Inside the cube, some Swimming had just finished, and most of the crowd had dissipated. After 5 minutes I was almost alone in the venue, just me and some security guards keeping a close eye. As part of London 2012's learning process here, all Observers are encouraged to take pictures of what we see. Checking out the camera positions, press tribunes, reserved areas for BOB (the host Olympic broadcaster), I went behind the scenes to record the layout of the mixed zones next to the diving area. Most surprising was to see the TV studio-style lighting in the area of the athletes' showers and whirlpool, with the press area expanding to within inches of the showers themselves. Who needs privacy, eh?
Well, I'd got this far so I carried on, climbing up the diving tower - and that's when I started to feel a bit of history.
Only 2 weeks ago Olympic divers competed here, including GB hopefuls Tom Daley and Blake Aldridge, and Peter Waterfield. Climbing to the very top, I walked to the edge of the 10m platform and tried to imagine what it must feel like to be an Olympian in competition. Stood here, miles up, how could you even try to clear your mind and ignore the pressure of 17,000 people in the crowd staring at you in silent anticipation - with you quivering in your tiny swimmers?
With my toes over the edge of the black rubber-finished platform, I remembered that, a fortnight ago, this was where Australian Matthew Mitcham risked everything in a final impossibly-tricky 10m dive. He pulled off a shock victory by overtaking the Chinese to take the gold. It was only the second time that a back-two-and-a-half-somersault-with-two-and-a-half-twists had been tried (the 1st was GB's own Leon Taylor in 2004, who invented it) and Mitcham achieved the highest score for any single dive in Olympic history.
The temptation to jump into the beautiful pool below was huge, but I got the impression from security that I would have been thrown out.
Looking down...
Still, this was proof that you don't need sport going on to experience the magic of the games. Paralympic Swimming here builds up over the next five days in the 50m pool, creating a set of new heroes to take their place in sporting history in the pool alongside Mitcham and the likes of Michael Phelps, Rebecca Adlington and more...
