“Well, here goes…” Clayton Lucas Tells us all About his Extraordinary Summer of Fun

“This summer has been quite busy!! The Volleyball Nations League, took me to Turkiye, Japan, The Philippines and Poland.
Japan, without a doubt is my favourite place to go and watch volleyball, closely followed by the Philippines and Poland. To be fair every country is amazing and the level of volleyball seems to be off the charts!

Whilst I was in Japan, my wife Vanessa and our good friend Carol Gordon went to Canada to watch the VNL together!
 
The VNL is striving to be bigger and better each year and that includes how it presented and showcased.
A new look in terms of how the commentators presented the openers, but the same perils when talking to camera, live, during a warm up!

Then after a short stop at home and Theo, our eldest son getting married to Amiel at Parley Manor (owned by Beach Volleyball Olympian and friend Zara Dampney),  I went to Paris for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.

To say the Olympics were incredible, is an understatement of epic proportions.  Commentating the beach volleyball from arguably the most iconic venue to grace a games was something special.  To then tell you all, that I commentated every match from the International Broadcast Centre annnnnd, I never actually went to the venue, not even for a look around, is crazy, but all part of the life of a free lance commentator. 
I had only ever seen the Eiffel Tower out of an aeroplane window,  but I eventually went to see the Iron lady at the end of the Games with two fellow commentators, Olly Hogben (Gymnastics) and Glen Larmer (New Zealands top multi sport commentator) and enjoyed a very nice dinner at a restaurant in its shadow.

France winning the VNL and then the Olympic Games may have made someone a lot of money!
France join the Soviet Union as was ( 1964 & 1968) and The USA (1984 & 1988) with back to back Olympic titles.
Cuba women are still the ultimate team, with three in a row (1992, 1996, 2000.)

Italy women, finally showed the world why their league is the best in the World as they swept all in their path, taking a first ever Olympic Gold in fact a first ever Olympic medal.
After the Olympic's finished I set off to a quiet town in France called Maubuisson, to rest and relax. Vanessa joined me as we were invited to stay with our very good friends, John and Fab Goalen at their house.
Fab and John are Richmond Volleyball Club stalwarts, their children Noah and Mattea, played for the club as Juniors, then both were at University of Nottingham before returning to play for the senior team. Both have International caps.
You may not know who Fab is, but if you or your friends or family have played against Richmond, Nottingham, England Juniors, Cadets, Seniors, then you will have heard Fab!! Banging drums, sounding horns, waving flags, from the warm up to the final whistle! So much energy and excitement, that it got Fab a job as an announcer with Boccia at the Paralympic Games!!

I thought I was going for a rest!! Day 1, ran (jogged) 4 k, swam 1k and then that evening rode 5k!!
Same on Day 2!! could hardly move on day 3, played some tennis on day 4, Rode to a town that was 5k away on day 5, played golf on day 6! Did read a good book during the stay, called The Hail Mary Project by Andy Weir, Author of The Martian.

There were many people involved with volleyball in the UK who were also involved in the Olympics and Paralympics, from referees, players, coaches, to volunteers and those who just go to watch!
There are over 8000 people working at an Olympic Games and the roles go far beyond commentating.
With LA 2028, next up those of you reading this and would like to get involved should check out the web and see whats on offer from paid to volunteer roles.

https://la28.org/en/careers.html

https://olympics.com/ioc/faq/competing-and-being-part-of-the-games/i-would-like-to-be-a-volunteer-at-the-olympic-games-what-do-i-have-to-do

https://www.obs.tv/workwithus

From commentating to commentary monitoring.  For the Paralympic games, my role switched to coordinating commentary, scheduling commentary, listening to the commentary and dealing with day to day issues that crop up, like a commentator getting the wrong bus and heading away from the venue instead of towards it!

Working for the Olympic Broadcasting Services brings a unique opportunity to commentate on Sport to a global audience. As it is the Olympics, they have a very strict social media policy that to all intents and purposes means, not posting anything during the games.
Which is a good thing.

When I got home, I took some time off, before the Italian volleyball  and Japanese leagues started up!

The winter heralds possible trips to Brazil and China for the World Club Championships and a trip to Basel for European Handball.

Vanessa and I have been to Denmark to see our middle son Ben, play. Unfortunately his game was moved after we had bought the flight tickets!
Ben is in his second season with ASV Elite and playing alongside Zak Hadgett and debutant Ephraim Mills.  His girlfriend Abby Hogan will also have a second season with the ladies team and we did watch her play! Abby is the most successful english player to play in Denmark, winning the league last season!”