Keep sand out of pants

6th August 2012

It’s been a busy few days in the media centre at the beach volleyball, and my shifts have all run into each other in a blur of match-interview-sprint-file-sprint-repeat.

I’m really getting the hang of it now, although I don’t think I’ll ever really enjoy interviewing the athletes that have just lost, particularly as we advance through the competition to the knockout stages, and the losses mean so much more to the players. As the competition has advanced, the questions have shifted away from “what do you think of London?” and on to more technical questions about the way they played and strategies they employed, but I’m happy to say that my understanding of beach volleyball has developed to an extent that occasionally I am able to ask questions that almost sound like I know what I am talking about.

A highlight of the past few days was an invitation to the Federation of International Volleyball players lounge for a ‘meet and greet’ with Australian beach volleyball hero Nat Cook, who has been at every Olympics since beach volleyball was added to the Games in 1996, and won a gold and a bronze medal along the way. It was a slightly surreal experience chomping on posh open sandwiches in the white leather-furnished players lounge overlooking the practice courts. We were joined by Reuters, PA and some independent journalists for an intimate interview with Nat where we were able to quiz her on what makes a successful team, her memories of winning a gold medal on Bondai beach in Sydney and her thoughts on how Britain can capitalise on the enormous attention given to beach volleyball during the games in order to leave a legacy of strong players to head in to Rio 2016.

We also won ‘quote of the day’ across the whole of the Olympic News Service for the following (written in the house style)

Nat COOK (AUS)

On whether fans leave the beach volleyball with an understanding of the game:

“The sport is very simple to understand: ball over net; don’t touch net; three hits each side; keep sand out of pants. That’s what I’ve been doing for the past 20 years, and I still haven’t mastered it.”

Another highlight of this week was on Saturday night when I interviewed Misty May-Treanor, former gold medallist, and the American men’s team Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal who were bouncing off the walls after a big win. Jake wouldn’t let me interview him until I’d given him a big high five and his enthusiasm was a fantastic way to round off a long shift at 11.30pm at night.

There have been a few changes in the Horse Guards Parade flash quote team so I’ve been drafted in for a few extra shifts and will now get to cover the men’s and women’s finals on Wednesday and Thursday evening. I really can’t wait.

Nat Cook