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Jim and Linda Payne of Orangeburg are eagerly awaiting Friday's opening of the Olympic Games, although they will have to settle for watching it on television. Eight years ago, when the Olympic Games were in the Atlanta area, the Paynes landed coveted positions as volunteer timers for the equestrian event held in suburban Conyers, Ga. Dr.Linda L. Payne is d... more >

Jim and Linda Payne of Orangeburg are eagerly awaiting Friday's opening of the Olympic Games, although they will have to settle for watching it on television. Eight years ago, when the Olympic Games were in the Atlanta area, the Paynes landed coveted positions as volunteer timers for the equestrian event held in suburban Conyers, Ga. Dr.Linda L. Payne is director of the Bamberg-Calhoun-Orangeburg Math-Science Hub. At the Olympics, her job involved monitoring horses' health and length of stay in the cool-down "vet box" between sections of the competition known as "three-day eventing." Dr.James E. Payne is a professor of physical sciences at South Carolina State University. At the Olympics, his job was timing horses in a particular section of the competition as riders tried to stay within an "optimal" window of time. They lost points for completing the section too quickly or too slowly. While highly popular in certain venues such as Aiken and Camden, equestrian is not a marquee Olympic event that is likely to be shown on NBC in prime time. "It's just a fact of life," Linda Payne said. "It's good you can get it at all, on cable." Equestrian includes dressage, show jumping and three-day eventing. The latter encompasses dressage, show jumping, steeplechase and cross-country. Jim Payne has been enamored pet portraits with and equestrian competition since childhood, and his wife has caught the spirit. They spend much of their spare time scoring and timing various equestrian events throughout the Southeast. Competitions are held around the world, but the Olympics is one of the very few occasions where "you see all the world-class names in one place," Jim Payne said. So they jumped at the opportunity to volunteer.