The Games Continue; Other Olympic Venues

As we moved through the first week of the Games our schedule, as expected, picked up and became quite busy. Often we would have several athletes competing at conflicting times which complicated thing. We were not responsible for transporting athletes to events as there was a dedicated shuttle service for this however we were responsible for taking the CdM, dCdM and other officials to their selected events. This often meant hopping from venue to venue in order to make specific competition start times.  The Cubans mainly focused on the events that were of the greatest significance to them which usually meant they had the best chance of getting a medal.

Because the Cubans have such a strong tradition in combat sports (judo, taekwondo, boxing, wrestling and fencing) this meant that much of our time would be spent at these venues. All of these sports were held at the ExCel Exhibition Centre. The ExCel has massive halls (about 500,000 square foot) which were converted into competition venues. The ExCel is very large with one large boulevard down the middle that separates the North and the South Arenas. In addition to the combat sports, the ExCel was home to table tennis and weightlifting. Visiting each of the halls in the ExCel was interesting. Some of them depending on the sport being played proved better than others.

ExCel main boulevard

ExCel main boulevard

I was very excited to see table tennis live however the experience was not quite what I hoped. The massive hall for table tennis had the tables in the middle of the room and the stands seemed quite low and did not provide enough of a vantage point to effectively observe matches being played on one of the tables on the opposite side of the room from you. This meant that it was harder to get into the games as you spent most of your time watching the monitors in order to see what was happening. 

Table Tennis

Table Tennis action

Wrestling is a sport that I wasn't very interested in prior to the games. Olympic wrestling includes two formats: Greco-Roman and Freestyle. Although my experience spectating was better than I expected, I doubt I will be seeking out any wrestling matches in the future.

Wrestling 

Wrestling

Women's Freestyle Wrestling

Judo was an unknown to me. I had heard of it however never seen it live. I very much enjoyed the matches but I had quite a hard time understanding how it was played. Once I figured it out, I grew to like it which was good because Cuban Idalis Ortiz wound up with Gold in Women's Judo 78kg+

Ilias Iliadis (Greece) defeats Tiago Camilo (Brazil) 11 – 2 to win Bronze

Asley Gonzalez (Cuba) v Kirill Denisov (Russia)

Weightlifting  was a sport that seemed quite unappealing to me however I must say it turned out to be fantastic! Each athlete can chose how much they are going to attempt to lift and the person bidding the least goes first. As the rounds progress the amount an athlete chooses to attempt becomes more important and can invovle a great deal of strategy. The Weightlifting Arena was great and so were the crowds in attendance. I was lucky to be present when a World Record and Olympic Best were set.

Weightlifting

Lu Xiaojun (China) sets a new world record and Olympic best in the Men's 77kg weightlifting clean and jerk

Boxing was always going to be great. The Cubans have a long tradition of boxing excellence and were certainly ones to watch. Cuba brought 8 boxers to the Games of various sizes and secured 4 Medal Matches.

Boxing Arena

Opening of Lazaro Alvarez (Cuba) v Joseph Diaz Jr (USA), 21-15 to Alvarez

The site of the shooting competition was the Royal Artillery Barracks. This is a military compound which was completed in 1802 and was used by the Royal Army until 2007. The disciplines included are rifle, pistol and shotgun events. The Cubans had athletes in pistol and rifle competitions and won gold with the pistol.

Royal Artillery Barracks

Royal Artillery Barracks

My trip here was to take the CdM and dCdM to observe the a Cuban competing in the Woman's 50m Rifle 3 Positions event. This sounded very interesting as the shooter must score the highest points while shooting a limited number of rounds from 3 positions (standing, kneeling and from prone). Sadly the Cuban shooter only shot with 96.83% accuracy and finished 16th with 581 total points. The winner was Jamie Gray from USA who shot 98.61% accuracy and scored a total 592 points. The venue for this event was a long rifle range with an isle behind the shooters and in front of some bleachers setup for spectators. The seating capacity was minimal and we sat on benches directly behind our shooter. I must say that even with our fantastic front row view I had a hard time following the action. The target was so well concealed that I found myself watching the monitors and the scoreboard to try to keep up. Obviously the sport requires a massive amount of skill and accuracy however I would not say that it makes the best spectator sport. I could see this being better to watch on television where you would have a commentator relaying the significance of the goings on, and the ability to have better views of the action.

Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions

Scoreboard

Competition