Day 2 Prelims

Drew swam 100 freestyle today, and while a good swim, he didn't make it into finals. Drew's best events are yet to come (200IM, 400 free, 50 free). We had a brief chat after he swam this morning, and I finally remembered to take a picture:

We're looking forward to the next several days. He's off tomorrow, so Emma and I are planning to see some more of the city. Details to follow!

It's very overwhelming being in the Water Cube amongst so many swimming fans from around the world.

Chinese people takes great pride in every Chinese swimmers' performance, shouting "jyah-yo!" in unison whenever a Chinese swimmer is in the water. You wouldn't believe the noise when a Chinese swimmer wins a medal! There are multiple big screens all around the pool; the (unseen) camera operators are very good at capturing each countries' celebrations when their swimmer does well - we've made it onto the big screen several times while waving our Canadian flag.

Before each session, the Paralympic mascots bounce into the pool area, dancing to their theme song. People take their pictures and wave at them. They're very popular!


All tickets in the Water Cube are festival seating - no assigned seats. This seems to work alright during the preliminary sessions, but during the finals sessions, people are standing in line up to an hour before the gates open, which is 90 minutes before the start of the session. We met up with some of the other Canadians in the line-up tonight, and were able to get seats together, but what a process it was! There are five separate gates to gain access to the venue, all of which are locked prior to the entry time. Today, the person with the key to the locks was having trouble unlocking some of the locks, and this resulted in some of the gates being opened before others. In the midst of loud complaining, the poor fellow finally got our gate unlocked, and we rushed through, most of us breaking into a dead run in order to get into the Water Cube and get our seats! We didn't ultimately get the seats we really wanted, but did manage to get them all together.

The Olympic Green (which is a bit of a mis-nomer, as it's all concrete) is accessed via a long (at least 3 miles) stretch of what is usually roadway, all of which has been blocked off to cars for the duration of the games. All access points are tightly controlled, so the public is herded through a series of controlled checkpoints before getting into any venues. A security check is mandatory, and each person passes through a metal detector and is then searched with one of those wands they use at airport security. Bags are scanned as well, and sometimes searched by hand. We cannot bring any water or food in, and my swiss army knife was confiscated, although I was able to pick it up on my way out.

Following security, this is the view:

That's the Hing Long(sp?) Pagoda in the distance, and a bit of the Bird's Nest on the right. The Pagoda in one of the broadcast centres for the Games.

The locals seem to be mad for taking photo's, so I took a cue from them, and posed Emma in front of the Bird's Nest. Countless people have asked to have their photo's taken with us, even one of the police officers'! I didn't expect this, and I'm not really sure why they want photo's with us, but we're happy to oblige!

This is the National Indoor Stadium, further along the Olympic Green, past the Water Cube:

Our hotel is about a 30 minute walk from the Water Cube, most of it via the Olympic Green area. Most of the guests in the hotel are Chinese people here for the Games. An outdoor area off the dining room is really lovely:



The seating area inside is also really nice: