When I watch the Olympics at home in the US, I am usually frustrated by two things: 1) the cheesy, overly dramatic human interest stories about how each athlete has overcome hardship and difficulty to rise above and succeed against all odds; and 2) the jingoistic pro-American focus of the broadcasts, with only passing attention to events in which the US has no chance of a medal (e.g table tennis). I am happy to report that the UK is equally jingoistic, spending most of their time on events where British athletes are expected to shine. This was especially painful for the first few days of the Olympics, when the Brits had far fewer medals than usual and the discussion focused on the disappointment and shame of lackluster performance-- "When will Britain get a gold? Why are we in 24th place in the medal count when we were 5th in Beijing?", etc. Now that Team GB has turned things around, at least there is more to watch and enjoy. On the positive side, there are no over-produced segments on the athletes in their hometowns dealing with trials and tribulations. And even better, the BBC shows Olympic coverage on 3 channels all day with NO (I repeat, NO) commercials! Not one! It's just sports, and isn't that supposed to be the point of the Olympics? And all you poor saps at home are watching Ryan Seacrest every night.
We have been lucky enough to attend a couple of Olympic events in the past couple of weeks. While I was in California, Erik, his mom, his sister Anna, and the boys went to Eton Dorney to watch rowing trials. Eton is about 15-20 minutes from where we live, so it was a quick trip to the event site. Getting there was a challenge, though. They had to drive to a car park in Windsor, board a shuttle bus for Eton, and then walk a mile from the shuttle drop-off point to the event site.
The stands
The crew (Malcolm, Anna, Soren, Ruth) eating donuts that Erik had to wait in a line for about an hour to procure. They don't quite do concessions here like we do in the U.S. There were only a handful of food stands, all with long lines, at a four-hour event.
More stands on the other side
Men's eight, qualifying round
Last night, we went to Wembley Stadium to see one of the women's semi-final football matches, France versus Japan. We hadn't watched any of the preceding matches, so we didn't really have much preference for one team over another. The boys were pulling for France, probably just because they have been to France. We drove to an outlying Underground station, took the train to Wembley Park and walked to the stadium from the tube. As soon as we got off the train, the crowds were thick.
London Underground, Ickenham Station, which Malcolm enjoyed calling, "ICK, HAM!"
"Please mind the gap."
Approaching Wembley Stadium
We saw a man carrying this sign on the way in: "Tonight's menu: sushi".
When I told Soren that we were going to see an Olympic soccer match, he said, "Can't we do something more funner today, like go to the park or a bouncy house or something?" Nevertheless, he seemed to enjoy himself for at least the first half hour. We had pretty nice box seats with a good view of the action. There were almost no announcements or commentary, and there were just two small screens in the stadium. While it was nice not to have the constant music and noise that we are accustomed to at sporting events in the US, we had no information about the players or the penalty calls on the field. It was a great game, with Japan eventually coming out ahead, 2-1. France played a good game with lots of shots on goal, but they just couldn't seem to put the balls in the net, including a penalty kick that should have been an easy goal.
Malcolm was too busy watching the game to smile for the camera. Soren was busy sucking his fingers, as usual.
Wembley Stadium. There were a ton of empty seats, but there were still 60,000+ people in attendance.
Game on.
Half-time photo op
We saw lots of Japanese fans but very few French fans, which was a surprise, given the relative proximity of France. The Japanese fans cheered in unison for "Nihon" (Japan), hung flags, and wore creative outfits. I saw one father and son with white rectangular pieces of paper attached to their faces, with circles cut out in the middle, framing their faces painted red.
Japanese fans
After the game, people filed out of the stadium toward the two nearby tube stations. It took us an hour and a half to walk from the stadium to the train, but the queue was pretty orderly. Security was tight in and around the stadium, probably due at least in part to the history of trouble at British soccer matches. No alcohol was allowed inside the stands (only in designated areas before entering the arena), and we weren't even allowed to have bottle caps on our water bottles. Maybe they could be used as projectiles to protest a bad call?
We feel lucky to have had the Olympic experience in person, but we will be watching the rest on the telly. We had tickets to a gymnastics trampoline event, but we screwed up, got the date wrong, and missed it. That was a very expensive mistake, but what's done is done. Soon after the Olympics end, we will be leaving the country with so many other foreigners and making our way back home to Indiana.
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