Memorable moments of my London 2012 Olympic Golden Ticket experience

Those who know me well (and even those who don’t) recognize that I’m rarely at a loss for words, and this once-in-a-lifetime GSK-sponsored trip is no exception.  But in case you don’t want to read all the posts, here are some of the more memorable moments:

• Watching the second half of the Team USA men’s basketball rout of Nigeria on Thursday night (August 2nd), with the Olympic record high score of 156-73 
• Being there on August 1st for the only set that the powerhouse beach volleyball of Misty  May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings have ever lost in three Olympics (compiled record of 42-1 in sets and 21-0 in matches)
• Knowing that we saw two gold medal teams play (Team USA in men’s basketball and the beach volleyball duo of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings)
• Feeling the excitement of thousands of raucous Brazilian fans as their team came back, followed by their despair and shock when Russia hit a last-second shot to win 75-74 in their preliminary round game
• Getting a picture with a few of those game-winning Russian players (linked here)
• Hearing the British announcers ask the fans to participate in a “Mexican wave” in the arenas
• Being confused at how the British fans reacted to Queen’s “We Will Rock You” (instead of the American stomp-stomp-clap heard at every major sporting event to go with “We Will Rock You”, they did clap-clap-open your arms like the “Y” in YMCA—if you watched the Closing Ceremonies, you probably know what I mean)  
• Walking out of the basketball arena to find the Olympic Park lit up like Christmas
• Hearing the roar wash across Olympic Park on Friday anytime that Great Britain scored in their field hockey game against Pakistan
• Meeting North America Pharma employees who truly do “focus on the patient”, both in their sales jobs and in how they give back to their communities
• Being moved and humbled by the range of stories that brought my fellow Golden Ticket winners to the Olympics

If you're interested in seeing photos from the trip, check out these links:

Highlights

More London 2012 Olympics photos

Olympic fever: Day 3 of my Olympic expedition

The official GSK experience was over, but I had Olympic fever!  Someway, somehow, I was going to get back to Olympic Park one last time.  Long story short, the fantastic folks at Team GSK managed to get a pair of women’s water polo tickets that another set of GSK attendees (Joe and Ed) purchased.  Since these guys also had tickets to cycling in the Velodrome, we were able to get into the park on one of their sets of tickets.

After a leisurely lunch at Tattershall Castle (a pub on a boat) with a UK-based fellow GSK employee (Graham) and one of LJ’s work colleagues, Simon, we headed back to the hotel to meet up with Joe and Ed and head over to Olympic Park.

What a difference a day makes.  Even as we were walking up to the park entrance, the crowds were much bigger than on Thursday.  There were various street performers, from the amusing (these tall guys on stilts) to the frightening (three men dressed as nannies, complete with baby buggies).  

Street performers at the Olympics

Thanks to the first day of track and field (athletics for the Brits), there were at least 80,000 extra spectators in the park, and probably much more.  On the previous night, we had been able to walk into the London 2012 Megastore but on Friday, the line was at least 30 minutes long just to get inside.  The Olympic fever was taking everyone by storm, with roars from the crowd washing over the park anytime Great Britain scored in the field hockey arena or Andy Murray took a game at Wimbledon (broadcast into the Park on one of the Park Live jumbo screens).

Crowds at Olympic Park

We had been hoping to get into an event on resale tickets again, but that’s where our luck ran out.  Whether by design or by luck, there were no resale tickets to be had for any events.  Instead, we grabbed at bite to eat at the world’s largest McDonald’s.

The world's largest McDonald's

We were starting to run out of time to get back to the hotel for our transfer to the airport, but before we left the park, I tried my hand at Olympic pin trading.

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For those of you who have never heard of Olympic training (a group in which I counted myself until last week), the competition of pin trading is almost as fierce as that of the sporting events. 

(If you really want to learn more, Coca-Cola has published a guide about its history.  Back in 1988, they recognized the brand value of being the Official Olympic Pin Trading Center, which they have been for both Summer and Winter Olympics since then. ) 

At the Megastore, I had picked up a few pins for the specific goal of trading them.  My dream pins would be ones from Australia and Ghana, the two foreign countries in which I’ve had the privilege to live.  I thought the Ghana one would be a long shot, but I lucked into finding a guy who had a bag of pins from the ’84 Olympics featuring Sam the Eagle, the official mascot.  When I told him I was looking for Ghana, he said that I would have to know what the flag looked like.  “Red stripe at the top, yellow stripe in the middle, green stripe on the bottom, with a black star in the center,” I responded.  

We dug through the pile and struck gold, finding what looked like the Ghana flag.  He turned the pin over to show the word “Ghana” engraved on the back.  I walked away close to (happy) tears as the proud owner of a Coca-cola pin with an American eagle hoisting a Ghana flag.

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After the excitement of the successful pin trading, we headed back to the Tube to start our long trek back to the US.  While my Olympic trip was drawing to a close, my Olympic fever had only begun.  The small taste of this London Olympics made me hunger for more.  I feel so fortunate to work for a company that gave its tickets to the Golden Ticket winners and their guests.  I only hope that GSK figures out a way to do the same thing for employees for the 2016 Games in Rio.

Slam dunk: Day 2 of my Olympic experience

After the late night of beach volleyball, the GSK Hospitality Team let us sleep in before we departed for our day at the Olympic Park.  As part of the package, we were given day passes to the Olympic Hospitality Center (OHC). 

When we arrived at the Olympic Park, we entered through the special tour-groups area and were led straight to the OHC, which was well-protected by the very visibly armed guards at the entrance.  The lavish spread was constantly replenished by the attentive staff, who seemed to be under strict orders to not let a single napkin sit unfolded even for a minute. 

Olympic Hospitality Center

During lunch, I got the chance to have a long talk with one of our North America Pharma colleagues (Tony).  I was thrilled to hear how interested he was in the compounds in development and how much he seemed to care about getting new medicines to patients who need them.  All my interactions with the NA Pharma attendees, including Deirdre, made me proud that they work for GSK.

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Following lunch, our hosts herded us through the park to the Basketball Arena.  The afternoon preliminary men’s basketball session pitted Argentina against Tunisia, followed by the battle between Russia and Brazil, both of whom were 2-0 at that point in round robin play.  The Argentinian team soundly defeated the Tunisians behind the stellar play of Manu Ginobli of NBA’s San Antonio Spurs.  Thanks to the lop-sided scoring, the dance team during half-time might have been the highlight of that game.

But the Brazil-Russia game was another matter.  From the start, the two teams were battling it out, with neither team managing to take a commanding lead.  Russia did pull away to an 11-point lead, but Brazil battled back to tie it up mid-way through the fourth quarter. 

The fan base in the arena appeared to be overwhelmingly in favor of the Brazilian team as the noise level grew with each basket they made.  Brazil took the lead 74-72 and the time-outs started.  Then, with only four seconds left, the Russians knocked down an off-balance three-pointer to win the game 75-74 and remain undefeated in pool play.

Game-winning shot by Russia

(Side note: Since I didn’t post this until the end of the Olympics, I now know that, of the six teams we saw play, three of them ended up in the final four of the Olympics, with Team USA taking gold over Spain and Russia pulling out the bronze over Argentina.  Pretty exciting stuff!)

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The excitement of that basketball game was followed by a nice, relaxing dinner back in the OHC.  After dinner, we wandered around the Park to take pictures in the fading light.  On our way over to the Megastore, we saw a few members of the Russian basketball team heading in.  How was I sure they were Russian basketball players?  The first hint was their uniforms, but their height really gave it away. 

After only a couple minutes, the Russian players came out of the store.  I tossed my camera to LJ and told him I was off to get a picture with the guys.

Hoping to schmooze them a little, I started off with, “I saw you guys in your amazing win over Brazil this afternoon,”  followed by the polite request of “Can I get a photo with you?” 

There was a moment of silence from them, punctuated by a sigh by one who responded with, “Okay, but make it quick.”  LJ was ready with the camera and got the shot.  (I later learned that the Olympic athletes are encouraged/told to wear their uniforms around the Olympic Park and make nice with the fans, which is probably the only reason I got this picture.) 

Me with members of the Russian Olympic basketball team

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We then spent quite a bit of time shopping for souvenirs in the Olympic Megastore.  I picked up a few Olympic pins for my collection, some to take home and some for the potential to trade the next day.  Once it got dark, we headed back over to the basketball arena to see if we could get resale tickets* to the Team USA game that night.

Thanks to another GSK couple (Court and Holly) who spent over two hours in line, we scored a pair of resale tickets for the second half of the Team USA men’s basketball rout of Nigeria, which started with Team USA up 78-45 and only got worse.  Starters like Kobe and Lebron had already finished playing, but we still got to see Carmelo Anthony knocking down threes and Anthony Davis using his huge wingspan on defense. 

The previous Olympic record of 138 points by Brazil was shattered by Team USA, who managed to rack up 156 points, more than double the 73 scored by Nigeria.  With that kind of thumping underway, the feeble team USA chants never took off, as the only time it seemed respectable to chant was when a three-pointer was sunk to bring the score to 139.

On the way out of the Park, we had our first chance to experience the London Tube during the Olympics.  Even with thousands of fans pouring onto the trains, there was plenty of space for everyone.

Throughout our experience, the Olympic volunteers did a stellar job at keeping things moving.  The lessons they had in crowd control really paid off when trying to move tens of thousands of people around the park.  (If you’re really interested in the many ways that they’ve contributed, try reading this story.)  The security and police presence was also well-organized and as unobtrusive as uniformed, armed people can be.

*At this Olympics, there’s been quite a bit of complaining in the news about tickets.  On the one hand, early rounds of events have had tens of thousands of empty seats, especially for games outside London.  On the other hand, getting tickets seems to be nearly impossible.  LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games) sold tickets that allowed entry into the Olympic Park for fans who hadn’t gotten tickets to the events.  But they had a chance to see events by purchasing resale tickets.

Resale tickets are tickets sold at vastly discounted prices for the second game of a session.  Since the Thursday night session started with Great Britain, a number of fans left after that game.  On the way out, their tickets are scanned and resold to new attendees for five pounds each.

Bump, set, spike: Day 1 of my Olympics trip

After a breakfast buffet at the Marriott Heathrow, we headed down to the lobby with our bags to meet the GSK Hospitality team member waiting for us.  With her GSK Orange polo shirt and clipboard, she wasn’t hard to pick out.  The “private coach” (translation: high-class bus) was running a bit late, but by noon we were on our way into the city. 

Some background about this trip: A total of 100 GSK employees won Golden Tickets and were split into ten separate groups.  Each winner was allowed to bring one guest for a total of twenty people per group.  The ten GSK employees in my group were split between North America Pharma (aka sales) and US R&D. 

Driving into London, we passed by GSK House, which had this multi-story ad shown below.

GSK House during the London 2012 Olympics

Similar ads were found in a few places throughout London, but overall, GSK’s presence at the Games was understated.  I saw GSK listed on a board within Olympic Park as one of the many “Suppliers and Providers for the London 2012 Olympics”, but that was it.

London was much less busy than on a typical London weekday.  LJ (my husband and the lucky person who joined me on this adventure) said that there are way fewer people in London than he’s seen on past trips.  The news programs said that typical tourist travel is down 50% and it hasn’t (yet) been made up for by Olympic travelers.  I later heard that the entire civil service was told to work from home for six weeks. 

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After checking in at the Hilton Tower Bridge, we had some down time before meeting at the GSK Hospitality Suite for drinks and a welcome from…. Deirdre Connelly, the lucky CET member who was given the opportunity to attend the Games with us.  She said as much during her opening remarks when she made it abundantly clear that it was thanks to us being there (probably more specifically the NA Pharma folks) that she was there.

During this intro reception, I got to play with the Scientists in Sports kits under the direction of a “fake scientist” (not my description) who was running the experiment table.  My lab skills were in evidence as I remembered to ask him for a pair of gloves in addition to the lab coat and glasses.  The group photographer, Ian, took plenty of pix of me working in the lab but, unfortunately, I don’t have them yet.)

Post reception, our hosts led us to dinner, giving us our first chance to see the London Tower Bridge with the Olympic rings.  

LJ and me in front of Tower Bridge

Throughout the two-day affair, our hosts had to herd twenty of us around London and the venues with nothing more than a small GSK placard.  Combining the sign with the nametags we each had hanging around our necks, we drew lots of interested stares from passers-by—kinda reminded me of the Intel “our rock stars are different from yours” campaign.

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Arriving at Horse’s Guard Parade, we were dropped off at the group entrance and went through the airline-style security screening that is a fixture of all Olympic venues at this Olympic Games, including the rule that no full water bottles could be brought in.

Our group was split across two sections of seats up in the upper corner of the stadium, giving us a fantastic view of the stadium as the sun set.  The British announcer for the beach volleyball games was in rare form, spouting all sorts of British phrases, such as “Looks like this is gonna be a cracker!”  The atmosphere was more Carnival than competition, with swimsuit wearing dancers at every break and an occasional impromptu Conga line.  A short rainburst late during the night barely put a damper on the fun.

Sunset during beach volleyball at Horse Guards Parade

The beach dancers

Two men’s games were followed by two women’s games, giving us plenty of opportunities to see with amazing dives into the sand and massive blocks at the net in these preliminary matches.  Since it was a night session, the women’s teams were wearing long sleeves and long pants.  All except the Austrians, that is, who made a calculated move and turned all undecided fans to their side when they pulled off the long pants to reveal their bikini bottoms.  Between that and the rumors that the US women’s team skipped their usual warm-up, we saw Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh lose their first (and only) set in three Olympics.  Luckily, they still won the match handily 2-1.

"Inspire a generation"

This motto for the London 2012 Olympics seems like the perfect title for a blog post about how I won the amazing opportunity to attend the Games.  My once-in-a-lifetime trip is being paid for by my company, GlaxoSmithKline, which also happens to be the "Official Laboratory Services Provider for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games".

Back in January, GSK set up an internal contest for employees to nominate their co-workers for the opportunity to win a pair of Golden Tickets to the London 2012 Olympics.  In 150 words or less, the person submitting the nomination had to describe how the nominee demonstrates a set of ideals associated with the Olympics, namely Integrity, Friendship, Equality and Excellence.

One of my colleagues (who I won't name in case he doesn't want the publicity) decided that nominating me for this competition would be a great way to recognize the way he sees me model these behaviors both inside and outside work.  One day in early January, he asked me to come by his office to talk.  When I arrived, he said that he had seen the contest on the GSK website and wanted to nominate me to win the Golden Tickets.  I was stunned that someone would take the time to nominate me, much less when that person had no vested interest in me winning the competition.  He offered to let me see the nomination before it was submitted to help him make it as clear and powerful as possible. Having kept up with my PULSE assignment and having watched the activities I started up or joined after I returned, it was difficult for him to condense down his thoughts to the 150-word limit.  But after a few iterations, we arrived at the text below:


Building Relationships to Advance Science in GSK and Around the World

Michelle Wobker has a passion for science and engineering and a desire to give back outside of GSK. She is recognized for her excellent contributions to R&D projects through her role as an accomplished Chemical Engineer and her strong teamwork and people skills. She mentors college women through GSK Women in Science Scholars program. Last year as a PULSE volunteer in Ghana, Michelle trained middle school teachers to use the Internet to find relevant science and math lessons and to build sustained partnerships with US teachers. Since then, she led the launch of RTP Science in Schools, which supports GSK employees in sharing science in the community, and is on the Board of Advisors for Give Back Africa Foundation, a non-profit started by a fellow GSK employee. Through these activities, she is improving learning and development opportunities for less-advantaged children. She is a strong believer in people, the power of appreciation, and the value of a simple thank you.

I was truly surprised that he had noticed these activities, especially since I participate in these endeavors not to be recognized for them but out a sincere desire to make a difference in the world.


The efforts put into writing up this nomination must have touched someone on the reviewing committee for on a day in late March, I received an email telling me that I was one of the select few to have won a pair of Golden Tickets.  I read the email a few times to make sure that the 36-point font of the email really did declare me to be a winner.  My next move was to head upstairs and thank the guy who nominated me.  (Side note: I'm still trying to figure out what to bring back for him.  Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.)

Over the next few months, the team organizing the winner's trips contacted me to sort out travel details and to let me know that LJ and I would be attending Women's Beach Vollyeball and Men's Basketball Preliminaries.  Unfortunately, it looks like we'll miss Team USA, but I'm not sure that it really matters to me.  Just experiencing the Olympics is a phenomenal opportunity.  I am incredibly thankful to both the unnamed co-worker and my company for giving me this trip.  I'm sure that I'll have a million memories to share from this Bucket-List-worthy trip.

The Most Interesting Man in the World

Not the guy in those Dos Equis commercials.  The most interesting man in the world is Neil deGrasse Tyson, the coolest astrophysicist ever (no offense to Brian Cox or Stephen Hawking).  As described on the NC Science Festival listing of his event, he's the current director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space, as well as a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History. He's currently working on the sequel to Carl Sagan’s award-winning television series, Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.  The reason that I really respect and idolize him is that he is both a great researcher and a great communicator, spending much of his time trying to improve science literacy in the US.

Last week I had the great fortune to spend "An Evening with Neil deGrasse Tyson", which was the name of his talk that he gave at UNC Chapel Hill during the NC Science Festival.  He spoke about "Ten Things that Everyone Should Know About the Universe".  Upon arriving at the venue, I picked up a copy of his new book, "Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier, " in the vain hopes that we'd have time to stay for the book-signing at the end.  We found our seats and waited patiently for Neil to come out on stage (I feel like I know him well enough to refer to him on a first-name basis) .

After an introduction by a local weather guy (unfortunately not the weather guy that I actually went to school with), it was time for the main event.  To the strains of "Glad You Came" by The Wanted, Neil came out on stage, throwing a couple dance moves into the mix.

Side note: The chorus of this song is unbelieveably apropos.  (I wonder if they had to pay to use it?):
"The sun goes down
The stars come out
And all that counts
Is here and now
My universe will never be the same
I'm glad you came."

Neil deGrase Tyson's ability to feel completely comfortable on stage was clear from the moment that he kicked off his shoes and left them next to the podium while he wandered the stage giving his talk.  He started the talk with a list of everything he would not discuss, from the content of his books (even though that's why he's giving talks) to his views on education, but he left the door open for those topics in the Q&A.

Over the next hour, he covered a range of topics, including #10, "The universe has a shipload of stars" through #6, "Earth is trying to kill you".  Early in the talk, he struggled to get his Mac to work, the only thing that kept the talk from being perfect (the use of the Mac, not the trouble he had with it).  His engaging style kept the audience glued to his every move for the hour or more that he spoke.  He ended on the extremely poetic--and factually correct statement-- for #1, "We are stardust".

After this amazing talk, he opened the floor for questions--and kept taking them long after he was told by the organizers to stop.  The audience clearly knew their speaker, for many of the questions focused on science education and the American educational system in general, a subject about which Neil has strong opinions.

In response to a question about how to fix the US educational system, his answer began with a question that he felt only 3 or 4 people in the audience would be able to answer in the positive.  He first asked how many people in the audience had one teacher in their educational process who was massively influential in how they got to where they are today, to which a number of people raised their hands.  As he upped the numbers through two to three to four, the number of hands dwindled.  He randomly picked out some of those people and asked, half-seriously, "Did you grow up in America?"  By the time he got to six, only a few hands were still up.  (Surprisingly enough, given my husband's views on education, his hand was one of the ones still in the air.)  He pointed out that, to fix the educational system, we needed for everyone in the room to be able to answer that question. 

The last question of the night came from a young girl.  After finding out her name and her age/grade (9 years old in 3rd grade), he waxed poetic about how he decided when he was 11 that he wanted to be an astrophysicist.  He then asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up.  The answer couldn't have been better: "An astrophysicist."  This response literally bowled him over as he rocked back onto his back like a flipped turtle. But Neil has to know how influential he is to these students, that he might be the one teacher they remember in their education.  Even though (or perhaps because) he's not part of the formal schooling system, he can have a huge impact on many, many students and can make a huge impact on the career aspirations and general understanding of science.  This understanding is the reason why I know that mentoring and outreach are so important.

But the answer that resonated with me most deeply came in response to a question asked by another young girl about why, when she looked up the constellation Draco, some resources told her it had nine stars while other said it had 44.  Neil shared his view that the problem was with the way the question was set up, that by asking her to indicate the number of stars, it made her miss the big picture, that people get hung up on how many planets there are and are astonished when the number drops from 9 to 8.  (Neil is well-known for his campaign to demote Pluto from being a planet.)  In this response, he made the following statement, which is where I will leave this summary:
"The problem is most of education is telling you what to think, not how to think."

Genghis Khan's silk underwear

I spent my Saturday doing my part to help science-motivated kids while refueling my own scientific interests.  More specifically, I served as a judge for elementary division (3rd to 5th graders) the 25th annual NC Science and Engineering Fair, the state-wide competition to find the best science and engineering projects from kids in grades 3-12.  The post title derives from a project by a student who participates in competitive archery who wondered whether silk underwear could work like an arrow-proof vest (the short answer is yes). 

After seeing all this exciting science done by 8-11 year-olds, I came home gushing like a one of the 5th graders that I spoke with during the event.  The experience reminds me of the joy I felt when I did science fair projects, ranging from the my first project in 3rd grade to try to correlate weather patterns to my cat's food preferences (data were very inconclusive) to my award-winning 7th grade project on the stain-resistant carpets (which held up rather well against food stains but not so well against dirty motor oil and other substances).

The more poignant projects were the ones with a strong personal connection for the student, like the girl who studied peripheral vision in "Subject D" (her Dad) who had a detached retina that had been surgically repaired; the boy who studied the caffeine level of drinks because of his father's recently diagnosed Meniere's disease; the girl who studied salinity changes in estuaries because she wants to be a marine biologist; the girl who came up with a clever experiment to measure moon impact craters because she wants to be an astrophysicist.  Speaking with these kids, especially the last one mentioned, helps me remember my passion for science and my desire to understand the world around me that drive my science and engineering explorations to this day. 

Some of the more interesting things I learned (or re-learned) from the fair:
-Rap music is bad for studying.
-Sourwood is the best hardwood for building a fire-resistant house.
-Bacteria are everywhere.
-Beta fish are more disturbed by opera than jazz.
-No soda is good soda (more specifically, caffeine is bad for your heart).
-Decaffeinated does not mean no caffeine.  Neither does caffeine free.
-The Roomba algorithm is more efficient in rooms with furniture than empty rooms.
-Cashews make for energy-dense trail mix.
-A scarp is a sharp drop-off on a beach.
-Neal DeGrasse Tyson, a well-known African American astrophysicist, is an inspiration for at least one elementary school girl (and this writer).
-Random pop-up ads in video games can include information on windmills.
-Adults really are smarter than a 5th grader--at least when it comes to the Stroop effect (processing conflicting information, like the word red presented in blue text).
-Genghis Khan wore silk underwear.
-Disproving a hypothesis is as important (if not more so) than proving one.

Our scientific establishment would be well-served to take that last lesson to heart.  The supporters of science, from the organizations and government agencies and corporations that fund it to the universities that tenure professors on it to the journals that publish it, need to understand how crucial is it is that negative or inconclusive results get published and shared in the literature as widely as the exciting breakthroughs.  The more transparent we all are in what we share, the less time and money and effort are wasted on avenues of research that have already been investigated without success.