I was super pumped when I learned that a good friend of mine went to London for the 2012 Summer Olympics. One, because I have always wanted to go myself and couldn’t wait to hear his stories. Two, because selfishly I was thinking it would make a great guest blog post. Evan is, after-all, a phenomenal writer. Before he left for Richmond to pursue his Masters in Writing and Rhetoric at Virginia Commonwealth University, we led a writers group in Charlotte. Since his departure, well, lets just say the group doesn’t exist anymore if that says anything about his presence. Meet Evan Howell – father, student, writer, teacher, husband, and friend. I hope you enjoy reading his post as much as I did. Well, except for the last line. Some things just aren’t forgivable.
A couple years ago, my in-laws mentioned that they wanted to take the family to the 2012 London Olympics. Naturally, I was excited, but I also don’t think very far into the future, so the magnitude of this suggestion didn’t quite hit me. Fortunately, the rest of my family is more forward thinking than I am. Several months later they went ahead and bought tickets to the events – a year early, in an online, one hour free-for-all that required multiple family members in multiple states. It started to hit home for me after that, and much of 2012 has been a countdown to August, culminating in our boarding a plane on July 31, three days after the Opening Ceremonies, for a weeklong trip to London. So, here’s my experience, as best I can tell it, along with some pictures that my wife took. (I never take pics of anything, so a lot of my great experiences in life have been halfway forgotten. Fortunately, my wife took enough pictures on this trip that if you were to run them all together – 24 per second – you could probably watch our trip like you’d watch a movie.)
We stayed in West London, a place called Earl’s Court, remarkably near a number of historical sites. A quick bus tour one morning took us by Big Ben, Parliament, the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul’s Cathedral, you name it. It was mind blowing – a ten mile radius of our hotel contained as much history as the entire East Coast of the U.S. I guess that’s what it’s like to live in Europe – you’re constantly surrounded by reminders of the past. Kind of hard to get used to as an American. In Europe they preserve old buildings; in America we tear them down to build strip malls.
So, all that to say that West London is pretty sweet. We were on the other side of the city from Olympic Park though, which is in East London, the grittier, more industrial part of the city. Fortunately for us, many events weren’t in Olympic Park. In fact, indoor volleyball was only three blocks from our hotel. For me, this was one of the highlights of the trip, watching the US men’s team beat Brazil, who were favored. It felt like a soccer match; the Brazilian fans easily outnumbered the Americans. They were loud and energetic and chanted a lot, but we ended up pulling off an upset. I’ve never watched indoor volleyball up close, but after doing so I don’t know why it isn’t more popular. It is intense – these guys (and girls) are bringing the heat on every play.
We also went to beach volleyball, which was in a park next to Big Ben and Parliament. The crowds there were even more energetic than for indoor. It was a temporary structure, and it got a little scary when all 15,000 people started rocking. We didn’t get to see the US in this event. In fact, we didn’t get to see too many US teams. Tickets are hard to come by, so you take what you can get. However, the atmosphere is so great that it doesn’t really matter. Part of the fun is that you enjoy whatever you see. We’d often end up adopting a team for an afternoon.
We did this in women’s basketball at Czechoslovakia vs. Angola. The only thing I knew about Angolan basketball is that their men’s team was the first to lose to the Dream Team back in ’92 – by a score of 116-48. With that in mind, I wanted the Angolans to have some Olympic success. Their women’s team looked pretty good and hung in there for a while, but the Czech women played a kind of ball-moving, screen-setting, distinctly European-style game that was too much and Angola ended up losing by 20.
The basketball arena was another of the temporary venues. It looked pretty futuristic from a distance, like a mattress for some giant alien, but underneath I saw that it was just plastic sheeting covered by metal support beams. It’s probably already been disassembled. Still, it looked pretty good for something temporary.
The women’s basketball was the only event we saw that took place in Olympic Park. And while basketball was fun, I liked walking around the park even more. It was huge. It took 30 minutes just to walk from the entrance to the basketball arena. We saw all the highlights: Olympic stadium, the Orbit Tower (the red, twisty structure), the V-shaped cycling building, the translucent diving arena. There was also a giant screen smack dab in the middle of the park. It sat in front of a grassy hill and hundreds of people camped out there to watch whatever event was on TV. And of course we saw the largest McDonald’s in the world, a huge, temporary structure made out of stacked shipping containers. (I think they awarded America an extra gold medal just for building that thing.)
Two landmarks of modern architecture. And that’s only the second biggest McDonald’s in Olympic Park.
Women’s soccer at Wembley Stadium was another highlight. We saw Japan play France in the semifinals. (More memorable was the other semifinal game, with the US beating Canada 4-3 on a header in stoppage time.) Japan ended up winning, only to lose to us in the finals. I’ve never been a huge soccer fan, but watching that game helped sway me a little. I mean, the stadium wasn’t even full, I had no vested interest in either team, and the atmosphere was still awesome. Because there are hardly any stoppages in play, there’s a constant hum in the arena, and it’s impossible to not be engaged. I loved watching the fans, too. The Japanese had a huge contingent there (a lot more than the French, who only had to travel across the Channel) and there’s something refreshing about seeing middle-aged Japanese dads wearing headbands and doing the Wave.
The thing that struck me most about these games was the atmosphere. It was fantastic. I saw tons of competition but not an ounce of animosity. I’ve always loved the Olympics’ ability to bring people together, but until I actually attended one this was just an abstract sort of appreciation. Being there, seeing all the different flags and running into countless friendly people at pubs, it was a great experience. Certainly something I’ll never forget. There’s a stereotype that nobody likes Americans abroad, that we’re seen as brash and obnoxious. I don’t travel much, so I can’t confirm how true that is. What I will say is that I didn’t get a hint of that in London. People were friendly, open, and talkative, and it felt kind of like a massive college intramural match. Everyone was wearing their own jerseys, but all the competition was friendly.
Despite what you may have heard on the news, the Brits did a great job hosting. It was well-organized and executed. The volunteers were super cheery, the venues were beautiful, and the longest I ever had to wait on the subway (excuse me, the “tube”) was ten minutes. World War II helped us forgive them for all that taxation without representation. Maybe these Olympics can help us forgive them for Coldplay.
