M's Olympic moments

The Olympics are so fantastic- every 4 years, it is a great celebration of the world coming together! It's also a nice time to reflect on what you were doing and what's happened since.

My 2012 Olympic experience was one of my top two Olympic experiences so far (I will recap the second later). When I started my new role last spring, I was assigned to work on the global Olympics project among other things. This work has been incredibly fun and also great for the brand I work on. I had hoped in the back of my mind that I would go to London at some point during the Olympic experience but wasn't sure if I would or not. About 5 months ago, we were finalizing our on-site plans and I realized I would be going to London!

So on Wednesday morning, off I went (side note - I love it - 1hr 45 minute plane ride and I am in London). From the moment I walked off the plane, I was surrounded by the Olympics- Olympic ads everywhere, people ready and willing to help anyone with Olympic questions, and special lines for the Olympians and media. My work events were very nice and pretty calm - the team had planned everything really well. On Thursday evening, after my work events were done, I realized that the torch relay would be less than a mile from my hotel so I set off to watch the torch go by. The weather was great, the energy was contagious, and a few minutes later the torch relay went by. I captured a few bad pictures and went on my way. I left Friday morning before the Opening Ceremonies had even taken place; however, I felt like I did get to experience London for the Olympics and so happy that I did.

My other favorite Olympics moment comes from 1996 when the Olympics were in Atlanta. My mom and I were lucky enough to purchase tickets to a soccer match in Washington DC and spend some time exploring our nation's capital. We weren't in Atlanta so we didn't have the full host city energy but it was still a memorable experience. I still have my souvenirs tucked away to show Sophia from that trip.

I have two other key personal Olympic experiences but not nearly as cool:
in 2010, I was sitting in consumer research in Toronto when we heard cheering from outside. We stood up, peeked out the window, and saw the torch go by en route to Vancouver. In 2009, J and I vacationed in Sydney and visited Olympic Park - it was very nice and well kept up but quiet.

This will be the first Olympics we get to share with S - I can't wait to watch with her.