I just returned from three days in London. I was lucky enough to score tickets to Olympic
Stadium for the track and field competition Wednesday and Thursday evenings. And Tuesday
evening I saw the London stage production of "Chariots of Fire." Here are a few observations:
1. The London organizers have done an incredible job. There are helpful volunteers everywhere.
I think I read that they recruited and trained 70,000 of them. The volunteers were so
knowledgeable and friendly, it almost was as if they had shipped in an army of Utah Mormons.
2. The Brits have gone nuts over the Games. This impression is obvious from being around and
talking to Londoners, but it is reinforced from reading the Times of London every morning. The
Brits' heroes include not only the obvious to us -- Brad Wiggins and Jessica Ennis -- but their
competitors in such sports as equestrian, tae quon do, rowing, sailing and marathon swimming.
The headline in the Times this morning (Friday) was about Usain Bolt, but there was more ink
about the female British swimmer who barely missed a medal in the 10K swim, which was
contested in the Serpentine (the mile long lake) in Hyde Park. She was the headline story on
Thursday, and this morning her travail in missing the bronze was of more interest to the Brits
more than Bolt's claim to be the greatest sprinter ever. My favorite story was about the
complete loss of British reserve at the Olympics. Despite the well-earned reputation for the stiff
upper lip, according to the story 37% of British athletes cried on the medal stand, compared to
16% of Americans of notoriously emotional Americans and 7% of Chinese. Even the British
losers cried openly. The story concluded, however, by assuring readers that the emotions would
last only through the Olympics and thereafter the stiff upper lip would return.
3. Before leaving for London, Lee Benson told me that there is nothing like the atmosphere in
Olympic Stadium for the track and field competition. That sport first captured my imagination as
an 11-year-old watching the Rome Olympics and tt remains my favorite sport. Being in the
stadium was easily the biggest thrill I have ever had watching a sporting event. We generally
hear only about the medalists, except for a few of our own, but every single Olympian is a
champion in his or her own continent or country. As an example, one of the also rans was a
women who has been 13 times the national champion of Greece. Imagine being the best at
anything in an entire country. And there in the stadium are a collection of the best in their
countries from all over the world.
4. Although people come to the Olympics from all over the world, it was so difficult to get tickets
for non-residents of the UK or EU that there wasn't as much diversity as I expected. The crowd
at Olympic stadium was overwhelmingly British, and while the prevalence of Team Great Britain
gear wasn't as high as Buckeye stuff at an Ohio State football game, I would say that a very high
percentage of the spectators showed the British colors in some fashion, including a high number
who wrapped themselves in the Union Jack and painted their faces in British colors. Surprisingly,
the nation most in evidence besides the Great Britain was Russia. But maybe I just noticed
them because their official team outfits were so hideous.
5. As for the competition, the highlights for me the first night were the performances of the
American men in the 110 meter hurdlers and Alison Felix winning the gold in the 200 meters.
The second night, while Bolt completed his sweep of the sprints in his second straight Olympics
and got most of the attention, the more amazing performance was that of David Rudisha of
Kenya, who won the 800 meters in world record time - 1:40.91. To put that in perspective, he
ran his first lap split was just under 50 seconds and his second lap just over 51 seconds. The
fastest I ever ran the 440 was 51.5. i more typically ran 52-something and usually threw up
after doing so. He ran four 200 meter runs without stopping at an average time of 25.23. Very
few fit high school students can run 200 meters in 25 seconds. As good as Bolt is, what Rudisha
did is harder. What makes his performance especially remarkable is that he ran the entire race
from the front. No one ever wins a distance race from the front. He just took off with the gun
and flat out outran everyone. He set the pace and no one could run him down.
6. The logistics of the London Games must be at least an order of magnitude more difficult than
any Winter Olympics. There are many more venues, athletes and spectators involved in a
Summer than in a Winter Olympics. Security must be vastly more complex. Organizing and
planning transportation alone is a vast undertaking. It was a challenge for us to mark a Ragnar
course. The London organizers had signs, maps and volunteers everywhere I went in London,
actually making it easy to find my way to Olympic Park.
7. TV doesn't begin to convey the scale of Olympic Park. There at least five large venues located
there -- Olympic Stadium, velodrome, acquatics center, and volleyball and basketball arenas.
And I am probably leaving a couple out. It takes at least 20-30 minutes to walk from one end of
the park to the other.
8. Watching "Chariots of Fire" during the Olympics was an unexpected thrill. That was where I
got my first real taste of British pride and patriotism. Early in the play the actors sing "Rule
Brittania." To my surprise, most of the audience sang along. Toward the end, when Harold
Abrahams is awarded the gold medal, the entire audience cheered, as if the actor had actually
just won the real 100 meters during the 2012 Olympics. The play very effectively presented the
athletes' various motivations for competing. There is Eric Liddel's famous line, part of a
conversation with his sister Jenny: "I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me
fast, and when I run I feel His pleasure." Early he describes life as being like a race, "a long
distance race." He finishes by saying: "So where does the power come from to see the race to
the end -- it comes from within." Later, in Paris, while preaching on the Sunday of the 100
meter heat he chose not to run, he quotes Isaiah: "They shall run and not be weary; they shall
walk and not faint." Then there is Abrahams, the forerunner of the modern athlete, criticized for
hiring a professional trainer, running to overcome prejudice by proving he was the best. Finally,
Abrahams' friend Aubrey, who raced Abrahams around the courtyard at Cambridge early in the
play, and the movie, who said he ran simply for the moment. To me, track and field is the
Olympics and the most elemental of sports. It measures who can run fastest, jump highest and
farthest, and throw farthest. There is nothing subjective about it. And to win, even in an event
that lasts less than 10 seconds, takes years of preparation and training. Hugh Hudson, who
produced "Chariots of Fire," said that the play is really about choices. All sports demonstrate the
consequences of choices, but for me running does so in the purest form.
All in all, I feel very blessed that in one year I have been able to witness the two events I have
most wanted to see -- the Masters and the Olympic track and field competition. Great as the
Masters is, the Olympics is better. |
|
|
|
|
