Thursday, October 1, 2026
Lauren Seaberg, a former Rockville Centre resident, currently lives in England while working as a counselor at an international school. She and her husband, Jeff, had the chance to attend a couple of events at the London 2012 Olympics and Lauren was kind enough to share her thoughts and photos.
We weren’t quite sure what to expect of this summer’s Olympic games. Along with most of the Brits, we were actually dreading the few weeks in which the entire world would be piling into London. After making it through the initial battle of actually securing tickets to the games (which turned out to be no easy feat), we spent the next few months listening to a good amount of complaining about all the disturbances the Olympics would cause.
It wasn’t until we set out for our first event that Olympic fever began to trickle in. We jumped on the tube to begin our journey and as we approached central London, our car gradually began to fill up. At first it was the regular Londoners that we’ve grown accustomed to seeing but within a few stops they were soon overtaken by flag waving families with matching outfits, athletes and coaches in their country’s uniforms and a cascade of diehard fans.
When we arrived at the Excel Center for our Greco-Roman wrestling match, that excitement had built into a pulsing buzz. Flags of every color, face paint, bongo drums, multicolored wigs and viking helmets met us at the center. Despite knowing absolutely nothing about Greco-Roman wrestling, I couldn’t help but be excited. Luckily, my husband and the announcer did a great job explaining the rules of the match every step of the way.
As this was just the first of several preliminary rounds, matches were taking place on three mats. There was a lot of action, especially near our seats, which were closest to the heavyweights. Despite being completely clueless at first, I found myself cheering louder than most for the final matches and getting swept away by the energy of the crowd. It didn’t matter so much to me that the US didn’t make it into the semifinals; at a certain point everyone was cheering regardless of the flag they came with.
Women’s volleyball was our second event and we were lucky to witness some amazing matches at Earl’s Court. The first two games (China vs. Japan and Russia vs. Brazil) were incredible. Both sets of teams seemed very evenly matched and basically went point for point through each set. Quite a few times during the night our jaws dropped at the amazing athletic ability on display. Impossible spikes were perfectly defended; players dove out of bounds into dividers and mesmerizing volleys continued for what seemed like forever. The crowds there were also very energized, which gave the stadium an electric feel. We ended up cheering for every amazing play we saw (there were many) and just enjoyed getting lost in the excitement of it all.
The next game that we saw was our favorite for two reasons; first, it was the USA women’s volleyball team and second, they dominated their opposing team, the Dominican Republic. The feeling we had cheering such a talented group of women on is difficult to describe. We couldn’t have been prouder.
As we continued to watch the rest of the events from the comfort of our flat we did our best to soak it all in. We learned to embrace the crowds, we watched history being made as several world records were broken and we enjoyed being part of it all here in London.
