Skip to main content

London buses, legacy and a legion of highly impressed soldiers

Image
By
Ksenia Afanasyeva, watched by Maria Paseka

I had a bit of a moment yesterday.  Sat on the shuttle bus on my way to the North Greenwich Arena, I looked around me, and everything was so pink and shiney and clean and sweet scented, the volunteers all so helpful and smiley.  The sun was even shining.  I was really moved by that bus, and began to weep quietly in my corner, hoping my fellow travellers wouldn't notice.

Perhaps LOCOG had arranged it that way in order to enhance the emotional experience of event goers.  The experience of buying my tickets at the last minute and the relief I felt at being able to attend the world's leading sporting event in my home town was certainly beyond overwhelming.  I probably wouldn't have had that feeling if I had been able to book in advance successfully on any one of the dozen previous occasions I had tried, and been told that tickets were sold out.  Never mind.  Who cares.  A lifelong ambition to attend the gymnastics competition at the Olympic Games has been realised.  It really didn't disappoint at all.  It exceeded my expectations. I now really believe in the Olympics as a power for the good, thanks to that bus, and I hope that all the buses in London are like that forever more.   Isn't that what legacy means?

I wonder what the legion of soldiers who were drafted in to fill the seats on one side of the arena thought of the opportunity of watching teenage girls in tight leotards cavort around the apparatus in daredevil manner?  I do hope they were seriously impressed.  If not, I can think of a legion of gym fans around the world who would willingly have given their eye teeth to be in that arena.


Labels:

Comments

  1. Unknown30 July 2012 at 11:48

    It's funny! The soldiers had no right to be unhappy with them so lucky : )

    ReplyDelete
  2. M30 July 2012 at 20:52

    I am glad you enjoyed the feeling. Are you going to the Women's finals as well?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Aliya Mustafina - new interview

By
Aliya in her new Olympic Games outfit.  The teams were kitted out at the Bosco Olympic centre in Moscow last week 'Europeans went quite well, for me personally and for the team.  There were no big blunders or falls and we were able to show a good result.  If we continue to work in the same way as we approach the Olympics, everything will be fine ... Although of course we will need to do a little more in Rio.  For the Olympic Games, everything will be right. 'My knee [Aliya suffered a torn meniscus for which she had surgery last November] is all right, there are no problems with it, I am not worried. 'We will try to fight for first place. But we will be happy with any medals . As usual, our main rivals will be the teams of America, China and the UK. 'It will now be very, very difficult to fight Simone Biles [in the AA] because she has a very large D score. In general, in the individual competition, my goal is just to perform well. The most important thing in the Olymp...
37 comments
Read more

Mustafina on Roschina

By
ROTTERDAM (Netherlands), October 24. /TASS/. Russian gymnast Lyudmila Roshchina, who won silver in the individual all-around at the World Championships, succeeded precisely because she focused on challenging herself rather than competing for medals. This is the assessment of Aliya Mustafina, a coach for the Russian national team and a two-time Olympic champion, who spoke to TASS. "Of course, I wasn't certain that Lyudmila would end up on the podium in the all-around, though I certainly hoped she would," Mustafina said. "The general instruction was not to think about medals or rankings. As they headed from the warm-up area to the competition floor, I told the girls: 'Don't worry about where you place—just focus on challenging yourselves.' And Lyusya managed to do exactly that." "Her mindset played a major role, too; she was in a very positive frame of mind even back in the warm-up area. So, I wouldn't say that winning this silver was an incre...
Post a Comment
Read more

Simone Biles - 'on her way to Olympic gold' in the opinion of Russia

By
Prosport is carrying the following article about Simone Biles, who they tip as a favourite for Olympic gold.  I thought I would share it here (Google translate in italics) as it gives an interesting perspective on where the Russians feel the sport is heading.  Elena Zamolidchikova and Alexander Alexandrov are both extensively quoted. Atypical American. Simon Biles on the way to Olympic gold Simone Biles, American gymnast, turned 18 on March 14, 2015. Shortly before this, the first in US history absolute Olympic gymnastics champion Mary Lou Retton called Biles perhaps the most gifted athlete in the history of the sport. In 2014, Simon became the first gymnast for 40 years to win four gold at a World Championships. But Biles is not only talent. This is the first gymnast in recent years from the United States, who is not going to earn on its potential Olympic success. Text: Alexander Vladimirov March 15, 2015 9:35 The article on Prosport/Photo: Lintao Zhang / Getty Images / Fotob...
42 comments
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more