The Bear in Street has a nice beer garden and does food so it’s a comfortable place to hang out if you can be bothered to walk down into town. Adrian, Nick, Rob, Russell and I spent a nice couple of hours sitting, chatting and drinking there on Saturday night.
It’s my round so I go to the bar with a huge wad of cash and wait. There are not many people waiting and one of them was a man in his 80’s standing to the right of me in an white T shirt with “England” on it and wearing a pair of shorts (yes it was a lovely warm evening for a change!).
Whilst waiting for the barmaid I turned to him.
“Did you watch the Olympic opening ceremony last night?” I asked him
“Yes, it was fantastic”
“You look a bit like an Olympian yourself with your England shirt and shorts” I joked
He looked a bit awkward “Well, you may not believe me but I am an Olympian. I took part in the last London Olympics in the 400m hurdles”
I did wonder for a short time whether he was making it up – it was, after all, a huge claim.
“I don’t usually tell people” he continued, “but as you asked….”
In fairness, he did look fit and look as if he might have been an Olympian.
“Do you still keep fit?” I asked
“Oh yes, I exercise every day and I have recently done a parachute jump”.
He told me that he had come 14th. The man was delightful. His wife is in a local care home and he visits her three times a day. “I don’t want to go on holiday” he says “It just wouldn’t be right without her”.
He went on “I don’t know why I told you about my Olympics, I don’t usually say, it’s just that you mentioned it and so I thought I would tell you”
As I said to him “If there is a right time to tell people, now is the time to tell us that you are an Olympian”
Compared to the miserable, moody and non-communicative Russian Olympic swimmers who have been staying on this campus for a couple of weeks, it was nice to meet a real British Olympian just like you imagine an Olympian to be like – friendly and kind.