West Midlands Olympic Dreams

To the city of London! It's here. 2012. That means

thousands of athletes from 200 countries will descend on Britain

to fight it out for Olympic gold. Tonight I want to tell us -- Ute

some about some of our West Midland contenders who can be bringing

medals back to the West Midlands. I'm Richie Woodhall, and in 1988 I

took a bronze medal for Britain. It changed my life.

But who could win this year, and make the nation proud?

Find out on tonight's West Midlands It has taken three years and over

2.5000 construction workers to complete the Olympic Park. It is

very nearly ready. I cannot believe I am here seeing

it first hand. A stadium for 80,000 spectators, and an athletes village

with all the 17,000 beds. It really will be an incredible place to

compete. The fact that the games are here in London, convinced my

first Olympic hopeful to give it one last try. Alison Williamson has

been to five Olympics already, and London will be her last chance to

win that gold. Not many people go to one Olympics

- this summer Alison Williamson will compete at her six. But even

someone this experienced has to find ways to relieve the pressure

of training and competition. I am having a nice sort of relaxing day

on Friday. At the moment, preparing for her

Grade One piano test is more daunting than the games. I am

impressed, because I teach lots of little ones and they come up with

lots of excuses why they did not practise. She should have more

excuses than most, but she manages to fit it in!

It is only a temporary escape. Soon enough, it is back to Lilleshall

and the endless hours of practice she hopes will make her perfect.

do not think about it, I just do what I do. People keep telling me I

do, so I start thinking, it will be quite special... It would be an

achievement. A team mate has said to me, that in 1992, she was five.

She thought it was funny, I was not quite so amused! Or the British

team leave little to chance. All the latest technology is used

to refine their technique. In archery even the finest margins can

mean the difference between winning a medal and returning home empty-

handed. If I got a medal in Beijing, I would not probably be here now. I

would have been quite happy to finish there. But I think, you know,

the games being in London. I missed out, and I think I am still capable

of winning another medal. Just keeping going.

Alison Winter her first Olympics in Barcelona in 1992 as a 20-year-old.

Bronze in Athens has been how highlight, losing in the team

bronze medal match in China, her biggest blow.

Does it help have been the other two with you? Yes, I can depend on

the others, and they did a really good job. I feel like I have let

them down. I was upset, but I felt that I

should have done better. But everything happens for a reason.

You know, at the time it took me a long time to accept that. And to

move on. Lord's is normally the home of

English cricket, but this summer it will swap that for bow and arrow.

Today it is the test event when the British archery team get to check

out the competition and get a feel for what the ground will be like

this summer., advantage is supposed to help the British team, and

victory against world champions Italy lifted everyone's spirits.

Naomi Folkard shot side by side with Alison in an Athens and

Beijing. It is amazing that she has got the

courage to keep going. And the will to keep going as well. She has

always got knowledge to pass to us as well, even though I have been on

her team for ten years, she still tells me something that I need to

know. We are friends, and I guess it is more like family. Sometimes

you might have fall outs, but you know the person well enough that

you'd -- it is quickly forgotten. Their next opponents are one of the

tournament's favourites, Chinese Taipei. Alison ups her game. The

centre of the target peppered by her Arrows, and the British team

have upset the odds to reach the semi-finals. One win from their

last two matches will guarantee a medal, but China us too strong in

the semi-finals. Britain get within touching

distance of a bronze against Japan, but at the death it slips away in

the final three arrows. It has just raised the stakes for getting back

here in July. Having the experience here, it makes me want to come back.

A look at her and I see a real true champion. She tries to do

everything she needs to do in order to be the best at what she does.

Sometimes she is even to driven, and we have to hold her back.

That desire will always be there until she can win the ultimate

Olympic prize. That would definitely be everything

I have wanted to achieve, and I think knowing that you have

everybody, your family and friends behind you are cheering you on an

supporting you, it would mean everything.

Alison might be one of the most experienced competitors at the

Games this summer, but there are still loads more who are literally

Olympic first-timers. So we invited Sydney's 400 metres bronze

medallist to go and meet one of their new faces.

Come to Stoke-on-Trent, they said, and bring your running shoes. It is

years since I competed here but there is someone I wanted to meet.

23-year-old Emma Jackson is one of Britain's best young athletes, an

800 metre and brother went to the world championships in Korea last

year and now has her eyes on the Olympics.

Here she is! How is my 800 metres star? You are looking well. Is your

training going well? Yes, very well. So if we do a bit of training today,

you are not going to try me out too much, I knew? How long has it been?

Six years! I will put you through your paces. Come on, then.

But you have got to put it through. -- put it in. It is tough. I will

have a tough job getting there. The M I made the semi-finals at the

World Championships, and now she needs to believe in her ability to

compete on the Olympic stage. do need that extra bit of self-

belief, to just get me there. shall have a little bit of a walk

now! I cannot walk and talk at the same time. Talk this through this

year. When will you know if you are going to London? The trials are at

the end of June, and... But there is a time she has got to beat as

well. One minute 59.9 seconds. I need to run under that at some

point in 2012. The City of Stoke athletics club

has never produced an Olympic medallist, so good Emma really

become their first? The stadia in stock, -- you think of all the

people that started here in stock, but they move to bigger clubs.

Why have you stayed in the Midlands?

I am happy here, I have a fantastic support system, a fantastic coach,

and this is where I call home. Let us go from the track. I am a

bit more comfortable in the gym. Shall we go and maybe lift some

weights? Alan Morris has been coaching Emma

since she was 12. That means hours on the track and of course sessions

in the gym. She is a very easy athlete to coach.

She is very committed, she enjoys it, it is her living now, so

basically she has taken that on board. I do not have to give her

much in the way of motivation, she is very self-motivated. How much

would it mean to see how with the British vest on representing

Britain and Northern Ireland at the Olympics? It would be a very

emotional moment, and it would mean absolutely everything to us. You

can go to the European Championship, the world championship, but the

Olympic Games is the absolute pinnacle of every athlete's cream.

And it is M a's dream. We are going to work extremely hard for it.

Family support is vital in the light of any young athlete, taking

them to races, cheering them on and keeping their feet on the ground.

Where was this one? That was one of the stock schools

races, I had just won the city championship. I was about nine

years old. She must have one, because she is smiling.

He these Olympic Games which everyone is talking about, Emma has

been dreaming about them. For you guys as parents, you have the

photos - it will be pretty special, want it, if MI gets on the team?

The UK has probably got five very good competitors, and which three

out of the five that will go is anyone's guess. It will be great if

Emma gets there, but we have to take a long-term view. The Olympics

is just another championship. If you put all your eggs in one basket

you could be hugely disappointed. If she gets there, we will be

thrilled, but if she does not, there is the world championships

the year after. So let us have a quiet word. I

thought I would bring a little something just to show you. Not the

bag! But is not very inspiring. I thought I would bring my Olympic

medal. I have never seen one of these before. It has got your name

on and everything. That is amazing. Well, hopefully I will have one of

these of my own one day. Silver or gold are better. In higher! Thank

you, and a. -- Emma.

23-year-old Emma with her cautiously optimistic father. I

know how she feels because my dad was no different. But back in 1988,

I could only think about my training and going to the Games. So

why was amazed to hear that rowing gold medallist Zac Purchase is not

only planning on defending his title, he is planning on his

wedding three weeks after the game's!

This is Zac Purchase, Olympic rowing champion. This summer, he

will attempt to make that double Olympic champion. Then, three weeks

later, he will be getting married to me. This is our story to London

2012. -- our journey. Be in an Olympic rower is hard work.

When you are waking up, Zac will already be on the water, whatever

the weather. A win it is cold and miserable, I cannot think of

anywhere I would rather be. Being tucked up in bed at 7:00am,

is a nice thought to have when it is raining and snowing in the

winter, but you cannot get away from racing in London, and that

chance of another gold medal. You have got to start somewhere, and

unfortunately this is where you have got to start.

A last summer, Zac became world champion for the second time with

his light weight double sculls such partner at Mark Hunter. It will

make them favourites for a second Olympic title in London.

Is it the thought of that second gold in London that keeps you

going? Yes, I think when it was announced in 2006, that they would

be in London. I knew at that point that would be the most important

gold medal for me. Beijing would be a learning experience, but London

would be the most important one. Beijing ended up even better than I

expected, and fingers crossed London well as well.

That is why every day between now and London 2012, you will find Zac

on the water chasing his dream of a second Olympic gold medal. It all

seems a long way from meeting at teenage -- as teenagers at King's

School in Worcester. We are taking I used to go out with his best mate.

That was 10 years ago. The school's new boathouse looks

fantastic, but you still will not get the two of us together on the

water again. We did a mixed doubles event on the river. We got a few

lines up the river and he told me I was rubbish and I told him he was

arrogant. We wait apart any strop, but apart from that, everything has

been fine! I can get moody sometimes in she knows exactly what

to do, which is to get out of May we! When you are sitting at home

just watching the television, he is just Zac. But sometimes, I think

that the person I am marrying has got an Olympic gold medal.

We are getting married at St Paul's Cathedral, then it is on here, to

Great Fosters, for the reception. With Zac so busy this year, I

wanted us to have a get-together with our wedding planner Sandy.

many of showers are you having? Zac will not have much free time

between now and the Olympics, but that does not mean he is off the

hook in planning for our wedding! Come on, with all your training

going on, how much use a you're actually going to be? I will try

and do as much as I can. I have done a lot of rolling before, but I

have not done a wedding before. given that it is in London, what

does that mean to you? Yes, it is huge. The only reason I am still

doing it is to win another gold I did not expect to catch up with

Zac in the gym. Legs first, then body, then that the arms. Their

record, it is easy. Then, you have to do it all in one smooth simple

motion. What the machine doing is speeding it up, so it will get

Your training programme, do you have any days off? It is not too

bad. My alarm goes off just after 6 o'clock in the morning every single

day. So what is great on a day off, when you can just turn it off and

go back to sleep again. So whose idea was it to get married around

the time of the London Olympics? I have to say, it was not my idea!.

But it just means we simply have to Now for a story about determination

and heartbreak. It is about the Paralympian journey to 2012. Ryan

is one of our most talented Paralympic shooters. After a

terrible accident left him paralysed, he is now in the running

to represent Britain at the Paralympics. My do not know too

much about target shooting and I hope rain will be able to tell me.

I am more interested about his determination to succeed after his

terrible accident. It is a great story. Although he has only been

shooting for four years, he is already world-class and his trophy

This was in Poland. What do you remember about that event? Was this

an individual or team event? It is individual. Her age you first learn

about shooting? In it was through the be cabinet dilatation unit at

Stoke Mandeville. I had a go at it and really enjoyed it. The swimming

pool accident left him paralysed from the waist down. Everyday tasks

that we all take for granted can be quite difficult for him? Yes, there

really has to be carers with him all day when I am out at work. It

How do you feel that your son could be representing Great Britain at

the Olympic Games? He has achieved a great deal since the accident.

can shoot with the best of them. But to get to the gold medal, he

will have to train hard. That is where Dad comes in as a shooting

He is that the West Midlands shooting Centre and I am going to

see how he is getting on and give him some advice! How is it going?

It is pretty much a standard rifle. I have had my own piece made for

the cheek. Now all he has to do is secured his place in the squad. He

will not know for a couple of months if he has made it into the

team. I do not want to see it getting too upset when you see me

over there. You have got a bit of competition here! The pressure is

I tell you what! Look at that! Did Soon, it was back to business. Have

you ever imagined yourself representing Great Britain at the

Paralympics? Yes, I have put a lot of hard work in an to get there

would be great. If you want to find out more about any Paralympic

Finally, dreaming about winning an Olympic medal is that the reason a

lot of kids get into sport in the first place. It takes talent,

determination and I have been falling one Olympic dream that

turned sour. Imagine training for one goal for three years? This

could be his second Olympics after coming back empty handed from

Beijing for years ago. I was only a youngster when. That is the main

reason I stayed with it. Been a home Olympics, with all the home

fans, I want them to see what I am capable of doing. But although he

has qualified for the British team, so has his friend Andrew. Two

frames seeking one place in the team. The solution is simply that

York Hall in the East End of London. This is it, the one and the first

contest. To get that first win is Mentally, it is very important. If

you do not get that first win, you could be on a Downer the next day.

Are you looking forward to? Are you confident? Yes, feeling good.

People are starting to arrive and the atmosphere is building. It is

now or never. The next 10 minutes will determine which of the to take

a step closer to their Olympic dream. We have trained together for

the last for five years and sparred together many times. It will be a

bit different from the usual fight. It is anyone's Guess who's going to

win this one. It is not a great start. He is not down in the first

In the second round, it is better. But he still has it all to do going

into the final round. This is anyone's fight. It is that close

Round three, and it is obvious he has endured his hand. He has lost

I did not think the margin was that big, to be honest. Andrew did win

it. But not by that margin. But now, he will have to win the next two

bouts to qualify for the Olympic D2 and shock news. The injury means

he could not prepared for the fight. He has failed to make the weight

and it will have cost him his Olympic place. His Olympic dream

How were you doing? Do you fancy a cup of tea? It is a couple of weeks

after the fight and the disappointed boxer has agreed to

meet me to talk about his disappointment. I did not have

anyone to blame. Andrew boxed the best that he could. How do you

feel? Last four years have been here towards the London Olympics?

It is heartbreaking. Everyone I know who is close to me is gutted

for me. I want to make history as the professional now. I want to

fight for the titles that all my he rose are dead. He is now going to

forelock his boxing team as a professional and his name is one