Day 6

Drew swam 400 free today, but did not advance to finals. Despite all accounts, Drew is not superhuman - those were rumours only!


I continue to be amazed by the depth of the field here at the Paralympics. Although I've seen other swim meets with lots of international competitors, they were nothing like the Paralympics. Before each event, the competitors names and the event are posted on the big screen at the pool, as I've shown photo's of before. The screen also shows the current Paralympic and World records for that event. The extraordinary thing is that it is rare that the World record is not significantly faster than the Paralympic record - by as much as 10 seconds! What this means is that the sport has seen a huge evolution in the last 4 years, since the last Paralympics. The swimmers are soooo much faster that in some events, what formerly was a Gold medal time now won't even qualify for a final. What a great thing for the sport!

After preliminaries, Emma and I and the Gotell's (Chelsey and Devin's parents - both of whom are fabulous swimmers) went to Bodhi for massages. Bodhi was listed in my Lonely Planet guide as a great place for traditional Chinese massage and reflexology. All 4 of us walked in without appointments and were all taken in immediately. I guess they must have staff waiting around for people like us to wander in :)

Emma and I had traditional Chinese massage, and the Gotell's had reflexology. The massages were excellent - the masseurs did not speak English, except for the terse phrase each one utterered at the end: "Massage is over!". There was a lot of percussive movements, all performed over the cotton pajamas we were given to wear. I'm a bit sore now as I type this, but I'm hoping it's a good sore. The Gotell's raved about the reflexology too.

The Paralympic Friends & Family reception was Friday night at the BC Canada Pavillion near Tiananmen Square. When we arrived after a long taxi ride, it felt like we had come home - everyone spoke English (without an accent!), and sounded just like us. The Pavillion is constructed out of BC timbers, and there are photo's and short movies inside highlighting BC and the 2010 Games. Petro Canada hosted the reception, and it was great seeing all of the many parents, friends and supporters of our Canadian athletes here in Beijing. We watched Chantel Petticlerc win the Gold in the 400M at the Birdsnest via the many screens in the reception area, and loud cheers filled the room. Highlights from the Games so far were shown, and prominantly displayed was Canada's dominance in S13 (partially sighted) women's swimming.

The countdown to the 2010 Games was a prominent feature of the Pavillion:



One of the comments asked for a picture of the outside of the Water Cube. I took this photo at night:


It really is that beautiful! The colours change rapidly, sometimes all the same and sometimes a variety of colours.

Drew is off on Saturday, and Emma and I are finally going to see the Great Wall. The tour also includes the Ming Tombs and a jade factory. I wonder if Emma will need another suitcase to carry home her souvenirs...