We Are in Beijing

Yesterday was a travel day, an early wake up call, all luggage in the hallway by 6 AM, on the bus by 6:45 and at the airport by 7:45. We took off uneventfully . JAL have a camera in the nose of the plane so you can see lift off first hand as well as see the scenery below. (handy if you have an isle seat)

This will be my third Games; by far this has been the best transition from landing to the village. As we boarded the plane in Osaka we were given our Games ID, which also is our visa. The Games ID was validated upon landing, shortly after we had cleared customs in a special Paralympian lane. Forty-five minutes later we were in the village, our pre arranged room assignments allowed for key dispersal and quick access to our rooms. In the rooms was our Hudson Bay Company gear, which included t-shirts, shorts, pants, shorts, and ceremony gear.

The village is spectacular! I will try to dedicate a future blog to catch the essence of the beauty, organizational efficiency, and magnitude of the structures associated with these games.

We were able to train in a 10 lane “recreational pool” within the village. It was important to get a little limber after the 3.5 hr flight. After practice we had a team meeting with the mission staff to cover protocol issues, the hierarchy of who to talk to with a problem and of course our RCMP officer to give us the info on safety issues.

The morning came quickly and we bussed to the pool that had been used in the Asian Games. A magnificent building, the pool has 10 lanes and enough seats for an estimated 3000 fans.

So far we have run into some old friends. “Grub”, Graham Campbell from Australia. He is one of those men who are bigger than life, with a quick wit and a fan of Donovan’s. The two of them often compete with who has the rudest jokes! I sometimes think Donovan should have been an Australian! The Cuban head coach is here. She is unilingual but always communicative. She is my source of high-end Cuban cigars, which can be used to pay golfing bets with Kurt Aydin. At lunch we met the coach of the great Japanese swimmer, Kawai. He will be swimming in his fourth games, a teacher by profession and now well into his thirties. He swam 1:08.00 for the 100 fly last month, and is now ranked 3rd in the world.

On the way back from lunch we bumped in Smyrnov’s coach. Smyrnov won 5 gold medals in Athens, and was Donovan’s nemesis, they will all be competing hard, and they would have it no other way!

This afternoon we went to the Cube. Here are some pictures of this magnificent edifice. It is actually a building within a building, the outer shell made of plastic and the visual effect of making the building look as if it is bubbling.



We were to practice in the warm-down pool, but I took the opportunity to take Donovan into the competition pool. It is magnificent with some 20,000 seats. It is however much like the Olympic pools we have competed in, just new and familiar because of the recent TV exposure. Donovan felt the starting blocks and is pictured here giving lane 4 a kiss. He has never done this before, but I generally go with the flow. Old hockey players understand superstition. I left him standing for a minute, visualizing his tasks in the upcoming meet. As we prepared to walk away a Chinese reporter got our attention. She had taken a picture and very politely asked for his name. She tossed her notebook and I accommodated her request. As we were walking on, she very politely asked” Just one question, why was he kissing the block?” I left Donovan to answer, but we were both amused that the picture will likely make the local paper.

Tomorrow will be a day off. He has trained hard and a break is in order as we prepare for the final push.