Part 2/5 of Olympic Events: Women's Field Hockey

For those of you who are not aware of the ticketing process for buying an Olympic ticket, in simple words: you want to tear your hair out its so awfully run. The Olympic Park hosts a majority of the events, with the main showcase being Athletics (Track and Field). Inside the Olympic Park has both the Olympics Megastore, the largest McDonalds in the world, a large nature preserve, and a huge screen television with a lawn to lay down and watch the Olympics. So, as one can imagine, simply being in the park is an experience in itself. But, here's the snag: you have to have a ticket to one of the sports in the park on that day to get in. So, all of the UK is on this one website trying to purchase tickets that are released at odd times during the day, with the popular events like Swimming and Athletics literally usurped within seconds. 

So as I sat in my apartment I started lowering my expectations for what I might see as I had unsuccessfully tried to purchase tickets over the course of a three day period. So when I refreshed the web page and saw tickets to see Women's Field Hockey in the Olympic Park...I bought them. Little did I know that I was about experience quite an interesting sport, a mix of Ice Hockey, Lacrosse, and Soccer. 

A side note: I was fortunate enough to have my family visit me in London, and they happened to have Team USA Basketball tickets the same day to the Olympic Park! So many Olympic Family pictures ensued..

Sister and Mom visiting me at the Olympics

 So after our pictures, I headed to the Riverbank Arena (a temporary structure for field hockey) in the Olympic Park and found my tickets in a brightly lit afternoon match on a blue and pink field. The first match of the day was Belgium vs. China and second, Great Britain vs. South Korea. Filling the seats were fans of Team GB awaiting their praised field hockey team. Take a look at the pictures, as I was amazed by the mixture of sports that Field Hockey was; the field of soccer, the hockey sticks of Ice Hockey, and the masks and toughness of Lacrosse.

The beautiful Riverbank Arena
The blue field is the first of its kind in the world.

China in the yellow, Belgium in the red
The contrast in looks was stark...China's women with short boyish haircuts, Belgium looking like girls from California

The slew of flags of the teams in the Field Hockey Competition

From the end of the arena, you can see the Olympic Stadium and the Orbit Sculpture

Take a look at the goalie's protective wear.
The ball can be hit up to 120 km/hour

The pride of Team GB!

 Take a look at this video of Field Hockey's version of a penalty shot. The offense sits on the outside of the circle line aside from one player who stands to the side of the goal with the ball. The defense first puts on protective eyewear and must stand inside the goal until the ball is shot by the offense to the side of them. In this video you will see a rare goal by Great Britain! With the final score of 5-3 and Great Britain winning, the crowd goes wild every time the ball flies into the goal.

After the game I walked around to the various hotspots of the Olympic Park. First, checking out the grassy area where we were able to watch USA Women's Team Gymnastics win gold with the whole crowd cheered them on.

The Grassy Area with the Big Screen

 Next, I traveled to subject myself to McDonalds, only to say that I ate at the World's Largest Micky Dees. As you can tell from the picture, I was sarcastically excited for what my stomach was about to endure.

And as the day ended, I walked out to the sight of the Olympic Stadium and Orbit fading in the sunset.

What a perfect day.