After seven years and
numerous scare mongering newspaper articles about the lack of security, the
assurance of transport chaos and the expectation of a sub-standard opening ceremony, the
London Olympics have exploded into life. The opening ceremony was quintessentially
British and though a lot of it may have been lost to the international
audience, there were some truly inspired elements – namely Mr Bean and the
Queen’s ‘parachute’ entrance. We spent most of the next two days glued to the
telly, waiting for a British gold medal that was sluggish in coming.
The real highlight for
us was the opportunity to go to a live Olympic event, Beach Volleyball. On a
partially sunny afternoon, it is Britain after all, we went along with our
friends Oliver and Pascale to Horse Guards Parade. The organisers were truly
inspired when they decided to build a 15,000 seat stadium in the middle of this
historic location in central London. The atmosphere was amazing and the chance
to sit in the sunshine and look over the roofs of Whitehall towards the London
Eye while enjoying Olympic sport was a once in the lifetime experience.
Beach Volleyball is a
sport that definitely does not take itself too seriously. There is none of this
dead silence required during serves or while play is ongoing. In fact, the
music blares between each point, there is synchronised clapping and all sorts
of random shouts from around the stands. There is also the dancing troupe and
loud cheers for the volunteers as they rake out the sand. Truly it is the Olympics
mixed with a beach music festival.
Even with all the fun
and frivolity happening, the players themselves are amazingly talented and
truly athletic. Though many people say volleyball is all about the skimpy bikinis and
ripped guys, the players are elite athletes and the quality of play was clearly
evident – especially with the Brazilian teams.
It was certainly a massive difference from our efforts on North Avenue beach back in Chicago all those years ago! We saw two men’s and two women’s matches and all were very exciting as we saw the world champion women’s Brazilian team, the epically named ‘the Wall’ from the Brazilian men’s team and a fairly overmatched, but extremely well-supported, British men’s team.
It was certainly a massive difference from our efforts on North Avenue beach back in Chicago all those years ago! We saw two men’s and two women’s matches and all were very exciting as we saw the world champion women’s Brazilian team, the epically named ‘the Wall’ from the Brazilian men’s team and a fairly overmatched, but extremely well-supported, British men’s team.
It was a fabulous
afternoon and we are so happy to have gotten the one set of tickets that we
most wanted for this ‘home’ Olympics. It is certainly something that we will
never forget.
A few photos from our amazing day out... please forgive the cheesy music
