Live From Beijing - Entry #3
August 13, 2008 | Men's Rowing
Aug. 13, 2008
Saturday, August 9
We arrived last Sunday at Beijing airport and were welcomed by a sea of cameras and media personnel. From there we travelled by bus to the Olympic Village on the northern outskirts of the city where we went through yet more passport/luggage checks. Having left our hotel in Korea at 8am and spent barely 90 minutes in a plane from Seoul to China, we finally were able to dump our bags in our rooms and have supper around 7:30pm. Ever since my life has developed into a structured triangle that includes my room, the dining hall and the rowing complex.
Olympic Village
The sheer size of the Olympic organisation hit me when I landed at Terminal 3, the largest open-space room in the world, built specially for the Olympics. There were many more helpers in Beijing2008 shirts than passengers, and these volunteers are probably going to be the major factor behind the success of these games. If you stand still and look around hesitantly, six or seven of them (no exaggeration here) literally run up to you, jump to attention and offer to help you. They are everywhere (airport, village, rowing course and other venues) and they are all "at your service." Apparently 2.5 million applied, and 260,000 got selected to help out around the Village/venues. They all speak English and look as if they were chosen for their smiling faces.
The Village itself is indescribable. It takes 30 minutes to walk from one end to another and is surrounded by a double-wire fence with guard posts in the no-man's-land between. Nothing but modern, luxurious blocks of flats, with the Central Dining Hall right in the middle. The Village accommodates 18,000 athletes, coaches, press and medical/organisational staff. The Dutch have several adjacent blocks of flats, and the ground floor of the rowing building contains our private clinic, complete with two MRIs, the usual massage tables etc. The first floor is the offices of the Dutch Olympic Federation, permanently manned by eight Dutch staff and the usual army of Chinese volunteers (who speak Dutch as well as English!). I am on the fourth floor in a flat with the seven other rowers from my boat, and from the balcony we overlook the flats of Bahrain and Guinea. Instead of a kitchen which we don't need, we have four bathrooms. We spend the time between training sessions lying in bed or all gathered around on mattresses in front of the TV watching gymnastics, swimming or weightlifting. The front door of the building has its delegation of volunteers and is situated directly opposite Entertainment Centre West, where one can spend time in the Computer Game Arcade, cinemas and television rooms, or relaxation areas with their lazy armchairs. A little down the street (actually an eight-lane motorway where the Village shuttle buses whisper by with their electric motors), there is a sports leisure centre, with gym, pool, massage area's, snooker bar, concert and dancing hall, etc..
Dining Hall
The most amazing aspect of the dining hall simply has to be the variety of people sitting besides you. Nothing unusual when the sprinter from Zimbabwe comes to sit beside you, while on the next table is occupied by the Moroccan hockey team and Russian gymnastics team (none of whom appear older than 12!!). The dining hall is a massive 24/7 organization. With a McDonald's - with all the Eastern Bloc countries waiting in line at the counter on the first day - the dining hall seats 5000 people, and the food is very good. Due to its sheer size, we allocated a selection of tables where, as an eight, we would always sit and in this way minimize distractions from other teams and from getting carried away making too many new friends the day before a race. Further, despite the unlimited choice of food type, we are sticking to our regular food dishes until after the final. This of course must include good coffee (a Dutch obsession), and like a line at the SMG Starbucks, we descend on McCafé for our morning brew and drink it en route to the rowing course.
Rowing
The rowing complex here in Beijing is the best in the world. The designers seem to have thought of everything during construction: massive grandstands on each side of the course, a separate warm-up and cool-down course, cooled boat bays, private dormitories for each country above the boat bays. For the media they have a separate section, as well as a special "kiss and cry" zone where athletes and spectators are able to mingle. The water of the course is very warm (topping 28 degrees celsius), giving the feeling of gliding through pillows and everyone seems to be clocking splits three to four seconds faster than normal!
The rowing complex is about an hour away from the Olympic Village. Although a mere 25 miles away, the Olympic bus drivers (and police outriders) are more concerned with safety/security and driver going no faster than 70 kph (45 mph). This has become a point of strong cultural difference, and our coach (of Aussie convict descent) interprets 70 as 100 minimum. In contrast, the poor Chinese volunteer so desperate to please his superiors is content driving 65 to be on the safe side! And this is despite the fact that we travel on a highway where the left-hand lane is reserved for Olympic vehicles and their police escort, and that all other drivers on the road race past at 100. We are however impressed with the miles upon miles of flower gardens and trees planted alongside all Olympic venue roadways, meticulously groomed by hundreds of gardeners. Although one does not want to be too cynical about these things, there is a certain tendency to wonder if some of these walls and gardens are simply to prevent us catching a glimpse of potentially poorer or ugly districts of the city.
The smog, which everyone has made a major fuss about prior to the Olympics, has really not presented too much of a problem. The first day we arrived it was very bad, and our coach who spent the whole day outside definitely was feeling his lungs. However, since then the level of smog has been very low and though we do remain largely indoors during the day, preventing unnecessary exposure, it has not noticeably affected our rowing.
Today (two days before our first race) we have no training, and are resting up. Like race horses in stables, we are totally "regulated." For example we weigh ourselves before and after each training and are our fluid intake is measured accordingly. Additionally, urine samples are tested each morning to keep an eye on our rehydration and general health.
These past few days have consisted of much resting. Yesterday we took the day off from training in order to fully refuel our legs and give ourselves a break from travelling to the course. Didi (our stroke and 40 year-old bachelor) stylistically described the whole business of going to the course in the morning, training, hanging around, training again and travelling back as an entire day out shopping - walking around in the heat and crowd with 10 bags for 10 hours - I don't know what he knows about this process, but ok. In any regard, this sure doesn't seem far from the truth. We decided not to attend the opening ceremony, again to spare energy for racing. Our coxswain did go, and he said they saw nothing of the actual entertainment portion of the ceremony, rather stood around in corridors with limited hydration for four and a half hours. I'm very glad I spent the evening in bed resting. Tomorrow is when it all begins!
Thanks for all the support Meindert and myself have received from you all...
... Keep posted for reactions from the racing!
