2008 Beijing Olympics

Friday, August 15th, 2008

Here’s a quick update from Beijing. After traveling throughout China for the past few weeks, check out some photos at www.twofeetgallery.com, we are now back in Beijing ready for the race walks.

Luckily, for most of the athlete’s the oppressive heat has broken. Yesterday it rained all day. This cleared and cooled the air and today there are even patches of blue peaking through the sky. This may lead to faster times, but could work against our athletes who tend to race conservatively.

Of greater concern is access to the race course. We were lead to believe that the race course will have public access and not require tickets to the stadium. While we have purchased tickets, others have not as in the past tickets were not required to watch the road portion of the race. In addition, we can not find out if people go into the stadium to watch the start, if they are required to get another ticket to go back in for the finish as was required in Athens. Sadly, there seems to be no authority that can give us a definitive answer. We’ll learn from the men’s 20K and adjust accordingly for the women’s 20K and men’s 50K.

On a brighter note, Bank of America is once again sponsoring support for those supporting our Olympic Athletes. They provide up to four people designated by each American athlete a place to relax (with free massage), eat, drink and get organized. Yesterday the Eastler and Dunn clans partook in the hospitality.

Kevin appears ready to roll. Confident yet humble Kevin made a brief appearance before heading back to the village to prepare for the race with Philip flying in from the training camp to the Olympic village today. I’ll get an update on Joanne shortly.

Look for more posts a few hours after the race.