Sports in London

During my stay in London, I was able to view many sporting events.  I owe a lot of these opportunities to the sports class that I took at the London Center.  Here are some of the sporting sites I was able to visit later in my semester.

 

This is center court at Wimbledon Tennis Club.  I was able to take a tour of all the facilities.

This is a picture from The Boat Race.  The Boat Race is an annual rowing race between Cambridge and Oxford University on the River Thames.  This is a photo of the blue boat race, which is between the best group of rowers from each university.  This year was the 159th annual race and Oxford won.  The race was run successfully after last year's race was interrupted by a drunk guy swimming into the Thames.

Above was my front row view of the football match between Charlton Athletic and Leeds United.  We had amazing seats on what seemed like the first nice day we had in a while.  The game ended with a last minute, thrilling goal by the home team.  It was a great environment to be a part of!

This is a picture of Olympic Stadium.  I had the great opportunity to visit Olympic Park.  I was not able to enter the park, but walked around the site.  Just after the Paralympics ended, the site shut down to begin construction.  It is part of a park transformation to create an area that can be used for other purposes in the future.  London did not want the new facilities to go to waste.  It was really amazing to see the sites I saw on the Olympic coverage.  In addition to the stadium, I also saw the aquatics center, the Velodrome (cycling), and Olympic Villiage.

This is a picture from the London Marathon.  I volunteered at the Marathon for the charity, Children with Cancer UK.  My job was to cheer on the runners who have worked so hard to compete.  This was especially important after what happened in Boston, as several runners encouraged their families to stay at home.  I really enjoyed being a part of the marathon and it gave me such a good feeling.  Here is a link to the charity video from the marathon, where I can be seen a few times in the crowd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOGe7J-kD8A