So, in my previous blog The Road to London 2012 I mentioned I visited UDAC whilst on 'Other business'.....this is my 'other business'!!
Before I get into this, I'll just point out that I haven't covered everything in this blog - it would be wrong for me to write about some of the stuff as it was the teams personal experience not mine! I was just the one helping to make everything ran smoothly, so the team could make the most of their training in the run up to their time in London. So it begins....
Following my time volunteering for the UK School Games held in Sheffield and me starting my PhD at the University of Sheffield I decided to sign up to volunteer with Sheffield City Councils Major Events Unit (MEU).
In February 2012, I received an email from the MEU asking for people to volunteer with some London 2012 Pre-Games training camps being held in Sheffield. As the dates which volunteers were required was at a time when uni work was less demanding I thought why not - lets go for it!
Having already volunteered on a pre-games training camp with the USA Wrestling team, I was fully acquainted with the lovely Manchester Airport, so off I went on the coach, armed with my 'USA Diving' sign to collect the USA diving squad from the airport!
We were running a little late and I was worried they would be in arrivals before me, so I jumped off the coach and dashed in, thankfully there was no sign of the team... although I didn't exactly know who I was looking for.....!! As I'd been told to dress slightly smarter for this adventure, I looked slightly professional, well I had a blazer, shift dress and boots on, complete with 'Yorkshire' Olympic pin attached. What I didn't realise was this 'professional' look, pin badge and sign attracted slightly more attention than the last time I was at the air port! This resulted in me having a little gathering of taxi drivers around me asking "so it is the real ones you're collecting, like the ones for the Olympics?"....This kept me entertained whilst I waited!
After waiting for about 20-30 minutes, I was worried that I'd missed them and they'd disappeared, as the passenger flow through arrivals had now died down. Thankfully I hadn't, and 5 minutes later I saw a group of only what I can describe as astronauts coming through arrivals, with bright red 'Team USA' puffer jackets on! Aha! They'd arrived!
After a few quick introductions on the way to a bus, parked where it probably shouldn't have been, everyone climbed aboard, destined for Sheffield! On the bus I'd been given some bottles of water and fruit to dish out to the team for the journey back.......with many jokes over my pronunciation of 'plums'...although I don't know what's wrong with the way I say it :( I did however find out that some of the team were well acquainted with Sheffield, having competed in the city in previous years!
I'll leave it there with my February adventure there as I did the same role later in 2012....keep reading :)
After my time volunteering with the team in February, Tom Daley realised his autobiography. Classing myself now as a bit of a diving enthusiastic with a bit of love (haha!) for Tom, the autobiography was a must read. It was so strange to be lying on the grass outside of my flat, reading about Tom working with and competing against people, I'd just been having lunch and laughs with a few weeks ago! It was all a bit surreal being able to put faces and memories to these peoples names!!
Skipping on a few months, to May (ish) and I received an email asking if I'd like to volunteer with the USA diving team in their Pre-Olympic Training camp.......did I really need asking? Answer was obviously yes! By this time I'd found out that I'd been selected as a Games Maker at the Paralympics so had the time before and during the Olympics to lend a hand!
This time the team were checking into the Athletes Village down at the Olympic Park so there was sadly no trip to Manchester Airport........instead it was a first class train London bound! So, 19th July, I found myself at Sheffield train station at 6am, waiting for the train company representatives and member of staff from the MEU to head to London.
We were due to collect the team from the concourse of Stratford International, this meant a trip on the Javelin high speed rail connection between London St. Pancras and Stratford! Arriving in Stratford we headed for the escalator to track down the team, but just as we were about to step on the escalator, I spotted a familiar face......"There they are!"...The team had decided to wait for us on the platform instead, to save us the trip up to come back down! Thankfully I recognised them (as if I could forget!) from February as I was the only member of the welcoming party to have met them previously! After welcoming hugs from Team Leader Molly and Performance Director Steve along with "ahhh we've got you again!!" smiles from the team, we boarded the Javelin once again, this time, destined for Sheffield!
Whilst in St. Pancras station, we stopped by the First Class Lounge to meet up with 2 lovely ladies from the Woolsack Inspired Project. The ladies had brought along lots of cushions which had been made by a whole host of volunteers across the country for Olympic and Paralympic Athletes! Click here for more details on the Project! Here's a photo of the team in St. Pancras station with their cushions!
So, you might be now wondering why I was involved and what my role with the team was... My official title was Pre-Games Volunteer...basically, the only way I can describe my role was as a Mam/tour guide/Sheffield Expert/suitcase returner....although I don't think I was majorly qualified for any of these roles, being 23 at the time, and having only lived in Sheffield for around 8 months, but never mind I had my trusty volunteer pack with maps and telephone numbers along with my common sense and enthusiasm - what more did I need!
Basically, my role involved me meeting the team at their hotel, walking with them to and from Ponds Forge, translating English to American (via Geordie!!) and basically helping out with anything they might need, whilst watching them train - not a hard job, I promise :)
Some of the things I got up to where trips to the tailors to get clothes made smaller, trips into town to get those vital supplies (gummies?), a trip to the doctors and various water runs from the pool side to the kitchen of Ponds Forge, and comparing English to American words!
The most totally confusing moment of preparing to volunteer with the team was looking down at their planned training schedule before their arrival and seeing the words "dry diving". It's not first thing you think of when you think of diving....surely diving has to take part somewhere wet right... like maybe a pool?! Not to worry though - I was swiftly brought up to speed on what dry diving was before their arrival back in February!
One of the funniest moments I had was in Boots was when shopping for a 'neti pot'...!! This confused me big style.... as the word netty is old Geordie slag for toilet! So I was very confused as to how we'd find a toilet pot (guessing this meant potty!) in Boots! After asking what it was for, to be told it was to help get rid of a cold, I knew I was definitely on the wrong track! Ops!! Turns out a neti pot is used to flush out your sinuses by pouring water up one nostril! I learn something new every day!
I also learnt all about 'orange tang' or orange squash to us English! I can also now relate 'where is the bathroom?' to 'where is the toilet?' rather than 'where can I go to get washed?'. You'd think this is obvious, but it got slightly confusing with people who had just came out of the pool......
It was great to see USA Diving getting lots of coverage by the UK press, with a media afternoon held in Ponds Forge. There was a hole host of different people from BBC Yorkshire to students from the university papers there to chat to the team!
Having been to the Olympic Park for the Olympic Park Run, I thought I knew what to expect getting off the Javelin at Stratford International, but how wrong could I be!!! It was like a scene from a holiday brochure. All the lamp posts and fences were branded up with the typical 'London 2012', Olympic Rings, Agitos' and the motto for London 2012 'Inspire a generation'. I was so excited! It was hard to believe where I was. Coming down with USA Diving made everything seem so real. After waiting so long to hear if I'd made the cut to be a Games Maker, it was hard to believe that in about a months time I'd be allowed the other side of the fence, dresses in the purple and poppy uniforms!
Since both David and Nick were competing again, later in the diving schedule, I'd been asked to head to London to collect them from Stratford to come back for some extra training in Sheffield. I'd managed to coincide this trip with my visit to UDAC and headed off to London for a bit of a morning adventure before collecting the guys. After waiting for about 15 minutes at Stratford I was a bit worried as to where they had got to. With the organisation of the team, lead by Molly, I'd never known them EVER to be late! So I got called the training camp manager in Sheffield and asked if he knew what was going on and to check I was in the correct place! It turns out a bit of miss communication had occurred and they'd got an earlier train without me- how rude! haha! I'd been abandoned in London :'( So offer I went, back to Sheffield...without the team! Thankfully with my trip to collect my stylish uniform, all was not lost! I'd also had a chance to have a cheeky shopping trip around London, planning what I was going to buy when I returned for the Paralympics!
On my return to Sheffield I headed to the team hotel to drop off a few bits and bobs including the train tickets for return journey, whilst also collecting my volunteer t-shirt I'd given to them, asking if they could sign it! There it is, my signed volunteer t-shirt signed by the team, minus David, Nick and Troy....pretty good going I'd say so myself! Another item to add to my Harry Potter Style trunk of memories! :)
My greatest diving memory from the Olympics has to be David Boudia exceeding Tom Daley to the Gold medal position! After all the hyper that had been built up in the UK for Tom, a lot of people just presumed Tom would take the gold. I don't think the tension in my living room has ever been so high when I watched it with 2 of my house mates!! When I came to the final dive I was on the edge of my seat, the order was David, Tom, Bo. So David dived and went 1st, Tom dived but only managed to achieve the silver position, I could barely watch when it came to Bo diving.....What was going to happen!! By this point, I knew both David and Tom would finish with a medal, but what colour would they be??? Bo dived and that was it! David had won Gold! At this point I was getting told off for supporting David and the USA, over Tom and Team GB. I even had my mam call me asking if I was proud of myself since Team GB had lost a medal.....and yes I was! This photo (from www.zimbio.com - Source: Clive Rose/Getty Images Europe) pretty much sums it all up!
Throughout my time volunteering, I learnt so much about diving, a sport that I'd honestly only previously know for the speedo's and the crazy height of 10m! One of the key people who taught me a lot of my diving knowledge was team physio Terry, who would sit pool side and answer my stupid diving questions. Questions like "should there really be a splash when they're diving?", "Why are they going in feet first?" and "Why are they jumping off the 5/7m board when there's not competition at that height?".........I'm sure you get the idea!
To sum up my time volunteering with USA Diving, I can honestly say it was pretty epically amazing ........that doesn't really make sense, but that's exactly what it was! I met some truly inspirational extraordinary people who were so down to earth, and as I'd put it, just really 'canny' people, who were passionate about their sport. It was amazing to see a true insight into what life is like training to compete at the Olympics.....and it definitely motivated me go to the gym A LOT more!
If you've read this far, you'll notice I've been pretty brief in some area, as I mentioned at the beginning, it wasn't my Olympic storey to tell - I'm a professional volunteer remember! A very proud one these days too! hehe! :)
Having already volunteered on a pre-games training camp with the USA Wrestling team, I was fully acquainted with the lovely Manchester Airport, so off I went on the coach, armed with my 'USA Diving' sign to collect the USA diving squad from the airport!
We were running a little late and I was worried they would be in arrivals before me, so I jumped off the coach and dashed in, thankfully there was no sign of the team... although I didn't exactly know who I was looking for.....!! As I'd been told to dress slightly smarter for this adventure, I looked slightly professional, well I had a blazer, shift dress and boots on, complete with 'Yorkshire' Olympic pin attached. What I didn't realise was this 'professional' look, pin badge and sign attracted slightly more attention than the last time I was at the air port! This resulted in me having a little gathering of taxi drivers around me asking "so it is the real ones you're collecting, like the ones for the Olympics?"....This kept me entertained whilst I waited!
After waiting for about 20-30 minutes, I was worried that I'd missed them and they'd disappeared, as the passenger flow through arrivals had now died down. Thankfully I hadn't, and 5 minutes later I saw a group of only what I can describe as astronauts coming through arrivals, with bright red 'Team USA' puffer jackets on! Aha! They'd arrived!
After a few quick introductions on the way to a bus, parked where it probably shouldn't have been, everyone climbed aboard, destined for Sheffield! On the bus I'd been given some bottles of water and fruit to dish out to the team for the journey back.......with many jokes over my pronunciation of 'plums'...although I don't know what's wrong with the way I say it :( I did however find out that some of the team were well acquainted with Sheffield, having competed in the city in previous years! I'll leave it there with my February adventure there as I did the same role later in 2012....keep reading :)
After my time volunteering with the team in February, Tom Daley realised his autobiography. Classing myself now as a bit of a diving enthusiastic with a bit of love (haha!) for Tom, the autobiography was a must read. It was so strange to be lying on the grass outside of my flat, reading about Tom working with and competing against people, I'd just been having lunch and laughs with a few weeks ago! It was all a bit surreal being able to put faces and memories to these peoples names!!
Skipping on a few months, to May (ish) and I received an email asking if I'd like to volunteer with the USA diving team in their Pre-Olympic Training camp.......did I really need asking? Answer was obviously yes! By this time I'd found out that I'd been selected as a Games Maker at the Paralympics so had the time before and during the Olympics to lend a hand!
This time the team were checking into the Athletes Village down at the Olympic Park so there was sadly no trip to Manchester Airport........instead it was a first class train London bound! So, 19th July, I found myself at Sheffield train station at 6am, waiting for the train company representatives and member of staff from the MEU to head to London.
We were due to collect the team from the concourse of Stratford International, this meant a trip on the Javelin high speed rail connection between London St. Pancras and Stratford! Arriving in Stratford we headed for the escalator to track down the team, but just as we were about to step on the escalator, I spotted a familiar face......"There they are!"...The team had decided to wait for us on the platform instead, to save us the trip up to come back down! Thankfully I recognised them (as if I could forget!) from February as I was the only member of the welcoming party to have met them previously! After welcoming hugs from Team Leader Molly and Performance Director Steve along with "ahhh we've got you again!!" smiles from the team, we boarded the Javelin once again, this time, destined for Sheffield!
Whilst in St. Pancras station, we stopped by the First Class Lounge to meet up with 2 lovely ladies from the Woolsack Inspired Project. The ladies had brought along lots of cushions which had been made by a whole host of volunteers across the country for Olympic and Paralympic Athletes! Click here for more details on the Project! Here's a photo of the team in St. Pancras station with their cushions!So, you might be now wondering why I was involved and what my role with the team was... My official title was Pre-Games Volunteer...basically, the only way I can describe my role was as a Mam/tour guide/Sheffield Expert/suitcase returner....although I don't think I was majorly qualified for any of these roles, being 23 at the time, and having only lived in Sheffield for around 8 months, but never mind I had my trusty volunteer pack with maps and telephone numbers along with my common sense and enthusiasm - what more did I need!
Basically, my role involved me meeting the team at their hotel, walking with them to and from Ponds Forge, translating English to American (via Geordie!!) and basically helping out with anything they might need, whilst watching them train - not a hard job, I promise :)
Some of the things I got up to where trips to the tailors to get clothes made smaller, trips into town to get those vital supplies (gummies?), a trip to the doctors and various water runs from the pool side to the kitchen of Ponds Forge, and comparing English to American words!
The most totally confusing moment of preparing to volunteer with the team was looking down at their planned training schedule before their arrival and seeing the words "dry diving". It's not first thing you think of when you think of diving....surely diving has to take part somewhere wet right... like maybe a pool?! Not to worry though - I was swiftly brought up to speed on what dry diving was before their arrival back in February!
One of the funniest moments I had was in Boots was when shopping for a 'neti pot'...!! This confused me big style.... as the word netty is old Geordie slag for toilet! So I was very confused as to how we'd find a toilet pot (guessing this meant potty!) in Boots! After asking what it was for, to be told it was to help get rid of a cold, I knew I was definitely on the wrong track! Ops!! Turns out a neti pot is used to flush out your sinuses by pouring water up one nostril! I learn something new every day!
I also learnt all about 'orange tang' or orange squash to us English! I can also now relate 'where is the bathroom?' to 'where is the toilet?' rather than 'where can I go to get washed?'. You'd think this is obvious, but it got slightly confusing with people who had just came out of the pool......
It was great to see USA Diving getting lots of coverage by the UK press, with a media afternoon held in Ponds Forge. There was a hole host of different people from BBC Yorkshire to students from the university papers there to chat to the team!
During the time I was volunteering with USA Diving I returned home to Gateshead to run the Bupa Great North 10k, whilst at home my granny had been asking me all about my adventures with the team....and the big question: "So Nicola, Who are going to support when it comes to diving in the Olympics?".....my answer to that had to be USA. Having met the team, spent so long watching them training and ate lunch with them, how could I not? My granny did not approve!!
Once Games time approached, the team then packed up in Sheffield to head back to the Olympic Park for training in the Aquatics Centre. I'll never forget the scenes navigating around Sheffield train station with trolleys of luggage, with the team dressed 'incognito' with bags covered in Team USA logos...not obvious at all - haha. I was telling a couple of the team about my Granny, and her disapproval at my choice in team to support. To help me out with further annoying my granny, I was given a mini stars and stripes flag to wave during the competition to show my support!
Having been to the Olympic Park for the Olympic Park Run, I thought I knew what to expect getting off the Javelin at Stratford International, but how wrong could I be!!! It was like a scene from a holiday brochure. All the lamp posts and fences were branded up with the typical 'London 2012', Olympic Rings, Agitos' and the motto for London 2012 'Inspire a generation'. I was so excited! It was hard to believe where I was. Coming down with USA Diving made everything seem so real. After waiting so long to hear if I'd made the cut to be a Games Maker, it was hard to believe that in about a months time I'd be allowed the other side of the fence, dresses in the purple and poppy uniforms!
Now the team was back in London, my life went back to PhD work, with a mini-project due in before I was able to head home to pre-pare for my 'official' London 2012 adventure. With my diving TV schedule all planned out and the house TV booked for those time, off I returned to doing my real work. I've got very vivid memories of sitting on my sofa with my house mates cheering on the USA, only in diving - obviously!!
Up until this point I've never been so proud of my volunteering - watching USA Diving compete was up there just under the Opening Ceremony with the best bits I watched of the Olympics! I was so excited when Abby and Kelci won the first medal in the first event for the USA. Following this we then had David and Nick winning their Bronze medal, with Kristian and Troy joining them as medallists.
Since both David and Nick were competing again, later in the diving schedule, I'd been asked to head to London to collect them from Stratford to come back for some extra training in Sheffield. I'd managed to coincide this trip with my visit to UDAC and headed off to London for a bit of a morning adventure before collecting the guys. After waiting for about 15 minutes at Stratford I was a bit worried as to where they had got to. With the organisation of the team, lead by Molly, I'd never known them EVER to be late! So I got called the training camp manager in Sheffield and asked if he knew what was going on and to check I was in the correct place! It turns out a bit of miss communication had occurred and they'd got an earlier train without me- how rude! haha! I'd been abandoned in London :'( So offer I went, back to Sheffield...without the team! Thankfully with my trip to collect my stylish uniform, all was not lost! I'd also had a chance to have a cheeky shopping trip around London, planning what I was going to buy when I returned for the Paralympics!
On my return to Sheffield I headed to the team hotel to drop off a few bits and bobs including the train tickets for return journey, whilst also collecting my volunteer t-shirt I'd given to them, asking if they could sign it! There it is, my signed volunteer t-shirt signed by the team, minus David, Nick and Troy....pretty good going I'd say so myself! Another item to add to my Harry Potter Style trunk of memories! :)
A couple of days after this, I was back on a coach to London, this time with no Team USA in tow. I was off on my own adventure to London to watch some of the Olympic Games (blog to come soon!). Towards the end of my Olympic Adventure as a spectator, I was in Windsor for some canoe sprinting, but made sure I was in the hotel when the diving was on, refusing to go out for dinner until I'd seen at least the first 2 dives! I even had my parents texting me the position that the USA and GB had finished in! Bit of a nerd, I know!
My greatest diving memory from the Olympics has to be David Boudia exceeding Tom Daley to the Gold medal position! After all the hyper that had been built up in the UK for Tom, a lot of people just presumed Tom would take the gold. I don't think the tension in my living room has ever been so high when I watched it with 2 of my house mates!! When I came to the final dive I was on the edge of my seat, the order was David, Tom, Bo. So David dived and went 1st, Tom dived but only managed to achieve the silver position, I could barely watch when it came to Bo diving.....What was going to happen!! By this point, I knew both David and Tom would finish with a medal, but what colour would they be??? Bo dived and that was it! David had won Gold! At this point I was getting told off for supporting David and the USA, over Tom and Team GB. I even had my mam call me asking if I was proud of myself since Team GB had lost a medal.....and yes I was! This photo (from www.zimbio.com - Source: Clive Rose/Getty Images Europe) pretty much sums it all up!
Throughout my time volunteering, I learnt so much about diving, a sport that I'd honestly only previously know for the speedo's and the crazy height of 10m! One of the key people who taught me a lot of my diving knowledge was team physio Terry, who would sit pool side and answer my stupid diving questions. Questions like "should there really be a splash when they're diving?", "Why are they going in feet first?" and "Why are they jumping off the 5/7m board when there's not competition at that height?".........I'm sure you get the idea!To sum up my time volunteering with USA Diving, I can honestly say it was pretty epically amazing ........that doesn't really make sense, but that's exactly what it was! I met some truly inspirational extraordinary people who were so down to earth, and as I'd put it, just really 'canny' people, who were passionate about their sport. It was amazing to see a true insight into what life is like training to compete at the Olympics.....and it definitely motivated me go to the gym A LOT more!
If you've read this far, you'll notice I've been pretty brief in some area, as I mentioned at the beginning, it wasn't my Olympic storey to tell - I'm a professional volunteer remember! A very proud one these days too! hehe! :)
Finally - check out this video - it brings back so many memories for me, and puts a massive smile on my face! It even feature Clive, but sadly no Special Agent Sam! :(
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