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Please note: The views expressed on this page do not necessarily reflect those of Microsoft and/or the British Olympic Association.
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| Diary - Victoria Keller |
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I am a Technical Account Manager within Microsoft Services focused on providing escalation management and training to three of our strategic Partners.
Aside from the day job I enjoy a host of activities including running, diving, cycling and of course the usual socialising with friends.
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| Wednesday 25 August |
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Apparently my technical status (according to the BOC guys) has elevated so much that my mere presence causes everything to fix itself. Highly amusing considering how technically inept I usually am. This is like boot camp remembering all of those things you thought you would never use.
I didn’t think I was going to make it through the morning with the excitement of knowing we had tickets for the cycling in the afternoon. I was seriously clock watching until we could go :-)
Kelly Holmes coming in with her medal soon sorted the clock watching though. Having been there to watch her win it, to meet her in person and see the medal was fantastic. The the photo collection of team members we have seen so far this week is enormous now - think Dee may be getting a tad fed up with me snapping at everything!
The Velodrome looks a bit like an alien space ship from outside and is much bigger than it looks on tv. Because it has a roof but is open all around the sides it was massively hot, like a hat keeping in the heat. It proved too much for Dee at one point who nodded off. How you can nod off where there are 20,000 people cheering I have no idea, but she has quite a talent there!
We met a fantastic Canadian girl at the Lodge from UK Cycling and she was on hand to explain the rules and the points system for the Madison and the Keirin events. They have to be the most bizarre spectacles to watch with tons of cyclists on the track at the same time, you are just waiting for the collision! It did happen in the end and the GB team was hit - we were convinced that was it - but the guys did a sterling job of getting back on track and we came in with a bronze. Well done!!!
Considering my knee is now sorted we thought we would take advantage of the newly found ability to walk and go for a wander around the centre of Athens. It turned out to be a bit of an epic wander, interspersed with a few stop offs for a beer here and there and so going to bed at 4am is going to make it interesting tomorrow!
Oh well last night and all....had to be done!
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| Tuesday 24 August |
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I am cured. Vaughn is a genius, have decided I will marry an osteopath.
Having spent the last two weeks hobbling around with a 'dodgy knee' (obviously a very accurate diagnosis from me) I reluctantly agreed to let Vaughn have a look at it. I have heard lots about sessions with osteopaths before and as I am not a fan of pain - Dee had to talk me into it. Half an hour later and a few clicks in the right spot and I am cured. Displaced cartilage or some such. But Vaughn, you are a genius!!
Dee, who had been brave enough to go first, had her back looked at and spent the next hour and a half asleep on the sofa because she was so relaxed. Have a lovely picture of her all curled up looking like an angel with little rosy cheeks :) (obviously going to get passed around to everyone we know in the office!)
The café was really quiet, thank goodness so got the chance to spend some time with the UK Cycling team understanding how they use technology to enhance performance. Needless to say we have come away with millions of ideas on how to help them get the competitive edge - so there will be lots to do later.
The lodge was packed for Amir Khan's fight and we were expecting a spectacle…not one over in five minutes though! It was fantastic the whole room was gripped. I myself am a tad gutted…my uncle is a boxing coach and told me to bet my house on him winning a medal….why do I never listen???? :-(
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| Monday 23 August |
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The day started with Greg Whyte (Director of Science and Research at the English Institute of Sport and one of the managers of the lodge here) being interviewed on the marathon outcome for the BBC and ITN News so there was a bit more excitement for the morning. (There you go Greg, see you do get a mention in the end! - not sure why this is better than your own slot on the BEEB but each to his own!!)
The café was really quite busy today and due to the minor technical hiccups and really REALLY slow connectivity everyone seemed to be in for an eternity. Dee had the fantastic task of locating a printer cartridge in a city with traffic restrictions and - at the moment - a total addiction to the TV, but in persevering got one about 5 hours later - a truly Olympic effort on her part!
Definitely the focul point of the day was the night at the Athletics - entering the main stadium was awe inspiring - with it's 80,000 capacity sold out it gives you shivers when you enter. I was stunned to see the mass of union jacks across the stadium. We were really well represented and the support for the guys was great. Dee was a bit torn whether to go support with the Irish contingent when Sonia O'Sullivan was running - but I think because the beers were with us, the choice was made!
We sat for the evening with Vaughn (Osteopath to the team) and Steve (High Performance Manager for UK Athletics) (See Dee - where you weren't listening - I was :0)) and so we had the perfect guides to the form the team were in and assessment of the competition and got to sit amongst the friends and families of the athletes. It is definitely the way to do it!!
Dean Macey in the Decathlon high jump was definitely one to watch, having been injured in the long jump we all expected a conservative show, caught up in the event however Dene stunned us all and won the high jump with 2.15m and getting a personal best!
One thing I have always had on my list of things to do is to be in the stadium when we win a gold in the Olympics - and it was much better than we had imagined. Kelly did us proud and the singing from the Brits was fairly deafening when we got to the medal ceremony - not something I will forget in a hurry. We are all waiting with bated breath now to see if she can double up in the 1500m over the next few days.
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| Sunday 22 August |
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Did have good intentions of going to bed early on Saturday night but the plan went slightly out of the window when a pool party next door got into full swing. Unsurprisingly the early morning to go to see the waterpolo was a bit challenging.
More challenging was arriving without suncreen and hats to discover that - despite being advertised as indoor - the game was being held at the outdoor pool. Now I am not exactly white, more blue (apparently - thanks Dee - flatterer!) and so we were running for cover at the end of each quarter as the heat was a killer. On day one it was all a bit too much for me so Dee - in mum mode - made me go and lie in a cold room to recuperate.
Thought we were heading for a bit of a disaster at one point; three of the machines in the café wouldn’t start up. Initially I was thinking that they too needed to spend some time in the cold room to recuperate considering quite how hot it is in here. However, taking in hand the lesson from the Chris Hoy photo yesterday - quick check of the power and we were all back up - we will make an engineer out of me yet ;-)
We had a visit from Richard Caborn minister for Sport later in the day who had come for a tour of the facilities and wanted to see how the athletes are using the internet café facilities at the lodge to keep in touch with family and friends and to assist in tracking their performance. So far all of the VIP visitors to the lodge have written a little note to teamGB wishing them luck…. The task for the next hour or so was deciphering Richard's best doctor handwriting as it had stumped OneNote's handwriting recognition - having stumped us too we were thinking of posting it here as a competition!
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| Saturday 21 August |
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Starting the day on a very bad footing I had to miss all of the rowing excitement as I was mid flight. Fortunately enough the pilot did realise (eventually!) that considering we were all on the way to Athens we were probably going to be a bit interested in the results and finally put us out of our misery and gave the news of successes in the coxless fours and the two women's sculls, greeted with a big cheer on board.
It was a fantastic day to arrive. There was such excitement around the lodge and considering the press coverage earlier in the week, it was great for the team to show what they really can do.
Having been here for about an hour and Dee having left to watch the trampolining, in true first day style it all went wrong with the printers packing in within about 5 minutes of her leaving. Initiation by fire, but we are all back on track now, and I'm good and familiar with how this all hangs together now!
To celebrate the successes the rowing team hosted a pool party last night which was a great chance to meet the lodge team and get to know some of teamGB. Once again I was rather embarrassingly technically challenged for a long while when trying to take a picture of Dee and Chris Hoy (Gold medallist 1K Time Trial) - I have now found that turning the camera on helps quite a lot in making it work - oops!!! - I blame it on the jetlag ;-)
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