The Closing Ceremony

Let the, er, Ceremony begin....

Olympic ceremonies are known for a number of traditional elements. They have to be garish, cacophonous, feature lots of parochial and patriotic symbols of the host city and country, use as many performers as humanly possible, and include bad music. There must also be surprise(s), and fire.

The London 2012 Opening Ceremony ticked all the boxes - its content was so successfully local that there are parts of it that the rest of the world will never figure out. The Closing Ceremony was a little clearer: we had the London Eye, Battersea Power Station, Big Ben, St Paul's, London buses, black cabs...yep, and really bad music. Well, some of the performers, such as John Lennon and Freddie Mercury, are dead, so perhaps that can be forgiven. Others were, I thought, dead, but apparently The Who still lives. The Spice Girls reunited (again) for the occasion, jiggling in evening dresses on top of black cabs being driven around the arena.

Evening falls, anticipation rises...

The ground of the Olympic Stadium was a covered, not in athletes (they came in later in reduced numbers - many gone home already, I guess), but in a great spread-out Union Jack. The sun rose over London, an actor dressed like Winston Churchill (let's not forget he was half-American -- sorry, I couldn't resist) popped out of the top of Big Ben. I think he read something from 'The Tempest' again, but I'm not sure, because stadium sound quality is a difficult thing for all concerned.

The athletes (or what's left of them) join us.

Actually, although all of the above is true, I will confess to enjoying myself. If we skim lightly over that rapper person, and the girl in the bad body suit, and the weird sequence with the inflatable octopus (what was that about?)... Eric Idle sang "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life", which is always good. Small children in white joined the deceased Mr Lennon to sing "Imagine", which was, if nothing else, appropriate for the Olympic Games. And - highlight of the night, folks! - the Stomp guys and gals battered and, well, stomped, through the London icons with not only precision timing but also a great deal of panache AND acrobatics. And through my binoculars I think I spied the charming Mr Dan from the gym! Stomping with the best of them, his feet in boots attached to a couple of 40 gallon drums. Don't try that at home.

I liked the straightforward London imagery. I liked the dousing of the flame (accompanied by a chorus of "awww" from 80,000 throats. I liked my seat close to Mayor Boris determinedly waving the Olympic flag one more time before he handed it on to the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro. In fact, in summary, I liked the 2012 Games. It was a privilege to be there.

Awww...sad to see it go.

Sports Photography

The pros in action.

If you followed the London 2012 Olympic Games at all, you surely could not help but be impressed by some of the extraordinary images produced both on video and by still photographers. Check out some of them here.

At the various sports venues, the authorised photography contingent could be seen huddled along their special court-side benches, cradling lenses as long as their arms, dressed in the ubiquitous beige multi-pocketed photographer's jackets. They each sported a four-digit number on their  jackets. Some had laptops with them - they could be seen downloading their digital pics and sending them off to wherever they were sending them, before the matches had even climaxed.

Looong lenses.

In our seats, not always very close to the action, and with a small compact digital camera, we couldn't be expected to compete with the pros. We were at least three feet of lens too short. However, that didn't stop us trying. Some sports leant themselves to pretty good shots - Weightlifting and Archery, for instance, where the competitor stands still, except for a bit of straining and trembling. Others, such as gymnastics, tempt the photographer with the balletic grace of the moves but foil with the speed and movement.

Peering over the judge's shoulder - Table Tennis.

Seat location matters, of course. Row five at the Water Polo provided unsurpassed views of the butts...er, musculature...of the athletes. Row fourteen for Athletics in the big stadium, though far from the finish line, was right on the relay start lines. The Hockey was hot, the Swimming was too far away, the Fencing was dimly lit. The Table Tennis was nigh on impossible to photograph, so incredibly fast do they pelt that tiny light ball around. Volleyball and Basketball look great through the camera lens, but all too often the great shot is over before you can click the shutter.

So it is with just a little preening that I present here an album of some of our amateur efforts at Olympic sports photography.

Swimmers on their marks.

en garde in the fencing

Men's Floor Exercises in the Gymnastics

Men's Pommel Horse - "hello boys"

Elegant...Men's Gynmastics

Volleyball

Table Tennis - concentration

Italian Water Polo players
(they model for Armani, I'm told)

Water Polo action.

Eyeing the ball - Table Tennis

New Zealand in the Men's Hockey

Women's Basketball (France v Russia)

Ready in the relay.

Victory lap.

Women's Hammerthrow.

Lined up for the Women's 1500m

Oscar Pistorius, the South African 'blade runner'.

Victorious Bahamians.

Women's Basketball:
finally managed to snap the ball in flight.

Medal Ceremonials

Weightlifting medal recipients.

At the Olympic Games there's the Opening Ceremony and there's the Closing Ceremony, but never a day goes by without dozens of those other ceremonies - the Medal Ceremonies. Sometimes they are the most dramatic moments of all. After a tense or exciting bout, the tensions of the victors relax and all their emotions are allowed to surface. Relief, patriotism, joy, euphoria - sometimes even unbridled religious fervour. The medal ceremonies are the unsung ceremony stars of the Games.

Aussie women win Basketball bronze.

The flower guy brings out his tray.
Lauren Jackson examines her bronze medal.  

For the spectator, watching your own country's sportsmen or women up on the medal dias is of course a great moment, but there wasn't so much of that going for Australia in this Games. Well, we did finish in the top ten, after trailing at 24th at one time. And there was plenty of Silver! This spectator enjoyed the Australian Women's Basketball team on the dias for Bronze (if only they hadn't lost to France earlier, they would have been the final against the USA, and they deserved to be, on form - arghh!)

When a medal winner is from a tiny nation, or one which hasn't won a medal for many long years, the jubilation from competitors and spectators alike is fervent. When the Venezuelan men's fencer won that country's first medal - a Gold, to boot - since 1968, well, we were all Venezuelan for a moment. When Ugandan Stephen Kiprotich won the Men's Marathon on the final day, we could feel for the Kenyans, but...hey, Uganda!

Venezuela - Fencing gold.

And of course there is the Home Crowd -- after a tense first day or two, Team GB swept all before it and gave their home supporters something to wave their Union Jacks about. And they did. Loudly. Often. Congratulations Team GB - and all the others who stood hand on heart, heart in mouth, sometimes weeping, on the winners' dias at the Medal Ceremonies.

A military operation (and that's the correct Korean flag this time).

Young ladies, young men, officials, photographers - oh, and athletes. Gymnastics.

Preparing to mount the winners' dias. Table Tennis.

A fetching purple colour.

In 2012 the dias for the Medal Ceremony was a charming purple, which went so well with hot pink, that other London 2012 signature colour. The flags were raised by military personal from various branches of the services. We will skim lightly over that unfortunate mix-up of flags on day one at the football - of all the flags to mix-up, it would have to be North and South Korea. Still, we moved on from that. Out marched the military in fine formation at each and every Medal Ceremony, treating the flags as carefully as new born babes, raising them and lowering them, and marching them back to storage with all due solemnity.

The anthem of the winning country is played as the three flags are raised. Like sorting out the flags, this too must be a mammoth and delicate task. The anthems used at the 2012 Games were specially recorded by an orchestra commissioned to do so - some had to be shortened, and some lengthened. There was quite a bit of low-key grumbling about the version of 'God Save The Queen' which we heard so often following Team GB's victories. Some didn't like the somewhat truncated version, which missed out the little rising trill in the middle. Still, needs must, and flags have to be raised and the next matches played.

THE moment. Table Tennis.

The flags are raised. Basketball. (Aussie!)

The medals are presented by an official from the relevant sporting federation, and a little bunch of flowers by an IOC bigwig. They come out dressed in their special uniforms, neat jackets and jaunty hats. Various lithe young ladies attend the proceedings, moving everyone to where they should be on the dias; and several handsome young men solemnly carry out the medals and flowers on little trays, while suitable music plays. It is very ritualistic, and probably is the moment in the modern Olympics which most recalls the ancient Games - somehow you feel that when the laurel wreath was placed on the ancient winner, things were solemn, and lithe young people were involved.

Yay! Happy medal holders. 

Celebrity-Spotting at The Games

Olympic celebrities....?

If there's one thing better than watching famous athletes perform in the sporting arena, it is probably running into them close up and having your photograph taken with them. My Olympics-attending companion scored a couple of direct hits in the celeb picture stakes during the London 2012 Games. And a few others that might not have been quite so high profile, but were still worth a picture.

Now that's a celebrity!
Peter with Carl Lewis at the Water Polo.

And that's another celebrity!
A big, though short, fan with a tall (6 ft 5 in) Australian
basketball star: the gracious Lauren Jackson.

With 'Bob', the friendly Vollie.
Somewhere in East London.

Well, OK, we didn't meet her, but we saw her.
Married-in royalty watching the Men's Gymnastics.

And some real stars of the show, seeing the crowds on their way home
after the Closing Ceremony.

The ‘Minor’ Sports

Weightlifting (68kg) Medallers

The Olympics power relentlessly on, and it is, if nothing else, character-building to be enjoying the Games in a country which is not one’s own, when one’s own is - pun intended - dropping the ball. In the arenas and the Olympic Park, a sea of Union Jacks and understandably excited British fans surrounds you. Admittedly there is the occasional Mexican, Venezuelan and - memorably - Mongolian far from home to cheer on their athletes. And of course a large contingent of Team USA supporters. But Britishers naturally abound. I have yet to come across any substantial number of Australians, but that could be because they are hiding their heads in despair, as medals which should have been Australian Gold (on standings and records) are transmuted to silver, bronze and so very often to nowhere in the rankings.

Just a few Union Jacks about...

Go Mongolia!

Excel Stadium - the venue for Fencing and six other sports

Still, there’s lots of excitement to be had at the Olympic Games, and if you can focus your attention beyond the home team’s media scrum, and look past the Union Jacks, there is drama aplenty.

The thrills of the Archery aside, there was surprisingly good sport to be had at the Weightlifting and Fencing. Our Swimming tickets were probably the most average so far, since they were D-reserve (up in the gods, seven rows from the back in very steep temporary seating), the races we saw were “only” morning heats, and the Australians performed very averagely. Still, for our forty quid ticket we did see American Michael Phelps swim, and that night he became the most medalled (love the new verbs?) Olympic athlete in history. And the new 16-year-old Chinese girl sensation, Ms. Ye. She didn’t give us one of her controversy-provoking speed swims, though. Perhaps Breaststroke isn’t her speciality. 

Swimming heats.

Quite high up...a lovely venue, made ugly for now by the temporary seating

At the weightlifting we watched the 68kg men’s class - those guys weigh less than me,  and are all roughly 35 years younger than me. The lightest weight they lifted was 140 kg. We watched a slew of “minor” countries do very well - Romania and Indonesia taking out Silver and Bronze. But the Gold medalist, from China, was streets ahead of the competition, and thoroughly deserved his win. In fact, he was assured of the Gold before making his final lift, and as a crowd-pleaser he added an astonishing 11 kg to his weight in an attempt to break the world record. Unsuccessfully, as it turned out, but not for lack of crowd appreciation willing him on.

Yes! Yes!

Maybe...

Not this time.

The Weightlifting and the Fencing were both held at the Excel Centre, reached via a short detour on the DLR. A helpful discovery was a large sports-minded pub just outside the station, with Olympic events playing on numerous screens. Thus was the afternoon between Swimming and Fencing whiled away watching Bradley Wiggins - he of Tour de France success -  win Gold for Britain in the Men’s Road Race. The Australian came a creditable 6th...or was it 5th? Anyway, another also-ran.

En garde...and the guy on the left would be from...?

Happy competitor, happy coach.

That was mine! That was mine! Competitive ladies.

In the Fencing, we were pleased to see (a) no Brits competing (a momentary respite); (b) a number of interesting small countries competing; and (c) the Americans eliminated. Call me mean, but that country has quite enough medals to be going on with. Now Venezuela, on the other hand, had not earned a Gold Medal since 1968, so try to imagine the apoplectic excitement of their balletic épée fencer when he did just that for them -- defeating first a large, stolid and entirely defensive American, and then a lanky Norwegian. The Venezuelan did a victory lap of the arena draped in his flag, to the strains of “We are the Champions”, a older Venezuelan fan in the crowd near us shook the hand of everyone within reach, and I can report that the Venezuelan National Anthem is a cheery number. In the women’s event, we watched the Ukraine, Russia, the USA and Korea battle it out in the sabre event. I must say that the US girl (the defending medal holder) was very feisty and aggressive, but in the end, the Korean came back from behind to win. From the precision and concentration of the competition to all-out heart-attack territory excitement -- the fencers are the most pleased-to-win athletes we’ve seen so far.

For the Venezuelan National Anthem.