'Memory will stay forever': Queen 'danced around in circles' when granddaughter Zara Tindall won Olympic medal
LONDON, ENGLAND: Following the 96-year-old monarch's death on Thursday, September 8, her friends and admirers flocked to her funeral to celebrate her memorable moments. The Queen's former security officer revealed how the Queen rejoiced when she learned that her granddaughter Zara Tindall had won an Olympic medal, but had been "too nervous" even to attend the event. Richard Griffin was the former security officer who on Sky News on Monday morning, September 12 shared memories of his time spent with the late Monarch.
Griffin explained that the queen had instead invited him along for a picnic because she was too uncomfortable to watch her granddaughter compete in the eventing team at the 2012 Olympic Games. But later, when she asked him to find out how Princess Anne's daughter did, she reportedly "danced around in circles" after learning that the young woman had won respectable second place. The only Olympic medal of Zara's career was the silver she earned in the team competition.
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"I remember once when I was up at Balmoral with her [the Queen] and Zara was competing in the Olympic Games and looked like she was going to win a medal," Griffin told Sky News. He added, "And I thought I would be flying down to Greenwich to watch her get on, but the Queen said to me 'I'm just so nervous, I can't face up to it. Let's just go out for a picnic.'"
The two of them then had a small private picnic there after driving up to one of the cabins on the mountainside, the former protection officer continued. The late Monarch eventually asked Griffin to radio his team to find out how Zara had done because she could no longer stand not knowing.
Griffin chuckled as he said, "So I radioed them, found out she's won the silver medal and I remember the Queen just grabbed me and we were dancing around in circles on this hill in Scotland. That's a memory that will stay with me forevermore."
In another anecdote, Richard Griffin told SKY News in a recently-resurfaced video about the hilarious encounter with Elizabeth in front of Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, "There were two hikers coming towards us and the queen would always stop and say hello." The visitors thought the Queen was just a tourist because she was wearing a headscarf and a tweed jacket. "It was two Americans on a walking holiday, and it was clear they hadn’t recognized her, which was fine." He said, "Then her majesty said to me that she’d love to be a fly on the wall when he shows these photos to his American friends and 'hopefully someone tells him who I am.'”