Episode 10 British Olympic Dreams

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Here comes Kelly Holmes, the crowd are on their feet!

Good footwork by DeGale, what a start.

Denise Lewis, Olympic champion.

And Rebecca Adlington is bringing it home for Great Britain.

Great Britain get the gold medal!

Yes, yes, yes!

Kelly Holmes for Great Britain, what a performance!

James DeGale is the Olympic champion.

Absolutely brilliant.

Chris Hoy of Great Britain takes gold.

The International Olympic Committee has the honour of announcing that

the Games of the 30th Olympiad in 2012

are awarded to the city of... London.

2012 is with us and all eyes are on London as the city prepares

to stage the greatest show on earth.

Alongside the city's more familiar historic sites,

new landmarks have grown up to welcome athletes

and spectators alike to the Olympic Games.

This will be the main route into the Olympic Park

for the hundreds of thousands of visitors lucky enough

to have the chance to come here and see the action in person.

Hopefully it'll be a lot less icy, though, come July.

No matter how you're intending on watching the Games, though,

here on Olympic Dreams, we'll help to get you closer to the athletes

set to grace this most spectacular of stages.

In this episode, we'll bring you horse riders,

beach boys

and rhythm and blues.

But first, one of Britain's brightest hopes for gold at the Games,

open-water swimming world champion Keri-Anne Payne.

Nick Hope joined her as she headed for crucial altitude training

at Spain's stunning Sierra Nevada.

You feel pretty awful.

Everything you do, walking up the stairs,

getting up to brush your teeth or something,

does feel quite difficult because of the lack of oxygen.

Your heart starts to pound,

your body just generally getting used to being up here

and the differences needed to compensate.

A new stimulus in swimming is fundamental

because it's what we call the black line fever.

You're swimming up and down the same pool.

So, a new pool, a new training environment,

does create extra motivation for the athletes to help them take that next step.

One thing you can do, being up a mountain, is focus on what

you're doing because there's not a right lot else to do.

So they really can focus on the detail of their stroke,

of their sets.

It's a lot harder, but it does create a fitter athlete

when you get home.

We're training, we're eating, we're doing gym

and we're sleeping in the same building,

so it can be a bit monotonous,

but it's definitely worth it in the end.

I wouldn't change it for any other kind of location,

but it is nice to go down to the town and do different things.

And when it snows, it's quite nice as well

cos we can at least try and make some sort of snowman somewhere.

Now into the Olympic year, interest in Keri-Anne is certainly growing.

She's been signed up as the face of several leading brands

and become one of the poster girls for London 2012.

But it's all very different to her life in sport.

Open water isn't exactly the most glamorous of sports.

I've swam in rivers in China

which was probably the worst thing I've ever done in my life.

I've swam in the Hudson River where it meets the sea

and it was really wavy and really dirty,

but an amazing experience cos I swam past the Statue of Liberty.

But then, swimming in the sea

and there's thousands and thousands of jellyfish,

but we had no choice, but to swim through them

and get stung constantly for two hours.

So, yeah, it's not really all that glamorous!

Keri-Anne's hoping her wedding later this year will, though.

She's engaged to fellow Stockport swimmer

and two-time Commonwealth champion David Carry.

It's really nice to have David on the team with me.

It's really nice that we both get to experience

the same kind of atmosphere.

We get to see different places like this.

Everybody always talks to us about weddings,

"I can't believe you're doing it after the Olympics.

"It's so stressful. Oh, my goodness, you're going to be stressed!"

We don't class stress, I guess, as what everybody else does

cos we're so used to this environment of high-performance sports.

I always see home as like a sanctuary away from swimming

and we don't often talk about swimming when we're at home.

We've got that balance between having a real professional,

dedicated attitude throughout the week

and then at the weekends, we can kind of...

We have a semi-normal life,

although we're not going to bars until whatever...midnight.

I don't think I've seen midnight for about three years!

I think it's a pretty good balance and we get on pretty well, as well.

Keri-Anne and always needs a project before a big competition.

What better project to have than a wedding?

The Olympics is important and it is the thing that we train for.

It is pretty much our job, but at the end of the day, for us,

I think the Olympic... The Olympics!

The wedding's more important!

No, really. Genuinely. Yeah.

No, it is more important and it is going to be the beginning

of something very different and new for us, and it's very exciting.

Well saved.

Talk me through your experience in Beijing.

I have absolutely no regrets about that race.

I did everything I possibly could

and I got the best result I possibly could out of that swim.

I find that if I'm in the front,

I know where I am and I don't have to think.

I don't have to try and count heads, how many people are in front of me,

how many people are around me. We led for 9,950 metres of the race.

I had to do everything I could to make sure that

not many people passed me and it turned out that only one did.

FEMALE ANNOUNCER SPEAKS MANDARIN

-MALE ANNOUNCER:

-Keri-Anne Payne.

In 2008, she got a silver,

backed it up the next year with the world championship,

then she got a medal in the pool, which she never got before,

and then world champion again this year.

So, Olympics next year, she's going to be clearly one of the favourites,

but I don't think Keri-Anne and myself will take anything for granted.

We've got to still do the job.

Having a successful Games is going to be

making sure I absolutely enjoy every second of it.

Making sure I really do savour every moment of a home Olympics

because everybody says this all the time, it's such a cliche,

it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and it totally is.

I'd hate to finish it and get out and think,

"Hmm, I didn't really enjoy that,"

or, "I wish I'd done something better,"

or, "I wish I'd done that."

So my goal and my aim is to just make sure

that I have the best possible time I can,

and really savour every moment of that,

whether that's disappointment success, or happiness.

Hopefully, just get a bit of taste of everything,

something I can remember for ever.

You can stay right up-to-date with all the latest news from Keri-Anne

and the rest of her British swimming team-mates

between now and the Games on the website.

Now, by its very nature, gymnastics is a sport of ups and downs.

A complex balancing act between risk and reward.

One slip can transform joy into agony in just a matter of milliseconds.

Few know this more than Dan Keatings,

the all-star British gymnast's medal-winning form

gave way to an injury nightmare

that threatened to destroy his Olympic dream.

2009, I was on top of the world.

I had the greatest achievement of my life,

picking up the silver medal all-round.

2010 started great, became European champion.

Two days after, I had a really bad injury and started to doubt myself.

Would you say after Birmingham and the Euros in 2010,

you were riding the crest of a wave?

You were as high on form as you could possibly be?

Yeah, I mean, cos I'd had the best result I'd ever had all-round

in the 2009 World Championships,

straight to the European Championships,

where I became European champion on pommel.

I was having the best time in my life, really.

We were doing great as a team and as individuals.

But, two days after the Europeans,

I came back into training to try some new stuff and I got my injury.

What actually happened, mate, cos it was here in the studio, wasn't it?

Yeah, it was just over there on the tumble track.

Come on, I'll show you.

I was practising a new move for my floor routine

and I was just doing some preps.

And I landed, probably, roughly around this area, on straight legs.

And as soon as I landed like that, my knee just went.

-And it was a torn cruciate ligament, wasn't it?

-Yeah.

All of a sudden, you can't train, the Olympics at risk.

It was frustrating coming in here and seeing everybody training as normal,

myself obviously knowing that the Olympics is just round the corner

and I can see everyone pushing ahead, learning all these new moves.

What was it like watching Dan Purvis become the best British all-arounder?

It was good. It was good, you know.

He's a great trainer, he's a great friend and training partner.

Obviously, with my result in 2009,

and then he got a good all-round result as well,

it creates a good kind of fighting atmosphere.

You know, we bounce off each other, we push each other in training.

That World Championships didn't go well for you guys.

That image of you in Tokyo, I mean, I'll never forget.

What was it like for you?

The build-up to the World Championships was amazing.

I had a really good build-up and the whole team did.

Even the podium sessions, two days before the actual competition,

it's kind of like a dress rehearsal.

So from there to the competition, I really don't know what happened.

Nobody expected it. I think it was a shock to everyone.

Us in the team and everyone back home were like, "What actually happened?"

But there still is no answer to that.

And that's the thing -

you guys were expected to qualify easily in the top eight.

I think it was fate, a bit of a blessing in disguise,

because then we had to go to the test event in January.

I was really nervous and I was first up on high bar as well.

So there was a loss of nerves in front of the crowd as well,

obviously being so important because of qualification for the Olympics.

-Yeah.

-But, again, I nailed the routine, nailed the dismount.

I think that really kick-started our competition

and we did an amazing job.

And we got to experience the whole arena there.

We got to feel the equipment,

what it's going to be like in the Olympics.

So we've kind of got an advantage on all the other competitors

that made it in the top eight and we put in a good performance there,

and it shows we're still a top, leading team.

Unfortunately for Dan, another injury meant he wasn't part of the team

that won their first ever gold at the European Championships this year.

The selectors really are now spoilt for choice.

Which felt better, all-around silver medal in 2009

or qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Games?

Definitely a close call. Really.

Obviously, I think my medal still pips it a little bit,

but definitely a close call because

it wasn't just me I did it for at this test event,

it was the whole team.

You've been to the O2 twice before.

Both times you've put in a performance.

What's going to happen the third time?

HE EXHALES

I don't want to jinx anything, but I think it's definitely my lucky arena,

so I'm excited to actually go there and compete

in front of that home crowd again. Who knows, third time lucky?

I'm Matthew Pinsent.

I've won four gold medals, starting in Barcelona in 1992,

and I finished my career in Athens.

My one to watch for London 2012 from the sport of rowing

is Kath Grainger.

She's won three consecutive Olympic silver medals - Beijing 2008,

Athens 2004, and she started her career with a silver in Sydney 2000.

I'm hoping that she can win

the first women's Olympic gold medal in rowing in London in 2012.

Katherine Grainger's proved just how much devotion

and sacrifice it takes to be successful in rowing.

One man certainly not afraid to put in the hard yards is Alan Campbell.

For him, a festive trip to see the family back home in Coleraine

isn't necessarily a cue to relax.

It's mentally very, very hard and very tough.

I've given up a comfortable Christmas.

I've dreamed that final of the race maybe a thousand times.

I've won it every single one, thankfully.

Hopefully, the sacrifices will add up to a gold.

You do dream about standing up on that podium,

and I think it's at that point you're thinking,

"Right, I will be overcome with emotion."

People actually realised I'm quite a big Rocky fan.

In fact, my favourite film of all time would be Rocky IV.

I think he appealed to the Rocky in me

and that was why this boot camp was born.

The real purpose behind it was not only to toughen up Alan physically,

but it was indeed to give him that strength in the head,

the mental willpower, the determination that you need

in this sport which is so hard,

especially if you're final in the last 500 metres.

The guy who really wants it, and the guy who can draw on something,

be it from God or from his girlfriend or from some thought,

and, in Alan's case, it could be all of those, but he might just think,

"I did that boot camp at Christmas. I'm tougher than they are,"

and he'll just keep going that extra few strokes and defeat them all.

This is a rare occurrence, me in the kitchen.

I'm usually treated like a prince when I'm at home.

Mum's very good to me. I just want to make sure they're runny.

That's why I'm getting them out early, so they don't get too hard.

This is my second breakfast. I've already had porridge this morning.

Mum was up at half six, actually, making it, so she was.

I just cannot keep this lad fed.

The supermarket bill has just shot. It's just gone through the roof.

The whole business of his Christmas training,

out on Christmas Day, and this year was a pleasure.

I mean, that was in 12 degrees.

Last year, it was minus 14, but he is going for this.

He is not leaving any stone unturned.

There are people who prefer to row with other people,

for the camaraderie, the teamwork.

A single sculler has an ego the size of a warehouse.

That's difficult to contain sometimes, but it's designed because

"I want to show what I can do and I want to prove that

"I could have done this on my own."

And that's why, so far, we've never done a crew boat.

I'd rather stand with a gold medal in the single,

than a gold medal in anything else.

Not to say that there is a hierarchy as such, but there is.

I would love to do it in the single.

I'd love to do it on my own, but if an opportunity does arise

and it's gold medal without doubt, then I'd definitely go for it.

So if you see me in anything else, it'll only be for a gold

He's been through operations in hospitals before the last Olympics,

he's had glandular fever,

he's ridden a bike to try to beat Chris Hoy but fell off,

had concussion for four days and we had to come through that.

So we've been through a lot of trials and tribulations.

There's no-one more determined, I think, and committed than Alan.

If you remember the interview at Karapiro in the World Championships,

it was the old man Steve Redgrave holding up the young boy.

I just feel like someone's cut my legs off. It really hurts.

-JOHN INVERDALE:

-That's what you call giving your all, isn't it?

The gold, what does it mean, what is it worth?

I mean, for me, I think part of it will be an apology

to all the people, for all the times

I've effed off Bill and cursed at him and been a prima donna and all that.

I think, for Jules, for any times I've made her feel second-best,

for my parents, for the advice I may have squandered sort of thing.

And, I think, you know, to friends and family for the times I've missed,

and to sponsors as well for the times I've just said,

"I can't come and do that event,"

or, "I can't come in and see you because I've got to do my training."

And hopefully you know, they'll accept that gold as an apology

and hopefully they'll be able to...

And because they will have played a part in winning that gold for me.

Regardless of what happens, I want to be able to stand there,

be proud and know that I did everything I could do

and I couldn't have taken another stroke.

Next, let's check in with teenage weightlifter Zoe Smith,

who's bounced back from the disappointment of having her funding cut

in a row over her training to make an Olympic qualifying standard lift

at the World Championships.

The 17-year-old Londoner is now based at the GB set-up in Leeds

and has got her eyes firmly set on success at the Games.

Well, it's been a roller coaster, really, just ups and downs.

It's been a bit emotional, really, at times.

Obviously there was the Commonwealths.

I can't complain about a bronze medal.

I had a great time there.

Upon coming home,

I had my funding taken away which wasn't ideal

but that's been solved now.

Then in May, competed in the Youth World Championships.

I came back with a silver medal from that so I was pretty pleased.

And then another down - I got a back injury.

It took me a couple of months to get rid of.

It's annoying to have to come in here

and watch everyone else train while I roll around being silly on a mat.

Dealing with injury is part of being a professional athlete,

something I'll have to learn to live with.

Welcome to my home.

I left London for Leeds.

I had to leave school as well to train full-time as an athlete,

but I'm enjoying it so far.

It's hard work, though. This first room here is my one.

Slightly messy, could do with a Hoover!

But, yeah, this is it.

There's my walk-in wardrobe. I've got bags and shoes everywhere.

And here are some of my clothes that have been

so carefully stashed into the wardrobe.

I miss, obviously, my family. That's a big thing.

Not many people move out at 17.

It's learning to do little things, living on your own,

like the washing up and having to wash up after every meal.

I just thought it did it itself!

I had a driving lesson on my birthday.

I'm not the best driver, but, no, I'm really enjoying it, actually.

I can't wait to drive because it just gives you so much more freedom.

Considering that was my first attempt ever,

I think I did pretty well.

I've not competed since May because of various injuries,

so that's really restored a lot of confidence,

and to get some PBs in at the same time,

I've had a really good competition.

It's been a great day. I couldn't have asked for more.

I can look back and say I've had a really great time now,

actually, because I did what I came here to do really.

And I got to go to Disney,

so it's the cherry on the cake, really, isn't it?

Obviously, it'd mean the world to me to compete at 2012.

I am getting quite nervous cos we've not got any time to lose.

So, yeah, it's quite a scary thought,

but at the same time I'm excited and can't wait for the Olympics.

What a new star we have in the women's pole vault,

Holly Bleasdale.

We've come to the north of the Olympic Park

to have a first look at the impressive Eton Manor venue,

home to Paralympic tennis and the Olympic training pools.

It's also designed to provide a sporting legacy post-Games,

with facilities not just for tennis, but hockey and football as well.

One team which can't think about its post-Games legacy just yet

is Britain's rhythmic gymnastics.

Despite some high-profile help,

their attempt to get to the Olympics really hasn't gone to plan.

It's a sport close to Gabby Logan's heart.

16 year old Welsh rhythmic gymnast Gabby Yorath.

I know how it feels to be a rhythmic gymnast.

For years, I devoted my life to a regime of intense training.

It's a sport which demands hours of practice

and gruelling exercise in order to perfect the most intricate of moves.

Repetition is the key.

But even then, mistakes happen.

Can you cover it up, or was that throw just a centimetre too far out,

and will it prove costly for you in the end?

On the eve of their home Olympic year,

the British rhythmic gymnastics squad are in limbo.

In one month's time,

they'll have to produce the performance of their lives

to reach the London Olympic Games.

GB as a rhythmic gymnastics team

deserves to be up with everyone else.

There won't be pressure to get a certain score

to get a medal, so we can just go and enjoy it.

If we do a clean routine, I'm sure we'll be happy.

This is the climax of my whole career.

The way that we're improving, I think, definitely,

we can make the score that we need. Fingers crossed, anyway.

With no funding, getting there has involved

the team and their parents paying for everything,

right down to the rented home four of the teenagers share in Bath.

We decided if we wanted to be able to train properly,

and be prepared for the Olympics, that we would, us four,

have to move to live here in Bath so we could train full-time.

We normally cook one at a time.

There's our chore list, making sure everyone's on top of their housework.

This is my Gibraltar flag, signed by all my friends.

I've actually got an autograph from Beth Tweddle,

when I met her when I was little.

That's quite cool.

I think the amount of hours we do every week proves it is a sport.

I mean, we train very hard every day,

so...just want people to see that it is actually a sport,

that we need the funding and everything that comes with it as well.

The two routines they must perform are improving every day,

but the British Olympic Association

has decided they need a helping hand.

Figure skating legends Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean,

famous, of course, for their perfect scores at the 1984 Winter Olympics,

have been drafted in.

-Are you excited about seeing what we're going to be doing today?

-Yep.

Any advice that we can pass on, we'll do our best.

Rhythmic gymnastics, like ice dancing,

relies on impressing the judges

and nobody knows more about that than Torvill and Dean.

You've got to put the audience and the judges at ease,

and I know that comes with practice,

but it also comes through how you interpret and what you present.

Everybody look in to Rachel.

Are we ready? Yes!

Look forward, everybody forward, and let's go.

You know that moment then when you lined up and the music changes?

Is there a moment where you all just go,

"Look, we've just changed," and you give it to the judges?

The consequences of mistakes are pretty big, you know?

The ball flies away, the hoop or the ribbon - you've lost it.

And it's a tragic moment if you're in competition.

They're not doing it for the money.

They're doing it for the love of their sport.

That's something that's great to see.

Their goal is actually to get into the Olympics.

They're not qualified yet, so it's a big time ahead of them

in the test event to actually get in and be a part of Team GB,

so, fingers crossed.

January, and London's O2 Arena.

This is the Olympic test event,

the biggest home crowd the girls have ever seen.

The pressure is on.

Over two days, they have to do better than a score of 45.223 marks.

That's the target set by the British Gymnastics Association

to prove they're good enough for the Games.

Any less, and they won't be sent to their home Olympics.

With one performance complete,

the team are more than halfway there.

Time stands still.

Has all the time, money, sweat, tears and effort been worth it?

Have Torvill and Dean's tricks worked?

Will the team be going to the Games?

SCREAMS FROM CROWD

-ANNOUNCER:

-Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it for Great Britain.

And the score for Great Britain - 21.85.

No. It's not enough.

As soon as we came off, we knew it was going to be a really close call.

And I think everyone was just hoping and praying that,

"Come on, just give it to us," kind of thing,

and it just didn't turn out how we wanted.

It was a definitive score we agreed

and it wasn't a score that there was any leeway on.

ORE: Well, those tears have turned to smiles.

The end of this story has been a successful appeal,

ratified by the British Olympic Association.

We are pretty much at the end of this edition of British Olympic Dreams.

Join us next time for more moments like this.

It's lovely to be out of hospital.

Five weeks on my back was quite a difficult time.

Something like this is the ignition, if you like,

to doing better and overcoming something as serious as this.

So, yes, if anything, it's only lit the furnaces.

For more information on all of our athletes ahead of the Games,

log onto the website.

So, as the country begins the final countdown to the Games,

join us next time for more Olympic Dreams.

See you then. Bye.

# Are you ready?

# Do you know?

# I feel it, too

# Are you ready?

# I've got to show

# I feel this for you

# I feel this for you

# I feel this for you. #

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