Sending love from London one last time, Cheers

By Melissa Wells

It’s hard for me to begin this post. There’s a lot I want to say that I know words won’t do justice. I’ll give it a try.

We’re done, goodbye, peace out or as the brits would say, cheers. It’s been absolutely unreal. I have really appreciated the hospitality from everyone here. They have been nothing but kind, approachable, and genuine, well, some of them anyway. There’s always that choice few that hate “you Americans” and can’t wait until you get out of their precious city. However, London really is precious, it has so much to offer to so many different cultures and backgrounds. I could most certinaly see myself here someday. Maybe. I hate that there are no free refills and i’ve probably heard “mind the gap” enough to last a lifetime.

Scripps London group touring around the UK

Kerry Crump, Myself, Jenna Stenger, Katie Grady, Megan Hickcock

Our mens and women’s basketball teams were tremendous these past weeks, both winning gold. Also, Coleman Scott, the wrestler I interviewed and did a story on, won bronze. I am so happy for our athletes and I am so blessed I actually got to meet them. It is something some journalists work their entire careers to do.

Also, I got to meet with THE Debbie Antonelli this week! Before USA played Australia on Thursday we met outside of North Greenwich Arena. Speaking with her was one of the highlights of my trip. She has worked very hard to be where she is today. She does it all and with three boys! You go girl! It encouraged me to be my absolute best and as a women, never take no for an answer. I would love to have her job, so would many. Check out what we talked about and the story I did on her on our site. http://scrippslondon2012.com/2012/08/former-bobcat-goes-from-business-to-broadcast/

We even got to tour the USA House on Friday morning! It was very cool to be able to see where all the athletes chill. It was so beautiful inside. They have a free yogurt bar, waterproof televisions on budwiser themed decks, and unlimited olympic apparel! An OU grad gave us our tour.

Last time the Olympics were in London

All of the USA athletes that have medalled 

USA Olympic Team

Honestly, I can’t even believe I was here for all of this. It was like a dream. This trip really made me realize the struggles of a journalist. It also made me realize if I didn’t have those struggles, it wouldn’t make the job worth it. This is for me, this is what I want to spend my entire life doing. Wether I make one million dollars a year or can barely make an honest living, it doesn’t matter to me. The things that matter to me most are more than just money, more than just material things. Family is everything, people are everything, happiness that you can maintain is everything. Everyone is so blinded by so many flashy and extravagant things they can’t see that anymore. I use to always wish I would win the lottery, or something. I pray to god that I never do (and I won’t because I don’t play and because i’m not lucky). I just want to work hard, make enough, surround myself with great people, and possibly help someone or change their life with my work. That’s what I think a journalist does, they help people. I know it doesn’t always directly seem that way, but they do, they impact people’s lives. They can tell a story someone is too afraid to tell, or can’t by themselves. They help get information to people that really need it. We’re more than just press, we’re story tellers. We are here to be strong for others that are weak. As I journalist, I promise to always do that and to be someone that someone else can count on for consistency and realness. I will always wake up and try to be the best person I can be. I know i’m not perfect nor will I ever be, but I promised myself to always make a conscious effort. London has really reiterated these feelings for me. After traveling to a different country it really made me appreciate the way I was raised and the outstanding family that I have. They are the reason I try to be the best I can possibly be, as a daughter, a student, and as a friend to others. My family are the best people I know (I said best, not most normal or sane). In all seriousness though, they are great. They are the kind of people that would welcome you into their homes and make you feel special. They are the kind of people who would give you the last piece of pizza or the last dollar out of their wallet. They are the reason why I am who I am today and for that I am forever grateful. I’m on the journey to chase my dreams because of them. My pap has always said, “hold on tight to your dreams” and I promised him I always will.

I even got my wallet stolen yesterday (Don’t want to talk about it). Who wired me the money? My wonderful mim and pap. They are indescribable.

   Me at Opening Ceremonies

Just weeks ago this was me at opening ceremonies. Now it’s closing ceremonies and the Olympics are over. The love and passion that came out of people these past weeks has been amazing to see. The games are more than just sports, they are a way people from different cultures come together. It’s beautiful to see, to say I was apart of it is something I will forever cherish.

Thank you Ohio University and the E.W Scripps School of Journalism for making this possible and for making this girl’s dreams come true. Also, thanks to my family for paying for it….. $$$

I hope those that have followed my blog have enjoyed reading it, somewhat. I appreciate all the support and kind words most have given me.

I’m headed to the airport tomorrow morning, let’s all cross our fingers that I don’t miss my flight, again.

With all my love from London,

xoxo Mel

Security stretch: outside companies, volunteers help at Olympic cycling races

by Kerry Crump, 
In London at the Olympics

DORKING, ENGLAND— The smiling faces of the Surrey Ambassadors, provided a sharp contrast to the scowling security guards from Trojan Security that slowly walked up and down the sides of the street at the women’s cycling road race Sunday.

This contrast, however, is symbolic of how each group was asked to serve.

Volunteers from the Surrey area and England as a whole were ready to get involved, said Amanda Gilhooley of Newcastle, a team leader for the volunteers.

“We’ve known that we were going to be volunteering here for at least 9 months, maybe even a year,” she said.

Alan Beaver, one of the 400 Surrey residents that applied to be an ambassador, has taken an optimistic outlook on the G4S situation.

“They probably overstretched themselves and made promises they couldn’t keep, but I think they always planned that the army would be there as a reserve anyways,” he said. “While the G4S situation is unfortunate, we were always meant to be the smiling happy faces of Surrey.”

G4S was hired to provide full Olympic security, but outside security companies such as Trojan and the British Army were called in last minute to assist G4S.

“A lot of people are not happy with G4S,” said Robert Morris of Portsmouth and Trojan employee. “They’re the big one that let the Olympics down which is why we had to be brought in.”

Those called in to back up security question how the misunderstanding with G4S could have happened.

“They’re quite a well known company. I’ve got friends that work for them, and they’ve had how many months, years, to plan this? We’ve all had to give our weekends and come in because G4S couldn’t do their job,” said Morris.

Diana Lopez: preparing for a focused fight

by Kerry Crump, 

In London at the Olympics

LONDON, England — Jean Lopez, the 38-year-old coach of the USA Olympic Taekwondo team, sits on an exercise ball in the middle of the blue and red acrobatics room on a Sunday morning at the University of East London SportsDock training center. He lightly bounces up and down on the ball while playing with an iPod, changing the song about halfway through every time.

Diana Lopez, Jean’s 28-year-old sister, is one of the last to step onto the mat. She zips up a blue Team USA track jacket, and begins her warm up.

After a few minutes of sparring and stretching with training partner Charlotte Craig, Diana begins a workout specifically designed to improve her taper.

“We took her though a medium workout in the beginning, just to get her metabolism going and get a good sweat,” Jean said. “At the end we worked a bit of explosiveness so that we feel like she’s firing on all cylinders.”

Every move has a purpose, even the sweat dripping down the side of her face. Diana has been cutting weight for her 2^nd Olympic appearance on Aug. 9 for the past two months.

“It’s the least fun of our sport, having to watch what you eat,” Craig said. “But it’s not that hard when you’ve been doing it your whole life.”

As the workout intensifies, Jean spits a set of instructions to Diana, who responds with a disciplined, “Yes Sir.” The focus in Diana’s eyes is matched by her stone-faced expression.

She jabs and kicks with power while also holding a graceful poise. Jean relates this to her background in other sports.

“She loves volleyball. She did it when she was very young, and I definitely think it helps her,” said Jean, who previously pushed Diana toward volleyball. “She had scholarships and talks about where to go for colleges, but we couldn’t shake her. She wanted to be like her brothers.”

The short practice comes to an end, and Diana sits down on the mat. She begins rubbing at her ankle, which is covered in layers of athletic tape. A strip of hot pink tape runs from her alkalis tendon up her calf.

She lays down on the mat in a deep meditation for a few minutes until a trainer comes and begins to stretch her legs.
Diana and the trainer talk and joke around, a smile and occasional laugh breaking through the serious wall that had been up during her practice.

This is interrupted by the occasional wince of pain from the Olympian.
“Most of the days now we’re focused on her resting and recovering, going to sports med, and putting ice on those bumps and bruises,” said Jean.

After a long stretch, Diana gets the OK to hit the showers. Her expression has gone from serious to exhausted as she searches through her bags and under chairs for the shampoo bottles that are missing. After a minute of fumbling she finds the bottles and walks to the locker room, throwing a wave at Charlotte and other members of the coaching staff.

When she walks into a conference with the Associated Press after she has showered and changed, her eyes look less tired and her expression more approachable. Jean relates the mature expressions to her previous Olympic experience.
“I believe that what puts her in a better position now than in Beijing is that she has that Olympic fever background behind it,” he said. “She knows when to be excited about things and when to downplay things and focus on what to do.”

Diana is sent to an ice plunge right after meeting with The AP and spends the rest of her day resting. While training for the Olympic Taekwondo practice was her priority in the morning, members of her coaching staff agree that the rest of her day should be focused on herself.

“You don’t want them watching or focusing too much on one fighter, or getting in their heads,” George Weissfisch, a scout on Team USA, said. “You’re going to wear yourself out if you’re constantly thinking about it 24 hours a day.”

Uncharacteristic crashes mar London Olympic men's cycling road race

Photo by Kayla Hanley
Iran Olympic Cyclist Amir Zargari was injured during a collision
near the Box Hill entrance of the Men's Cycling Road Race. 

Kayla Hanley

BOX HILL, SURREY — Crashes marred the men’s road race cycling event on the first full day of competition at the London Olympics on Saturday.

Towards the end of the stretch at 11:49 London time, a collision occurred near the Box Hill Circuit entrance leaving the Iranian cyclist Amir Zargari injured and later carried out of the race and into an ambulance.

The Peloton, known as the main group of riders, came to a point in the road that seemed to be a bit narrow, causing a rider to veer to the right and he happened to collide with spectators on the left side of the road.

“The pack came and just literally veered into me, straight into my shoulder,” said Maria Esposito. “There was nowhere for the cyclist to go, it seemed like this road was just too narrow.”

Esposito is a resident from Buckland Surrey, which is about four miles to where she was watching the race, who did not happen to see the colors of the rider that ran into her due to the intense speed of the pack. She was quite surprised and disappointed to have this happen in Surrey for an event as grand as it was, especially with it being the Olympics.

“It’s a real shame because we’ve been waiting for this event for so long,” said Esposito.

Near the end of the race in London, a crash forced Swiss-rider Fabian Cancellara, one of the pre-race favorites, to drop out. Kazakhstan’s Alexander Vinokouroff won the race, followed by Colombia’s Rigoberto Uran Uran in silver medal position andAlexander Kristoff of Norway for the bronze.

A test event occurred last year on the roads in Surrey that were being used for the Cycling race and Esposito said it went off “fantastically well” which led her to believe that there was no way something like a crash would be occurring in this race.

Espositio said that security and Olympic officials were thinking about putting barriers up along the paths but with the winding roads of Surrey it would have been quite difficult.

“I don’t think that would have helped,” said Esposito. “When there’s a crash and there’s nowhere for the Peloton to go you then need to squeeze a big sum of people into an area gap and it causes something much worse.”

Over the past few years since London was awarded the Olympics people have come from all over to visit Surrey and ride its many roads like the ones at Box Hill. The county has responded really well to the large sum of riders and people have been able to generate businesses that accommodate the large amount of guests.

Daniel Collyer lives along the coast of Surrey and came to Box Hill to see the race not only as a fan but a fellow cyclist as well.

Photo by Kayla Hanley
Peloton riding towards Box Hill 

“[A crash] could happen anywhere you go to London because the roads are narrow there as well,” said Collyer. “I was expecting something to happen but not expecting to be right there near it.”

Those who were not near the sight of the crash had no idea, or even heard of the crash and collision until they were walking farther towards the cyclist’s exit out of Surrey.

“I’m surprised to hear about it because the cyclists that passed us were looking as if they were riding beautifully,” said Martin Emmery. “You wouldn’t have expected or even considered a crash”

Emmery, a resident of Redhill, is a Surrey Ambassador for the Olympics and was watching the cyclists pass by at the beginning of the Dorking entrance. He and many other residents near the town of Surrey know the roads quite well and never imagined a crash, especially to an Olympian, to happen on the well-known and well-ridden roads near the famous path of Box Hill.

Bang for the Buck(ingham Palace): Olympics start in London with Opening Ceremonies

By: Olivia Arbogast

All eyes were on England last night as the Opening Ceremonies kicked off the 2012 Summer Olympics. Fans from all over the world gathered around the city to watch the ceremony, filling places from Trafalgar Square to Hyde Park to Green Park.

In a small nook in the middle of London, more than 1,000 eager spectators watched the events unfold on a small projector in the Duke of York Square, by Sloan Square.

The countdown for the London Olympics began more than seven years ago when it was first announced that the city won the bid for the games. The sign in Trafalgar Square displayed the countdown until the final minutes.

“We run lots of events with the projection screen,” said Will Lewis, the manager of Duke of York Square. “We did throughout the summer … for a variety of events, including Wimbledon, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the English National Ballet.”

The spectators stayed actively involved throughout the ceremony, standing when “God Save the Queen” played and cheering for Mary Poppins when she defeated Lord Voldemort.

“I’m not going to lie, my expectations were very low for the opening ceremonies,” said Patrick White, of London. “But I was close to tears within the first five minutes of the ceremonies. It exceeded everything I thought it would be, and I loved how they highlighted the Industrial Revolution.”

Hadrian’s Wall native, Anna Roberts, agreed.

“Everything is usually underplayed in England,” she said. “Expectations are never built very high. It was interesting to see how they chose to represent the country – from an engineer to J.K. Rowling to a couple of different musicians.”

Not even rain could detour the audience as gray clouds threatened the event all evening and well into the night.

“We actually wanted it to rain a little more so people would leave,” Roberts said. Then, he said, there'd be better seating for them.

But seating was not in short supply, as Lewis brought in extra chairs for spectators, as well as extra security guards.

Viewers gather in the Duke of York Square to watch the Opening
Ceremonies. BBC reported more than 27 million viewers for
the ceremonies, 

“This is a very unique occasion,” Lewis said. “It is always difficult to guess the crowd, but we figured that it was going to be big. We hired a bunch of extra security for this event in particular to watch for crowd control that sort of thing.”

Vendors from around the area set up tents to offer their services to the spectators.

“All of the vendors belong to the square – 35 all together,” Lewis said. “It is a prime local area, and this event helps them to get the word out about their services.”

In addition to the Opening Ceremony, Lewis said that the square would also be projecting the Games for nine more days.

“We will also be showing the 100-meter dash and the closing ceremonies, among other events,” he said.