press office I found out deadlines for potential applicants ended last year!
We had however been in contact with Sally Jones the university's press officer, BBC Hereford and Worcester, Worcester News, Craig Williams - who provided us with contacts for the Olympics and Paralympics (one being David Mycock - a lecturer of sports science at the University, who was actually coaching the Blind Football team!) and various other media outlets. The picture in the top right of this post was taken in our first meeting, we was used it in our press release. To get some exposure for our project we each sent off a copy to our local newspapers as we are all from different towns and cities.
I was luckily to already have an interview up my sleeve weeks before we left. After co-incidentally being sat right next to the family of an Olympic athlete's parents whilst watching an pre-Olympic warm up game between Team USA and Team GB Men's basketball team. My friends and I signalled to each other and mouthed "is that his parents?" as they clapped and cheered enthusiastically after 22 year old Andrew Lawrence nailed a three pointer. I lent over and asked the petite blonde lady whether they were in fact his parents and sure enough they were! They were both very friendly and after the game I approached his father, Renaldo, who I later found out was a former NBA player drafted in 1979. After introducing myself I told him about our project, who I would be working for during the Olympics and that I was interested in interviewing his son.
"Make sure you email me" he instructed as I wrote down his email address on a bit of torn of cardboard originally from a hot dog box. Obviously I was incredibly chuft as well as lucky to have stumbled across an interview like that one! You can find the full interview later on in this blog.
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.
