Man with a seat at every day of the Olympics (almost)

In an achievement that is almost as Olympian as the sports themselves, one man has managed to get himself tickets for all but one day of the 2012 Games.

Patrick Winterbottom scoured outlets across Europe to overcome the disappointment he felt at being denied what he wanted by the official British ticket sales. He now has tickets for the 2012 London Games that come from Poland, Iceland, the Czech republic and a seller that acts as the official outlet for Sweden, Austria and Bulgaria.

His quest began shortly after he learnt that of the £3,700 worth of tickets he had applied for through the offocial British Olympic site he had been given £700 worth, and it was another month before he knew what he had got.

Now, after more than a month of hunting, he has tickets for events for every day except 5 August, and he has turned down some opportunities to add that day to his calendar because the events don't appeal. He harbours hopes of acquiring tickets to at least one of the cycling sessions in the Velodrome.

"It's the Olympics," he said. "It's the biggest sporting event in the world. I do want to see lots of different things."

Events that he is now able to see include athletics in the Olympic Stadium, four sessions of rowing finals at Eton Dorney, football at Wembly and table tennis at the EcxCel Centre

The highlight of the Olympics for Mr Winterbottom is the opportunity to see athletics on August 9, 2012, when among the athletes he hopes to see will be Usain Bolt in the men's 200 metres. "I just think that to be in the Olympic Stadium will be amazing," he said. For many of the events he will take his wife, Jo, and children but he admitted there are some for which his enthusiasm is not shared by his family. "My wife and daughter aren't as interested in the football as I am so I'll just be going with my son," he said.

Mr Winterbottom, who works in marketing, realised through the Twittersphere that there were tickets to be had abroad from official sales points.

"I looked around and went first to the Polish site – my wife is Polish so that helped with the language," he said.

He sought out more tickets in the Czech republic, Iceland and from CoSport, the official outlet for Sweden, Austria and Bulgaria.

"I ended up spending about £4,000 – roughly what my original order was."