15 08 08, National Aquatics Center ("Water Cube")
It was the first day for athletics in the Bird's Nest, so the entire Olympic Green was mayhem. The site of the Bird's Nest and Water Cube was quite something.
The Water Cube was awesome. It is actually made of huge bubbles, which you can touch. Inside, the facilities are amazing. I couldn't wait for the action to begin. 3 of the 4 finals I saw were won by Americans and all in world record times - I was getting tired of hearing the US national anthem and about the "land of the free and the home of the brave"! Although I would have preferred another country dominating, one of those winners was Michael Phelps. The guy is one of my new sporting heroes. Comes on, wins the 200m individual medley final by a country mile, collects his 6th gold medal of the Games 20 minutes later and then no more than a few minutes later, he returns to win his 100m butterfly heat.
I was still buzzing two hours later at how amazing the whole experience was and was not going to leave the Olympic Green anytime soon. So I decided to wander around the entire Village. The official Olympic store was massive and for once I bought lots of souvenirs: Fuwa toys, fridge magnets, shot glasses, GB flag, t-shirts etc. Doe lunch I had some self-heating chicken with rice - very cool technology. I then got comfortable in front of a big Samsung television screen and watched gymnastics in the shade.
17 08 08, Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park
It was finals day and, unlike the swimming a few days earlier, there lots of medals chances for Team GB. The venue is quite far out of the city (north east). My seat was right along the finish line - fantastic view - and I had a huge GB flag too. I went berserk in race 2 of the day when GB's double sculls, Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter brought home gold. It was brilliant to finally hear the GB national anthem. GB picked up two other silvers that day, including narrowly missing out on gold in the women's quad sculls which went to China, which sparked jubilant celebrations all around the park. I even saw three crazy Canadian fans jump into the lake in between races.
19 08 08, Chaoyang Park Beach Volleyball Ground
Wow, what an experience. The grounds were within Beijing's largest park and once again Beijing delivered an excellent venue. I was there was the women's semi-finals. First up were the favourites US against Brazil. The US won but the main event was the second semi-final - China vs China.
I had seen a glimpse of one of the Chinese pair, Xue Chen and Zhang Xi, while waiting for my flight in Shanghai, and followed their progress through the tournament. Xue Chen is particularly beautiful and I'm sure will be a pin-up all over China after the Olympics.
Cheerleaders, some from the New England Patriots' cheerleading team, would come out during every timeout. During the all-China game, the cheerleaders were all Chinese! Cool music would play throughout the games and the atmosphere generally was unbeatable. Jing and Ed joined for the all-China game and some of Ed and my madness may have got us on the big screen.
A great experience although my "team" lost :(
19 08 08 Workers Stadium
I was at the Brazil / Argentina men's football semi-final game with Jing and Ed - can't get much bigger than this. Arch rivals with Argentina the defending champions and Brazil having never won the event - amazing! It was billed as Ronaldinho vs Messi, and Messi won hands down. Other than a few bits of skill from Ronaldinho, he was poor as were Brazil who lost 3-0 and ended with 9 players.
Before I game, it took us longer than expected as people were literally queuing to have a photo taken with me. I had brought a Brazilian flag and all the locals obviously thought I was from Brazil.
21 08 08, National Stadium ("Bird's Nest)
I couldn't wait to get inside the Bird's Nest. The place was awesome, absolutely massive. I was seated right behind the javelin throwers, but there was so much going on at the same time: decathlon high jump, javelin, triple jump and running. It was difficult to keep up. The crowd were really getting behind each javelin thrower and it had an exciting finish with the person in the silver medalist position sneaking gold with her final throw. I also saw some great sprint races. Veronica Campbell-Brown blitzed the field to win the women's 200m gold and the Jamaicans won the men's and women's 4x100m relay heats (the US dropped the baton in both races)! I also saw Usain Bolt pick up his gold medal for the 200m.
I had probably the most sought after tickets before the Games had begun as it was the 110m hurdles final which should have featured the defending champion, China's hero Liu Xiang. However, he got injured in the heats and didn't make the final. His rival, Cuban Robles, cruised to victory and to the delight of the Chinese fans (surprising). After this race, most of the Chinese fans left and I was free to roam around the stadium.
The men's triple jump final was in its final stages when I moved to within 5 metres of the sand pit in row 1, amongst many Portuguese Olympics athletes supporting their fellow countryman, Evora. He was competing for gold against Britain's Idowu.
Evora got gold to the delight of the Portuguese athletes and fans, while Idowu got silver. He did hear me and stopped for a photo - I've chatted to an Olympic silver medalist!
Evora came over and hugged each of his colleagues. The GB flag around my neck precluded me from this, although I was just glad to be amongst the fanfare.
I tried to reconcile differences between the two sets of fans by congratulating the Portuguese (and taking pics with them).
The whole evening was amazing. I wanted to hide and get locked inside the stadium so I could roam around further, but eventually had to leave.
20 08 08, Capital Gymnasium
Erika's colleague had spare tickets to the volleyball, which I jumped at when offered them. It was the men's semi-final between Russia and USA. Once again I had great seats, in row 3, amongst many Russians supporters. The US were up by two sets before Russia levelled and took it to a decider, but the US came through winners in a thrilling match.
The ten days or so I spent in Beijing the second time around were amazing. During the day, I was either at an event or watching it on a big screen in a bar or on the streets. In the evenings, I would go out, often until the next morning. Whitney has about as much discipline as I do, ie none, so quiet nights ended up being very messy indeed - shots at NanJing until 5am, drinking games until 3 in Goose Duck, Forrest's leaving do which started at Club Obiwan and inevitably ended at Anna's bar around 7am, and on my final night, I decided not to sleep and go straight to the airport for my 11:30am flight to Shenzhen. I even did some sightseeing this time around. I visited the colourful Yonghe Gong, a Tibetan Lama Temple, and the beautiful and very large Summer Palace, which I got a bus back from (very, very slow journey, but good experience).
It was an awesome time and certainly the highlight of my trip so far - I love Beijing!
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