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Karen Pickering MBE, the SportsAmbassador for British AthletesCommission, four time gold medallist at theWorld Championships, two time goldmedallist and flag carrier at the closingceremony of the 2002 Commonwealth Gamesin Manchester had nothing but praise andastonishment for the success of the 2012Olympic Games when I spoke to her thisweek.
We talked about the difference from the pressures ofbeing out of the swimming pool commentating on theGames, to being right at the heart of the battle, swimming
for the top medals. “When I arrived at the pool, I arrived quite nervous which was a worry because I didn’t need toworry about competing in the race, or if I had remembered everything to take with me.” Pickering said.
However, this did open the 2002 Commonwealth 200m Freestyle champion's eyes to the pressure of the swimmers.She said that “It was then I realised how much pressure you are under as an athlete, you don’t realise until thatpressure is no longer there.”
The atmosphere at the 2012 London Games were something that the audience and athletes had never experiencedbefore. Pickering suggests that one of the reasons Team GB beat the medal count achieved in Beijing, in both the,Olympic and Paralympic Games, was as a result of the home support increasing their performance. “When we look athome advantage it lifts the medal counts fairly significantly, you have a bigger team but generally the athlete will rise.”
Pickering pointed to the performances of Jessica Ennis and Ellie Simmonds during the Games as 'incredible'performances, despite the pressure that was placed on the pair as the faces of the London 2012 games. “There wasnobody at the Olympic Games with more pressure on them than Jess Ennis. She stepped out in front of 80,000people and won gold.
"In the Paralympic games Ellie Simmonds had a 60ft poster of her herself on the side of the building as you walk intoWestfield Shopping Centre, we saw her world record taken in March and she stepped up to break the world record andtake gold. It was truly an incredible experience”
However, it was not a given that all the home athletes could raise their performances; much was expected of swimmerRebecca Adlington after her achievements in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She could not repeat her golden performancein the Fast East but did manage to secure two bronze medals.
The 2002 Commonwealth flag carrier said, “I don’t believe that too much support can hurt a performance, I just thinkits whether and how you deal with it and your frame of mind coming into the event. Maybe some people weren’tprepared to able to handle it in the right way.”
The 200m Short Course World Champion in Athens, 2000 pointed towards the way Tom Daley carried himself throughthe Olympics. After he and his partner Peter Waterfield failed to get a medal in the 10m Platform Synchronized Dive hewas subject to a high amount of criticism. "The way in which Daley responded to win Bronze in the Mens Individual10m Platform event was inspirational considering what the young man has been through," Pickering added. "It wasvery special, with the death of his father, but he is very good at compartmentalising things. He knows in one area whathis Dad wanted him to do and in the other how to achieve it.
“He just has a way of being able to put things to one side. That is what you have to be good at, especially in divingwhere you have time to dwell on things between dives”
Pickering, then told of how she spoke to South African Paralympian, Natlie Du Toit, who said that the crowd increasedher performance because you felt as thought they were cheering for everyone, not just Team GB. “Natalie said it wasphenomenal going out and hearing the crowd, they all said they felt it was for them, because no one has evercompeted in front of that many people. That's why we saw so many world records, because the crowds weextraordinary."
It was often suggested that the BBC should have broadcast the Paralympics but, Pickering, who covered theParalympics for Channel Four says that they were in hindsight, the best channel to broadcast the Paralympic Games.“I know there was criticism as to why weren’t the BBC handling it, but the channel [Channel 4] have always pushedboundaries, they have a bit more freedom, a bit more fun and a little more daring. They were the perfect people to dothe coverage and we certainly weren't guided as to how we could commentate.”
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Pickering said the mentality was “just go for it, if you wanted to query something you could but we would rather youmake mistakes than tip toe on things and that is why the coverage was so good.”
The former swimmer finished by stating that disability sports should have a future in broadcast television and otherforms of media coverage, “When Ellie Simmonds over took Ukraine’s Oksana Khrulin the last 50m to win gold people stopped watching it as a disability sport and it was just two people who wanted to win, because you saw themathletes.”
And with the audience the Paralympic Games attracted who says they should not be extensive broadcasts and reportson disability events.
Karen Pickering drives an Alfa Romeo Giulietta, visit www.alfaromeo.co.uk
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JESSICA ENNIS LONDON 2012 OLYMPICS PARALYMICS TOM DALEY ELLIE SIMMONDS
KAREN PICKERING
O liv er O luwafemi Judy Sadeeq Tony
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