About

So to set the scene……

Heather has tried for the last 17 years, to qualify for the Olympic Games for Great Britain in the sport of whitewater canoe slalom. At the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games, she qualified a boat for GB the year before the Olympics, but then never got to sit in it the following year as new trials were required. Heather and I also had a few issues with the GB Governing body and in 2005, although coming 12th at the World Championships, they decided to remove all funding from her, citing her age and that she would be unlikely ever to make it to an Olympics, and it looked like she may never get to go.

Heather has always been a dual citizen, holding both UK and US passports, so we decided to make the move to the US, a decision which meant that she could not paddle internationally for three years, until qualified for the US (a requirement of the Olympic movement when athletes change nation). This year after serving that ban, she qualified for the US team at trials in the US and a final race off in Germany at the sports World Cup race.

Heather flew here about 10 days ago, via team processing in San Francisco (where you get all your team kit and accreditation). The airline broke both her Olympic boats pretty badly on route to the US and she also had her photo taken with the Governor of California….Big Arnie.

There are 21 women in the race and Heather has qualification on the 13th August and hopefully semi-finals and finals on the 14th August. Her first day in Beijing was spent repairing her boats, thus missing a days training.

I flew from the UK yesterday (3rd Aug) arriving in Beijing today, the 4th….so here we go with my attempt at an Olympic diary.