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| JOJO'S OLYMPIC ADVENTURE - PART 1 |
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THE OLYMPIC DREAM - BACKGROUND AND PREPARATION
I was selected by Louise Bond-Williams to accompany her to Athens after I went with her and her coach, Vladimir Nazlymov, to the European zoneal Olympic qualifiers in Ghent, Belgium.
My job as training/sparing partner was basically to be ready to fence with Louise whenever she wanted prior to the competition and to act as a pin cushion on the day of the competition (when she seemed to be a little bit tenser and her reposts seemed a little stronger and harder)!
Before reaching Athens, our final destination, we had an Olympic holding camp in Barcelona for 4 days where we were able to train before the games.
Richard Kruse and his training partners, Laurence Halsted and Carlo Poggesi, used the facilities a lot: Richard knew he wouldn’t want to fence in Athens as he uses the 4 days before his event to relax and mentally prepare.
Louise joined me in Barcelona for the last 2 days as she had been training with the American team in Italy: Vladimir also coaches an American sabreurs so it was easier for Louise to train with them.
ATHENS – SETTING THE SCENE
We left for Athens on Wednesday 11th August. The Airport in Athens was absolutely manic but quite exciting as there were thousands of competitors everywhere all dressed in their countries “travel gear”. I think Germany won with their bright orange shell suit bottoms!
Laurence and I were staying in the GB lodge which was about 20mins from the Olympic village. The lodge only housed training partners, reserves and assistant coaches: so it was still a pretty cool place to stay. It had a massive hall which was converted into a lounge with loads of sofas and soft chairs, flat screen TV’s and one big cinema like screen in the middle (which was good to watch the opening ceremony on).
As the games were sponsored by so many company’s, there were endless supplies of power aid, coca cola and Weetabix, not to mention the free bar every night which was giving away bottles of Heineken (another sponsor). On opening ceremony night the bar offered Gold, Silver and Bronze cocktails; the gold was a killer!
We were also lucky in the lodge as we had a wonderful outdoor swimming pool, an internet room with state of the art laptops and an X-Box room which I didn’t use much because I am absolutely rubbish at computer games!
Later on in the Games we had some famous visitors to the lodge: Princess Anne, Tony and Cherrie Blair which was nice. Princess Anne gave me a wave from across the pool! Many of the medal winners would come back to the lodge to meet their friends and family so I got to meet a few of them too.
On one night I had a new girl staying in my room. I didn’t get a chance to talk to her, but I heard later on that she was part of the equestrian team. Her horse had gone lame the day before her competition so she had been automatically disqualified. She was really upset because they had escorted her out of the village, after being there less than 24 hours, and taking away her kit. It sounded so harsh but it showed just how strict they were out there.
Continues in Part 2...
This article was kindly contributed by Joanna Hutchison
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