2008 Olympics Updates

I spoke out against GB head coach Peter Suk immediately after my quarter-final defeat at the Olympic Games and then retracted it on reflection in my blog later that day.

Since then, I’ve had more time to reflect and I stand by what I originally said and if a lot of things don’t get better, I will pack it in and that’s not me being a sore loser.

Concerns need to be raised for the benefit of the whole of GB archery – if we can push on, the funding will get there, if not, the sport goes back to no funding and fewer competitors.

The next three or four years are going to be interesting with London 2012 coming up – we should get more input into what we need to become world and Olympic champions.

I know I’m capable of winning Olympic medals, but I need to have the right support.

This is the first year since I turned senior in 2002 that I’ve not won a medal in target or field archery despite shooting better than ever.

That has been down to a lack of confidence and the mental side of things and things going on behind the scenes.

This year, everything was wrong in the build-up to the Olympics with the selections for the World Cup circuit.

If we bombed out in the first round of a competition, Peter would say don’t worry – but confidence gets knocked if you’re not doing well.

We need a do-or-die mentality – put everything in until your fingers bleed.

We weren’t prepared properly.

I have no problem with Peter away from archery, but we have different methods within the sport.

Team morale was low at the Team GB holding camp in Macau but Peter said he expected that because of nerves and that it would be alright when we got to Beijing. But it wasn’t and it was down to the team to try and lift ourselves when we should have been focusing on competing.

Since my quarter-final defeat at the Olympics, I have not spoken to Peter. He left for Korea straight after the competition; there was no de-brief as we have always had after every other event, which was a bit strange.

I have always worked with my own personal coach at home and things have always gone perfectly – I have always been in charge and every medal I’ve ever won I’ve done by learning how to approach different matches mentally.

This year, the confidence has been non-existant and by the time I was knocked out at the Olympics, it was the first time I had lost control in a match situation.

I want to emphasise though that I really enjoyed my first Olympics experience despite the problems.

We’ve got a meeting in October with all the British archers who competed at the Olympics and Paralympics which will hopefully sort some things out.

Before that I’m off to meet the Queen at Buckingham Palace as part of the big parade through London with all the other British Olympians on 16 October, which I’m really looking forward to.

Away from the competition, I had a great time in Beijing, spending time with my mates and going to watch other sports.

The best was watching Beth Tweddle in the gymnastics – we went because we know a few of the gymnasts from training at Lilleshall – I’ve never been to a gymnasium hall, it was massive and the atmosphere was great, particularly when the Chinese were competing.

Beth was unlucky and, even though we didn’t know much about the technical side, we thought her performance deserved third!

The athlete’s village is not as mad as everyone makes out – there were a lot of people there who still hadn’t competed when we had finished, so there is respect for everyone else.

It’s a different story in the city though – the bars were rammed, mainly with Australians! I tended to stick with the archery lads and lasses from Australia, America and Canada as we all know each other through competing across the world – it was a brilliant experience.

Me and Larry Godfrey had a few good days enjoying ourselves but we had the option to come home a day early before the closing ceremony, so we did.

When I got home and saw the closing ceremony and the plane carrying the rest of the team, I thought it would have been nice to be on it, but then it was nice to arrive at Heathrow and slip through unnoticed.

Since I got back to Cumbria, I’ve had a bit of post-Olympics blues – out in Beijing we were living in a bubble and everything was done for you so we could enjoy ourselves and focus on our event.

But when we got back, nobody told us how hard it is to get back to reality.

I was back a couple of days before I resumed training and my next aim is to qualify for the British field archery team for the World Games next year.

Field archery is extreme archery – there is a course with 24 targets which can be up a cliff, down a cliff, or across a ravine and you shoot three arrows at each target. They are all different sizes and on day one you have to guess how far away they are. On day two, the distances are marked.

I use the same bow as for the target archery, just with lighter arrows – field archery has always been at my heart, I was number one in the world a few years back and I’ve won many medals including a World Games silver and World Team silver and I was also European junior champion.

I was hoping to be given a wildcard into the British team for the World Games as I used to dominate the sport, but they wouldn’t accept me, so I’m training hard and I want to bang in some big scores at the first of two qualifiers next weekend in the north-east and prove a point.

Click here for GB team manager Hilda Gibson’s response.

Alan Wills was talking to BBC Sport’s Peter Scrivener.

What an incredible Olympics for our modern pentathlon team. Heather Fell and I were excited from the moment we set foot in the athletes’ village to the moment we left – and that moment came far too soon.

All five of our pentathlon events took place on one day, the last Friday of the Games, so we only had Saturday and Sunday to enjoy ourselves properly.

But the advantage of competing so late was that the more medals Team GB won, the less nervous I felt. It took the pressure off because suddenly nobody was looking to the final few events in desperation for medals.

Heather’s silver medal is a brilliant result for her, and for our sport.

We’ve had a great last two years now – qualifying two boys for Beijing beat our initial target of one, and a medal is what we had to produce from the girls’ point of view. My seventh place shows we’ve got strength in depth in the team.

I’m 90% pleased with my result. Seventh is a good result in pentathlon, especially at an Olympic Games, but I know my fencing was a bit below par and that was the difference between seventh and a place on the podium.

You’ve probably seen the disaster that was the men’s modern pentathlon show jumping. I was there and it wasn’t pretty to watch.

But it helped to take some of the stress out of the event for me – I thought that if it was going to be that bad for everyone, then maybe I could take advantage and move up from 20th into a medal position.

The organisers made some changes for the women’s event – for a start they took the worst horses out, and in the end I really got on with my horse. The other two girls who rode it didn’t have very good rounds at all, so I obviously rode it well and I’m pleased with that.

The conditions were much nicer, too. There was a lot of talk beforehand about heat and humidity but I didn’t notice any difference – we did our running event in the evening, and I’ve ridden horses in much stuffier conditions than that too.

Things will be a bit subdued next year without an Olympics, but I’m used to that – it’s what my sport is like, and it means I have to set my sights on London 2012. After my experience in Beijing I am so keen to compete there, but I know four years is a long time and I’ve got to train hard to stay in the mix.

It’s just a shame I didn’t get to see the Beijing shops but, to be honest, being around our gold medallists in the village was too exciting.

I met Chris Hoy, some of the rowers and Rebecca Adlington. Heather and I wanted our picture taken with everybody! Rebecca Adlington’s lovely, we got on with the rowers really well, and Chris Hoy even let me hold his medals to have my picture taken.

Being part of Team GB and mixing with athletes from other sports was a large part of what made the week so special.

I’m not sure what’s next for me now. I’m enjoying a rest at the minute, then it’s the last competition of the season, the World Cup final, in four weeks’ time.

But after the Olympics that’s not a huge priority, I’m just going to maintain my fitness and have a nice competition to end the season.

After that it’s winter training – but hopefully with a few parties thrown in along the way to finish this brilliant year off nicely!

Katy Livingston was speaking to BBC Sport’s Ollie Williams

We are finally in Beijing after acclimatising in Macau and we are on to the serious bit – the Games themselves.

My flight from London to Hong Kong was great. I upgraded to business class (or World Traveller Plus, as it is called now) and it was amazing.

I felt like a bit of a muppet though as I had never flown business class before and was a bit out of place, but it was good.

I had my own little area where I could put my feet up and relax. I was most looking forward to the actual sleeping because you can never get comfy on a plane, can you?

I was just grateful I could lie down – I think I had a full eight hours of sleep. I was really pleased about that, because sometimes I don’t even get that at home.

Training has been going great so far. The first two days in Macau we only trained in the afternoon as we were all tired and needed our sleep.

The hotel there is amazing and because we had been there a couple of times already it felt like we had never been away.

I can’t actually believe it was a year since we were last in Macau – there are so many hotels that have been built while we have been away.

Macau is like the Chinese version of Las Vegas. The Chinese aren’t allowed to gamble on the mainland so they come over to Macau to gamble.

I have never been to Vegas but I can imagine that it is just like Macau but on a bigger scale.

The weather has been on the warm side but I don’t want to make anyone jealous as I know we haven’t had much of a summer back in England.

We flew to Beijing on Tuesday ahead of the opening ceremony this Saturday. Because I’m competing the following day, I will not be going.

In the past, there has usually been a day in between the opening ceremony and competing, but this time there is no rest for the wicked!

My fiancé Rik, who is on the GB cycling team, will be over there before I get to Beijing so at least he will be able to get his bearings as well.

I’m starting to get pretty nervous now, as I’m going into this Games as World and Paralympic champion and the pressure is all on me to perform.

My parents and Rik’s parents are coming out too so it will be nice to have a load of support there. Plus I’m sure I’ll be able to hear my dad and my brother shouting.

If not, then I’m sure everyone else will be able to hear them, so I apologise now for any bleeding ears.

Just wanted to say congratulations to the athletes in the Olympics. I was glued to it all the way – it was just amazing, so let’s hope that we can do it too.

I would also like to thank the people who have sent good luck messages to me and Rik – they are much appreciated. Let’s hope we can do you all proud.

And finally, good luck to everyone on the British team - fingers, toes, eyes, legs and mouths crossed!

Within 36 hours of the Olympic Games closing ceremony the flags in the city of Beijing were changed to Paralympic ones.

The message that I have seen in Beijing is that things happen here fast. I came here a couple of years ago when the foundations of the athletes’ village were being dug and it seemed impossible that anything would be ready.

If the rumours are true, in the last two years there have been 200 new hotels built in Beijing and in the past six months many underground stations have been made accessible for disabled people.

Since my first visit to Beijing there have been many dramatic changes, not just physical ones, but more attitudinal ones.

Last time, there was barely a dropped kerb in sight, and now there is more tactile paving than I have ever seen in my life.

I was out and about in the city a couple of days ago and ramps that weren’t there two weeks ago were appearing in shops.

What I hope is that they don’t disappear as soon as the Games leave town, and there will be a lasting legacy, but from what I have seen over here, the learning curve is steep and what they learn sticks.

There have also been considerably fewer people staring at me in the street. This time, the attention has focused on my blonde blue-eyed six-year-old daughter, who had an average of 25 people a day taking her picture.

People literally stop in the street to look at her or touch her hair, something that she was incredibly patient with, seeing as she won’t let me brush her hair before a school day!

In the last two weeks there have also been Paralympic adverts on TV, programmes showing the technicalities behind wheelchair racing and other sports, and major coverage of the Paralympic torch relay.

But still I have this inkling that the city doesn’t really know what to expect.

There appeared to be a slight lack of international support at the Olympics, so will the local supporters understand the competition and will the stadiums be full? Let us not forget that some of the sessions of the Olympics were not full.

But I do get the sense here that there will be strong encouragement for local support.

In Seoul in 1988, the local churches were brought in to “support”, having the same seats every day, but different countries’ flags appeared to be on rotation.

It didn’t feel patronising at the time, or that they were coming out to “cheer on the poor people”. It felt more like education.

I have no doubt that Saturday’s opening ceremony will be sold out (it seems impossible to get tickets) but we have just a few more days to wait to see if they can also fill the venues.

Now the Olympics are over it is full steam ahead for the Paralympics and the nerves are starting to kick in a bit more.

We headed off to Macau on Saturday for our pre-Games training camp which is an important part of our final preparations and will help us to adjust to the conditions we will experience in Beijing.

It takes a lot of time for me to acclimatise, as it does for a lot of cerebral palsy athletes, so it is nice to get over there early and not feel tired when it comes to the competition.

When we were building up to Athens four years ago we spent some time at a holding camp in Cyprus but it wasn’t for too long because we didn’t have to get used to a time difference.

Going first to Macau and then to Beijing means we will be away from home for about a month and it gives you a good chance to get used to everyone on the team.

For some of the others on the team it will be their first big trip abroad. Some are very young and it will be a new experience for them. I know what I was like when I went to Sydney in 2000. I was 15 and I was used to my mum doing everything and it took me a while to get used to the team set-up.

It helps us that we have a good support team behind us, not only our coaches but also people like our nurse Lynne, who is there when you need a hug!

To be honest, I don’t really like being away for so long, but the hotel in Macau is so nice with lovely big beds and that it makes it easier. When it comes to leaving and going to the athletes’ village, it will be hard to drag myself away from the luxury!

In Macau I’m sharing with another swimmer Rachael Latham. We sometimes train together in Manchester and although Beijing will be her first Games, she will hold her own!

We will then be sharing an apartment in the village with two of our coaches Lars (our head coach) and Billy.

Rachael and I are both a bit messy and I know at home my fiancé Rik despairs of me and is always tidying up behind me, but I prefer to think of it as organised chaos.

My packing went surprisingly well. It doesn’t get better the more often you do it and I always hope I won’t forget anything but Rik flies out to Beijing a week later to take part in the cycling competition so he can always take it over.

We have our team kit, so that’s easy to remember, but I have taken some of my own clothes for our last night party and I also have a couple of pairs of my own shorts and some t-shirts if I have a day off.

My allowance was split between two bags so if one goes missing it isn’t too bad, but I did take some spare underwear and a toothbrush and a hairbrush in my hand luggage in case of emergencies! Last year we went to Macau and five of the team’s suitcases went missing on the Manchester to London leg, so those whose bags weren’t there had to go for a week without clothes.

Over the last couple of weeks all of us on the swimming team have been getting really excited watching the Olympic swimming events at the Water Cube.

For Michael Phelps to win eight golds was amazing, but I didn’t like the fact that the swim programme was changed to suit American television.

I’m not a morning swimmer and I’m glad that our heats will be in the morning and the finals in the evening, which is what we are used to.

Natalie Jones was speaking to Elizabeth Hudson