Our Last View of the Olympic Park (For Now)

Friday, 3 August

Our last set of tickets from the random ticket lottery were for Diving this afternoon, giving us one more chance to visit the Olympic Park. Today was a big day for the Olympic organisers. The main stadium which holds 80,000 people has been closed since the Opening Ceremony, until today, when the Athletics events began. Until today, the transportation, the security, and the hospitality has functioned like a dream. The big question has been whether the transport and facilities could accommodate an additional 80,000 visitors. And the answer is yes.

I'm so glad we visited yesterday when the Park was crowded, but an extra 80,000 does make a difference. For example, we didn't try to buy food or beverages, but the queues to enter the souvenir shops were very long indeed! Bob will have to secure a T-shirt another way.

Water Polo Stadium to the left; Aquatics to the right

The weather remained sunny and warm, and we took the opportunity to wander along the river walks lined with wildflower meadows.

A bridge covered sheathed with reflective panels

Gloriana, the Queen's Row Barge that led the Thames Jubilee Parade
and carried the Olympic Flame down the Thames 

The Aquatics Centre. The wings on each end provide seating for the Games.
They will be removed leaving the curved roof pool area in the middle
to be used as a community swim facility.

Arriving at the Aquatic Center, we presented our Diving tickets, chosen by us (cheap) and allocated by the lottery, knowing full well our seats might require an oxygen infusion after we climbed up to the top of the top of the top of the stadium's seating wings. And then the nice man said, "Would you like some better seats where you don't have to climb stairs?" And he led us to the front row at the side of the Diving Pool at the board end! We were sitting behind the judges' backs!

This is what the front row looks like!

The event was the Women's 3-Metre Springboard Preliminary with 30 divers doing five dives each in order to whittle the field to 18 divers for tomorrow's semi-final.

These amazing seats gave us an opportunity to see behind the scenes of scoring and televising events.

Canadian diver Jennifer Abel who came in 4th today being interviewed by
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Jennifer won the Bronze Medal
in the 3-metre synchronised diving earlier this week. 

Chinese star diver Wu Minxia being interviewed by Chinese  TV .
She placed first today, and won the Gold in the 3-metre synchronised diving.

We were certainly sad to leave the Olympic Park, but next year the park will reopen as Queen Elizabeth Park with sports facilities available to the public and open space use. The athletes' accommodation tower blocks will be refitted with kitchens, reconfigured as flats, and sold off. Other housing blocks are already under construction. The huge Westfield Mall is in place. A huge transportation hub has been built connecting Underground, Overground, Docklands Light Rail, national rail lines, and even an International Eurostar station. If Stratford's regeneration is as successful as other recent efforts in London — Canary Wharf and Kings Cross for example — then the neighbourhood will become a major urban hub of Northeast London. In a perfect world, these projects would serve residents across the income spectrum, but that is always the rub in a world that is not perfect.

### Diving Update, Semifinal Results, Saturday, 4 August: Wu Minxia held onto 1st place, and Jennifer Abel remained in 4th place.
*** Diving Update, Final Results, Sunday, 5 August: Gold for Wu Minxia; Silver for He Zi of China; Bronze for Laura Sanchez Soto of Mexico