Ten Years Gone

I realised with a shock today that exactly ten years ago I was with the BBC Radio Sport team in Athens, and we were halfway through our coverage of the 2004 Olympics. This was a very special year, because the Games had at last returned to the city where they began.

My particular little team (pictured in the blipfoto), broadcasting hourly bulletins and a long evening programme every day on BBC World Service, each worked six 10-hour shifts a week for three weeks. There was also a slightly bigger team working on coverage for BBC Radio 5-Live, plus of course the Sport production staff and presenters. The Radio Outside Broadcast engineers had been out in Greece several weeks before us, hauling tons of kit into place and setting it up and testing it. By the time we arrived at the International Broadcasting Centre beside the Athens Olympic Sports Complex, they had literally built a mini Broadcasting House in terms of communications, studios, computer networks and location facilities. There are fewer of these guys in the Radio OB's team than you might think, and they do the most amazing job - I am in awe of them. Not only are they mega-skilled and thoroughly great blokes, but just as importantly they had already rooted out the best places in Athens for bargain meals! In between the long shifts, we somehow found time to have a bit of fun in and around the city. On one of my precious days off I even managed to do a day-trip to one of the islands, though this had to be on my own because we couldn't all be off-duty at the same time. On another day off I climbed up to the top of the Acropolis in the searing 100 deg. F heat. I also went to one swimming session, where I witnessed Michael Phelps adding to his massive haul of gold medals, and one evening of athletics where I saw Kelly Holmes qualify for the 800m race in which she won gold the next day. On my only other day off I slept for most of it, unsurprisingly utterly exhausted.

This was to be my only trip working abroad during the whole of my BBC career. It was a great honour and privilege to be a part of such a wonderful high profile event, and I loved every minute of it. But where have those ten years gone since then? It feels like it was only last summer that I was there.

I don't often link to tracks, but the title of this one is just too appropriate to resist.