I WAS a badminton player for more than 20 years, but I have no doubt as to what the best fortnight of those two decades was.
Four years ago, almost to the day, I was part of Team GB at the London Olympics and even now, with the next Olympic Games opening ceremony less than a week away, London remains a vivid memory.
It was a long slog to get to London. My first Olympic memory is of watching Sally Gunnell win gold at Barcelona in 1992 and I remember thinking then that I’d love to go to an Olympic Games. It took 20 years but finally, I made it. The qualification process was the toughest year of my life and included knee surgery, but the struggle to get there made securing a place in Team GB all the sweeter. Going to the Olympic Games was literally a dream come true for me and it lived up to my expectations in every way.
It began to feel real for me at the kitting-out day. It is is unlike any other kit-drop in sport. Team GB make sure it’s a real experience: being fitted for the parade outfits to picking up your Village wear and getting your competition clothing – it takes a full day.
Every sport gets a famous Olympian to go round with them. The badminton team had Sydney gold medallist Denise Lewis. We all spent the whole day trying to pretend that we weren’t ridiculously excited to be within touching distance of her.
Moving into the Athletes’ Village a week before the opening ceremony was something else. Because it was our home Games, Team GB had snaffled the best apartment blocks, tucked away at the back of the Village where it was quiet but within easy reach of the important things – like the dining hall. The accommodation was newly-built high-rise flats, so the rooms were small and pretty basic but they did the job.
The Athletes’ Village is pretty much Heat magazine’s Spotted section in real life. On our first afternoon, we went for a walk and almost the first person I saw was Novak Djokovic. He seemed smaller in real life, but we were to find pretty much every famous athlete looked smaller than they did on TV.
The Village is teeming with sportsmen and women who I’d watched on television, but it’s funny how quickly seeing superstars stops being exciting and becomes normal, even when walking past Mo Farah or Rebecca Adlington or Chris Hoy.
Competing in an Olympic Games was, without question, the best moment of my career. The privilege of appearing in a home Olympic Games is something so few athletes get the opportunity to experience and it was unforgettable.
The badminton competition was at Wembley Arena, which held more than 6000 people. It was by far the biggest crowd I’d ever played in front of and I was terrified the few seconds before I walked out from behind the curtain for my first match. When I was announced on to court, the noise was deafening and a far cry from most of the matches I’d played in my career before two men and a dog.
I was really, really nervous in the first few points of my match; this was something I’d imagined for more than two thirds of my life so a few nerves were excusable. I got that out of my system and managed to win that match; in doing so, I became the first Scottish badminton player to win a match at the Olympics.
I was just so happy to have won. That moment was worth all of the thousands of hours that had gone into getting me there.
In the end, I lost to Sayaka Sato, the Japanese No 1 and No 12 seed, in three close sets. I was happy with my performance though, so the disappointment wasn’t too great.
When the badminton finished, there was still a full week of the Games to go. It was the best holiday I’ve ever had; it consisted of going to watch pretty much every other sport in the Games.
And eating. We all ate a lot. After months of following a strict diet, I definitely took advantage of the 24-hour dining hall. I think food has fewer calories if it’s free…
It’s been nostalgic seeing all of the “four years ago” tributes to London 2012. Those few weeks remain some of the best of my life. I think they always will.
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