me & the Rio2016 Olympics (part 1)

[John_W]

Hi there,

Yes it's a been a while hasn't it? I've had an eventful 3 months to say the least and going to Rio for the whole of the Olympic Games was very much part of that. Before I share some of my favourite photos (I only took 6,132), I thought I'd share with you a couple of things you may have missed.

(1) The Mo Farah Selfie: yes, I managed to see both of his gold-medal winning races and at the 5000m, we positioned ourselves at the only place in the stadium where athletes could actually get close to the fans. The rest is history:

Here's the original tweet and photo which Mo Farah himself took - I'm in the red polo shirt on the right: twitter.com/MatthewLumby/st...

Here's my radio interview with BBC Five Live's Caroline Barker about it: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p045czxh and Five Live's tweet about it: twitter.com/bbc5live/status... - the replies to it are amusing

(2) 3 weeks ago I was in the audience for Victoria Derbyshire's *live* 2 hour BBC2/BBC News morning programme which that day was dedicated to Team & ParalympicGB's Rio2016 achievements (same day as the Manchester Parade). They had a load of medalists on stage and in the audience, and I was lucky enough to get an invite after the producer had tried to generate interest on Twitter and Facebook.

In the emails between me and the producer I told her I'd been at the Women's Hockey Final ... when I arrived at Salford they checked if I was comfortable with talking on camera about being there. I said I was (eek). .... we then took our seats (mine was reserved!) ... and I had an 1 hour to think of what to say... with 10 minutes to go I remembered that some people at work who'd spotted me on the BBC coverage of the hockey had wondered if I was there because I might be related to the captain Kate Walsh (same surname as me) ...

Anyway, here I am - scroll forward to 23:00 and watch for 2-3 minutes

bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b...

(Yes, same polo shirt as worn in the selfie!)

Part 2 will follow before Christmas hopefully .

Cheers

John

ju-ju- ancientrunner marco83 boptillyoudrop49 poppypug GoogleMe

[LisaRose74]

Wow what an experience! I loved watching the games, would have been amazing to be there. But only 6000 photos....?! 😀

[John_W Graduate in reply to LisaRose74]

Only 6000, I know. To be fair, a lot of those were multiple exposures (finger pressed down for a few seconds) - I've now selected about 800 of them and will trim that down much further so I can share

But yes, great experience!

[poppypug Graduate]

Oh John this is just amazing !

Thank you so much for sharing your pics and memories with us. Wall to Wall Olympians - Fab !

You came across so well in your interviews, a true professional , no nerves at all . I would have been squeaking with nerves and excitement

Moments like the selfie with Mo are just priceless aren't they ? Thank you so much for posting these xxx

[John_W Graduate in reply to poppypug]

Awww, thanks Poppy! The whole thing (and it's been more eventful than I've made out) has been life-changing and truly memorable, including all the nice bits afterwards, like the conversations at work with people who spotted me on the TV, and being able to share stuff like the above.

The day after the TV prog, I was in London for the Trafalgar Square event - that was great fun and wonderful to be at. More to share some other time!

[poppypug Graduate]

Oh yes I can imagine , you have all these fantastic memories . Occasions like these really bring people together don't they ? xxx

[ancientrunner Graduate]

Thanks for posting that - what marvellous things and such incredible memories. I've gone a delicate shade of green with envy.

Looking forward to part 2.

[John_W Graduate in reply to ancientrunner]

My pleasure, glad you liked AR. Part 2 will take a while to sort out, but I promise it will happen

[AncientMum Graduate]

Wow, what a story! What a life experience. Jealous? Moi?

[John_W Graduate in reply to AncientMum]

hahaa! Glad you liked it AM.

[Ullyrunner Graduate]

Great pictures and great experience! You'll never forget it!

[John_W Graduate in reply to Ullyrunner]

Completely agree!

[nhs2015 Graduate]

Wow, you do exciting things. What an experience

[John_W Graduate in reply to nhs2015]

It's been an exciting few months, that's for sure.

[davelinks Graduate]

That's great John! Great pics and interview!

[John_W Graduate in reply to davelinks]

Thanks Dave!

[LonelyWalker Graduate]

Hi John, thank you for posting that on this group, you are now such an inspiration! Loved your photos, interviews and your top, maybe you could set up a Flickr page or similar so we can see all of your photos? Cheeky I know, but if you don't ask...! !

[John_W Graduate in reply to LonelyWalker]

Hi LW,

I haven't posted on here for a while, with having a busy summer (ahem!). But more than happy to do so - and I especially wanted to share this with this great group. Glad you enjoyed it

I have every intention of sharing the best photos (not 800!) with you all and Flickr is a good suggestion - I already have an account there. Not cheeky to ask at all!

I'll be in touch.

[LonelyWalker Graduate in reply to John_W]

That sounds great, just create a new album with us to browse through sometime then, looking forward to it!

[Curlygurly2 Graduate]

Wow! Love that photo bomb!

[John_W Graduate in reply to Curlygurly2]

HAHA - thanks! Have to admit the Mo selfie was all a cunning plan

[boptillyoudrop49 Graduate]

Wow! What amazing experiences! You come across so well John