Drew swam his last event today - 50 freestyle. Drew really likes this event, and was hoping to go faster than his lifetime personal best time of 29.90. He's only gone under 30 seconds once before, so we were really hoping that with the combination of the Water Cube's really fast pool, the new Lazer suit, and the huge crowd, he would find his way to the wall with a good time.
He did not disappoint!
He went more than half a second faster than his best time! We were so pleased for him, and knew that he felt really good about it, too. The field in this event was quite large (and fast), and Drew needed to be under 29.13 to make it into the final, so he just missed it by .27 seconds!
We spoke with Drew after his swim, and he is now going to relax, have fun, and enjoy the rest of his stay in Beijing. The team will be doing some sightseeing around the city, and most will be flying home on Sep 19th. I'm so proud of Drew for all of his accomplishments here in Beijing. He made 3 finals, swam personal bests in almost all of his events, and put the world on notice that he's a force to be reckoned with. Watch out London 2012!
I took some more photo's of the outside of the Water Cube today:
This is quite close up, in the middle of the day.
Further away:
Proof that I was there!
The whole Olympic Green area is always teeming with people:
The main activity in the Olympic Green seems to be picture-taking. I am surprised every day at the enthusiasm of the local people for taking photo's! Whenever we have to walk across or through the area, we have to be very careful not to get in the way of someone's photo opportunity. They're either striking weird poses (two fingers in the air for victory, leaping into the air for an action shot, both arms spread wide, etc.) or looking very stern.
There are literally thousands of volunteers for the Paralympics. They are uniformly young, smiling, cheerful, and helpful. All are dying to practice their English with you! They man the security checkpoints (supervised by dour police officers), take tickets, answer questions, and do all manner of things. They travel in large packs:
...or small:
A volunteer in the Water Cube agreed to pose for a picture, making the aforementioned victory sign:
After the finals session last night, in which Canada won 2 more Gold medals (way to go Chelsey and Anne!), we were planning to go to a restaurant listed in my Lonely Planet guide. However, we couldn't get a taxi (a very strange thing in Beijing), and we had to walk quite a distance. It's Moon Festival now, and I think the taxi driver's were all taking a vacation! The wind was howling, and it began to rain, so we ran into a local hotel and had a very good meal. Not even listed in the Lonely Planet guide!
Tomorrow Emma and I are planning on returning to the lovely spa we went to a few days ago, and perhaps seeing some more of the sights.
3 comments:
The news says Rick Meircer was doing a bit at the pool and bonked his beak, have you three run into him?
the water cube reminds me of the inca walls, the way the cubes are all different shapes....hmmmm...as we say in the studio, the best ideas are stolen ones....
This Blog has been awesome, Lesley!
And what an achievement to be swimming for Canada!
Hope you can keep the blog up until your return!
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