Olympics Weekend 1

Olympic Time

Shea Buckner #6

I have been so excited for London 2012, it is ridiculous! My cousin was announced to the Men's Water Polo team in June and my excitement has grown significantly. 

Many years ago I slept over in my cousin's room and aside from seeing his poster of Britney Spears, I saw a checklist that had everything checked except for the final goal of making the Beijing Olympics. 
Shea, although you didn't make it that time...you are almost there now. You are proof that if you continue to strive and keep believing that your dreams can come true, they will! I am incredibly

 proud of you for being one of the 14 men training for London 2012.

Although you broke my tricycle, sometimes hid so I couldn't find you in hide-and-go seek, and didn't let me play your video games when I was little...I love you, cousin. You are so inspiring and one day when I turn 21 finally...I owe you a celebratory drink. :)

After my finals, I headed to London to meet up with my family in the house we were renting in Chelsea. Let me tell you...IT WAS INCREDIBLE. This place was gorgeous. What I would give to get back to England and live there. Definitely a dream place to live even if it was smaller than the house I currently live in. 

My parents went to the Opening Ceremonies while I hung out with my Uncle Steve and my little sister, Annemarie. We got some great Italian food before settling in to watch the Opening Ceremonies.

Opening Ceremonies (27 July)

Usain Bolt

The Opening Ceremonies caught my eye with each new scene change, but to be honest with you it was a little too long and dry for my liking. I loved the British humor that was exhibited throughout it, but the long scene changes and rather dull (Brits don't hit me!) music and dancing took quite a bit out of me at such a late hour. Despite my dislike of the length of sequences I really enjoyed them. Sadly I would have liked to hear more music during the technology sequence that I recognized, but I suppose they wanted to leave the more popular music for the Closing Ceremonies.

All the flags!

I always love the procession of athletes, and it was really great to see my cousin's face on TV! So unreal! I enjoyed seeing Pau Gasol and Usain Bolt as flag bearers. Seeing familiar faces from other countries shows just how much they have accomplished to be recognized in many parts of the world. Denmark had some pretty funny wellies on. I thought it was a clever idea seeing as the forecast had predicted rain. I also thought that Team GB looked great in gold. Throwing out how much I loved that they kept showing Tom Daley on BBC. 

I think my favorite part was the lighting of the Olympic torch. It was incredible and unlike anything I had ever seen! Hopefully Brazil doesn't try to reuse the idea haha. 

Annie, Dad, and I in front of Wembley Stadium

Props to all the volunteers who helped make the games happen!

Badminton (28 July)

At qualifying badminton, we got to watch Men's Singles, Women's Singles, Doubles, and Mixed Doubles. I always used to enjoy playing badminton in my backyard, but never did I imagine it to be so intense. In this Olympics people got disqualified for allegedly fixing the matches so that they could be ranked lower going into the knock out stages. I really enjoyed how fast paced the games were played. 

Seeing the Wembley Arena was really neat for me because I know that many bands I like play there. 

Women's Gymnastics (29 July)

Sean at gymnastics

Gymnastics has always been one of my favorite sports to watch during the summer games. The gymnastics were held at North Greenwich Arena (aka The O2 Arena). It was absolutely MASSIVE there! We were lucky enough to get two watch two groups which included all the big guns - Team USA, Team GB, Germany, Russia, and China. Sean came over to Chelsea and attended the qualifications. 

My favorite apparatuses in gymnastics are balance beam and floor exercise. Watching Team USA was great! Our girls did incredibly well in qualifying, they beat everyone in their rotation by over ten points (a landslide margin in gymnastics). Douglas was a beast at all her events in qualification, it's no wonder she performed so well individually! I felt bad for the poor girl from China who injured herself on the vault. They kept showing her falling on the big screen. It was very hard to watch. :( But overall it was great getting to experience the visual beauty of gymnastics and the environment in a live arena.

Water Polo (29 July)

Team USA

Immediately after gymnastics, we headed over to watch Team USA vs Montenegro in their first qualifying match. It was so exciting hearing Shea's name announced during the initial introductions. My family went crazy over it and people asked my mom if Shea was her son. Haha! Aside from my parents and sister, Shea's whole immediate family is here. We make quite the cheering section despite being scattered around the whole arena. 

Kash, Shannon, Aunt Trudy and Uncle Sean after H20 Polo

Our boys defeated Montenegro in a very challenging match. It was very exciting to see such a close game, the team really showed promise. Although Shea didn't score, he played decently well despite his exclusion. You could see his sister, Shannon, all the way below us waving her flag and cheering at the top of her lungs. She pretty much lost her voice after the first match. Shannon is here with her fiance Kassius who adds to the number of supporters here for Shea.

After the game my Uncle Steve, Annemarie and I hurried home to make sure Sean got to our place safely. My parents spend half a week at the Cisco house which I heard was magnificent! We watched more Olympic action on TV as well as the highlights while I finished up my final paper for Creativity and Innovation. The package for the TV was incredible because you can pick and choose by sport what you want to watch with NO INTERRUPTIONS It was so AMAZING. In future I plan on buying a program like that so that I don't have to deal with only watching what NBC thinks I should be watching.