Round the World: October 2012

While my main objective was to gain access to the Olympic Stadium, there is more to the Games than just track and field, so I took the opportunity to sample some of the many other sports on offer around the metropolis of London. First up was a trip to Horse Guards Parade on a glistening Saturday afternoon for a session of beach volleyball, one of the more glamourous events on any Olympic programme. Beach Volleyball is as much of a show as it is a sport, with an air of delightful chaos about proceedings. There’s no denying the players’ agility, coordination, speed and skill but one can’t help but feel that the majority of the capacity crowd were there to watch the Italian and Spanish female competitors show off their very revealing, albeit eye pleasing, sporting attire. Once their game concluded the Dutch and Danish men did likewise to delight the female contingent in the audience. The stadium announcer added to the organised pandemonium as he shouted out approximately every 10 minutes “Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s rakey rakey time!!”, to which a flock of eager volunteers would rush out onto the court and rake the sand into complete perfection, to the overwhelming adulation of the aforementioned announcer, only for their hard work to be undone within the first point after the resumption of the game. Finally, a beach volleyball session is consistently interrupted at random points by loud, colourful music accompanied by about two dozen scantily dressed dancers from a range of nationalities, all with one thing in common, the desire to have a damn good time. Beach volleyball was certainly an enjoyable experience and I am undoubtedly open to seeing it again in the future. At the next Olympics it will be held on the iconic Copacabana Beach in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro. I can’t think of a better location for this uplifting and light-hearted sport.

Next up was a journey out to Earls Court for indoor volleyball. The sport itself has a lot of appealing attributes: skill, power, incredible reflexes and strong team work. However it lacks the confident showmanship of its seaside cousin. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed the game and can appreciate brilliance in any sport, but once the novelty wears off it all becomes a bit repetitive without anything silly and chaotic to appeal to the fair-weather spectators. The first game between Great Britain and Japan was enjoyable mainly due to the loud and patriotic support from the local crowd towards the host nation (who never had a smidgen of hope of achieving anything in this sport I may add), but once the hysteria died down, the next game between Russia and Italy, while unmistakably of a higher standard, became a bit long drawn out, and by the end of it I was ready for a good pint of London Pride!

One sport that has always intrigued me in a sort of “once every 4 years” way is handball, referred to as Olympic handball in Ireland. Like the vast majority of Olympic sports this game has a popularity of approximately zero on the Emereld Isle, and is only seen on one’s television set when the greatest show on earth comes around. However on the European mainland handball is very popular, both from a participative and viewing standpoint. So I took a trip out to the Copper Box in Olympic Park to see what all the fuss among my European companions is about. What I was treated to was a compelling women’s quarter final between South Korea and Russia, where the Asian outfit edged out the intense contest by a score of 24 to 23. My enjoyment was certainly enhanced by an excellent view of the action, with a seat in the third row behind the goal giving me a close-up perspective of the sheer speed, power and skill this sport has to offer.

However, from an Irish point of view, London 2012 was always going to be about boxing, and in particular Katie Taylor. The Bray woman has dominated women’s lightweight boxing since claiming her first European Championship gold in 2005, winning a further four European titles, four World Championship gold medals and four European Union Championships since. Indeed such has been her supremacy that it is commonly accepted that the Irishwoman was the main reason women’s boxing was added to the Olympic programme for the first time in the 116 year history of the modern Games. All of this led to unavoidable hype in Ireland that Katie Taylor might bring home an elusive gold medal to the success deprived nation. Excluding Michelle Smith’s three tainted gold medals in 1996, Ireland had not won an Olympic title since Michael Carruth claimed boxing glory in 1992, so it was always inevitable that the hopes of our small nation would be pinned firmly on the shoulders of this astonishing talent.

Given the close proximity of the 2012 Olympic Games, and the foresight of most that Taylor would more than likely be donning the gloves come the business end of the Women’s Lightweight 60Kg weight category, the Irish took it upon themselves to purchase all tickets months in advance. The result of this being roughly 80-90% of the 6,000 capacity Excel Arena in London filled with natives of the Emerald Isle during each of her fights. Fortunately I was one of the lucky few inside the amphitheatre for both her semi-final against Tajikistan’s Mavzuna Chorieva, and the final against her nemesis Sofya Ochigava of Russia. The former was a great experience, don’t get me wrong, but it paled in comparison to the drama and emotion of the afternoon of August 9^th. The upbeat green sight of a few thousand Irish people all dressed in national rugby and soccer jerseys overflowing out of the few pubs beside the arena felt more like the lead-up to a big Irish rugby international game at Lansdowne Road than it did an Olympic final. It was a truly uplifting occasion.

Inside the arena the atmosphere was hopping, reaching decibel levels not matched by many other events throughout London 2012. To say the Irish took over the venue would be an enormous understatement. Throughout what was a very cagey and tense bout with the Russian champion the crowd fully extended their vocal chords with renditions of “Ole, Ole, Ole” and “The Fields of Athenry”. I have been to a lot of great sporting events throughout the world, but I have never experienced noise quite like this. However despite all the patriotic liveliness there was not a soul in the arena who wasn’t at least slightly nervous during what seemed like an eternity before the official result was announced. At the moment the announcer yelled “the winner, by a score of 10 points to 8, in the RED CORNER…” the venue erupted in a mixture of relief and jubilation. The sense of national pride one gets from seeing your fellow countryman or woman achieving sporting greatness is indescribable and to be in attendance to witness it in the flesh multiplies this sentiment tenfold. The medal ceremony in particular, the playing of the Irish national anthem Amhran na bhFiann, and sharing such a rare and historic moment with friends and fellow Irish is a moment which will stay with me forever.

Needless to say such success was very much celebrated that evening, beginning in the immediate aftermath, with the Irish fans singing from the tops of their respiratory systems “Walking in a Taylor wonderland” during the victorious march out of the arena. The Taiwan and Korean table tennis and taekwondo supporters (sports which were also taking place at the Excel Arena) hadn’t the faintest idea what was going on, and I was questioned by a confused Albanian gentleman as to what the ear splitting commotion was all about. The fun didn’t stop there. That night I was personally congratulated for Katie Taylor’s success by a random Jamaican and a drunk Dutchman. There were 302 gold medals decided during these Olympics so it is almost impossible for even the biggest anorak to keep track of them all, so the fact that our solitary gold medal had made quite a headline among other communities was quite pleasing.

In terms of medals won Ireland enjoyed its most successful Games in history, winning one gold, one silver (John Joe Nevin in men’s bantamweight boxing) and three bronze (Paddy Barnes in light flyweight boxing, Michael Conlon in flyweight boxing and Cian O’Connor in individual showjumping equestrian). This equals our performance at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, but given the greater worldwide scale of the Games these days, London 2012 was unquestionable Ireland’s most prosperous effort since competing independently for the first time in 1924. It wasn’t just the high medal tally which made the Games so satisfying from an Irish point of view but also the many other high finishes across a range of sports: Annalise Murphy 4^th in the Lasar Radial sailing, Rob Heffernan 4^th in the 50 kilometre race walk, the 3-day eventing team finishing 5^th, Aoife Clark 7^th in the individual 3-day eventing, and Natalya Coyle 9^th in the Modern Pentathlon, the last of which is an astonishing prospect for the Rio Olympics in 2016. Let’s hope these admirable performances by the class of 2012 can help persuade the government to financially back our minority sports to a higher degree. There’s something disturbing about one third of our sports funding going to horse racing, a rich man’s game, while so many sports in Ireland are only kept afloat because of the selfless efforts of volunteers.

While many of the venues hosting events at these Olympics were spread around the metropolitan area of London, the focal point was as always the purpose built Olympic Park. This enormous area of land consisted of the Olympic Stadium, the Aquatic Centre, the water polo arena, the cycling velodrome, the Copper Box for handball, the basketball arena, the BMX track, along with merchandise stores, bar and restaurant stalls, two big screens and the biggest McDonald’s the world has ever seen with queues a ridiculous 15 miles long! However for all its grandeur I feel the park lacked a bit of soul. It was too focused on extracting pound notes off fans for my liking and lacked the sort of interactive feel you get at many sporting events. At the Australian Open tennis for example they have competitions to see who out of the general public can achieve the fastest serve. Olympic Park lacked that sort of thing, something to keep the kids interested, something fun and silly to help fans engage a bit more with the Olympic experience.

What Olympic Park lacked, Hyde Park more than made up for. Throughout the Games London’s inner city parkland was turned into a festival of all the good things in life: sport, beer and food. Five different big screens were erected at various points throughout the area for the duration of London 2012 where fans could chill out and watch the live sporting action. The biggest screen was dedicated unsurprisingly to athletics, with tens of thousands of people in attendance the nights of both the 100m and 200m finals. However one didn’t have to travel too far to catch something else. A quick five minute walk had me at one of the smaller screens just in time for John Joe Nevin’s quarter final bout where numerous Irish people had also congregated to. Over on another giant television set there were a group of satisfied Dutch people, evidently pleased with their 10-2 mauling of Great Britain in men’s hockey. It truly was a wonderful set up, and there was no shortage of beer and plenty of places to grab some food. Once the athletics finished some music bands who I am supposed to have heard of came onto the main stage to keep the crowd buzzing. And best of all, this was entirely free to the general public. Kudos London for this little gem!

There can be no doubting that London 2012 was the best supported Olympic Games in history. Tickets were extremely hard to come by, the Olympic Stadium was packed to the rafters every morning and evening, as were the vast majority of the venues, and the free events such as the marathon, triathlon, road cycling and race walking had enormous crowds about ten deep. Indeed it was such crowds along the roads of the women’s marathon which created a rather humourous tale involving my good self. Having completely underestimated the numbers which would be in attendance for the men’s 20 kilometre walk the previous day and struggling to see any of the action for almost half of the race as a result, myself and a friend decided we could not let this happen again for the women’s marathon. So after multiple pints of delicious ale a plan was formulated to bring along some sort of contraption which would magically turn us into eight foot superstars. This apparatus we unanimously agreed would be a recycle box. So bright and early the following morning, hangover in head, breakfast roll in hand, we set out on a ridiculous journey on the London Underground system with a big green box accompanying us. Dragging this object around London was at times embarrassing, at times hilarious, but it appeared that our efforts had been rewarded. We found a nice spot which provided a good view of the race, placed the box on the ground, and both of us proceeded to stand tall and arrogant above the tens of people in front of us, smug in our intelligent creativity. The view couldn’t have been better. That is until a cracking sound appeared beneath my feet and the two of us not long later were on the ground, sporting bruises and a loss of dignity. The crowd around us seemed to enjoy our misfortune, and why not, it was pretty funny. I would have laughed had it been anybody else!

These Olympic Games have filled many with wonderful memories and it wouldn’t have been possible without the exceptional organisation around London which ensured everything ran smoothly. First there were the volunteers, whose tireless efforts and constant cheer made even the longest of queues that bit more bearable. Then there was the security which far surpasses anything that has ever been seen at a sporting event before. Entering the Excel Centre to watch Katie Taylor required the same level of scrutiny as crossing security control in JFK Airport, and despite the inconvenience it provides at the time, it’s the way it should be. The knowledge that there isn’t some nutjob inside the venue ready to make a name for himself at the biggest event in the world is comforting. And finally the transport system. While the Tube may be a mix between a sauna and restaurant overly exposed to garlic, there can be no complaints in the efficiency in which it was able to support so many people travelling around the city. There were worries that London’s transport system wouldn’t be able to deal with the sheer numbers of people, but these fears were unfounded.

For 16 days, London ran faster, jumped higher and threw further than the rest of the world. Over to you Rio!