2008 Olympics Updates

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.

The dust has been settling over the past few days and although I don’t think our disappointment at not winning the gold will ever go away, I am beginning to put things into more perspective day by day.

We actually had a great race and I honestly don’t know what we could have done to go faster.

If I had my day again I wouldn’t change what we did; physically and tactically we put together the best race we ever have; we went as fast as we possibly could on the day. And as an athlete this is the most I have ever asked of myself.

Earlier in the week before the race we took a pack of cards and wrote a strength on each one – experience, desire to win, our faith and trust in each other and in everyone that was supporting us.

In the race it felt like we laid down every single one of those cards and delivered every strength we had. Unfortunately for us the Chinese had just one more joker left at the end.

It has been such a great journey to be a part of this crew and one that I will look back on with a lot of pride and many great memories.

If someone had said five years ago that by August 2008 I would be three-times world champion and double Olympic silver medallist I wouldn’t have believed them, but I would have taken it with both hands.

To be at my third Olympics is just absolutely incredible and to win a second silver medal might be hugely frustrating but it is still absolutely awesome too.

There are so many people that helped us become the crew that we were and we are so grateful to all of them.

Coaches, psychologists, physiotherapists, everyone has given up so much time to our goal and lived our journey with us through all the ups and downs with all their hearts and souls.

I am just so sorry that this did not have the ending we all hoped for.

Thank you everyone so much for all your support.

We are now all doing our best to enjoy the rest of the Games, and to cheer the rest of Team GB on as loudly as we possibly can!

It’s been my first Olympics and while I’m disappointed not to get a medal, it’s been a fine line all the way.

Let me start by putting straight what I said after I was knocked out of the archery in the last 16 earlier today.

I was cheesed off with my performance and then went straight into interviews. Sometimes you say stuff in the heat of the moment which you otherwise wouldn’t.

I always said I wanted to compete in the Olympics and finish with a smile on my face and I didn’t do that, but now I’ve been to the gym for an hour, I’ve had time to reflect a bit more.

Our coach Peter Suk has had a lot of time for me and a lot of belief in my ability, although sometimes I want him to be a bit more enthusiastic about me.

But I can’t complain about the support he has given us – and it’s me standing on the line shooting the arrows. We’ll have a review in the weeks after the Olympics, but this has been one huge learning curve for us all.

There’s been a few ups and downs for me personally from the opening qualifying for the team event to beating the Athens Olympic champion in the individual event.

I started off well in the team competition last weekend but one bad dozen on the fourth end left me in 21st place, but it was my best score of the season so far so I was happy with my performance.

There was a tricky crosswind which was difficult to read making things even harder, but to give you some idea of the level of competition, my score was one point better than I shot in my last World Cup meet in France when I placed 12th.

A day of chilling out followed before the elimination rounds started and we lost 214-210 to China.

It was a disappointing finish, but the team has not shot together too many times this year and after a good year last year, there was a lot of expectation on us.

It was a good opportunity for us but it’s a fine line between hitting the gold and slipping into the red.

I had a strange interlude when I went down to cheer on the British women in the individual event. Charlotte Burgess and Naomi Folkard met in the round of 32 and an extra coach was needed to offer moral support and sort out their arrows.

I was asked to help Charlotte out and although I’ve never done anything like it before, I did so.

Charlotte didn’t shoot that well, but it was up to me to try and lift her spirits, as Naomi started to pull away.

Before the last end I just told her to shoot like they were the last arrows she was ever going to shoot in her life – it was a great privilege to be in that position and good experience.

It was then time to focus on my individual event on Wednesday – I only scored 103, but beat Italy’s Mauro Nespoli in the first elimination round.

My score was not as good as team-mates Larry Godfrey and Simon Terry, but they both went out.

I wanted to do better in the next round, not just for myself, but for the whole team.

I faced the reigning Olympic champion Marco Galliazo, also from Italy in the next round and I put in a great performance, but I still needed a 10 from my final arrow to progress.

The adrenaline was really pumping and I just told myself that there was nowhere else the arrow was going, but in the centre gold.

I knew pretty much as soon as it left the bow that it was on target, but it was still a relief to see it go in and I won 110-109.

It was a brilliant feeling to beat the Italian and he told me that I had better go on and win the tournament now.

But then the day was over and I had a day off before going back for the last 16 round.

I was getting into a good rhythm on the Wednesday and I reckon I would have gone much further if the competition had continued.

That’s not the way it works though and I had to come back today where I lost my first match against a Cuban 108-104.

It was hugely disappointing, but you win some and you lose some and I’m 95% sure I’ll be back for London 2012.

First up though is to enjoy the rest of the Olympics, then it’s home for a review with the archery team and then I plan to take a bit of break from the recurve and go back to the field archery and take part in the World Games next year.

I’ll be back in a couple of weeks, though, to let you know about the rest of my Olympics experience and more on the future.

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

Some news that has been slightly overlooked in light of everything else in the last week: the Beijing Olympics will be missing one more gold medal holder since Justin Henin has announced her (shock) retirement.
Described as the best of her generation by former Champion Billie-Jean King, Henin is the reigning World no 1, and French [...]