Games Maker Test event: an SOS, BMX fans

It is now barely three weeks until I walk onto the Olympic Park for my Games Maker test event at the BMX track.

In case you have missed earlier posts, I will be working in the Press Operations team as a Flash Quote Reporter. Having not had the training yet, I have learnt via Google that this will involve interviewing the riders after they compete.

Firstly, a confession: I don’t follow BMX. I am a big cycling fan and follow road and track, but BMX and mountain aren’t really my bag. Perhaps it’s because my 6’+ frame isn’t conducive to having a go myself, which means my interest is low.

In fact, my only experience of BMX is of watching some ‘crazy dudes’ doing tricks on a ramp on some Rob Walker-presented extreme sports programme on Channel 4. I’m being flippant, of course. The racing form of BMX has the potential to do for the summer Games what ski cross did for Vancouver last year. There, it was easily one of the most exciting events.

This is where I need help. Can anyone give me some info on the BMX riders competing? Who’s a darling? Who’s an obnoxious little git that will spur my questions?

Are there things I should ask from previous competitions? Are there any rivalries? And should I ask Shanaze Reade about that incident in Beijing?

Any help gratefully received. If not, I shall revert to ‘What’s the new track like?’, ‘Are you looking forward to London 2012?’ and ‘Aren’t the crowds great?’.

You have been warned.

Games Maker test event update

Well, it is now only a month to the day until my first foray into the world of volunteering at the Olympics.

Yep, on 19-20 August I will be working as a Flash Quote Reporter at the BMX test event on the Olympic Park as part of the Press Operations team. With a month to go I have a few steps to get through before the event itself.

Firstly, on 3 August, I will be off to Earl’s Court to collect my ID pass and uniform. Not sure exactly what the ‘uniform’ consists of. I’m hoping it’s a rather snazzy polo shirt which I will be able to match up with some slacks of my own for the big day.

Let me make this clear: I have bad memories of uniforms. I worked at a large supermarket chain for three years whilst at uni and wore all sorts of ill-fitting nylon trousers of varying lengths (I am 6’ 4”), not to mention many off-white shirts and – during a period where my store had a stab at the of sartorial consistency you would expect at a chain hotel – a very, very tight tank top. All with the supermarket’s logo embroidered just above the left nipple, obviously. It was hell and my chances of catching the eye of the yummy-mummy’s who frequented the aisles on occasion was nil.

So it’s not without worry that I will arrive at Earl’s Court in a few weeks. Seeing as we will get to keep the uniform as a souvenir, I am hoping for something with some fashion ‘legs’ – if not, then that’s another item to my ever-growing car washing wardrobe.

Secondly, I have the event training on 13 August. Now this is exciting. It will take four hours and includes a tour of the venue and role-specific training.

The most interesting aspect is getting to the venue itself. I have been instructed to allow an hour to get from Stratford station to the venue, via a shuttle bus which will pick us up from the Olympic site entrance. What? How big is this place? Still, it will be a good opportunity to see how it’s all coming along and there is an air of exclusivity about it.

Apart from that, that’s all I know. But have no fear, I will be charting my experiences of the above, as well as the event itself, right here so make sure you come back to find out more.

Are the Olympic venues really ready?

It was all going so swimmingly.

Up until now we have had very few negative stories about the construction work leading up to the Games. Bearing in mind the furore over the building of the Millennium Dome and Wembley Stadium, this is a minor miracle.

Even the most evangelical optimist would have to concede that months of media mud-throwing about construction was surely inevitable leading up to the Games. Even more so when you consider the well-noted problems of Athens in 2004 and, more recently, the comically bad process of getting Delhi ready for last year’s Commonwealth Games.

But, no, we have had very little. A real achievement given that the UK won the bid to host the Games just as one of the worst post-war recessions hit.

Instead, negative press has surrounded the ‘legacy’ of the Games, amid reports that the sweeping £308m tax payer-funded media centre will be demolished straight after the Games. Not forgetting the very public handbags over the Olympic Stadium which, for now, is in the hands of Championship side West Ham.

In fact, the only real negative PR story the Games has faced to now has been – wait for it – Olympic tickets. I made a promise not to discuss that subject anymore here so I will move on now.

A real test?

Now a seed has been sown of a new potential problem – the venues might not be up to scratch. This week a test event at Greenwich Park – site of the Equestrian event – was roundly criticised by riders taking part as not up to standard.

Of course, this is what test events are for – to iron out issues. But the main focus of these events is to concentrate on how the events are organised and run in the venues, not to test the finished venues themselves from an athlete standpoint. Should the cyclists bemoan the state of the track come its test event next February, won’t it be too late to rip up all that expensive Siberian pine?

With a whole series in the pipeline over the coming months, the organisers will be rightly nervous. To recap, the further test events this summer are:

Hadleigh Farm Mountain Bike International, 31 July, Hadleigh Farm, Essex
FIVB Beach Volleyball International, 9-14 August, Horse Guards Parade
London International Basketball Invitational, 16-21 August, Basketball Arena
UCI BMX Supercross World Cup 2011 – London, 19-20 August, BMX Track

The next one – at the mountain bike event – has the potential to go the same way. There has already been wide-spread criticism of the course, so what the pros make of it as they pop their Hadleigh Farm cherry will be interesting.

Not forgetting the BMX event in August. Will Shanaze Reade be on the offensive should she ‘do a Beijing’ on the new track? That I will be able to answer for myself as I am working that test event interviewing the athletes after they compete. Watch this space for that one.

The real issue that may come out of this is about preparation. Sure, the venues look impressive – and have been finished on time – but will they pass through the test events? Has deadline-making made way for quality venues for both athletes and fans?

The next few months will provide a lot of answers.

Is the BOA’s lifetime drugs ban fair?

I don’t think the British Olympic Association’s (BOA) lifetime ban on drugs users is fair. There, I said it. Controversial, yes; but let me explain.

Let me make one thing clear from the off: there’s no doubt in my mind that cheating in any sport is deplorable, as you not only cheat rivals and fans, but also yourself.

But the story of David Millar – the Scottish cyclist banned for two years for taking the performance enhancing drug, EPO – has made me realise it’s not always so black and white. At the moment I am reading Millar’s rather splendid biography, Racing Through the Dark.

Millar will not be able to compete for Great Britain at next year’s home Olympics as he is banned for life by the BOA. It is something that Millar clearly finds frustrating and upsetting, as this interview shows.

The easy line to take here is to have no sympathy for him and re-iterate that he bought it on himself. I would normally agree, but having read his book, I have a slightly different take.

Millar was a pro cyclist with a strong anti-drugs stance when he started out back in 1997. In the murky world of professional cycling of that era he was surrounded by dopers and teammates who he knew were enhancing their performance. He held strong and raced clean knowing that he didn’t want to win that way.

But what is detailed in his book is how the pressure and physical demands of being a pro cyclist gradually wore him down. Being a team leader with responsibilities and pressures eventually led him to roll up his sleeve and join the dark side.

Now, I am one for being harsh; for saying ‘you should have held strong, you idiot’. Even more so as the book details how he stopped taking EPO to prove he could win a stage of the Tour de France without the drugs – he did and he won.

But I implore you to read Millar’s pained description of the shame of winning the wrong way. His inner despair whilst standing on the top of the podium having won the World Time Trial Championships is an explicit example of how by taking drugs you cheat yourself.

And there is a beautifully written line which, for me, sums up what it must feel like to take drugs and win. ‘I had realised that the more I doped, the more I hated cycling – and the more it became my job, and not my passion’. Here is a perfect articulation of how the simple joy of winning and competing can get lost amongst the demands of teammates, agents and sponsors.

Which brings me back to my original question. Millar has come back from his ban (with the support of David Brailsford, Team GB’s main man, don’t forget) to take a very strong anti-drugs stance as part of the Garmin-Cervelo cycling team. If his own sport accepts him and he can ride for his country at the Commonwealth Games (as he did – and won – last year) why can’t he compete at the Olympics?

This is murky water, of course. Dwain Chambers is in the same boat as Millar, but Christine Ohuruogu was free to race and claim gold in Beijing in 2008 (and will be again next year), despite being banned for a year for missing three out of competition drugs tests.

Now, you can say that she was never actually found guilty of taking drugs. True. But by skipping the tests there’s no way to know either way. For me, you can’t have one rule for one and one for another.

I fully support the tough stance on drugs – it is the only way to deter athletes from doing it in the first place. But it is also important to acknowledge that people make mistakes for all sorts of reasons.

My solution would be to enforce lifetime bans on those who have cheated in the Olympics themselves, or who are repeat offenders.

The human effect of this on athletes who take a wrong turn is best surmised by Millar in his book. Just a few weeks after being handed his lifetime ban by the BOA, he watches his great friend Stuart O’Grady win gold for Australia at the Athens Games in a bar surrounded by his family and friends.

As Millar writes: ‘I thought I’d be able to keep the lid on everything, but the realisation that I’d never return to the Olympic Games swept over me, and, in front of everybody, I broke down. Until then, I’d never shown any of my sadness to my Biarritz friends. Now I sat in a busy seaside bar on a summer afternoon, my head in my hands, crying like a baby.’

It is a real shame that enforcing lifetime bans denies the likes of Millar a chance of redemption.