Ian Walker's Olympic Diary - 14th September Part Two

With the Opening Ceremony looming, British Star representative and Atlanta silver medallist, Ian Walker, writes from Sydney

Today will be my last Olympic Diary as from tomorrow I am under the constraints of the Olympic Charter which, amongst other things, prohibits journalism. All Olympic athletes have to sign a 15 page British Olympic Association (BOA) contract which mainly contains restrictions on advertising and sponsorship. But it also contains rules on behaviour, drugs, team clothing and the media.
Tomorrow is Opening Ceremony day and we will be spending the day in the Olympic Village sampling the atmosphere before meeting up with the rest of Team GB and parading into Stadium Australia. Our parade uniforms are pressed and ready and should give the billions watching on television a good laugh!

Also ready to go are our cameras to record the once in a lifetime moments. I am very excited about the day, but even more excited for Mark, for whom it will be his first Olympic Ceremony. Sydney is going crazy. It seems like the whole town is out tonight to celebrate the lighting up of the Olympic rings on the bridge as the Torch Relay passes the Opera House. The Torch even came down our road today as it snaked its way around every Sydney suburb.

Tonight we have had a huge team dinner to say ‘thank you’ to all the tuning partners and unaccredited coaches. Theirs is a difficult job as they put all the effort in and just as the show begins they have to pack their bags and leave. They rely on us doing well to get their satisfaction. Every one of them has been very positive to the team and they deserve all the thanks they get.

On the water my frustration has been growing even more. The conditions are now great for tuning, but we had to miss yesterday afternoon to be at our team photo and then at a reception with the whole British team and HRH Princess Royal at the NSW Parliament. Some of the sailing team claimed it was the first time they had worn a suit! Unfortunately my wife thought it suited me (so to speak) and that I would look great working in the City - there’s motivation to do well in the next few weeks!

It is very difficult to know how much sailing to do between now and the start of the regatta. Mark desperately needs a day off mentally and physically after working on the boat or sailing for the last 10 days straight. I am sure he also misses his wife and baby after now being away for 6 weeks. We need to finalise our program with the right amount of practice and time off.

Tomorrow we will set some goals for the regatta. I am so frustrated and disappointed at how poor our build up has been. We have tried so hard to get everything right and could not have put more effort in and yet everything seems to have run against us.

We are not confident in our speed although it may well be fine, and we have not shone in any practice races. I am acutely aware that the regatta will be in tough conditions and we will have more setbacks. We have to set our expectations so that we can come through the bad things and take advantage of the good. We must not expect too much and yet equally we must set ourselves high enough targets to succeed (fortunately I am a West Ham supporter and am therefore used to this).

All of this under a huge weight of expectation from ourselves, friends, family, sponsors and supporters. Who’d be an Olympian right now! On the positive side who wouldn’t want to be in our shoes right now. Tomorrow will be one of the most memorable days of our lives and all we have to do in the next fortnight is get our little boat round the course faster than the others in 9 out of 11 races. Sounds easy. Thanks for following our campaign and all the good luck wishes.

See you on the other side!!

Editor's note; Ian will be writing another diary for us when the Games is over.