England and Ireland: England. Part 5: London Day 3

London, England Day 3

Woo! Busy day on Friday at the Olympics! We had two events at two different venues.

Our morning event was beach volleyball at the Horse Guard Parades. They are beautiful grounds, and only a couple tube stops from our hotel.

Loos with a View!

One of the practice courts. Isn't the setting grand?!

It was a spectacularly beautiful, sunny day. Perfect for beach volleyball! It felt just like home. We saw two matches, a women's match and a men's match.

There was entertainment before the games. This is The Band of the Blues and Royals.

Here they are in action:


Our first beach volleyball match was women: Germany vs. Germany. Germany won! What a surprise! Germany was disappointed with the loss. Germany won in two straight games. I was disappointed that we didn't get to see a third.

It's not your monitor: The gal in red is wearing pink kinesiotape.

Then a slight raise of the net and the men came on the court. It was Poland vs. Switzerland. My hero of the match was 40-year-old Sascha Heyer.  He was a firecracker playing against men almost half his age. Alas, he and his teammate couldn't pull it off, and Poland won the match in two straight games.

 It was fun opening The Guardian the next day to see that writer Stephen Moss and his photographer had also been at the event and filed this article, printed in a spread in the center of the special Olympics section. Article: The Guardian, August 4, 2012 Photos: The Guardian, August 3, 2012


Our afternoon event was women's 3 -meter springboard diving, in the Aquatics Center back at Olympic Park.

This was the only event where it was a little hard for us to see, with the diving board being at the end of the aquatics center. Luckily, there was a nice big screen for re-plays. It was an exciting event, and I learned a little about the competition and the scoring. It was exciting to sit pool-side at the place where Michael Phelps made Olympic history.

The Chinese girls were amazing, especially the top scorer, who was so STRONG, and jumped so high and dived beautifully. The Mexican divers were very good, too, and I found out today why:  LA Times, September 9, 2012

And here is a taste of what we experienced. Videos of the two Team USA competitors, Christina Loukas and Cassidy Krug.



What amazing athletes we are watching!