Monday, August 13, 2012

London 2012 Olympics Part 4 - Synchronised Swimming Finals

The other day, I wrote about going to the Olympic Park, today I'm going to tell you about what I went there to see.
My choosen sport was Synchronised Swimming, it was the first Olympic sport I ever saw on the TV when I was a kid and I've loved watching it ever since, so there was no way I was going to miss out on seeing it live. I went to London on 10th August and after some sight seeing at the Park it was time to go and find my seat in the Aquatics Centre.

Olympic Rings by the entrance to the Aquatics Centre.
The Aquatics Cenre, I love the graphics they used on the outside of the building.
The Aquatics Centre is huge, it was interesting to see the parts of the building that aren't on the TV, the building is concrete and steel, and very utilitarian, I quite liked it as I have a passion for interesting architecture. To get into the viewing area I had to climb alot of stairs, and then inside the viewing area to get to my seat I had to climb even steeper stairs until I was right at the top as that's where my seat was. Even though I was up high I could still still everything that was going on so it was well designed.As I was early I got to see the teams practicing in the pool so I got an extra treat, it was funny to see them all in the pool together and I did wonder how they managed to avoid each other. I took this time to take some photos nearer to the pool, some of my photos are below.

The Synchronised Swimming teams practicing together in the pool, giving the early birds a free show.
Teams practicing their moves before the main event.
You can see the coaches in the water with the teams, checking they've got everything perfect.
I wonder if they've ever bumped into each other when practicing?
My seat was right at the top, I was just a dot in the crowd.
Near the end of practice and I'm back in my seat. You can see the diving boards on the right of the main pool.
Just a little arty shot, if I get a photo book printed of my photos this would be the cover. :-)
After the pratice it was time for the main event, the Teams Final, first up was Great Britain, it's the first time Britain has had a team in the team finals so that made it all the more special for me, I waved my flag and cheered as loud as I could for them. :-)





The Great Britain team were great, and as they were first they were ranked first for a little while. :-) All of the other teams were great, some of the routines had obvious themes, but others didn't, my favorite had to be the Spanish team, they did a sea theme and they replicated waves, fish and even crabs, they were so cool and made me smile.
The Spanish team in their start pose, all the teams started with different poses and then dived in.
The end of the medal ceremony. (sorry for the blurry photo).
Russia won, they were the favorites and they proved why, they were perfect and a joy to watch. Sadly as soon as the teams had finished swimming and the results were confirmed people started leaving, I was a bit surprised to be honest, surely the medal ceremony is one of the reasons you go to the Olympics, I know I was excied to see the medals handed out, but it's their loss, I stayed until the very end and took as much of it in as I could.
I loved the synchronised swimming, it was all I'd hoped it would be, and maybe if I get to go to Rio I'll have the chance to watch it there.
That's the end of todays post, the next and last of my Olympic posts will be about my night at the olympic park. I've got just one more photo for today, this was a photo i just couldn't resist taking, I hope it makes you laugh. 


Cheerio for now,

Heather. :-)



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