The Olympics Recap ~ Week 2

It seems an entire month went by without a blog post from the Davis crew! I know, I know...you all were heartbroken! Somehow our measly 6 weeks of English summer is already over and school is back in session! But it doesn't mean we weren't busy in August...the Olympics took up the first two weeks of our summer holiday and a trip to Spain and France took up our last week...I can't even remember what we did the three weeks in between?

 

A quick recap of the last week of the Olympics...it was full of Team USA and Team GB medals in athletics (track and field for us Americans), beach volleyball, basketball, volleyball, triathlon, and sailing! We were lucky enough to go see the Men's tri and spend an entire day at the Olympic Park and Stadium.

 

The men's tri was by far the most crowded event we attended throughout the Olympics...mainly because the event was held in Hyde Park and there were many FREE viewing points throughout the event. But we had tickets, so we got through the crowds and had a chill place to watch the event. I will say that the tri was fun to watch but it isn't a constant, action packed event. A lot of waiting around for the athletes to swim, bike or run by us. Pete was busy with work, so Henry invited his friend Jamie to come with us...he was so excited to go to the Olympics and we were happy to give him the experience! We even took him to the USA House with us...with strict instructions not to speak. No Brits allowed!

 

 

Waiting for the train in Reading

We made it to Paddington and had to get our snap of Wenlock.

United States and the United Kingdom

May's flair

Team USA pride

Waiting for the bikers!

The Brownlee brothers~Team GB~ 1st and 3rd places

Gold Medal Winner of the Men's Tri~Team GB

The size of the crowds was massive

Train home was hot and crowded but we struck chocolate gold

 

A couple of days later we hit the Olympic Park to see a day of track and field. It started at 9 AM so we had an early departure of 7 AM to allow enough time for us to train/tube to the Park and then go through security.It all went smoothly and we were pleasantly surprised to see our seats were in the 2nd row-not bad, not bad at all! It was a HOT day and our seats were in the sun the entire day-I wasn't complaining but by about 2 PM we were all fried! We watched the men's decathlon, hurdles, 200m relay, women's high jump and men's pole vault. The energy of the stadium was electric and everyone was in a great mood.

 

After our event was over, we went in search of the Today Show. The Olympic Park is massive and so we spent a lot of time walking around, checking out the different venues and tried to find Matt Lauer. Eventually, we had success and we saw a few US track and field athletes, Helen Mirren and Elmo!

Early 7 AM start in our village of Twyford

May is wearing my mom's sweatshirt form the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles

We made it to the Olympic Park

Entering the Olympic Stadium

Our only picture of the Olympic Cauldron

Men's hurdles

Great seats

They look hilarious as they are coming out of the hurdle

Women's high jump

Dancing to the "YMCA"

Go Team USA!

World's BIGGEST McDonalds~1500 people!

The Today Show set

May and Pete were all over it!

There's that well-dressed Matt Lauer

Front row of the Today Show with May's sign-who saw us?

Basketball Arena was cool

Doing the "Bolt"

The Queen's Royal Barge

Keeping hydrated with Powerade

Crazy Norwegian fan

All in the all, the London Olympics were fantastic! We felt so fortunate to be here just in time to take part in all of the Olympics had to offer. From the Torch Relay to the Para Olympics, it was a perfect time to be in London. Despite all the preliminary cynicism from the Brits themselves, the Games went off without a hitch (apart from the flag snafu with North and South Korea), transportation in and around London was, overall, very easy and Team USA and GB did brilliantly. All of the Brits I have spoken with are beaming with pride for Britain and thought it was a great summer of sport. The thousands of volunteers (the "gamemakers") were amazing and stole the show. My new boss, the head of May's school, was a Gamemaker for the week before the Olympics began, all the way thru the Para Olympics, until the day before school started. She said it was an experience of a lifetime! I hope that the momentum generated by the Games will continue on and remind the Brits what a great country they live in. Well done London, well done!

The Para Olympics were awe inspiring and I am disappointed we didn't work harder to find tickets. Watching these athletes compete at such high levels and seeing their true joy at being there and winning is something all of us will never forget. As Oscar Pistorius said, “You're not disabled by the disabilities you have, you are able by the abilities you have.”