My Olympic Volunteer Story part 2 - by Bryan

  Rio de Janeiro, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Saturday, August 6, 2016

Now that I had free time on my hands I started to look for which events I would most like to watch. Adam Peaty was due to swim in the next few days, and with him being on such good form lately, I just had to get a seat in the swimming pool to watch his event. I bought a ticket (quite expensive - no freebies for this one), but he is going to win right....! I turned up at the aquatic centre but as a spectator this time. I had arrived about 30 minutes before the event was due to start giving me time to walk around a bit and take in the atmosphere. Then I spotted Adrian Moorhouse who one of my idols as a kid. As he was also a Breaststroke swimmer and competed in the 1988 Seoul Olympics and won a gold medal,  I just had to get myself a selfie with him. I went over and asked him politely, and he said of course! Then as I was taking the photo, I got photo-bombed. Grrr! Who by? Well by none other than Sir Steve Redgrave. That's all right Steve - photo-bomb away! Don't you just love being at the Olympics? Then it was time to find my seat and oh wow! It was the second row back at the end of lane 4.  I could see directly down the lane, the lane that Adam Peaty would be swimming in - I was soo excited! The 100m men breaststroke final was on, and they called each finalist to the poolside, Adam came out to lane 4; focused and ready to swim.  On the blocks, the quietness in the Olympic pool, then they were off. Right away Adam takes the lead of the field.  I could see his face directly heading towards me, the power the determination of all the years of training, all going into this single minute of time.  I shouted at the top of my voice, the supporters for Adam were out in their droves, and Union Jacks were waving everywhere you looked. He turned, 50 metres done. Still in the lead. Then on the second length, he got faster and faster pulling away from the other swimmers as if it was like being in a race at School and the others were still learning to swim.  Incredible! This was no school swimming race, but the Olympic final and I was watching it as it happened. I couldn't believe I was here.  Ten metres to go. The Aquatic Centre roof was coming off there were so many people shouting as they knew that he was on track to smash his world record that he had set just a few days earlier. He hit the side of the pool with such force that he not only broke his own World Record he was a length and a half in front of the second place; Cameron van der Burgh.  Wow! And I was there watching the whole race; it was just an amazing experience. Later, comes the medal ceremony which isn't too long after the contest - just long enough for the swimmers to have a shower and get changed.  I was in the perfect position being right behind the rostrum, to watch it (it was also where all the worldwide TV cameras would be pointing).  So, armed with my Union Jack, I got as close as I could to the podium.  The announcer called time for the medal ceremony for the 100-metre Breaststroke final. As the three medalists walked out of the athlete's area, I shouted down to Adam and said "Well Done Adam".  He looked straight up at me, and for that split second, I was looking into the eyes of the new Olympic Champion. This was and will be the first time he picks up his first Gold Medal. The first one is always the most special and Adam's eyes were just alight with joy.  He looked at me and could see my Union Jack and gave me a big thumbs up then continued to walk towards the rostrum.  As they called each swimmers name, they would stand up on to the podium. "First place - Adam Peaty" went out over the speakers and a huge cheer went out through the stadium. Clearly, there were a lot of Brits in tonight. Adam rose to his place on the rostrum.  With my flag dangling over the edge of the balcony I was sitting on, it was flying behind him (something not allowed during the medal ceremony) but I cheered and waved the flag anyway. Unbeknown to me, I was on worldwide TV waving my flag.  Jody saw me on tv back in our apartment, and my mum saw me on TV back in England. It's always nice to make your parents feel proud of their son, even if he is doing something naughty especially on worldwide tv! After all the excitement I took a little walk around the Aquatic Centre wearing my Union Jack draped over my shoulders when a young chap came up to me and asked if I would mind being interviewed outside when the events were over?  Of course, I said I would love to. Once all the swimming had finished, I followed him outside of the Olympic Park along with another volunteer. I was expecting to see a TV crew waiting to film us but the presenter's colleague got out his iPhone 6+, which had a microphone and lens attached to it and said okay we'd like to record you walking out of the Olympic Park chatting to each other and then walk over to us and tell us what just happened.  Uh!  Where were the expensive TV cameras? The was a crew from 'Good Morning Britain' armed with just an iPhone 6. Well, apparently it was good enough for broadcast quality. Technology eh! They took around 5 minutes to film what they needed and then it was time to head back on the metro.  It was all ok tonight though as I wasn't leaving at stupid o'clock and now line 4 was open it felt a lot safer - it was also only available for Olympic ticket holders so no drunken local gang members could get on it. Tonight I also had a radio interview lined up with BBC Wiltshire Sound. Busy boy! I got back to the apartment at about 3 am and got set up for the radio interview.  Prime time for the broadcasters as back in England everyone was just waking up and to have a story hot from the Rio Olympics of a Gold medal was breaking news for them.  All in all a day's work for me at the Olympics.  ;-) I had spent a week enjoying different events and soaking up some atmosphere but now it was time to get back to being a volunteer.  I put my uniform back on and headed to the Olympic Park where three large stadiums were holding fencing, judo and basketball.  I was told to find the transport team in that area.  I checked in as a volunteer and then went looking for the transport team.  I could not find any of them. I asked around and still no.  I ended up asking in the media marquee to see if they could help me. I told them I had finished up at the aquatic centre and was looking for some more volunteer work. Straightaway they said they need some more help and before I knew it -  I was enrolled as a volunteer working in the basketball arena looking after the press and media. Suits me as it sounded a lot more interesting than transport! My job was to ensure that the press and media went to the correct places in the stadium and to keep them under control. This involved standing in a prime location to watch the basketball what a drag eh? The difference between the press and media is basically - the media have paid a lot of money to get the TV footage sent around the world. The press were there in their droves.  It was a case of working out who is media and who was press and then to allow them access to their exclusive areas.  There were also the photographers, the ones with the most expensive cameras known to humankind who just wanted to get that perfect shot.  All in all, they were very well behaved, except the occasional one who wanted to push their luck and then we just called security to move them on. The USA team dominated the games, and it was only when Argentina and USA got to play, things would get a bit wild. As I'm not really into basketball, I did not understand the game or who the players were.  The other volunteers were a good crowd to work with, and everything was well organised. Finally on 21st August the finals of the Olympic Basketball, The United States won their fifteenth gold medal after defeating Serbia, 96–66, it was like watching school children playing against a professional team. The United States dominated Serbia the whole game. After the medal ceremony, all the volunteers were allowed onto the field of play, shooting hoops and standing on the rostrum, lots of photos and joy that the basketball event had been such a success. My volunteering was over, and it was time to reflect my time as a volunteer at the Olympics. Overall my opinion of the Olympic organisation in Rio was poor. The proactive teams of volunteers were firefighting all the time.  The team leaders I met were, what you might call very old school; trying to appear happy and get everyone upbeat, but they had no empathy for the volunteers.  Their leadership style was very poor, and they caused a lot of unneeded stress. Both Jody and I thought long and hard (well about 10 minutes) about whether we should stay for the Paralympics or not. We had our names down for it but no. We decided we needed to get out of this city and move on to find the soul of Brasil if we could. Well at least somewhere we felt safer for a start. Did we find it? Yes we did - read on....!