2008 Olympics Updates

Relaxed and ready is the mood in the ParalympicsGB camp on Thursday in the athletes’ village.

With the start of the Beijing Paralympics just a couple of days away, final preparations are being made - and there is an air of confidence around the team.

The likes of four-time Paralympian Jody Cundy are old hands at Paralympic villages, but for wheelchair basketball player Helen Freeman it is a whole new experience.

18-year-old Freeman (above left), from Watford, is the youngest member of the women’s team. She has been training hard for her Paralympic experience while studying for her A-levels.

A place at Reading University, studying Biochemistry, awaits Freeman when she gets back to London later this month - but she wants to make the most of her first Games.

“It has been an amazing experience so far. I now just want to get out there and play,” she told BBC Sport.

“I’ve been excited for months and now I can’t wait for it all to start.

“It was a bit of a culture shock at first to see so many disabled people together in the village, but after a few days I’ve got used to it and there is a special atmosphere around.

“The food hall is the biggest I’ve ever seen. It’s like a school canteen but on an extreme scale. I reckon it’s about the size of two football pitches!”

Freeman’s team-mate Ann Wild, who plays alongside her at club level and will be playing in her fifth Games, has been offering hints on the temptations in the food hall - like eating grilled meats, and avoiding fast food.

“It’s good to be able to get help from people like Ann, who has so much experience and it’s all good advice,” she said.

And with comfortable beds, so much food that there are tough choices to be made, and every facility on your doorstep, what does Helen appreciate most?

“The kettle - that’s been most important in the apartment I’m in,” she replied.

“There’s been plenty of tea drunk - my team-mate Helen Turner normally plays mother and makes it, but we’ve all enjoyed it.”

Freeman, Turner and the rest of the 206-strong team are now gearing up for Saturday’s opening ceremony.

Then Sunday sees the start of action in basketball, boccia, cycling, equestrian, five-a-side football, judo, shooting, swimming and table tennis.

Chief executive and chef de mission Phil Lane described this 2008 crop as the best prepared athletes he’d ever seen, and the team are delighted with facilities on offer at the athletes’ village.

Lane explained: “It’s the first time we have gone straight into a facility used by a GB Olympic team, and we worked with the British Olympic Association to share as much equipment as we could. The hard work has paid off.

“Our athletes have sofas, chairs, tables, televisions and DVD players in their apartments as the Olympians did, to give them home comforts and a place they can call their own.

“In Athens we had just one spare bed - not even a spare room. Here we have room so if people need their own space for whatever reason, it is available to them.”

The vast majority of the British team are already here in the village - the equestrian riders and sailors will join them after their events in Hong Kong and Qingdao.

Our accreditation may have changed to blue, the army of volunteers is significantly smaller and we seem to be the only TV crew in town BUT the buzz around the stables is the same as it was at the Olympics.

Here the best para dressage riders in the world have gathered for the biggest para dressage show on earth.

It’s great to be back amongst equestrian folk, chatting about Hanoverians and halts; tack to tests and lots of chitter chatter about who’ll bag the medals.

I’ve spent the last two days virtually stalking the British team. They have generously allowed us to film their training sessions and on Wednesday we took Lee Pearson and Ricky Balshaw down to the waterfront in Kowloon for a tour on camera.

It was one of the best days filming I’ve had. Lee and Ricky are great company and needless to say Lee was his usual entertaining self. He is also looking hot stuff in the arena.

Last night we watched the whole team practice their tests in the stadium under floodlights with the full GB kit on (including plaits) and Lee’s test was particularly impressive.

He has long made it known that his horse Gentleman is new to competing at the top level and the pair have had their ups and downs. On Wednesday morning Lee described them as being on the brink of “divorce proceedings” but later that night they looked magical.

Gentleman is a good-looking horse and if they perform like that on the day they’ll be hard to beat.

It’s also been great to get to know the riders. Simon Laurens has some hilarious stories about his superstitions including his hatred of the number three which is unfortunate since he’s a Grade 3 rider and therefore every competition number starts with that number for him.

He has had hypnosis to help him with it so fingers crossed it worked!

Debbie Criddle told me about her music choice for the Kur - expect some Wet, Wet, Wet!

I also finally had time to chat with Anne Dunham who is looking super-relaxed as always on Teddy. This is her fourth Paralympics. She’s won team gold at every one and sounds as determined as ever to do the same here.

Like every Paralympian I’ve met, Anne talked openly about her disability. She has multiple sclerosis and over the years has had to move down the grades in para dressage.

It sounds patronising to talk about bravery and I know none of the riders want sympathy but I have to say I find it inspiring hearing their stories of how they got to this level. Every one of the 72 riders from the 28 nations competing in para dressage here has a story of courage and how they overcame adversity.

They love this sport and they love their horses. Riding gives them the freedom to be just like everyone else. As Ricky Balshaw told me about his horse George: “He lends me his legs and we can take on the world.”

So to the action and I’m really looking forward to the start on Sunday morning. Like the Olympics, the para dressage is split into morning and evening sessions. It’s hard to know which will be best for our riders as the temperature and humidity doesn’t drop much in the evening.

I do, however, think it’s slightly cooler now than when I arrived at the beginning of August. Apparently the humidity will drop dramatically as September wears on but it’ll no doubt be too late for us.

It’s been a frantic seven days since I left the (relative) calm shores of the UK, flying out of Heathrow on the way to the Beijing Paralympics.

First stop: Hong Kong

Here, some of the British team were fine-tuning their preparations. Over the next few days, my plan was to film interviews with the squads in HK and Macau.

When we landed, it was encouraging to find my wheelchair was still in one piece and promptly available. Paralympic signs were up, officials were organised (and helpful) - within 45 minutes of touching down I had my accreditation and my luggage, and was arriving at the hotel!

As at the Olympics, Hong Kong is the venue for the equestrian events. As I arrived the Paralympic banners were being hoisted.

I stayed at the same hotel as a number of the GB athletes. It was good to catch up with some of my old table tennis colleagues, including Arnie Chan and Neil Robinson. Neil is taking part in his seventh Paralympic Games, and hasn’t aged!

But it’s also good to see some new faces in the squad, including 20-year-old Tunbridge Wells player Will Bayley.

The wheelchair racers were also in town - one of the fastest mondo tracks had been located in a suburb of the city.

My only real Chinese meal during my stay was at a small place in the square near the hotel - beef, rice, vegetables and Chinese tea cost me a mere 26 Hk dollars (£1.50). And having realised that I forgot to pack some toothpaste, I found I could get some next door for the same price!

I didn’t see much of HK, apart from Kowloon, where the Star Ferry takes you around the port, but the sight of those amazing skyscrapers and the hustle and bustle of the city is amazing to see.

Within 48 hours it was off to Macau.

This is where most of the GB squad were preparing.

I thought it would be a straightforward ferry crossing, but the taxi driver took me to the wrong port!

All my negotiating skills were needed to get swapped back to the correct ferry - however they were excellent and even gave me a 20 dollar refund.

I was joined by cameraman Steve Pook and reporter Lizzie Greenwood-Hughes, who has been covering the Olympic equestrian events for BBC Radio 5 Live.

Macau is something completely different, the gambling world of the East - but a dollar wasn’t wasted during my stay.

Sunday and Monday were a haze of filming at training venues and at the team hotel.

After a long day in Macau we jumped on the ferry back to HK, wherewe loaded the footage onto Steve’s laptop. The next day the first preview would be transmitted on Sport 24.

Tuesday morning was another early start. We went across town to catch up with Dave Weir and the wheelchair racers, who were training in blistering heat and humid conditions.

Dave is in good form ahead of the Games and he can’t wait to start competing in the Bird’s Nest, where he has already raced in May.

Seven days after leaving London, we’re now in Beijing and it’s full-on in the International Broadcast Centre. The world’s media are starting to descend on what I’m sure will be a compelling 13th Paralympics.

Here in Beijing, there’s no sign of Olympic fever abating. Chinese Television is still re-running highlights from the Games; crowds still gather around the perimeter of the Olympic Green to have their photos taken with a backdrop of the Bird’s Nest Stadium and there seems to be an Olympic souvenir store on every street corner doing a roaring trade. Even at Beijing Zoo, sales of the panda-like mascots seem as popular as visits to the real life Giant Pandas!

With the Opening Ceremony taking place next Saturday, Beijing is ready for Paralympic fever to take over. No sign yet of Paralympic souvenirs but the first tangible signs were the replacement a few days ago of all the Olympic banners that line the streets of the city with the Paralympic versions. Street signs have changed too with directions to Paralympic venues instead. For ‘Olympic Village’ read ‘Paralympic Village’.

When the Olympic medal table is swapped for the Paralympic version, it’s a near certainty that China will again top the table. They did so four years ago in Athens, so for the rest of the world, it’s a question of who will come second. Great Britain has come second for the last two Games. In Athens they won 35 Golds with a medals total of 94 and have been set a Beijing target by UK Sport of winning 112 medals. A stiff challenge! With Team GB having exceeded their Olympic medals target and achieved their best performance for a hundred years, one wonders how much extra pressure this puts on Paralympics GB.

In particular, the spotlight will be turned on athletics and swimming. Swimming have been set a lower target this time around, 41 as opposed to 52 medals won four years ago. The opposite is the case for Athletics who are expected by UK Sport to win 13 more medals than their Athens achievement of 17. They are hoping stars like David Weir can become multi-medallists and returning champions such as Danny Crates can repeat their Athens success. In swimming, David Roberts will be hoping to add to his tally of gold medals and beat Tanni Grey-Thompson’s record of 11 gold medals. The pressure, however, will be on all 206 athletes competing in 18 sports to deliver. Public interest and expectation will again be high with London 2012 on the horizon; a challenge for the team and for the BBC.

Following the successes of our Olympic coverage, our aim across all of the BBC’s output must be to put in a ‘Team BBC’ performance that does full justice to those of the athletes. We aim to feature the achievements of Paralympics GB and many of the other performances by the world’s top Paralympians; athletes such as South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius and swimmer Natalie Du Toit. Three distinguished former Paralympians join the BBC team for the Games - 11 time Paralympic Gold medallist Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, wheelchair basketball bronze medallist Ade Adepitan and swimmer Marc Woods along with familiar faces and voices such as Clare Balding, Steve Cram, Paul Dickenson, Eddie Butler, Nick Mullins and Bob Ballard.

BBC television coverage will be more extensive than ever before with six hours a day of live coverage, starting at 1000 BST, being streamed on the red button and broadband each weekday with a one hour highlights show on BBC Two at 1900 each night. At weekends, the coverage starts on the red button/broadband and then switches to BBC One or Two for the afternoon. All BBC One and Two output will also be simultaneously shown on the BBC High Definition channel. Both the Opening and Closing ceremonies will be broadcast live including the London handover moment on the final day.

BBC Radio 5 Live will also have a dedicated team in Beijing to provide news and commentary throughout the Games with the BBC’s award winning Disability Sport (currently renamed Paralympics) website providing news, features and blogs alongside live streaming. There are also teams from News and Nations & Regions providing specific content for all the BBC local tv and radio stations.

We’re looking forward to a great Games; another terrific sporting spectacle. As always, we’ll endeavour to convey the drama and excitement of world class sporting competition to audiences back home. We make no apologies for it but the BBC is ready to convey ‘Paralympic fever’ to the UK.

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