Today was the kind of Olympic day that any fan of sport or culture would hope to have, even once in a lifetime.  For the first time we saw the Beijing skies sunny and clear.  This was quite a change after 2 days of not being able to see the buildings at the end of the block with the thick humidity and smog.  For all of the abuse that Beijing receives on its pollution, it seems like a city trying to clean up its act.  It deserved a sunny, clear beautiful day.  When I first told people that I would visit Beijing, the talk was of a polluted and dirty city.  Well I can tell you that today I spent a lot of time traveling around the city and what I saw were clean roads, citizens playing badminton in parks (like we would see pick-up basketball), green areas, and the most amazing modern architecturally incredible skyscrapers of any city I have ever been too.  If the Olympics have something to do with this, then the awarding of the Games to the city and country is brilliant.

The day started with me negotiating swim tickets on the street.  I really wanted to bring Lisa to the Olympic swimming this morning as a gift for her hard work and sacrifice as an athlete, and her undying trust in her coach.  It is always a challenge and adventure finding the hottest ticket in town, never mind in a different language and culture, but sure enough with determination, sign language, and using a cell phone to negotiate we pulled it off.  I almost had to smoke a cigarette with my Chinese “broker” to get him to trust me enough to sell me the tickets.  So with 2 “golden” tickets in hand I get on the phone to Lisa to jump on a bus from the Athletes Village to head down to the “Water Cube”.  Coach Lance graciously gave up his chance to go to swimming so Lisa could attend and he was off to negotiate a track and field ticket to watch the opening day heats.

Once in the incredible “Cube”, Lisa and I were stoked to be part of the electric environment – picture a NHL or NBA arena with a pool instead of a rink or court, that’s how big the swim venue is.  We were cheering for the swimmers including Annamay Pierse, an athlete I know from St. Albert who had made the finals in 200 breaststroke and finished an incredible 6th.  I remember talking to Annamay a few years earlier when she was thinking about quitting swimming after not making the finals at the Canadian Championships (of course I was telling her to keep the door open for triathlon if swimming didn't work out) but she persevered and there she was in the Olympic final – congrats Annamay!  The highlight of the day came when Michael Phelps gained his 6th gold medal with another world record, what an incredible swimmer.  We witnessed a total of 3 world records in the pool.  It was a great morning and later that day I coached Lisa for a swim and she was on fire.  It was really motivating for her seeing the technical and competitive greatness of these athletes and their swims, and knowing that she was one of them, an Olympic Athlete.

I gave Coach Lance a call to find out that he was successful in negotiating his ticket for track and had a great day at the Birds Nest and then exploring the Olympic Grounds.  When I called him he was in the middle of eating a “self-cooking” noodle dish where you pull a string on the bottom of the noodle bowl and a chemical reaction happens that heats up the noodles to piping hot in 60 seconds.  This is my kind of cooking!

In the evening we headed out to meet the Uytengsu’s who hosted us for a fantastic dinner with the Young President’s Organization and a cultural Cirque du China show.  All of the performers were kids and they were unbelievable.  Many of them had performed in the Opening Ceremonies and had trained their whole lives at schools/camps for these performances.

Tomorrow Lisa is training at the race venue at the Ming Tomb Reservoir that we don’t get access to, so we will head into the city and then attend Olympic boxing with some of Lisa’s family.  3 Days to the Olympic Women’s Triathlon!

   
    Birds Nest Architecture  

        


   

    The Cube

   


   


                                       
                                        The stairs leading to the nose bleed section

    
    The view from inside the Birds Nest

    
    Mascot track race

    
     Team China

                                          
                                           Olympic Torch Relay - Sort of


                                         
                                          Yoga 101