London 2012 blog

I'd probably describe myself as something of an adventure sports enthusiast and not so much of a sporting spectator. So, when the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games arrived this summer, I didn't really have plans to watch too many of the events - until I learned from the media coverage just how well our British athletes were doing. National pride kicked in and I was as jubilant as anyone in the UK to witness just how many medals we took home.

Suddenly, the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games has taken on a whole new meaning, and I'm now really excited that Britain is hosting the event in four years time. You can imagine the impact therefore when I recently heard that Nortel had won the bid to become the Official Network Infrastructure Provider for the Games. I was elated both by size of the challenge we have taken on as well as the opportunity to personally get involved in some way.

A few weeks later I got my chance when an email arrived from corporate marketing requesting volunteers to help out at a celebratory event the company was organising. So here I am - official Nortel blogger for the event last week!

A number of fellow volunteers arrived early on the day under grey, rain cast skies that did nothing however to dampen our enthusiasm. The choice of venue was a stroke of genius. Eton College's world class Rowing Centre on Dorney Lake is an impressive setting and has already been chosen to host the 2012 Rowing and Flat Water Canoe and Kayak races. It's not hard to imagine that to an aircraft approaching nearby Heathrow, the 2,200 metres long, 8 lane wide body of water must look very much like Heathrow's fabled third airport runway!


The day was split into two, with the morning session catering to a mix of analysts, Nortel customers and employees, together with representatives of LOCOG, and a sprinkling of Olympic and Paralympic athletes, including Sir Steve Redgrave. A series of short and interesting presentations followed, with Seb Coe, LOGOG's Chair, delivering a sprightly keynote filled with humorous anecdotes. He also emphasized the enormity of the logistics challenge and the key part that Nortel together with BT will play in providing the communications infrastructure for the event.

I had a chance at the end for a few words with Seb, and he stressed his personal commitment to create new sporting role models for today's young people as well as encouraging them to build up their own competitive sporting skills and ambitions for future Olympic Games. He also mentioned that network technology should enable an ever broader range of communication outlets (web, mobile, TV, etc) to bring the athletes into the lives of young people in a more varied and meaningful way.

Without doubt though, the best part of the day was meeting the Olympians and Paralympians themselves during the afternoon. And of course getting to hold one of those GOLD medals! They’re big, about the size of beer coaster, and gold heavy too. Surprisingly, the 6'7'' Peter Reed, (a member of the Team GB Coxless four Rowing Team who won Gold in Beijing this summer), was completely unfazed as his medal was passed around a gaggle of admiring spectators.

In the afternoon, he and his fellow oarsman, Tom James, arranged an entertaining computerized rowing race for small teams of Nortel employees to compete against each other. At the start, Peter provided a demonstration of how to use one of the five rowing machines. Such was the power of his strokes that the machine appeared to take on a life of its own, moving rapidly across the floor of the marquee as if drawn by some magical attractive force toward the edge of the lake a short distance away!


Next stop was a chance to meet Clive Milkins, the ebullient and dedicated coach for the ParalympicsGB Horse Riding team. He had the build and appearance of a jockey about him, but surprised me by saying he was not a rider himself, but found ample reward from the personal confidence and freedom that riding brought to the disabled children he coaches. He proudly introduced everyone to two young London 2012 hopefuls taking their handsomely groomed ponies through a series of tricky dressage manoeuvres in the display field.

I also had a chance to talk with Sophie Christiansen, who despite suffering a severe form of cerebral palsy, has overcome her physical disability to win three medals at the Beijing Paralympic Games. Amusingly, she was far less interested in extolling the fact she had won two gold medals, than in venting her frustration as having missed a third Gold by only 0.03 of a point!

We finished the afternoon with a demonstration by the impressive and jocular Team GB Women's Bobsleigh trio made up of Nicola Minichiello, Jackie Gunn and Gillian Cooke. With the aid of some YouTube 'extreme sports-like' video clips, they provided a fascinating insight into what it's like to train and compete in this event, pulling 5g's whilst hurtling at 100mph down an icy tunnel on the back of their flimsy 175kg fibreglass sled. Better than a ride on the Alton Towers rollercoaster and much more dangerous!

By the end of the day, everyone I spoke to who had taken part felt really energised by the event itself, by LOCOG's enthusiasm for having Nortel on board, and the level of sporting dedication and commitment exhibited by the Olympians and Paralympians present. Personally, I'm really fired up by the wonderful opportunity this offers Nortel to not only showcase its technical expertise but also provide some exciting openings for employees to get involved in new roles that will both stretch them and provide new life experiences.