Sooooooo have we all watched the women’s olympic triathlon coverage by now?!? Did anyone get to see it live, in person?? If so, I want to hear about it!
The GCM and I had to settle for watching a replay on the ipad, but thankfully, the NBC-player actually had the full 2.5 hours of triathlon coverage. Seeing our sport in the Olympics is pretty incredible no matter what, but watching a former training partner win the gold medal—seeing her on the top step of the ultimate podium—was amazing.
Yep, Nicola Spirig, the gold medal winner, was one of my training partners back in the day when I was training with Brett Sutton. We were swim partners in the year or so leading up to her last Olympics; above is us in the pool in the Philippines in 2008, getting ready to beat up on Lukey during another swim set, undoubtedly!
I remember way back when Nic would just come for swim sessions up in the mountains in Switzerland, and Brett was trying to convince her to join the squad full-time. He saw her potential way back then, and clearly once these two joined forces, it was a pretty powerful thing. Brett has been saying all year that Nic would be the gold medal winner, and I must admit when it comes to triathlon the guy is right 99% of the time! It was pretty amazing to watch it all come true, especially the way the race played out with that photo finish! I think we watched about 10 replays. I absolutely love this photo of Nic and Sutto above; I feel so privileged to have been there to witness firsthand the formative years of this partnership and could not be more pleased for these two!
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Me-me-me! I was there but without a ticket so I had to go very early to find a good spot.
The atmosphere was fantastic, apparently there were 250,000 people in the park with flags form every nation. I stayed next to Gillian sanders (SA) family & friends and a big Canadian team.
Had a really good place to view the swim at the last swim turnaround: Lucy Hall (GBR) lead the way with another 2 swimmers. As soon as they went past I had to dash to the side of the road to see them cycling.
By now the crowds were incredible with people climbing up trees and lamp posts. It seems every single UK triathlete was there (saw lots of familiar faces) with their whole families.
On the bike I could see 2 main packs and a few stragglers, there were reports that some girls had crashed (lots of tight turns and wet tarmac) but couldn’t really tell who where they as I was behind 2 rows of people.
On to the run, this time a really small loop around the lake which made it even more difficult for spectators but great for the athletes, at around the second lap I saw Nicola Spirig and Lisa Nordeen, Helen Jenkins was close behind. Before the athletes went past you could hear the roar of the crowd from a few meters away , approaching like a big wave of noise and flags.
As they we’re on to the finish we quickly run off to a large screen on the park to watch them corss the finish line. And what an exciting finish, it took us a while to really be sure who won gold.
Here are some pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucyfrancis/sets/72157630902176282/
I’m off to see the men tomorrow
Loving the olympics
Great race!!! I had a great spot for both swim and bike and watched most most of the run on a big screen with other thousands other people. But the parts of a run that I saw live…OMG, those girls were flying!!!! Video coverage does not do the justice. It was incredible how fast they were going. And the finish…awesome race!
Hey Hillary. That’s super exciting you trained with her! I’ve been reading Chrissie Wellington’s book recently and I think all you ladies that trained together under Mr. Brett Sutton should team up and write a book about training in all those cool places, the crazy smash-fests, mental training, and whatever you’d want to/he’d be ok with you sharing. Some of the most amazing/successful female triathletes writing about triathlon at that time woudl be fantastic. I’d read it!
wow! amazing that you trained with her!
per laura–i’d read that book, too!
can’t imagine watching that race and personally knowing the girls…I was stressed out and screaming at the TV without having any personal connection or national ties to them!
as per laura & kerry- I will also read your book when you write one!
Such an exciting race! We woke up at 3:00 in the morning to watch the race live in the midwest. My boyfriend swam at Wisconsin with Gwen Jorgenson who made the Olympics after just two years in the sport. Unfortunately she had some bike mechanically issues. She came in 2nd prior on that course to qualify for the Olympics awhile ago. She has so much potential, I’m excited to see where she is in 4 years! Congrats to all those amazing athletes!!