This was another stand out day at the Olympics! What a super time we are having. I feel so fortunate.
Today (Thursday 18th August 2016) was one of the main reasons we had come to the Olympics: to cheer on the Brownlee Brothers in the Traithlon. Over the last four years we have become big fans of them both and keen watchers of triathlon on TV. We have been to watch two triathlons live in London which were part of the World Triathlon Series. We have also taken part in the Brownlee Tri, a short triathlon organised by the Brownlee Brothers. John has done three of them and his phone screensaver is still a photo of Jonny, Ali and us from the first event. John also ordered a Yorkshire White Rose flag on eBay before we came to South America which we had been carrying around with us, as we had seen the Brownlees carry one over the finish line at other races.
The night before the triathlon, we wandered along Copacabana beach watching some of the final preparations as the numbers were sprayed onto the starting mat and we enjoyed working out where transition was and where the athletes entrance was to the complex.
Unfortunately we had never been able to get tickets for the Olympic Event. We figured we were sure to get them when we first applied, as who would be wanting to go to watch triathlon? It seemed crazy to us that the stadium often looked half empty for the athletics but we couldn't get our hands on triathlon tickets wherever we looked. But at least it was an 8 lap 5km bike course so we knew we would be able to cheer the Brownlees on somewhere!
So on the morning of the race, we headed to the athletes entrance with one last try at the ticket box office - still all sold out. But our disappointment didn't last long as we were quickly spotting athletes. It turned out that the area for setting up the bikes and doing final checks, was just the other side of the metal barrier so we were able to watch and listen as they strapped energy gels on to handlebars, cleaned tyres, tied elastic bands around their bike shoes and made sure everything was ready. John had heard that Alistair was the chilled out calm one before a race and Jonny was more nervous and anxious. That definitely seemed true to us!
We then headed round to the spot we had sussed out to watch from - as close to the finish line as we could get outside the ticketed area. We walked past one of the areas that the BBC broadcast from and 5Live asked to take our photo for their Twitter feed. I think our lipstick purchased the night before helped us stand out!
That turned out to be the first of a few photos poses as various people asked for our photo as we were stood by the barriers. We got chatting to another British girl and we became quite a GB supporting team. One Brazilian girl asked for a photo as she said UK was her favourite country and I was filmed from toe to head by a Sky Sports News cameraman. I saw a man photographing us so I waved at him and he came and asked for a photo of us with his dog - definitely one of the most highly surreal moments of the year!
John and Katie went behind us to the beach to watch the start of the swim as the triathletes ran into the sea, while I saved our spot at the railings. There was quite an exclusion zone on the beach so it wasn't really possibly to tell who was who, but it was interesting to see when they stopped running and dived in the waves as compared to a lake swim where they dive off a pontoon. We were on the railings next to a nice man from Venezuela who lives in Rio and was knowledgable about triathlon so it was fun for me to chat to him while the others were on the beach.
Admittedly we didn't actually see all that much of the action during the race, but I was super happy during the whole thing. We got eight flashes as they came right past us on the bike laps and there were eight slightly longer glimpses through the metal barriers as they went past the other way across the road. It took a couple of laps to get my eyes trained then I was able to identify the Brownlees as they passed in the lead group of about 10 riders. We cheered as they went past, though they cycled so close to our side of the barrier that we couldn't wave our flags too elaborately for fear they'd get caught in the spokes! We also particularly cheered for the second group which had Gordon Benson in, the third Brit. We noticed that he hadn't gone past us at the start of the run and were thinking he must be really slow and then Katie spotted him walking across on the other side of the barriers in the middle with a scrape on his leg and back. It turns out he had come off his bike.
We were able to see the athletes for slightly longer as they came past us on the run and we were delighted that the Brownlees were out together leading everyone quickly and leaving them behind. We focussed on our chanting and mad flag waving.
Ali pulled away on the third lap and was looking strong to come home for gold. On the final straight we were shouting 'Ali! Ali! Ali!', I was waving our Yorkshire flag and Katie was waving her GB flag. I was really hoping Ali would take one of our flags to carry over the finish line but he was looking so focussed and running so straight that I'd resigned myself to it not happening. Then at what seemed to me to be the very last minute he swerved and grabbed them both! We were ecstatically excited!!! Woop woop woop!
He carried them over the line, one in each hand. We were jumping up and squealing. My legs were shaking. Katie was trying to type her email address on to the phone of the guy next to her who had videoed the 'flag grab' but her hands were shaking too much to do it. The two men who had happened to video the moment hung around for a while trying to get one video transferred over Bluetooth. I also managed to be in text contact with Ma and Lizzie and heard that the flags were a major feature after the race.
Once we had recovered sufficiently we headed back round to the athletes entrance, catching the national anthem on a big screen through the bars. There were lots of athletes leaving by this point including Gordon Benson and Richard Varga ('Slovakia, first out of the water' on the back of his supporters' tops).
While waiting we were approached by a man who said 'hello, I'm Richard from Sky News Radio' and we said 'yes we know, you interviewed us on Monday after the dressage!' How funny! We did another interview, much longer as we chatted about the flag and our Brownlee Tris. We got chatting to a British man for a while who turned out to be the father of a member of the GB hockey team whose son had had a disappointing games. But we chatted away about how positive our experiences of the Rio Games was.
We saw the Brownlees getting in to a golf buggy each to be then whisked off for press interviews. We were told they would likely be a while so we headed off to the Lagoa to collect our athletics tickets from France House. Whilst there John got on the wifi and found a message from Katie saying she had got our Yorkshire flag back and it was a long story. We arranged to meet that night back at our cheering spot to hear the story over dinner. Back at home we enjoyed seeing the reaction to the flag handover with our family and friends. Lizzie had managed to record the TV footage. The Daily Mail online had also jumped on the Yorkshire flag grab story!
We had a fun time hearing all about the flag retrieval that evening. Katie had headed to the Fort and bumped in to two Brits who were mega fans of the Brownlees. She had seen the Brownlees go past with them and seen their interaction. They had got tickets the night before the race to be in the grandstand. They were walking back when the couple introduced Katie to the Brownlees' physio who was walking past. They told the story of the flags and the physio took the Yorkshire flag out of her bag - still wet with sweat!! The fan lady had been very desperate for it and had tried all sorts to persuade Katie to give it to her, but she had held strong and had the flag for us - she had put it in her dry bag so that we could still feel the wetness of the sweat!!
What wonderful craziness the day had been!! We headed back for bed. As we got in, Haydee showed us a message she had google translated which started 'could you do an interview...' and my thought was ok my goodness, the press have found out we gave the flag and have somehow traced us to here, but the rest of the message was '...about your experience of Airbnb during the Olympics'. My mind was clearly far to active after the excitement of the day! I also had a surprise when I looked in the mirror - I had a very red forehead, apart from the centimetre closest to my hair which my Union flag bandana had been covering. I normally wear a hat and clearly the one lot of sun cream I'd put on in the morning hadn't been enough. I have also realised that I have a lighter skin coloured heart on my forehead, where I'd had a lipstick heart drawn. Oh dear - maybe I need a new hairstyle with a fringe!
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