My day at the Olympics from JaneB
There have been some fantastic posts sent in from our various Olympic correspondents, so instead of doing a written post I have created a photo diary with captions of my day at the Olympics on Wednesday, which gives an overview of the whole Olympic Park.
When I was a child, as a family we went to Crystal Palace on several occasions to the Three A’s athletic meetings and watched athletes like David Hemery, David Jenkins and Alan Pascoe, future Olympic medalists. So in 2012 it was great to go to the London Olympics with my Dad.
I have nothing but praise for the organisation of the Olympics, it is something in Britain that we should be proud of. In the weeks leading up to the Olympics the British press desperately tried to leap on any potential negatives, now of course the papers are full of the triumphs of the event.
The evening of athletics was unforgettable, but for me it was more than the races, it was the whole atmosphere and positive attitude that made spending the day in the Olympic Park so totally unique.
Left click on any photo to open as a full screen slide show.
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- Walking across from Kings Cross to St Pancras, it was very obvious where we had to go.
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- The javelin train takes 6 minutes from St Pancras to Stratford International, they hold 1200 passengers and are clean, quick and quiet.
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- Looking from the steps of the Westfield shopping centre down to the very modern Stratford International. We decided to have a coffee and a loo stop before going into the park.
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- It’s impossible to get lost with all the smiling volunteers everywhere.
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- What queues, everything is so efficient,
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- Airport security could learn alot from the Olympics. Let’s hope that G4S are paying the military’s wages!
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- Five minutes later we were at the Aquatics Centre.
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- The other side of the Aquatics centre with the wave roof.
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- The riverside walk runs the full length of the park and is well worth walking along.
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- The flower beds are gorgeous.
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- Plenty of green space to relax in.
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- We weren’t expecting these flowers.
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- And more. This was about 1.30pm and walking by the river was unexpectedly quiet.
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- It was a nice to see the Royal barge that was used by the Queen during the Jubilee celebrations.
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- The queues for Park Live seemed huge, but in the end it only took about 15 minutes to get in. Whilst watching the big screen we saw GB’s Peter Wilson who won a gold medal in the double trap being interviewed on the stage.
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- Peter is just about to be mobbed by autograph hunters.
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- He was followed by heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who could be the next Jessica Ennis at Rio after finishing 15th aged only 19.
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- Smiling, she leaves the stage, with 2 other athletes and is then totally mobbed.
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- We found a spot and spent the next couple of hours watching the show jumping, groaning with thousands, as Nick Skelton just missed out on a medal.
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- A number of characters in “fancy” dress.
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- An interesting piece of architecture – the beat box. But it is more than this, this is what the website says “to enable people to ‘play’ the Pavilion through interacting with sounds embedded within the architecture of the building”. Clear as mud!
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- The iconic velodrome.
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- The Riverbank Arena, where the Netherlands beat NZ at hockey, we could hear the cheers and orange shirts of the supporters and the scoreboard flashing “Goal”.
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- More in fancy dress.
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- Getting close to the Velodrome and its impressive shape.
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- The Olympic Stadium – only 3 hours to go and we’ll be inside.
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- Team GB’s accommodation overlooking the whole park, these will be changed into 2,818 new homes and will be know as East Village.
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- As we were walking towards the stadium we could see thousands in front of us. Although it was only 4.45pm and the first event didn’t start until 6pm I did have a slight panic about whether or not we would get in in time.
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- No problems, we just strolled in, no queues at all. This was our first view of the stadium – breathtaking.
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- When I wastched the opening ceremony I was awe struck by the originality of the olympic flame, to be so close to it was amazing.
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- Spectacular.
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- The stadium started filling up. Walking up, it is quite steep, some people looked like they were struggling to breathe, I am sure this is true if you were on row 90! We loved our seats, and were very pleasantly surprised at the excellent location, just past the finish line and about halfway up, especially as we had not gone for the “posh” seats.
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- Watching the athletes is what it is all about when watching TV, but when you are in the stadium there is so much to look at. Watching the high hurdles being set up was undertaken with military precision.
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- Perfection.
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- The stadium is filling up, but I’m glad I’ve got my binoculars to watch the Long Jump, which is on the other side.
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- Kris Akabusi, silver medalist in 1984 and Ricky Wilson from the Kaiser Chiefs entertained us before the events began.
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- The javelin throwers were laying out their javelins to mark where they would begin their run up – never seen this done before.
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- Another first for me were the mini MINI electric cars, specifically designed for the London Olympics to transport the javelins from the finish and back to the athletes. However we couldn’t spot the person that was operating them.
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- Ashton Eaton jumping for Gold in the Decathalon, he was so relaxed, quietly lying on the ground, he just seems like a nice guy.
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- It was a proud moment to see GB’s Robbie Grabarz standing on the podium, receiving his bronze medal from the High Jump competition, but how did the Russian manage to not knock the pole off with his long hair – a mystery!
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- Go Team GB – it was not good news for Hannah England at the back, but good news for Lisa Dobriskey, shown here in 4th as she qualified for the 1500 metres final. We then had to wait to see is Laura Weightman would qualify as one of the fastest losers. You didn’t have to look at the big screen for the answer, as the roar around the stadium said it all.
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- I spotted Usain Bolt about 2 minutes before the roar went up in the stadium, as he was waiting in the tunnel entrance with the other athletes for their final warm ups for the 200 metre semi finals.
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- No false start in 2012.
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- Just below us we could see the BBC trackside interviewer Phil Jones. It is impossible for any athlete to avoid him, they have to walk up the steps and past him to leave the stadium. It’s fine if you are Usain Bolt and have had a victory, but for Andy Turner our 110m hurdler who didn’t get through to the finals it must have been hell. We could see him lying dejected on the track and thinking I’ve got to answer some inane BBC question with a camera and mike stuck 6″ from my face, when all I want to do is to crawl out of here.
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- The flood lighting of the stadium is not intrusive and seems so natural that it is easy to forget that it is pitch dark outside.
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- It was a great night for Allyson Felix in the 200m – third time lucky, after failing to get gold in Athens and Beijing.
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- This was a magic moment, seeing Lawrence Clarke unexpectedly getting into the final with a personal best and then coming 4th in the hurdles – his delight was a joy to watch. Well done Team GB.
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- Watching Sally Pearson being presented with her Olympic Gold for the 110m hurdles was lovely – she is a mega athlete, but it was a shame that it happened so late in the evening. Considering the price of tickets and that the actual event only lasts 4 hours, many people started leaving the stadium straight after the 110 mens hurdles finals. We stayed for another 50 minutes to see the end of the decathalon 400m, javelin qualifiers and long jump final. So Sally’s presentation was in front of a half full stadium.
PARWICH.ORG 
Fabulous record of your day Jane. I have not been down to the park so found your pictures and description fascinating. Thanks!
Jane. Many thanks for the excellent coverage of your visit. Your eagle eye for detail gave us a number of pictures behind the scenes of this great occasion which I found fascinating. A pity you were not able to go more often!
Thanks for the great photos . Unfortunately we were always over at Greenwich Park so never got to see all the iconic Olympic architecture. So it was great to see them intimately through your eyes. It’s made me want to see if we can get a ticket to the Paralympics to see it. What an experience for those of us lucky to be there.