Name: Charlotte Elton

From: London

How long have you been collecting? 1 year

How many pins do you own? 45

Besides the Mo-bot that has driven the country bananas, pin trading has to be the non-athletic highlight of my Olympic experience. Working at the Olympic Tennis Event at Wimbledon, I had supplies of tennis pins to make the continent of Africa happy. Seeing pin collections of Laura Robson and Serena Williams grow by the minute I, too, became slightly obsessed to commence a collection of my own, to put it mildly.

Being in daily contact with players of all participating tennis countries, the number grew steadily starting with a Croatia pin, followed by Israel, Serbia, and Brazil. Initially I was the laughing stock of my team but before you could say Andy's your uncle, my manager was competing alongside us to be the proud owner of the most exotic and unique country pins shining from her lanyard. It became a serious business, the fun had long gone.

We no longer made eye-contact; our eyes were cast purely on the lanyard and the golden treasures dangling of it.

My two pin-exchanging highlights were:
1) A 20-minute hard bargaining session with Venus Williams which boiled down to trading my Moscow 1980's pin for her Moldova pin and my stunning colourful Slovakia pin for her exotic unique Puerto Rico pin. It was tough but we both managed to let go.

2) The most glorious and exclusive pin in tennis would be Roger Federer's own pin (RF) of which only about 60 exist. Whoever had one of those pinned to their lanyard was considered as holy. 'How on earth...' would not be an unusual reaction after spotting an RF pin on a mere mortal's lanyard. After a week of sweat, blood and tears, Roger's agent magically agreed to swap an RF for my Angola pin. Thank you dearly Mr Angola-man that I passed (and stopped) in the hallway of the Royal Box at Wimbledon, your pin may have just giving me the ultimate golden pin status.