Go Sports!

I’ve been lucky enough to see some of the world, and while taking in foreign climes have enjoyed seeking out sporting events for some local flavour.

Went to see the Blue Jay’s while in Toronto and made the hot dog vendors night when he found out I was from Leeds so he could wax lyrical about his favourite album; The Who Live At Leeds. He’d be overjoyed with my user name. The game itself was nothing special but speaking with him made the night.

Cricket in South Africa – the Newlands ground in Cape Town with Table Mountain rearing up behind it was a spectacular setting for being slowly broiled in 100+ degree heat over the course of a full day watching England lose. It was so hot some of the locals decided they’d had enough. Quitters. We may have lost the match but I had the moral victory of staying til the bitter end, despite being cooked to perfection. 

Football at the Swaziland National Stadium which involved two stoppages due to power cuts, not that we saw too much of the game when it was in progress as they’re obsessed with the English Premier League there and I spent most of my time fielding questions from the crowd around us about Manchester United and David Beckham.

Then there was the US Open, for our honeymoon Mrs J and I spent a week in New York and a week in San Francisco. Mrs J isn’t as big on sport but she loves tennis so when I realised our NY stay coincided with the tennis we had to be there.

Taking in the grounds we saw a young Sloane Stephens on an outside court losing a Girls Doubles match and looking very pissed at the outcome. On Arthur Ashe we got to quarter fins; Caroline Wozniaki beat teenager Melanie Oudin followed by Roger Federer beating Robin Soderling. The 4th set tiebreak finished at ten past midnight, we were torn between wanting Soderling take it to a 5th set for a dramatic denouement and wanting Federer to win it because we were so cold sat up towards the top of the stands that we were in danger of needing to be chiseled out of our seats.

It was a great experience and so different from Wimbledon. The noise never abated even during play whereas at Wimbledon it was deathly silent during play and a reserved chatter between points. Though at Wimbledon we didn’t have to listen to Black Eyed Peas; I’ve Got A Feeling every 15 minutes as an atmosphere enhancer.

It was simple to get tickets for Flushing Meadows whereas Wimbledon involves a random ballot where you had no idea if you’ll get tickets and if you are successful what day or what court you’ll be allocated tickets for. The flipside to that being at NY we were a long way up but it did give a fantastic panoramic view looking down at the court, whereas at Wimbledon we found ourselves with a front row seat almost within touching distance of Maria Sharapova and Juan Martin Del Potro.

At Wimbledon you get the whole day onsite, we had 4 matches scheduled on our court rather than just the two at New York. No overpriced strawberries and cream at NY but similarly, no overpriced hot dogs at Wimbledon. 

A lot of memorable occasions then but none quite match the greatest sporting moment I’ve witnessed. The Olympics coming to London was the chance of a lifetime and as a lover of big sporting events this was the biggest of all. Sadly, we weren’t lucky enough to get tickets for anything happening in London but we did get to Manchester for a football double header; Egypt vs New Zealand followed by Belarus vs Brazil. That was our live Olympic experience then but the Paralympics was a different matter. We got tickets for the athletics, a few rows from trackside close to the finish line and front row tickets for swimming the following day.

There’s a stereotypical view in the rest of the country of London as an unfriendly place where no one talks to one another and making eye contact while on public transport is actively discouraged. This was temporarily put on hold for the duration of the games, travelling out to the stadium everyone was smiling. Most unusual. Walking round the Olympic Park it had the feeling of a music festival, happiness and chilled out enjoyment was the order of the day.

One of the stars of the Paralympics was David Weir, a British wheelchair athlete aiming to win the 800m, 1500m, 5000m and Marathon. The night we attended the 1500m final was the last scheduled race with Weir going for gold number two of his epic quest. The stadium was filled to its 80,000 capacity, there were a couple of bronze medals for Team GB earlier in the night and while there was a good atmosphere and reception for every event we all knew what we were waiting for.

The atmosphere, the expectation and the tension ramped up come the main event. As the race began and the athletes rolled around the track a tidal wave of noise from the crowd kept pace with them. It was a constant thunderous rumble of applause and exhortation and each lap was greeted with a steady increase in the noise levels. It didn’t seem possible to ramp it up anymore but as the bell signaled the final lap Weir hit the front and the place went off, the sound was amplified all the way to 11.

The rolling wave of noise was replaced by a constant jet engine roar from all directions with the entire stadium on their feet. I’m used to football crowds where you get sudden, intense bursts of crowd noise accompanying a goal but this was something else. It had the same intensity but it just kept going, one sustained roar with no sense of what any individual shouts were, everything was subsumed into an endless urging on, it was an unidentifiable but fervent barrage.

There was no let up in the tension through the final lap, Weir maintained his lead but couldn’t create a gap, the whole field remained tantalisingly, nerve shreddingly close. The gap between Gold and Silver on crossing the line was 0.23 seconds with the first 6 all finishing within a second of the winner; Weir. That moment he crossed the line, the sound, the joy, the relief. I’ve never experienced anything like it. The noise went on and on but the pitch shifted up as encouragement turned to exultation. I turned to look at the crowd and everywhere was unbridled joy, jumping up and down, arms aloft, embracing, a flood of endorphins reflected in the childlike broad grins plastered across every face. There’s a phrase about British reserve but there was nothing reserved here, it didn’t matter their age, everyone was lost in euphoric abandonment.

In the grand scheme of things sport may not be a matter of life and death, it might only be a transitory escape from the routine but that race and the reaction of the crowd, being in the centre and part of such an ecstatic release of emotion will stay with me forever.

In writing this its the first time I’ve actually watched the race back and I still felt a knot in the pit of my stomach. The crowd noise comes through even with the commentators talking over it but being there was something else.

tnocs.com contributing author JJ live at leeds

In writing this its the first time I’ve actually watched the race back and I still felt a knot in the pit of my stomach. The crowd noise comes through even with the commentators talking over it but being there was something else. He completed the set as well. Four events and four gold medals. I may well never see another home Olympics / Paralympics (though Paris 2024 isn’t that far to get too) but it was a privilege to be there that night.

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