Dispatch: Bird's Nest

Another smooth flight and we arrived in Beijing full of anticipation. Our apartment at Star City is serviceable, but not nearly as nice as the promotional pictures would have you believe. The Russian delegation is staying here as well and as we left the building this morning the Russian women’s gymnastics team was exercising in front of the building. Gymnasts are so tiny that they make Eva and Justine look tall. Anyway, we now have a new team to root for.  Twenty minutes later and we were dropped off at the Nation Athletic Stadium, known throughout the world as the Bird’s Nest. Wow! What an awesome facility.

Security was a breeze and we were soon inside the Olympic facility snapping pictures like crazy. We lapped the Bird’s Nest in what can only be described as a Kodak moment, forever impressed upon our memories. Eventually we wandered into the Bird’s Nest fully expecting to be directed toward the nosebleed section. Instead we found ourselves on ground level within spitting distance of the track. Woops, I forgot that spitting has been banned until after the games. Our fantastic seats were equaled by Stephanie’s reaction. Rarely does one see such unguarded joy on a face.

There weren’t any gold medal rounds on the track this morning, but we watched women’s hammer throw, men’s preliminary triple jump, 200 & 400 meter race, and 100meter hurdles. It is true that being there is an unmatched experience. Somehow, the pomp and circumstance that is portrayed on television is stripped away as you watch mere men and women compete on the world stage. Hamstrings are pulled, tears are shed, and triumph is experienced when that rare combination of training, technique and talent pays off in a world class performance.  We ate hot dogs, but they were cold and we probably won’t buy them again tomorrow morning. 

The crowd was ecstatic and cheering on every athlete. Of course the Chinese got the loudest cheers, especially one woman who automatically qualified for the hammer throw finals which will be held sometime tomorrow. In subsequent heats American hurdler Terrence Trammell and 2004 Chinese gold medalist Liu Xiang pulled up lame and had to withdraw. Both were running in lane 1, which for some reason was a very unlucky number today.

The last name of one of the German hammer throwers was Klaas. On this day she was the only Klaas that didn’t make the cut.