An Olympic Adventure: Let the Games Begin; The Olympic Park

The first days of the games were fairly slow for Team Cuba. Many of the events that Cuban athletes were participating in didn’t begin for several days so the needs of the Cuban NOC were fairly minimal. One of the main tasks for this period was for physical therapists to be transported to the rowing village to treat these athletes as they were one of the first to begin competition. Another was to take the CdM, dCdM and other officials from the Embassy to and from competition venues outside of the Olympic Park where Cubans were competing. For us this meant frequent trips to the Excel Centre where Cuban athletes were competing in Table Tennis, Judo, Fencing, Weightlifting and Boxing and the Royal Artillery Barracks where the shooting competitions were held. Each NOC has a detailed list of the timings for their athletes competing so making sure they arrived in time for these events was going to be our mission. We shared these duties and have managed it thus far without too much complication. Traffic in London has been better than expected during games time thus far, and the Olympic Lanes around town help, however it is not uncommon to still manage to experience delays.

Because things with the Cubans are running smoothly I have had the opportunity to have a nose around the Olympic Park and check things out. My first trip around the park during games time was quite impressive. The first thing that strikes you is how massive the whole place is. There are 7 venues on site including the main Olympic Stadium, Copper Box, Basketball Arena, Velodrome, BMX Track, Water Polo Arena, Riverbank Arena and the Aquatics Center. I have managed to see several events and medal ceremonies. Sadly I haven't yet been to the BMX track or Water Polo Arena.

Handball is an interesting sport which I hadn't seen played live, so I was interested to check it out. Handball is a team sport where two teams of 7 (six outfield players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball to throw it into the goal of the other team. A match consists of two 30 minute halfs and the team with the most points at the end of time wins. It is widely regarded in European Countries but far less in the US and UK. The pace of matches is intense and I really enjoyed it as did the 7,000 strong crowd at the Copper Box.

Copper Box - Handball Arena

South Korea v Denmark (W)

The basketball arena is one of the closest venues to the Village and is quite impressive to look at. It holds 12,000 and is a temporary venue that is planned to be sold and moved on after the games. I have managed to see a few games already with the biggest being USA vs Nigera last night. There was a capacity crowd for what turned out to be an Olympic Record for highest points ever scored in an Olympic Basketball match. Team USA dominated from the start and at one point Carmello Anthony had nearly as many points as the entire Nigerian side. I was sat next to two very enthusiastic American guys in London on exchange through their university. They claimed that they were sitting in Kobe Bryant's wife's seat and wound up with them through a convoluted story involving Bryant's agent giving the unneeded tickets to someone the guys knew who then passed them on to them. At first this seemed very unlikely until I looked over two seats and down one row to see Lebron James' mother and girlfriend as well as Carmello Anthony's wife/girlfriend. Needless to say, sitting 3 rows up from the USA bench I felt quite lucky to be where I was.

Basketball Arena

Argentina v Tunisia (M)

Spain v United Kingdom (M)

USA v Nigeria (M)

USA lineup (M)

USA timeout

USA second team (M)

Final Score

For me the 6,000 seat Velodrome is the most interesting of all the Olympic venues. It's construction is impressive and the finish is amazing. The control of temperature and humidity inside the Velodrome is key to achieving maximum speeds therefore the air pressure is tightly controlled. There are massive doors outside that lead into a small air-locked room. You are only allowed to enter the interior when the outside doors are closed. This means that it is very warm inside. The massively steeped bank oval track is very impressive as are the speed that can be achieved on them.

Velodrome

Velodrome track

Team GB set World Record for men's team pursuit

The Riverbank Arena is a 15,000 seat field hockey stadium which is also a temporary venue setup for gamestime. The playing surface is blue turf which is watered before play in order to reduce friction which helps the dimpled ball travel smoothly and reduces bouncing. I saw the second half of Australia v South Africa (men's). Australia being a strong medal favorite in the sport they walked away winning 6-0. The day after the match I was in the Olympic Village headed to the dining hall when an outgoing South African athlete started up a conversation with me. Once I figured out he was on the hockey team I told him that I was at the match. He was frank about it and explained that they were happy they played Australia early as he thought they would only improve as the games went on. He went on to say that they were not too disappointed about the loss which seemed pretty honest to me.

Riverbank Arena

Australia v South Africa (M)

The Aquatics Centre holds 17,500 and is world class and will be London's premiere aquatics centre for years to come. With the addition of seating for the Olympic Games the place feels massive and is very loud. One end has the diving pool and the other the lanes. I attended a medal ceremony for the Women's 200m where American Rebecca Soni took gold. Later Michael Phelps took gold in the Men's 200m medley giving him 20 Olympic medals. The place was electric and the noise in that place was ridiculous and when Phelps won things got silly.