Members of the 2012 Greco-Roman delegation will be posting updates to the Greco Blog throughout the course of the Games. Check out the unique insights the training partners have when it comes to the 2012 London Games.
July 29 – The Adventures of James Johnson
So I was not able to post yesterday because we where out sightseeing at Hyde park and got a text message from Coach Fraser that he had free tickets to the table tennis, we boarded the train and headed to the Excel center and got to watch some pretty neat matches.
On Friday we went to the USA house and watched the Opening cermonies, there was a lot of smiles when Team USA came on. We got to see the US womens wrestling team and most of the greco team. Chas Betts, Spenser Mango, and Ben Provisor got some good air time. Yesterday we did not have practice because the guys got back so late they where able to sleep in and get cardio in at the Olympic Village.
I feel like our team is very ready to compete, they have been having great practices over the last few days. I was drilling with Spenser and he has felt the best I have ever felt him in a while. I think it will be great having him and Provisor start it off on the 5th of August. When we headed downtown I went with Andrew Bisek and Coach James Johnson who coaches for Sunkist kids. I would like to call our adventure the adventures of James Johnson.
If you have ever met Coach Johnson you will know that he seems to know everybody that we meet. We started off on the train and headed to the Asics house. When we arrived we where met by one of the asics people from Japan. JJ carried on a conversation for over an hour with this guy well Bisek and I enjoyed some free food and watched some of the bike racing on tv. After that we boarded the train and headed to Hyde Park. Hyde Park was huge, there was a big pond in the middle with paddle boats you could rent.
A lot of the people at the park where having a big picnic and seemed to be enjoying themselves. After we arrived Coach Fraser sent a text saying he had free tickets to the table tennis at nighttime we went to the Tube and headed to the Excel center. We where met by team leaders from freestyle and greco along with the US Freestyle Olympic team. We all got our tickets and headed in, our seats where nice there was 4 tables being played side by side. One match that sticks out the most was the final match between Denmark vs Poland in the womens singles tournament. The lady from Poland had one arm, they played best out of 7 and it went all 7 games with Poland pulling out a narrow victory. The crowed went crazy when she won, it was a lof of fun to watch and makes me even more excited for our team to start wrestling. We headed back to the University and went to sleep. I am headed to practice but I hope you enjoy reading the blog. You can always follow me on twitter and see lots of pictures @nateengel
Cherrio
Nate
Friday July 27, 2012 Opening ceremonies day!
Greetings from London, England
I am Nate Engel, training partner of Spenser Mango and I figured to give everyone a different view from our side over here. We arrived a few days ago from a long trip from Colorado Springs. We dropped the Olympians off at the Olympic Village and then took a bus to East London University which is housing training partners, coaches, and media.
Team USA is actually running the university from the food, workout equipment, and our own wrestling mats. The guys come over to train once a day, and they have been looking great. I would not want to step out on the mat with them come game day. I have to say that having Joe Warren is a great addition to team USA, he is always full of energy and giving everyone great advice.
Yesterday we got to go to the Olympic Village and have lunch with some of the coaches and athletes, that place is amazing. There is so many types of food in there including McDonald’s. We got to see some of the basketball players like Paul Gasol (LA Lakers), track star Tyson Gay, and many other Olympians.
I would have to say that the Ukraine have the ugliest uniforms I have ever seen. Aside from the practices we have down time that we can go sightseeing around London. We have been to Buckingham palace (saw the changing of the guard), Westminster Abbey, the running of the torch, Hyde Park, Big Ben, Tower Bridge (the bridge with the huge Olympic rings hanging from it),
The Parliament buildings, even Michelle Obama was visiting today, and many other amazing things. We are all very excited to watch the opening ceremonies tonight, and cant wait for competition to start. That is all for now from London.
Cherrio-
Nate
