Three sisters share an experience of a lifetime in London

At the 2012 Olympic games, over one million people were in the Olympic Park, lines to the bathrooms were over a mile long and lines of McDonald’s were triple that length, according to sophomore Puck de Roos.

Along with her sisters junior Nikki de Roos and freshman Beaudine de Roos, Puck traveled to London with her parents in August. The de Roos family travels to the Netherlands every summer to visit family, but this summer they stopped in London for a week to watch the Olympics.

“It’s such a big event and I have never seen so many people, all from different places, come together like that,” Puck said.

Since all three sisters like to play sports, they were excited  to see Olympic teams play their favorite sports. They went to water polo for Nikki, basketball for Puck, volleyball for Beaudine and field hockey for their mom, Katja de Roos.

“It was really cool to be there, experience it and to see the actual things happen like the TV announcers describe it,” Beaudine said. “It was a totally different experience.”

Puck said in the stadium she felt the audience and their energy, whereas as home she would just be screaming at a screen.

According to Beaudine, the atmosphere in the stadium was great because although everyone was cheering for their own team, they still had good sportsmanship. At the end of the event, everyone would clap and congratulate each other no matter who won.

Puck and Beaudine agreed that watching the Olympic teams play inspired them to work harder and try new things at practice.

After seeing the men’s volleyball team play, Beaudine said she tells her coach every day about the plays that she witnessed and how she wants to try to execute them. 

“To be able to watch the level at which the teams play and knowing some of them aren’t that much older than you is really cool,” Puck said.

All three sisters agreed that going to the London Summer Olympics was not only an experience of a lifetime, but also a unique opportunity for family bonding.

“My sisters like to fight a lot so I’m always stuck in the middle,” Puck said. “But at the Olympics everyone got along pretty well.”