THAT WAS THE SUMMER THAT…ROCKED PT 3

Well having done the test events and visited the Basketball Arena on two occasions, the wait was now on to see which events, if any, LOCOG and the Governing bodies would select me for. All of the test events had gone well but this decision was not up to me. I knew the sport that I wanted to do and that was Wheechair Rugby.

There was one sport that I definitely did not want to do but I will say no more about that here.

My next contact with the Games was rather interesting. I had known of the Supporter 2 Reporter (S2R) organisation for years and it was a lovely surprise when they made contact with me. That contact had led to me doing some master classes at Colleges across the country and having completed those tasks, which went well, I thought that would be it.

It wasn’t!

I got a call from them asking if I would be available to be involved with the Sainsburys’ 2012 School Games. This would involve spending four days in London looking after a team of young broadcasters who would be reporting on the Games. The first three days would be spent at the EXCEL Centre in Docklands where the indoor sports would be held and that would be followed by one glorious day at the Olympic Park in the main Athletics Arena.

The team would be made up of three of the best of the individuals that I had met during the Master classes earlier in the year, plus one whom I had never met. While doing this with the broadcasters, the wonderful Gwen was doing the same with the photographers.

You can read the full story of the Sainsburys’ 2012 School Games including links to some of our best work HERE.

I am not going to go through all that happened at the Sainsburys’ 2012 School Games here as the story is well documented on the above link. However I want to pay tribute to everyone involved in the 2012 School Games for being a part of my sensational summer including my team of Glenn, Polly, Bee and Tom, who were simply the best.

And now the wait continues. I speak to some of my friends who are Table Officials in Basketball and the news begins to filter through as to who has been selected and who has failed to make the cut. There is much celebration and some tears. Some people who had hoped to make the Olympics were told that they had not been selected but that they were successful in making the team for the Paralympics.

Finally I got the phonecall I had been waiting for. LOCOG would like me to be the English Announcer for the Wheelchair Rugby. I was absolutely delighted and after much discussion, a contract arrived which was duly signed and returned.

Now while everyone held their breath for the opening of the 2012 Olympic Games in London, we in Manchester had a little business to attend to before the focus shifted to London. The USA Basketball teams were coming to Manchester to take on the Great Britain Men’s and Women’s teams.

Two glorious nights in Manchester which will live long in the memory. Seeing guys like Kobe, LeBron, KD and the rest was a joy. My only disappointment was that Derrick Rose, who would have gone up against Luol Deng and Dwight Howard did not make the trip due to injuries.

The full stories of these games and more can be read HERE.

Now to London 2012 for real!

I had contemplated going to the Games in London but after a couple of attempts at buying tickets on line which failed miserably, we decided that we would watch the Games on television and not attend any of the Sports.

I have to say I am an avid sports watcher on television and this truly was a Sporting event to behold. I say Sporting Event, but to be honest it was much more than that.

It all began with the Opening Ceremony.

I can well remember the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. At the end of their Games I have to admit that I was a bit depressed because I wondered just how London 2012 was going to compete with their Ceremonies which were simply awesome. I need not have worried.

Danny Boyle and the rest of the organisers did a marvellous job and within minutes of the London 2012 Opening Ceremony beginning, all thoughts of Beijing had been banished.

And so began the most awesome series of events that I have ever had the pleasure to partake of. I must say congratulations to the BBC who managed to deliver 40 (I think) channels of hi-definition televised sport. I do have two minor criticisms, the first is that there was probably too much of it for one person to take it all in. I have recorded hours of it but will I ever get the time to watch is all? I think not.

The second criticism is this, and I have to admit that I saw this one coming. The commentary on some of the sport on the dedicated channels left an awful lot to be desired. By the end of the Games, even some of the better commentators were flagging.

As new sports are added to the Games in coming years perhaps it is time that the Games were extended to a full month so that it is less concentrated.

The Games were wonderful and those big nights at the Main Arena including Mo Farrah, Jess Ennis, Usain Bolt etc. were at times unbelievable. The days and nights in the pool and in the Velodrome were truly wonderful. The USA winning the inevitable Golds in the Basketball was sensational. And even when GB weren’t winning medals, the support for all the athletes as the events were taking place was a joy to behold.

As I write comes the news that Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis has won the Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year Award for 2012. Oh BABY!

Having watched numerous Olympics and World Championships over the previous decades, I have to say what a joy it was to see the Main Arena packed to the rafters even for the morning sessions.

Eventually the Games would come to an end and in my opinion these were the best Games ever.

And after a short break attention would turn to the Paralympics.

There was a perceptible belief that these Games were going to be rather like after the Lord mayor’s Parade. How wrong they were! Again from the moment that the Opening Ceremony began it was obvious that these games were going to be very special.

In the run-up to the Paralympics, mikeshaft.com carried a number of features about the Games and a spectacular interview with Sarah Storey. For a number of years Sarah has been one of my favourite athletes and I was delighted to get my interview with her. Read it HERE

When Sarah became the first British athlete to win Gold at the 2012 Paralympic Games I was over the moon. She would go on to win four Golds in total and I am delighted to add that as I write Sarah Storey has just won the Sunday Times Paralympian of the Year Award for 2012…More Oh BABY!

I had had one journey to London as part of my preparation for the Games. LOCOG wanted all of their announcers and commentators to attend a special training event run by the RNIB so that our commentaries would be accessible for people with limited vision. LOCOG had wanted London 2012 to be the most accessible Games ever.  The course was run by the wonderful Alan Marsh. Alan was an in house commentator himself  at the swimming and the whole afternoon was a total joy.

From our vantage point way above the City of London, we could see the Olympic Park and once again the appetite was truly wetted.

Next for me would be the Games themselves.

My physical journey to the Paralympics began on Sunday the 2nd of September.

As usual on the Friday before that I received my Sunday Breakfast hand over from my Producer Rebecca Kelly.

It included the fact that we would be doing a phone interview with a young girl by the name of Danielle who at the age of 4 had contracted meningitis and had to have all of her limbs amputated.

The hand over included a link to a short video which showed Danielle at the Pride of Britain Awards in London where she was a winner.

As I looked at the video it was obvious that I had to do this interview face to face. She was now 14 years old and to put it mildly she was a bundle of joy.  We were interviewing Danielle because she has made it known that she wants to swim at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio. So on the Saturday afternoon, I made my way to Bradford and interviewed Danielle and her mum Lindsay.

There is no doubt in my mind that of all the people I met  during the summer of 2012, Danielle and her mum are probably the most inspirational.

I will definitely looking at Danielle’s swimming results and I hope and pray that she achieves her dream to be a Paralympian.

Having done the Sunday Breakfast programme on BBC Radio Manchester I would head to London by Virgin trains for my stint at the Games. I arrived at my accommodation in the mid afternoon and chilled out before going out for something to eat and getting a feel for my surroundings.

Monday morning would be my first job and that was to pick up my accreditation. Now accreditation can be a stressful process. I can remember going to the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and being told that I could have half of my accreditation but I could not get the second part until further inquiries had taken place. I eventually got my second part.

So I turn up to the venue for accreditation and sailed through without any problems whatsoever.

This being around lunchtime I thought I would go to the Olympic Park to get a feel for the place as my accreditation was now active. And so I encountered my first problem. I arrived at the security gate as I had for the test events. There was a special lane for accredited personnel and placed my bag on the track for the x-ray machine. I went through my own x-ray with no problems only to be told that liquids were not allowed.

I had in my bag a bottle of Coca Cola plus some deodorant. Despite my protestations I was told that I would not be allowed in with those two items and they would have to be put in the bins which had been provided.

I took a different decision and decided not to go in to the Olympic Park and returned to my hotel.

I did not mind the problem with the Coca Cola which I could have drunk on the spot but I was not about to give up my deodorant, which for me is an absolute requirement.

On the first day proper at the Games I turned up with no liquids whatsoever and got in without any problems. Later in the day our senior producer, who had had the same problem with deodorant as I had, purchased some at the on site chemist and stored it in the office for all to use.

And so began my first real day at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

The Basketball venue had been changed for Wheelchair Rugby and was beautifully laid out. The opening game of the tournament would see Great Britain take on the USA.

Nice and early fans began to enter the venue and the atmosphere began to build. The music was pumping and I did my bit to explain the rules and generally introduce the game to the thousands who had never seen the sport before.

I know they hadn’t because I asked them.

What a game this was and what an atmosphere! It was truly awesome and despite the defeat handed to Great Britain by the Americans, when the final whistle blew every one was exhilarated. It had been a fantastic display of sport and a sport that few people had even known about.

The other games came and went and I returned to my accommodation at the end of the day totally exhilarated myself.

I could not sleep and started surfing the net to see what was being said about the Wheelchair Rugby. Every article I read, and there were many, was raving about the sport and the event. The photos were truly stunning and all ‘n all there were good vibes all around.

The tournament continued and there were some great games but none, in my opinion, had come close to the atmosphere of that first game.

The Tournament would see the Australians take Gold on the back of awesome performances by Ryley Batt who I heard described by one of our top sports journalists as being unplayable. Now just in case you don’t know, that is a term usually reserved for the sport of Cricket where some of the great bowlers were simply unplayable. I had never heard the term used outside of Cricket but I had to admit it was perfectly used to describe Ryley Batt.

I also have to admit that I did not enjoy the Final of this competition at all. Fortunately for me I did not do the Final and was able to watch some of it from courtside. It was not all that it should have been as Australia simply dominated the game and it turned out to be a very one sided affair.

Having spoken to a few officials of the sport I know that they are concerned about the dominance of Ryley Batt and I got the sense that they are looking at ways to even up the sport without preventing the best teams from winning tournaments.

So that was the summer that rocked some fantastic highs and a few little lows as well. I do not know if I will ever see anything like that in my life again, so I take this opportunity to thank God that he allowed me to be a part of such a wonderful set of events.

Later

Mike S

Photo – Usain Bolt

Photo – Sarah Storey Stamp

Photo – David Anthony

Photo – Jessica Ennis