Category Archives: Round 1

Olympic Volleyball – Team GB Vs Australia

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Ok so let’s start with the volleyball…. Team GB are RUBBISH at men’s volleyball (Yes they really do deserve a capital rubbish!). The main issue is that they can’t serve. Even I, knowing almost nothing about volleyball, can safely say it’s impossible to win if you can’t hit the ball into the court. Couple this with what can only be described as the venomous serve of Adam White and it’s no surprise that Team GB lost in straight sets to an Australia side that didn’t really look like they were trying… At least Booing Australia is one of my favourite ever things. Just as well there wasn’t much to cheer.

The next match up, Brasil Vs Russia managed to make Team GB look even worse. Who knew the Russians were soo good? Sure they lost in straight sets too, but the game was way higher quality that anything GB produced. The GB Ambition squad were sat behind us, so lets hope they were taking notes for Rio 2016.

Away from the sport the whole event was seamlessly organised, the security efficient, if a bit intense. The army was defiantly running the show, I only saw one lonely looking G4S guy the whole day! This does kinda beg the question, if we had all these spare soldiers knocking around at such short notice what was the point in even bothering to pay and recruit private security?

Getting our sponsor on

That’s security, the other big issue of the games? Sponsors… This might be a controversial opinion, but I really don’t think that there was enough sponsorship or branding within the arena. I was kinda looking forward to getting into the Olympic spirit with a Mc Donald’s, Heineken and some sport. I don’t even like Mc Donald’s it just feels like it should be an integral part of the experience. You might think “well the sponsorship has done its job” but go with this a second… Imagine how much more fun it would be if the Hype man was dressed as Ronald Mc Donald, there was a giant a giant Coke fountain, and someone giving away free dairy milk samples… Admittedly I’m not quite sure how Dow Chemical’s fit into this happy scene but you get the idea. LOCOG ask you to turn up two hours early, at least it would be something to do in the warehouse like holding area.

It seems that the final big issue of the London games is empty seats, particularly the corporate and sponsors seats. What empty seats…?

Sure Team GB were rubbish and there were a few empty seats but who cares? I had a lovely time, everyone should be very proud of the quality, organisation and atmosphere of the London games.

For more pictures check out the slideshow.

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Why I’ll Always Remember London 2012

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Recently I’ve seen a lot of images like this floating around on facebook, and twitter

Coupled with the less than positive press received from some areas, I can’t help noticing there is a general negative tone surrounding the Olympics from some quaters. Thats kinda what’s prompted me into writing this. I feel like I should take a small step to putting that right.

            First lemme say even if the Olympics was just a giant party, I’d still be in the “For Camp” – I mean who doesn’t love a giant party?  – but it’s not. It’s soo much more than that. It’s inspired (even if just in a kinda tacked on way) , loads of projects, which may never have existed, or gotten funding otherwise. Take a look at this, or this, or any inspire marked projects. These projects really are making a difference in people’s lives, I should know… The Round 1 Project i’m involved in is one. (This was originally written for that.)

            That brings me to the soppy sentimental type shit that’s the real reason I’ll always remember the London 2012… Because without it the Round 1 project wouldn’t exist. Personally I feel like I’ve learnt soo much, and been provided soo many opportunities via Round 1 that when I see people claiming it’s all about the sponsors, big business, and the worlds biggest McDonalds, it makes me kinda cross.

It’s really not. It’s about bringing people together, inspiring ideas, creating opportunities at a grass roots level, that kinda thing.

             Not everyone’s benefitting right? True, but there is a certain irony that some of the haters are benefiting the most. Let me give you an example. – I went to a talk the other day by an “anti-Olympic photographer” – His name escapes me. To paraphrase a bit (He really knew how to go on… And on..!) Basically his argument, like so many others was that the Olympics is a huge waste of money, which doesn’t benefit anyone. This is from a guy who is a professional anti-OLYMPICS  photographer. As he explained himself he wen’t from being unemployed with no sense of purpose to publishing an OLYMPIC photo book, and touring the country giving talks. Talk about being inspired by the Olympics… And he’s one of the haters! Short sighted? More like utterly blind.

That’s why I’m behind London 2012 100%. Well that and I just won a tenner on one of those Olympic themed scratchcards.

The opportunities are there. Stop moaning. Go find them.

The “Grand” Olympic Park Tour

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NB – I wrote this originaly for the Round 1 website after going on a tour of the Olympic park with some of the Round 1 Crew. The version on that blog is probably all nicely edited etc. Here is the original draft.

London 2012 logo

Well where to start with this one. Olympic Park Tour. It sounds kinda fun right? And in a strange sort of way it was, although I can’t help feeling more than a little bit sorry for the kids who won it as a prize for some kind of inter-schools competition.  Could they really not think of a better prize for some 14 year old kids that an hour on a bus and a free badge…? Anyway that aside –  yes the tour was essentially just an hour on a bus, being driven around some buildings. If you’re thinking about going on it, I really wouldn’t bother.

Well what do you expect from a tour of a building site right? Except that,  aside from the odd bit here and there and some cosmetic details, the self-proclaimed “World’s Most Secure Building Site” is a building site no more. Rather its home to some undoubtedly architecturally fine buildings. The sweeping roof of the velodrome, the giant winged aquatic centre, all look great from the outside and – as our tour guide reliably informed us, from the inside too… And there lies the problem with the tour.

Diggers

When it comes down to it, the whole thing consisted of sitting on a bus, driving round some buildings and being talked at. Did we learn anything new? Doubtful. Did it make me excited about the Olympic park? No. If anything I would say it was slightly scary. A physical representation of how LOCOG have treated information in the build-up to the games. A prescribed, “you can only know what we think you should know” type approach. I can just imagine the meetings when they were planning the tour, “make them feel involved, but don’t give anyone time to stop and think”. Great.

 I can hold my hands up now and admit that I’m not all that great at rules or restrictions, if there’s something I’m not supposed to do its probably exactly the thing that I want to do first, but that said, if all of these buildings are finished and so wonderful why not let us have a look inside? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to start some conspiracy theory, I very much doubt LOCOG have decided to hide their dark secrets in the deep end of the swimming pool. It’s more the kind of tokenism of the tour that bothers me. I feel a bit like, if you’re going to do it do it well and do it properly, otherwise stop wasting everyone’s time and don’t bother.

I know at the start I said it was kinda fun, maybe interesting would have been a better word, but not for the reasons it should have been. More because it felt like a trip inside the Olympic propaganda machine, complete with promotional videos. Why are they still trying to sell the Olympics to us? It’s happening, and for the most part I’m quite looking forward to it, but to some degree I think its defiantly true that the more you try and sell something the less people trust it. So LOCOG, just give the hard sell a break for a bit yeah.

I’ll leave you with this question. What’s the point in a tour if you don’t actually get to see anything?

Olympic Park Construction

Why no ‘Lady Olympics’?

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NB: – This was origanaly written for the Round 1 Project, you should go and check out the project, along with the edited more roundhouse friendly version of this HERE

Boxing – The last male only Olympic sport, the only place where the competitors can still walk around naked with impunity. (Well that’s how I imagine it anyway…) No longer though. This year, in London, for the first time ever, women will step into the same ring as the men do. This means that for every male Olympic sport there is now a female equivalent. Wonderful. So there should be, women are great. I’m a big fan.

But let’s think for just a tiny second, women compete against women, the men against other men, that is the Olympics. Soooo….. Why don’t we separate them out? Have the “Lady Olympics” and the “man Olympics”. Well aside from the fact I’d probably have a lynch mob of some of my more feminist friends waiting outside my door if I so much as suggested it, let’s face it it’s just not a very good idea. What would be the point?

Now hold that thought in your mind, push it aside for a couple of minutes, we’ll be coming back to it in a bit. Promise..

The Paralympics is something we’ve talked about a fair bit here down in the Round 1 dungeons, and rightly so. But….  Go talk to someone about it, see what happens and I’ll bet you it gets discussed in the same way, very much as “The Paralympics”. A separate event in its own right, as evidenced from the way even the TV rights for it were sold separately. A great success for disabled rights and inclusion, or something like that anyway. For their event to be valued individually, for its own merits, not tacked on as part of the deal for the “main event”.

Now let’s think back to that lynch mob waiting outside my flat, or in fact to just about anyone really. Who’s pushing for the Lady Olympics – Perhaps we could call it the ”Lalympics” – to be an event in its own right? Probably not anyone. So why separate out the Paralympics? Why not have an Olympics where men compete against men, women against women, and disabled against disabled. Would that not be true inclusion, and equality? Everyone competing against the same banner, the men’s 100m followed by the Paralympic 400m. The world eyes on the man with one leg, just as much as Usain Bolt

Don’t despair just yet though, way back in ancient Greece women were put to death for even watching the Olympics, it’s taken from then until 2012 (!) for them to be allowed to box. Who knows where we’ll be in 2032. Maybe, just maybe we’ll all be sat around our 5D TV’s, being weighted on by robot butlers, watching Olympians and Paralympians walking into the opening ceremony together. All under the same flame, contributing to the same medal tables. Or something like that anyway.

Tom Riste-Smith