Hello again!
Days seem to be flying by here at the Olympics! We have already been here for over a week already and things are really starting to pick up down at the rowing venue. Most of the rowers have been here for at least five days or so, but other people, such as the media and racing officials, are now starting to roll in. A word about the number of rowers, the Olympic regatta is one of the smallest international regattas. Countries must qualify to be able to compete, and they greatly limit the number of spots in each event. For example in the women's eight event, my event, there are only seven countries here at this regatta; USA, Romania, Great Britain, Australia, The Netherlands, Germany and us, Canada! Though at the pervious two world Championships, there have been at least twelve women's eights entered each year. It is another reason why the Olympics is such the pinnacle event in the sport of rowing. This regatta is really limited to only the very tip top of the best rowers in the entire world. And I am honored to be part of it!
I mentioned the media has started to hang around the venue. It is amazing the number of media that has already been around the course and I'm sure it will just escalate from here! Rowing is not a sport that receives a huge media following, so to have reporters with microphones, cameras and tape recorders in your face when you come and go to practice, is quite strange. Media outlets from Canada are doing a very good job of following our team, since there are some medal hopefuls from our group, and since we as a nation aren't winners of hundreds of medals at the Olympics, every medal hopeful is usually followed quite closely. I hope with all of this coverage we will be able to show off the sport of rowing to the rest of the world! I remember watching the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and seeing rowing for the very first time. I thought is looked like such a cool sport back then, when I was only thirteen. Little did I know, twelve years later I would be the one rowing at the Olympics for other thirteen year old girls to watch!
The day to day life of a soon to be Olympian, me, isn't filled with too much adventure or excitement just yet. We have a regular twice-a-day training regimen going with resting and relaxation back at the hotel in-between sessions. Things on the water are going very well, and it will be great to test all our hard work against the other fantastic countries in our event. We have however had two afternoons off of training since arriving. During both of them, we were able to excursion out of the hotel on some great little adventures!
The first afternoon off, we headed into Beijing to the Pearl market. What an experience that was! It is a five storey market place packed with venders of all sorts. There are different copyright laws here in China, so there are great knock off designer clothes and handbags of every brand name you could think of. There is also a lot of silk and pearls, as this seems to be two big sellers here in China. But the incredible thing about this place is you have to barter for everything. And boy do these merchants know how to barter! Though there are some pretty good barters on our team as well. Lets just say I wouldn't be going to the barter Olympics if there was such a thing. I started to feel bad arguing with the lady I was buying some pearls from, so I gave in quite early. I still think that I paid a great price for them, but I know some others got theirs for a bit cheaper than mine. Oh well, I left happy!
The other afternoon we had off, we went into the athlete's village. This was very cool! I can't wait until we move into Beijing, once the racing is all finished, so we can live the day to day life in the village. The place is huge! There are traffic lights and streets with buses for the athletes and a ton of huge beautiful apartment buildings that are each assigned to a different country to stay in. Each of these buildings has their countries flags flying out of each window. It is awesome! On the grounds around these buildings there are rivers and beautiful gardens. There is a very calm feeling about this living area. Right next door to the living apartments is the cafeteria. This is quite an experience! This cafeteria is the size of four football fields, and seats 15,000 people. There are two huge salad and fruit bars with produce from all around the world. There is also a bread bar, with every kind of bread and baked good imaginable. There are hot food in three sections, a Mediterranean section, an Asian section, and an International section. There is also a McDonalds with a full menu. To top it all off there is a coffee bar with all the fancy coffee drinks that McDonalds now sells. It really is an incredible experience. You can be reassured that no athlete could ever starve in a place like that! Also just walking around the cafeteria (which is did for at least thirty minutes before deciding what I wanted for lunch) you see athletes of all shapes and sizes and from every corner of the planet! It really is amazing. At the village there is also a section called the international section where there is a hair dresser, general store, post office, florist, bank and any other amenity you may need while you are staying in the village. Very handy and well thought out! Overall it was great to see the village and what was happening there, though I think I am quite happy with the way we have arranged our accommodations. Being nice and close to the race course is very convenient and saves on hours a day of commute time. Also being out and away from all the craziness of the village really allows us to focus on rowing and our racing and then once we are finished with that, we have a whole week to soak up and enjoy all the wonderfulness and adventures the village has to offer.
Well, today is quite a special day, as the games officially start! 08-08-08 at 8:00! It is really incredible that this day has finally arrived. I have had a countdown on my computer for the past 400 plus days, to today. I have looked at it everyday thinking that it would never come, but amazingly it is already here! Wow! In Athens the rowers opted not to attend the opening ceremonies, but this year, the women's rowing team has decided that we will go. I am very excited, since originally I had figured that this was one Olympic experience that I would not be able to participate in, but it is! The decision was one we discussed to at length with each other. There are both pros and cons to attending the opening ceremonies, but we all came to the conclusion that the pros greatly out numbered the cons. This is a once in a life time opportunity (sometimes twice or three times in a life time if you go to more games I guess). We all have memories of watching the Opening ceremonies on television from when we were little and we all wanted to add participating in them to our overall Olympic experience. We are in the very best shape of our lives, and don't feel an evening walking around and sitting in a stadium is negatively going to effect our performance in two days, so we are going. And in only a couple more hours and I'll be on the bus driving towards the bird nest stadium to officially start my first real Olympic experience!
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