Category Archives: Olympics

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London 2012 one year on: 29th July – women’s team final

29 July, 2013

A year ago today I went to Lords Cricket ground for the first of three sessions at the Olympic archery venue. Here’s to the memories. 

At 8.30 this morning I wake up in Berlin, of all places. Long story. Then it’s walk to the station, train, plane, bus, train, tube, bus (to office to dump stuff), bus, tube, and another bus to find myself outside Lords shortly before the 3pm afternoon session with my eight year old nephew. Thanking the transport gods, we go in. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him, and it’s probably the first time I’ve properly hung out with him, ever. If I’m going to finally do ‘uncle stuff’, it’s best I kick it off in style: the women’s team Olympic archery final. I sit him down outside and explain how important the day is to the both of us. He’s, like, yeah, whatever Uncle John.  I know now he’s more interested in Star Wars, but one day, he’ll thank me.

We are up in stand 2 on the right of the shooting lanes, so we can see the right-handers front on. Good. Unfortunately the Team GB women got knocked out this morning by a rampant Russia. E wants to support someone, but he seems a bit lost as to who until the noise level around us cranks up, and the excitement builds. Korea are shooting. The immense shower that follows rattles no one (it’s the rainiest day of the shoot and leads to some of the more spectacular photographs). No one even flinches. Me and E hide under an umbrella in the bedraggled stand. You wonder if, given the training standards in Korea, seven years ago the developing squad heard something like “Oh, the Olympics is in London? Rainy old London? Right, turn the hoses on…”. As Ki Bo Bae, Lee Sung-Jin and Choi Hyeongju demolish a miserable looking Denmark, E has picked his team. Luckily the two Korean lads in front of us, who have taken a shine to him, have some spare flags and noisemakers.

The rhythms of the team event become gradually familiar as the afternoon winds on. The ‘third’ up first, usually looking the most nervous of the trio, the quick to the mark second, and the grimly determined first, usually the most senior member. The widest shoulders. The anchor. The skip. The one with the most difficult job. As the gold medal match between China and Korea comes up, no one seems to have taken to this role with more fervour than Yuting Fang…

 

…a 22 year old of terrifying focus and will. Although she is run a close second by the Japanese skip Ren Hayakawa, the string sometimes distorting her face into a terrifying, malevolent rictus grin.

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Both pics source: Paul Gilham/Getty Images Europe

The script is for Korea to win, as it has been for decades. But China come incredibly close. It is down to Ki Bo Bae, needing that 9. I remember watching her, and not the arrow, and then listening to the roar. Just another day at the office. Perfect.

VIDEO to follow: Korea v Denmark in the rain, 29/07/12 at Lords Cricket Ground.

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Olympic Archery 1996: glory days

25 February, 2013

YouTube, eh? Where would lazy afternoons at work be without it? There is this incredible 25 minute video of the 1996 Olympic archery competition. The ’96 Games were held in Atlanta, Georgia with the archery portion being held at Stone Mountain Park nearby; a spectacular, brooding backdrop. You can watch it all here:

I like a lot of things about this film. The amazing displays of what would now be considered quite unorthodox techniques (especially releases). The ‘Hollywood’ inserts. The weird split channel audio. There are many highlights: the mixture of horror and bafflement on a Korean archer’s face at shooting a six. Some seriously 90s bow paint jobs. The way Kim Kyung-Wook comes down, calms down, and recomposes herself to take out a ten and the match – the mental strength, the composure, boggle the mind. In the gold medal match, she takes out the camera in the centre of the ten-ring twice.

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It starts getting really good with the men’s individual, though, and the arrival of Justin Huish. The US team (above), in the era before they let half-decent designers do the national team kits, have ended up looking slightly like a local baseball team in a heartwarming underdog movie. Huish, with his wraparounds and his hint-of-Fonzie burns is a curious mix of slacker king and pumped-aggression. There’s something threatening about him.

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The semi-final match between his and the legend that is Michele Frangilli (looking, with that glove, and that draw-all-over-his-face, like an off-duty Bond villain’s henchman) is a doozy. Watch it all here. The crowd goes apeshit, and does it again for Huish’s semi. You can see him start to respond with more and more passion. By the time he walks out for the final with M Petersson you can see him just drinking it in.

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Playing to the crowd, confidence oozing. Writing the script. As the final winds on, he starts increasingly displaying a showy tic of holding his draw hand index finger to his neck. Look at me. It’s all me.

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The denoument is a delight. The sight of an athlete responding to an ecstatic crowd, using them as a spur, setting up that feedback loop of confidence is one of the delights of watching sport. That sense of collective drama and tension. Sadly, in archery, you only usually get those kind of crowds once or twice every four years. The quality may be there, but the event is missing. (I was never much of a football fan until someone took me to see Arsenal play in the late 1990s. Standing in the North Bank when the home team scored; the noise is just… narcotic. Like nothing else. As William Blake wrote: “Energy is pure delight.”) I don’t think archery should be like football, but I want those collective feelings. I want that sense of narrative.

The film also contains a melancholic contrast to the earlier displays; in the women’s team competition, the sight of Cornelia Pfohl shooting, and then… ah, I’ll let you watch it. It’s better watched than written about (and watched till the end).

There’s a well-known post-story too. In 2001, Justin Huish’s life took a sharp turn and his archery career fell apart. You can read about that here. He was still shooting in the 2000s, and has been seen at a variety of US tournaments in recent years, including Vegas this year.  He was the first male archer to do the ‘double’ of Olympic and team gold in the same year (matched by Ku Bonchan in Rio). Someone should interview him again one of these days.

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archery on tv? must try harder

2 January, 2013

mm

A couple of days ago the BBC broadcast a one-off ‘Olympic special’ version of Superstars, that hoary old TV standby that has been airing here and there since the early 1970s. It featured a medium-stellar cast of British Olympic medal winners prepared to look daft on television, and one of the biggest stars of the summer Games: Mo Farah. On the 4th August last year I was in a packed pub in Knightsbridge in London screaming ‘GO ON!’ at a TV screen as Mo held them all off to take gold in the 10,000 metres – one of the highlights of the Games for me and many others. Barely four days later, he won the 5000 metres as well. Just glorious.

Anyway, someone thought it would be a good idea to have archery in the mix for Superstars. However, ‘a good idea’ was about as far as they went, in terms of execution. You can watch the segment here – it’s around ten minutes.

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It’s basically a straight up have-a-go-at-archery day, with Samick trainer bows (with the branding on the limbs covered up, naturally), Jazz arrows, full size target faces, and, egregiously, no distance specified. I mean, they don’t do that for the running events, do they? Imagine that: “Just sprint to about, ooh, there should do it.” It looks like about ten yards or so. The ‘oche’, the split screen, and the black cyclorama unfortunately gave proceedings just a hint of the much missed Bullseye. Speaking of ‘bullseye’, the commentator pulls at least one of them out of the bag [smacks wrist]. Still, at least no-one mentions Robin Ho… oh, Iwan Thomas. You did.

Given how seriously pisspoor a bunch of top Olympic athletes are at barebow shooting, I suspect none of them had more than half an hour’s training (as the commentary pretty much admits). If you’ve completed a archery beginners’ course, take comfort in the fact that you can most likely thrash an Olympic gold medallist at at least one sport.

Let’s have a look at a couple of people’s technique:

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Here we see Nicola Adams (gold, boxing (flyweight)). Stance looks good, head a bit tilted though, and her bow arm needs to be straighter…

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Mo Farah (gold, 5k and 10k). Bow arm looks better, but your rear elbow is too high, Mo, and your draw hand is crooked (like I can talk)… 

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Michael Jamieson (silver, 200m breaststroke). Much better. Head straight, mostly in line, but a four finger draw? Dear me. Still, he won, if you’re interested. 

As for the bog-standard vapid commentary and talking-head links: least said the better. Although this is, of course, endemic to modern TV. Nothing can possibly be allowed to happen without cutting away to a couple of people who barely know anything more about the subject than you do filling in thirty seconds. What do you reckon? Well, Gabby… (or Gary, or Hazel, or John…)

I’m not expecting miracles from an entertainment programme, and I appreciate the limitations of time, but some of the other sports weren’t treated quite so casually. For the swimming round, they got (Beijing gold medallist) Rebecca Adlington in to train the competitors. (Did no one have Alison Williamson’s phone number?) The sprint races were timed and started professionally. They got Paul Dickenson in to do the commentary, just like a real major championships.

Archery? “Oh, just do whatever.” Must try harder.

 

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The long hard road to Rio

19 December, 2012

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UK elite archery has its UK Sport grant cut from £4.4m to £3.1m ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics after it failed to deliver a medal at London 2012 – a 29.5% decrease. This move was widely anticipated after archery failed to meet the targets (*ahem*) set for it by the Olympic funding commitee. (I wrote about the consequences of the Olympic failure earlier this year.)

The Paralympic portion of the funding is going to remain almost exactly the same. Team GB Paralympic archers, of course, took home one gold and one silver this year.

This news comes only days after the news of an 133% increase in funding for archery from Sport England, the (different) government body in charge of grassroots funding of sport, which has been widely hailed as great news.

To be honest, archery hasn’t done too badly compared to basketball, table tennis, basketball and volleyball, all of whom had their Olympic funding withdrawn:

“Some of the sports held up as the biggest crowd-pleasers and legacy drivers during the London Olympics have had their funding cut altogether ahead of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. Table tennis, wrestling, handball, basketball and indoor volleyball have had their financial support withdrawn by UK Sport, while beach volleyball will receive just £400,000 over four years to fund the women’s team.

The elite-sport funding agency was forced to defend the tough decisions on minority sports, made under its “no-compromise formula” that targets public money only at genuine medal hopes, at a time when the Olympic legacy is under scrutiny.

“I think people understand that when you host a home Olympics you have to put teams out in every single sport. Bizarre though it sounds to say it now, the rationale is to drive ticket sales,” said the sports minister Hugh Robertson. “When people look at it, they know that is done on a performance basis. There is not a lot of point at this level, funding teams that are not going to qualify for the Olympics.”

source: The Guardian

Alison Williamson has responded here.

“Facebook / Twitter? I turned it all off. “

10 September, 2012

Particularly interesting interview with Larry Godfrey from a local Bristolian website. Bold mine.

How did you manage to work and train in the lead up to the Olympics?

“After the Beijing Olympics I came back to work full-time and was then granted part-time status for three years. This meant I worked 20 hrs a week with flexible hours which allowed me to attend training and competitions. This is great support to get from your employer.”

What is it like training and holding down a job?

“This was my third Olympics so I am used to the working/training/competing cycle. I am back working full-time again now so today, for example, I will work until 4pm and then train at the archery club.”

Any similarities between archery & your day job?

“Definitely with the set up and tuning of my equipment I don’t settle for any small margins – I want perfection. I have suggested improvements that other archers have made to the set up and tuning of their equipment and they have instantly shot better. I work to margins of 1,000ths of inches in work so to me it comes naturally to apply this mindset to my archery.

“I strive for perfection in the way I shoot which is what I try to do in my day job – constantly trying to improve. We never settle down and just do work here which is how I am when I stand up to shoot arrows I am always looking for that next enhancement and how to improve on my last shot. So I think it is very similar and my work compliments my archery and my archery compliments my work.”

What support did you get from work colleagues in the run up to and during the Olympics?

“I’ve worked with the same great bunch of people for a long time. They’ve been with me through the three games now so there is a lot of banter but they do support me in my archery and with the job when I am away training or at competitions.

“I also received an email from our CEO John Rishton wishing me luck which was nice and at previous Games I received similar support from Sir John Rose. It’s great to know that people within the company are backing you and wishing you well.”

Did you receive support via Facebook/Twitter?

“I turned it all off. There was a lot of discussion about using social media before and during the Olympics. A few athletes have come out and blamed Facebook/Twitter for costing them their medals as they became obsessed and couldn’t ignore hurtful comments but I’m glad I made the decision to switch it off until after my games were finished. Afterwards I saw all the comments from friends and family and people I don’t even know who said that I inspired them to take up archery or to pick up their bow again or to commit to training. This included lots of children who are very excited about archery which is great for the future of the sport.”

What was it like competing in a ‘home’ Games?

“The home crowd made it the best arena I have ever shot in – everyone was firmly behind me. There were some surreal moments – walking out from the practice range to get to my match I had a line of troops either side all clapping me which was a fantastic experience. At my third match there was a group in the crowd all wearing masks of my face and I don’t know who they were or where they got the masks from but it was fun to see. I would have liked to have gone through a couple of more rounds just for the benefit of the crowd who were really enjoying the events.

“A lot of the Olympic helpers were friends and fellow archers from around the country. Being surrounded by familiar, friendly faces kept it low key, less hyped up and it being my third Olympics I had more of an idea what to expect. I felt fairly relaxed – the only nerves I had were just a bit of apprehension which you get before competing at any event.”

You were knocked out of the last 16 by one shot at the target – was that difficult to take?

“I went out in the last 16 and looking at the scores I finished 9th. I’ve done all the research and looked at the stats throughout the competition for myself and the four finalists and I was shooting better than the bronze and silver medallists – in fact I was shooting at the same level as the gold medallist. The way the competition is set up and the brutal single arrow decision meant I went out when I did but I was shooting at medal level. I’ve gone over and over all the data and I’ve put it down to bad luck.

“I was planning to pull out a Personal Best when it mattered most and I achieved just that I was confident and I knew I was good enough to win a medal – it just didn’t work within the setup of the competition. To be ranked 4th highest in the world behind the three Korean archers was a great achievement but unfortunately they don’t give out any medals for that.

“My Olympic experiences to date have been ones of bad luck I think. I came 4th in Athens when one arrow was blown by the wind in the semi-finals, otherwise that would have been a medal. I shot well in Beijing but my opponent in the 1st round shot fantastically and went on to win a bronze medal. In London I was shooting well but was unlucky on that last arrow. My opponent had a bunch of line calls which were in, I had a load that were deemed out and then on the last arrow I was hanging a little bit to the right so I aimed a little bit more to the left to give the arrow a chance to get in but still got buffeted by the wind. I looked at my opponent who adjusted and went right and he got a 10.

“Sport comes down to these fine margins. My shot could easily have hit the ten ring – and his could easily have hit the nine ring. That target is 70 metres away and the ten ring is the size of a grapefruit. I did everything I could possibly have done. But of course I’m disappointed I didn’t get a medal.”

It’s hard not to agree with his assessment that he was just unlucky in London. The wind whipped away a lot of people’s hopes. There is, of course, a random element to almost every sport, but few seem quite as capricious as the damnable wind; the djinn ready to strike and destroy a lifetime’s ambitions.
I particularly liked the thing about turning off Facebook and Twitter, something I do from time to time, and some people consider to be an excellent, even essential thing to do. Larry’s attitude towards his Olympic experiences is the life lesson that needs to be shown rather than taught – you do all you can, you give your best, and when you get knocked back you try again. The best you can give is enough. The process is the reward. His attitudes towards life and sport should be broadcast more widely than an interview in the local paper.
Of course, Larry failing to make the last 8 sealed the perception that the Team GB archers had failed, particularly after the avalanche of British gold immediately following conclusion of the archery. The success of the Paralympic squad added weight to both sides of the balance sheet. All that money (the biggest percentage rise in funding for any Team GB Olympic sport after Beijing) and home advantage, and not even a sniff of a medal.
I’m not criticising the individual perfomances – and Amy Oliver particularly punched above her weight – but there was definitely a sense of underperformance which no talk of wind and luck seemed to abate. No one was really expecting any of them to beat the Koreans, but if his arrow had landed in the ten, and he had gone deeper – who knows. Even a last eight finish would have gone some way towards redemption. The fine margins he talks about apply to the governing body and the Performance Unit too. Funding. Money. That single X10 arrow landing a couple of inches away from its intended destination may cause changes that will ripple down UK archery for the next Olympic cycle and beyond.

terry

16 August, 2012

Another one I found in the archives: Simon Terry shooting at Lords a couple of weeks ago. The light got delightful as the afternoon drew on and the shadows got longer. The noise of the flag eyelets rattling gently in the wind still stays with me. Gently exotic.

I was pleased with my seats for the sessions, generally speaking – although the difference between the £90 tickets and the £30 tickets were relatively minimal. Really easy to see the archers, although you had to crane your neck a bit to the left to see the giant screen. I can still remember it. Actually, I’m still glowing with pride that I was there. What a year.

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OLYMPIC ARCHERY: LONDON 2012 – 31st July

31 July, 2012

At 8.30 this morning I wake up in bloody Berlin. Long story. Then it’s walk to the station, train, plane, bus, train, tube, bus (to office to dump stuff), bus, tube, and another bus to find myself outside Lords shortly before the 3pm afternoon session with my eight year old nephew. Thanking the transport gods, we go in. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him, and it’s probably the first time I’ve hung out with him, ever. If I’m going to finally do ‘uncle stuff’, it’s best I kick it off in style: the women’s team Olympic archery final. I know now he’s more interested in Star Wars, but one day, he’ll thank me.

We are up in stand 2 on the right of the shooting lanes, so we can see the right-handers front on. Good. Unfortunately the Team GB women got knocked out this morning by a rampant Russia. E wants to support someone, but he doesn’t know who, until the noise level around us cranks up, and the excitement builds. Korea are shooting. The immense shower that follows rattles no one (it’s the rainiest day of the shoot and leads to some of the more spectacular photographs). No one even flinches. You wonder if, given the standards in Korea, seven years ago the developing squad heard something like “Oh, the Olympics is in London? Rainy old London? Right, turn the hoses on…”. As Ki Bo Bae, Lee Sung-Jin and Choi Hyeongju demolish a miserable looking Denmark, E has picked his team. Luckily the two lads in front of us, who have taken a shine to him, have some spare flags and noisemakers.

The rhythms of the team event become gradually familiar as the afternoon winds on. The ‘third’ up first, usually looking the most nervous of the trio, the quick to the mark second, and the grimly determined first, usually the most senior member. The widest shoulders. The anchor. The skip. The one with the most difficult job. As the gold medal match between China and Korea comes up, no one seems to have taken to this role with more fervour than Yuting Fang:

Source: Paul Gilham/Getty Images Europe

a 22 year old of terrifying focus and will. The script is for Korea to win, as it has been for decades. But China come incredibly close. It is down to Ki Bo Bae, needing that 9. I remember watching her, and not the arrow, and then listening to the roar. Just another day at the office. Perfect.

You can still watch the whole thing here for a while.