2012 London Olympics - Part 2

This is the second post on our trip to the 2012 Olympic Games in London. You can find the previous post here.

As we last left you, we were about to enter the Olympic Stadium.  This is the first event that we had tickets for.  In Europe, it's called Athletics, in the U.S., it's called Track and Field:

We were blown away by how close we were to the track.  To give you an idea from the U.S., we were sitting on the 30 yard line, just 11 rows from the track!  From our seats, we could easily see the Olympic Torch, burning inside the Stadium:

Here's a short video to show the view of the Stadium from our seats:

I won't be able to show you all of the vents, but wanted to include some pictures and videos from just some of the various competitions taking place.  In some cases, you had multiple events taking place at the same time.  There wasn't ever a shortage of something to look at ; )

One of the best things to experience, was the excitement that the Brits had for their own athletes (Team GB).  It was such a great example of national pride.  Whenever a Great Britain athlete was introduced, the crowd was excited.  Here's an example - when they introduced the runners for the Men's 110m Hurdle Semifinal.  You can hear Aries Merritt from the U.S. introduced, as well:

Later in the evening, we were able to see another semifinal heat for the Men's 110m Hurdles.  This is where Jason Richardson advanced to the finals:

We saw Aries Merritt win the Gold Medal.  Almost all of the athletes that won walked right in front of us.  Especially the Americans:

The truly amazing thing? Right before the start of each of the track events, the Stadium was completely quiet.  I'm talking "pin drop" quiet.  It was fascinating to watch the crazy excitement pause for a moment while the runners started the race.  I don't know if that happens in collegiate track, but it was amazing to watch happen.

The Women's 400m Hurdles was fun to watch, even though the Jamaicans took the Gold.  They ran right in front of us...amazing to watch the power of these women as they ran.  Here are a couple of races blended together:

One of the funniest things we saw on the field were tiny little cars.  Let me explain.  Instead of having runners bringing back javelins, discus or shot-puts, they had remote-controlled Mini Mini-Coopers that would transport the various field devices.  Take a look at these cute little cars in action:

The Women's Long Jump final took place irectly in front of us. We saw almost all of the jumps (when there weren't other events taking place). Check out the strange gait of this Russian girl, as she's running to jump:

We witnessed several Gold Medal wins for the U.S., including the Women's 200m win by Allyson Felix:

Another race that started right right in front of us was the Women's 1500m:

We had the unique chance to watch Usain Bolt run in a Men's 200m Semifinal heat.  Whether you like him or not, he's impressive to watch:

There were lots of other events, but I don't want to overload you ; )  The events finished for the evening, and we took the time to walk over closer to the Olympic Torch.  Whoever designed this, was a genius.  It's one of the most creative Olympic Torches I've seen:

What a night! We're so blessed to have this opportunity.  We can't wait for the other events this week.

Until Part 3 of our Olympic Adventure - thanks for reading!