Injury scuppers Olympic dream
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A SUTHERLAND woman has had to give up her Olympic dream as a result of a painful knee injury.
Carol Gilmour, Rosehall, has been preparing to take part in the London 2012 Olympics for the last three years.
The 68-year-old wasn’t going as a competitor, but as one of the army of unsung volunteers who work behind the scenes to make sure the Games go as smoothly as possible.
She should have been in London for the opening ceremony today (Friday) but instead will be watching it on television at home at Shenaval, Altass.
Needless to say, she is devastated that she has fallen at the last hurdle, just as the Games were in sight. She says: "I now understand a little of the bitter disappointment felt by athletes who train for years to achieve their goal and by fate of an injury are not able to take their place at the time.
"For me there won’t be another Games in this country to try again; for them they have another long four years to train and wait."
Carol, an on-line proof-reader for a market research company, is married to Colin, a retired army officer.
The couple, who have two daughters, have lived all over the UK as well as in Hong Kong and Germany before retiring to their home in Altass.
Her enthusiasm for the Olympics was fired in 2008 when she visited the famous Birds Nest Olympic Stadium in Beijing and other venues, built for that year’s Chinese Games.
She decided to respond then, when the call went out the following year for volunteers, to help with the London Games.
"I just wanted to help make it the best it could be," she explains. "The Chinese were so proud of their Birds Nest. I wanted us to feel the same way about our Games."
Over 280,000 people put their names forward to become volunteers and Carol was one of 70,000 chosen after attending an interview in Glasgow.
Since then she’s been to four training sessions in London, with travel and accommodation paid for out of her own pocket.
"It’s been a lot of Easy Jet and the Gatwick Express!" she jokes.
One of the highlights of the last three years was a training session at Wembley Arena in January when television presenter John Inverdale and Olympians Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson and Stef Cook, along with members of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), gave a presentation on the work to be undertaken by the volunteers.
"The scale was enormous and the atmosphere was terrific. Everyone was so friendly; all wanting to be a part of a great adventure," she says.
Carol had already picked up her uniform and been allocated the venue in which she would work – the Copper Box where the Handball and the Modern Pentathlon fencing will take place.
She describes her role as an "usherette" with her duties involving checking tickets and showing spectators to their seats as well as helping spectators should any emergency arise and answering their general questions.
She had also arranged her accommodation – as a member of Rosehall WRI, she’d written to the Essex Federation and had replies from two ladies in Buckhurst Hill and Wanstead Institutes offering to put her up.
However, disaster struck just as she was due to have her final training earlier this month in the Copper Box.
"The week before I was due to go down, my knee gave way – it’s a cartilage problem and it was incredibly painful," she says.
"The doctor gave me painkillers but, by the time I got to the Olympic Park, it was obvious I was going to hold everyone up trying to walk round the venue.
"They ended up taking me about in a wheelchair as a practice session for the mobility volunteers!"
Carol had to accept with resignation that she wasn’t going to make the Games.
"Having prepared for so long for my volunteering effort towards the Olympic Games, I was frustrated at the last," she says.
"It’s been a wonderful three-and-a-half year journey and I have met so many interesting and committed people along the way.
"But now, in spite of not being able to help after all, I just want the Olympic and Paralympic events to go well, be safe and enjoyed by the athletes and spectators alike.
"I shall watch on television and see probably more than I would otherwise have seen, and be glad that at least I got to see the magnificent Olympic Park."
