Olympic Diary - Well for all 3 days that I was in London for
Opening Ceremony
I was actually travelling down from Birmingham (and out to Hounslow) during most of the opening ceremony, and I only really saw from Iceland onwards.
I loved what they did with the torch, it was perfect. There may have been sniffling. Just yes!
Also just yes, Chris Hoy's face on entering the stadium.
~~~~
I got up stupidly early (6 in the a.m.) to reach the Excel arena in time for the 10.30 start. I arrived an hour earlier than planned so I bummelled around for a while and then went inside.
Good things about the Excel Arena: (Clickable thumbnail of the outside of the arena here -
)
-Easy to get to
-Helpful staff/volunteers
-Wonderfully well set out fencing arena. Tichy me had a perfect view despite being 5 rows from the back. The view can be seen here - seriously this is the cheapest of the cheap seats and it was that good -
-Enough female toilets. I didn't end up in any queues for the toilet, not a one. I want to write sonnets in honour of whoever organised this.
There was a little bit of poor signposting but that was my only complaint.
Where I was sitting also had a bit of a draft from the air conditioning but that's because the cheap seats were right under the vents. I'm not going to complain about it because I know the stench that multiple fencers + a large crowd (8,000 people) produces.
About that figure of 8,000, that's the full capacity and yeah, despite being allegedly sold out, it wasn't. It was about 1/4 short of capacity. Some of that got filled up later as people got knocked out so, for instance, the Egyptian and Tunisian fencing teams plus coaches appeared from backstage to use their seats.
Still, it was a fun crowd, a nice mix of fencers and non-fencers. Hopefully there'll be few converts. That being the most important point of any Olympics, more fencers :)
I was sitting next to a Chinese couple and joined them in cheering for the Chinese foilists. And the Brits. I also happily cheered for various Italian and Japanese fencers. The thing I liked was how the ~ 15 Hungarians in attendance managed to outshout everyone else combined.
I was in the section behind the red piste. Also in there was one particular American fan who was unspeakable. So unspeakable that the entire section became pro the Tunisian fencer that he was shouting against. No, really, he managed to make Mitt Romney look diplomatic. Also, the Tunisian, Boubakri, was great fun to watch and became the red section crowd's fencer of choice.
I saw Vezzali fence. THE Vezzali. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentina_Vezzali)
And because of the draw, all of her matches were on the red piste, so right where I could see.
So I'm coming out of the Excel, happy as, and my phone goes off and I have a text message telling me that Vinokourov has won the road race. I literally skipped out of the Excel arena and onto the DLR station.
Oh Vino!
I'm just overwhelmed by it. Vino! Vino! Vino! (please excuse a brief pic spam to pictures of the glorious Olympic men's road race champion)
All is good with sport (as long as he doesn't fail a doping test).
~~~~
As you can imagine, the British press were not happy with the road race result. And made many factual errors with regard to Vino. He's not a drugs cheat, he didn't test positive for drugs, he tested positive for blood doping, which, despite the name, doesn't involve chemicals, it involves injecting your high-altitude adjusted red blood cells back into yourself, to give yourself an unfair performance boost.
Also, he's not unrepentant; they just said that the quickest way to get his license back would be to stop appealing the verdict. There is a difference between admitting your guilt and taking the pragmatic option. That's why he never apologised. (I don't doubt for a moment that he wasn't guilty mind you, just because he's my favourite doesn't mean I blind to his faults, but I do commend his stubbornness.)
But mostly it was just the usual grumbling sour grapes.
Anyway, after a visit to a very nice cafe, and having some of their very nice macaroons (seriously, they had pistachio macaroons that were not of this Earth and the lemon ones were even better), and a visit to the National Portrait Gallery, where my preference for sculpture once again became apparent, it was back off to the Excel.
Given the number of people that must have used them, the facilities were still of the same high standard. Again, huge props to the volunteers.
I ran into D and T, and the Boy B and V who is still his girlfriend (along with B's Dad who was a volunteer). D and T had been there for the morning session and there'd been far more upsets than in the ladies foil. Occhiuzzi (known to all as 'the other Italian') had knocked out Limbach, then one of the US fencers had knocked out Yakimenko 15-14, despite which, none of the US fencers got through to the last 4, which was probably just as well for the retinas of all those in attendance, as they were fencing in fluorescent lime green shoes and socks. Only one of the Italians got through to the last 4, the aforementioned Occhiuzzi. Montano went out to a Hungarian despite managing to land a hit (sadly out of time) after doing a backwards roll. Tarantino lost 14-15, when he got red carded for his second false start (the command sequence of fencing goes 'en garde, pret, allez' and because sabre is so quick, sabreurs often try to anticipate the call of allez). He managed to control himself and didn't strop. Apparently there was just pacing and glowering. Some poor volunteer had to get his sabre off him to take it to weapons check. She was unsuccessful in said endeavour, but still alive so I think LOCOG should count that as a victory for her. As I said, I get why they take the blades away, but it's still stupid. I've lost unimportant matches and been a bit explosive, I don't want to imagine how aggrieved I'd be if I'd lost a match in the Olympics on a final hit red card, and I'm of a much calmer temperament that Tarantino.
Anyway, by the time I got there for the session I had tickets for, they were down to the final 4 fencers, a Hungarian (Szilagyi), an Italian (Occhiuzzi), a Russian (Kovalev) and a Romanian (Dumitrescu).
After a peculiar ballet demo to keep the audience entertained, Szilagyi vs Kovalev was the first match on. Szilagy wiped the floor with Kovalev. Unexpected but good. (Sorry, I come pre-programmed to cheer for Hungarians, and as a fencer, I want them to do well.)
Dumitrescu vs Occhiuzzi was next. Dumitrescu was doing fine until the Italian mind-games got to him. Occhuzzi may be the least over-dramatic of the Italian sabreurs but that doesn't mean he doesn't play up constantly (evidence here - http://brightnshinythings.tumblr.com/post/29200379979/photo-of-occhiuzzi-for-future-blogging-purposes).
I think all of that put Dumitrescu off during the bronze medal play-off which he lost to Kovalev.
So the final was Szilagy vs Occhuzzi (Video here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8prO7RkOqM&feature=relmfu). The crowd was pretty evenly split. Szilagy got a lead and didn't let the mind games get to him. Occhiuzzi caught up a bit (in between arguing with his coach, remonstrating with the ref, falling over and having cramp) and then Szilagy fought clear again.
T was right; Szilagy's fencing style is lovely. It's all very careful and pre-planned. He does this lovely thing where his third step is short, so the opponent is in distance before the opponent is ready to hit him and when he's ready to hit them. It's lovely.
Hungarian win, all is right with the world of sport, and he had the most quietly beatific smile on the podium. (Not a podium shot but you get the idea - http://brightnshinythings.tumblr.com/post/29483168298/sloppyexcitement-aron-szilagyi-hungarian)
Occhiuzzi was actually very graceful in defeat. I'll give the Italian sabreurs this, they may fight at the very edges of the rules but once the match is over, they're good sports.
I'm just so glad I got the chance to go.
I was actually travelling down from Birmingham (and out to Hounslow) during most of the opening ceremony, and I only really saw from Iceland onwards.
I loved what they did with the torch, it was perfect. There may have been sniffling. Just yes!
Also just yes, Chris Hoy's face on entering the stadium.
~~~~
I got up stupidly early (6 in the a.m.) to reach the Excel arena in time for the 10.30 start. I arrived an hour earlier than planned so I bummelled around for a while and then went inside.
Good things about the Excel Arena: (Clickable thumbnail of the outside of the arena here -
)
-Easy to get to
-Helpful staff/volunteers
-Wonderfully well set out fencing arena. Tichy me had a perfect view despite being 5 rows from the back. The view can be seen here - seriously this is the cheapest of the cheap seats and it was that good -
-Enough female toilets. I didn't end up in any queues for the toilet, not a one. I want to write sonnets in honour of whoever organised this.
There was a little bit of poor signposting but that was my only complaint.
Where I was sitting also had a bit of a draft from the air conditioning but that's because the cheap seats were right under the vents. I'm not going to complain about it because I know the stench that multiple fencers + a large crowd (8,000 people) produces.
About that figure of 8,000, that's the full capacity and yeah, despite being allegedly sold out, it wasn't. It was about 1/4 short of capacity. Some of that got filled up later as people got knocked out so, for instance, the Egyptian and Tunisian fencing teams plus coaches appeared from backstage to use their seats.
Still, it was a fun crowd, a nice mix of fencers and non-fencers. Hopefully there'll be few converts. That being the most important point of any Olympics, more fencers :)
I was sitting next to a Chinese couple and joined them in cheering for the Chinese foilists. And the Brits. I also happily cheered for various Italian and Japanese fencers. The thing I liked was how the ~ 15 Hungarians in attendance managed to outshout everyone else combined.
I was in the section behind the red piste. Also in there was one particular American fan who was unspeakable. So unspeakable that the entire section became pro the Tunisian fencer that he was shouting against. No, really, he managed to make Mitt Romney look diplomatic. Also, the Tunisian, Boubakri, was great fun to watch and became the red section crowd's fencer of choice.
I saw Vezzali fence. THE Vezzali. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentina_Vezzali)
And because of the draw, all of her matches were on the red piste, so right where I could see.
So I'm coming out of the Excel, happy as, and my phone goes off and I have a text message telling me that Vinokourov has won the road race. I literally skipped out of the Excel arena and onto the DLR station.
Oh Vino!
I'm just overwhelmed by it. Vino! Vino! Vino! (please excuse a brief pic spam to pictures of the glorious Olympic men's road race champion)
All is good with sport (as long as he doesn't fail a doping test).
~~~~
As you can imagine, the British press were not happy with the road race result. And made many factual errors with regard to Vino. He's not a drugs cheat, he didn't test positive for drugs, he tested positive for blood doping, which, despite the name, doesn't involve chemicals, it involves injecting your high-altitude adjusted red blood cells back into yourself, to give yourself an unfair performance boost.
Also, he's not unrepentant; they just said that the quickest way to get his license back would be to stop appealing the verdict. There is a difference between admitting your guilt and taking the pragmatic option. That's why he never apologised. (I don't doubt for a moment that he wasn't guilty mind you, just because he's my favourite doesn't mean I blind to his faults, but I do commend his stubbornness.)
But mostly it was just the usual grumbling sour grapes.
Anyway, after a visit to a very nice cafe, and having some of their very nice macaroons (seriously, they had pistachio macaroons that were not of this Earth and the lemon ones were even better), and a visit to the National Portrait Gallery, where my preference for sculpture once again became apparent, it was back off to the Excel.
Given the number of people that must have used them, the facilities were still of the same high standard. Again, huge props to the volunteers.
I ran into D and T, and the Boy B and V who is still his girlfriend (along with B's Dad who was a volunteer). D and T had been there for the morning session and there'd been far more upsets than in the ladies foil. Occhiuzzi (known to all as 'the other Italian') had knocked out Limbach, then one of the US fencers had knocked out Yakimenko 15-14, despite which, none of the US fencers got through to the last 4, which was probably just as well for the retinas of all those in attendance, as they were fencing in fluorescent lime green shoes and socks. Only one of the Italians got through to the last 4, the aforementioned Occhiuzzi. Montano went out to a Hungarian despite managing to land a hit (sadly out of time) after doing a backwards roll. Tarantino lost 14-15, when he got red carded for his second false start (the command sequence of fencing goes 'en garde, pret, allez' and because sabre is so quick, sabreurs often try to anticipate the call of allez). He managed to control himself and didn't strop. Apparently there was just pacing and glowering. Some poor volunteer had to get his sabre off him to take it to weapons check. She was unsuccessful in said endeavour, but still alive so I think LOCOG should count that as a victory for her. As I said, I get why they take the blades away, but it's still stupid. I've lost unimportant matches and been a bit explosive, I don't want to imagine how aggrieved I'd be if I'd lost a match in the Olympics on a final hit red card, and I'm of a much calmer temperament that Tarantino.
Anyway, by the time I got there for the session I had tickets for, they were down to the final 4 fencers, a Hungarian (Szilagyi), an Italian (Occhiuzzi), a Russian (Kovalev) and a Romanian (Dumitrescu).
After a peculiar ballet demo to keep the audience entertained, Szilagyi vs Kovalev was the first match on. Szilagy wiped the floor with Kovalev. Unexpected but good. (Sorry, I come pre-programmed to cheer for Hungarians, and as a fencer, I want them to do well.)
Dumitrescu vs Occhiuzzi was next. Dumitrescu was doing fine until the Italian mind-games got to him. Occhuzzi may be the least over-dramatic of the Italian sabreurs but that doesn't mean he doesn't play up constantly (evidence here - http://brightnshinythings.tumblr.com/post/29200379979/photo-of-occhiuzzi-for-future-blogging-purposes).
I think all of that put Dumitrescu off during the bronze medal play-off which he lost to Kovalev.
So the final was Szilagy vs Occhuzzi (Video here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8prO7RkOqM&feature=relmfu). The crowd was pretty evenly split. Szilagy got a lead and didn't let the mind games get to him. Occhiuzzi caught up a bit (in between arguing with his coach, remonstrating with the ref, falling over and having cramp) and then Szilagy fought clear again.
T was right; Szilagy's fencing style is lovely. It's all very careful and pre-planned. He does this lovely thing where his third step is short, so the opponent is in distance before the opponent is ready to hit him and when he's ready to hit them. It's lovely.
Hungarian win, all is right with the world of sport, and he had the most quietly beatific smile on the podium. (Not a podium shot but you get the idea - http://brightnshinythings.tumblr.com/post/29483168298/sloppyexcitement-aron-szilagyi-hungarian)
Occhiuzzi was actually very graceful in defeat. I'll give the Italian sabreurs this, they may fight at the very edges of the rules but once the match is over, they're good sports.
I'm just so glad I got the chance to go.