Since Atlanta was John’s third and final Games, we will concentrate on them as an example of the amount of preparation that went into them, the tasks that he had to perform and some of the problems that could arise.   We will put it into the context of the organisation of the management team in a separate page.   There was a difference from the others in that before the sport started there was a a pipe bomb exploded in the Centennial Olympic Park which caused one death.   The perpetrator went on to two more explosions, fortunately for the Olympics they were in 1997 and 1998 before he was arrested.   Note the term Centennial above – they were held on the centenary of the modern Olympic Games in Athens.   On this occasion, although Athens was one of the cities bidding to host them, and in many eyes they were the favourites, the Games of the XXVIth Olympiad were awarded to Atlanta.

But first …  ‘kit’ is always a big issue and will be mentioned again and so we will look at the kit issue for Atlanta.   Each athlete and official received the following.

That is a formidable list of equipment and issued to each athlete in the appropriate size and number – there is scope for complaints to the Admin Officer if one of the Tshirts is the wrong size or if the tops and bottoms don’t fit and there had better be the correct number of Lion pins!

The Admin Officer’s first task is to do a recce of the facilities in Atlanta and at the holding camp and ensure that they are appropriate to the needs of the GB party and to take any remedial action necessary before the team’s arrival.

You will note from the comments in the Tallahassee Holding Camp that there were several items that would need attention before the Games – the quality of accommodation, lack of servicing oif previously used rooms for the arrival of party members, as well as some minor issues dealing with individual athletes and with the airline rpovision in Atlanta.   We move on to the visit of John to Atlanta leaving the Assistant Admin Officer in Tallahassee.

 

 

John was described by the General Team Manager after the Games to have carried out his responsibility ‘to his usual high standards’.   This was, as has been noted his last Games but two years later he received the following letter.

 

His reputation and efficient manner had remained and to quote the letter – he was “nominated by at least one current or potential Olympic team manager as a mentor.”   An honour indeed. 

 The following document in response to another letter which we do not have, gives a vaulable insight into what John saw as the role.   The post Atlanta report referred to is above.

The next page gives some insight into the preparation for the Games.   It is not simply a matter of picking a good and experienced chap and asking him to get on with it.  First of all every venue is different and presents different problems – of temperature, of humidity, of height above sea level, of distance and travelling time and so on.   There is a team dimension to it too.   As in any big organisation, the team needs to know each other, their working relationship which is almost certainly different from their social relationship, re-organisation of tasks to suit the new venue and the way of working in different countries.   That all requires a deal of preparation and the next page will look at that.