As Olympic fever sweeps the nation it’s not just the players who have been getting in on the action at SW19.
69 lucky British officials returned to the Wimbledon courts this week for the historic London 2012 event.
As host country, the UK was able to secure a large percentage of positions available for the technical officials required for the event. 64 Brits, who are all members of the Association of British Tennis Officials (ABTO), were selected as line umpires for the tournament based on their continuous good performance on previous grass court events.
The UK line team was then joined by 69 overseas officials representing 43 countries across the world to celebrate this momentous occasion.
ITF Silver Badge and Olympic Veteran Lucy Grant shares her thoughts on how the event went.
"At first we all thought it would be strange to come back to Wimbledon, however the LOCOG team really went all out to make the experience as different as possible and they succeeded. It was an absolutely superb tournament, the courts held up well and the purple back drop gave it that real Olympic feeling."
Grant, who is 29, officiated in both Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008 making this her third Olympic games.
"I’ve been extremely lucky over the years. Sometimes I can’t believe this is my third one. I just love the Olympics and everything it stands for and believe in a small way that we all contribute that little bit to history."
Like the line umpires, the chair umpires for the event were also selected on past performance. There were, in total, 23 chair umpires with Alison Lang (Gold), James Keothavong (Gold), Fiona Edwards (Silver) and Lucy Grant (Silver) making up the British team. Assisting in coordinating the officials was assistant chief Adrian Wilson (Silver).
We asked Grant what the differences were from umpiring other events.
"I would say the main difference for me was definitely the crowd. The atmosphere on some of the matches was amazing. Traditionally Wimbledon crowds can be quite tame, here the people that got the tickets were not necessarily tennis people but more just there to support their countrymen. This ended up making it fantastic."
Like all the other officials working at London 2012 the tennis team were lucky enough to get tickets to the opening ceremony, a once in a lifetime experience that will be etched in their memories for ever.
"We were extremely lucky to get to go to the opening ceremony. Britain did a fantastic job, one of funniest bits for us was definitely when we all though the Queen was actually going to land in a helicopter in the middle of the stadium."
Off court, as always, the team have been having a great time, getting involved with the Olympic spirit and cheering on GB. Well done to all the British officials on a momentous and well deserved selection.
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