Olympic Blogs

Tom Barber, 17 - Archer

I live in the small village of Denton in Norfolk. I am a student at Bungay High School, and will be a 12th year student there next year. I have been doing archery for 7 years now. I aim to share with you my experience of the holding camp over the next few weeks. See You!

Days in Beijing - 16/08/08

Last week, I was given the fantastic oppurtunity to visit Beijing during the first few days of the Olympic games as part of the BOAs London 2012 Ambition program for young athletes. I can safely say it was a fantastic experience that I will never forget.

I met the rest of my group on Thursday evening, who had just arrived in Macau earlier that day. The next morning, we flew out to Beijing and settled into our accommodation before watching the opening ceremony. Unfortunately we couldn't get tickets for the stadium, and so had to watch it on Chinese TV.

The next day included a visit to the Olympic village, in which we got to go in the accommodation blocks and eat in the huge dining hall.

The following day was our final in Beijing. It proved to be the most spectacular, as proceedings moved into the 5000 capacity stadium for the final rounds of the women's archery team matches. GBR women had shot well in the morning and had moved into the semi-finals, and we tried our very best to cheer them on and make ourselves heard amongst the huge Chinese crowd. Unfortunately, they lost the semi against China and were with 1 point of winning a bronze medal in the 3rd place match that ensued against France.

All in all, I hope I have learned a lot from the people I have spoken to in both Macau and Beijing and I hope I can also apply it to my own situations and it has given me a valuable insight into what to expect. I'm back home now and the training for 2012 has begun!

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