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September 11
Entry by:
Oscar "Oz" Sanchez - Operation Rebound Spokesperson
Hi Folks,
The flight over here was smooth, since I pretty much slept most of the 12 hour flight from San Fran. China's efforts to make the grandest games ever are unprecedented. They spared no expense nor volunteer! The streets are all decorated with the Paralympic logo and there is even an Olympic lane (marked with the Olympic rings on the ground) like our carpool lane.
They have an overwhelming number of staff helping out with everything from serving our food at the cafeteria (which has some 20+ stations of food separated by 3 major cuisine flavors- Asian, International, and Mediterranean), loading/unloading our gear when traveling to/from the venues, to cutting our hair. And they are the most enthusiastic and motivated group I've seen, since my time in the Marines! They are absolutely grateful to be helping out the athletes and take every opportunity to have a picture taken with us.
The Athlete village is something of a spectacle too. There's rivers, walkways, lawn, large boulders, walls, waterfalls, and numerous statues of athletic sports all over. We have everything on-site and almost all of it is free of cost. Hairstylist, laundry, dry-cleaning, healthcare, game room, Wi-Fi, vending machines with sport drinks and Coke (an official sponsor), phone room (yes calls home are free too--if you can find the time!), and weight room. Our dorm rooms are set up like apartments, only w/out kitchens and refrigerators. They didn't want any food in the rooms for obvious reasons.
We've been training almost everyday since we arrived aside from the rainy days. The weather has been warm for the most part with the occasional drizzle every now and then. My schedule pretty much consists of training, eating, sleeping, and bike adjustments.
The course is intense. There are some really technical turns with an 800-meter 10% grade climb only about a minute or so out of the gates! The road is completely new, which is really nice. There is only 13 riders in my division. I anticipated a lot more but the selection standards at this level of competition are not easy to make. I race at 7pm today (Sept. 11) PST time. It's 10am on Friday my time though. To the best of my knowledge, at this time there is no plans to show a live media stream of the Time Trial (individual effort against the clock...fastest man wins!) on the internet. UniversalSports.com had it on their schedule, but I have not had any luck watching anything on their site. It seems that ParalympicSport.TV is having better success at feeding live footage of the different sports.
My next race won't be until Saturday the 13th at 7pm PST (Sunday the 14th at 10am my time). This will be the Road Race and my second and final race.
Competition is fierce. I still feel confident about a podium spot and still have my sights set on the top spot. But it will most definitely be a tough race and am still coming in as the underdog, since I'm so new in the field. Anything is possible at this level!
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has sole and exclusive rights on all media of the game and thus are not allowing us to publicly post any pictures and such of the venues. We are allowed to e-mail (since it's not a public communication) but there are way to many pics to send. SO, I'll be downloading them to my Kodak.com site and sharing them that way. That'll follow in another e-mail.
Until next time, which will be soon since I have a race tomorrow!
Oh yeah, almost forgot...I had an accident at 35mph the other day while descending on a section of the course the other day. The bike is fine though!
In sport,
Oz
Strength & Honor
September 10
Entry by:
Cheri Blauwet - CAF Mentor
Hey there! I've been racing racing racing ... so much has happened. Things have been action-packed and have left me in a position of needing to be on my game rather than typing away on my laptop, so, I'll combine the events of the last week or so here and then can't wait to catch up more with everyone when the dust settles.
Pre-opening ceremonies involved getting acquainted with the village and settling in - figuring out how to operate my hair dryer, do laundry, find the best items at the dining hall and learning which to avoid, and finding an egg crate mattress to make-up for the fact that the beds here are like a slab of plywood. The village overall is beautiful, very beautiful, and I have a lovely view out of my 5th floor window of a pond and some fountains...great people watching. I also got my own room! Huge bonus there. We had a flag raising ceremony and several dignitaries attended as well as past Paralympians of note.
Opening ceremonies was spectacular! We were so, SO hot in our Ralph Lauren jumpsuits but we looked studly. I dropped my camera on the way into the stadium while I was trying not to faceplant in front of 81,000 people, but was very fortunate to have it recovered by a teammate and returned to me later, after they took several priceless pictures on their own on my behalf *smile*. The theme of the show was an awesome mix of spectacular sights mixed with touching elements of the deeper meaning of the Paralympic Movement. My favorite parts were probably when 2000 little kids came out dressed like worker bees and did this crazy routine where they all danced around and stood on their heads, and also a very beautiful ballet piece centered around a young girl from central china who lost a leg in the earthquake earlier this year. It was also really fun just to mingle with the whole US team.
I had a day off and then we raced the 5000 meter. My race-report, as copied to my coach:
"In the second to last lap, a racer forgot to hit her compensator coming out of the corner and she went left right into
another racer, which started the freeway pile-up that took out 6 of us, leaving 5 to finish. I was essentially in the middle behind the pile-up and as there was carnage on both sides of me I plowed right into the middle of it and literally launched out of my chair in a forward motion. I landed with my butt on the track and my legs still in the chair. We were probably going about 16-17 when the crash occured. I was in flight or flight mode and I grabbed my chair and scooted off the track before the other ladies came around for their final sprint. The track totally looked like a war zone. I was sitting off to the side when they came back around and several officials impeded the path of the ladies left in the race as they were in their final sprint. The crash was protested and the protest was upheld so we'll run again on Friday morning, with two racers "maybes" due to injury.
After the crash I got the once-over by the medical staff and no broken anything and no bruises, actually, AMAZINGLY...just some neck tightness and a bit of strain, but nothing localized or acute. Really, just felt like my neck was a little bit tight. Essentially, I got really, really lucky. "
So - we re-race that tomorrow morning, Friday, at 9:00 AM. You can see video of the crash on Universal Sports Network website, Paralympicsport.TV, and YouTube. Trust me, it's epic. My thoughts and prayers go out to my peers who sustained more significant injury - I truly hope they are able to compete again later this week.
On day 2 and 3, we raced the 400 meter prelim and final. I won my heat on Day 2 and advanced to the final with no problem, then, raced my BUTT off to a fourth place finish last night. I pushed a personal best time....I'm very proud of how I did...and I feel like the theme of this race was simply - Paralympics is elevating to new levels, the Chinese are coming on strong, and you have to be completely devoted to one or two events to have a chance at medalling in them. As it should be. We would have swept it with gold, silver, bronze, had it not been for some Chinese surprise intervention...so, I'm extraordinarily proud of my teammates on the podium, and, on to the next one!!!
More coming soon. Promise!
Best,
Cheri
September 1
Entry by:
Roy Perkins - CAF's Director of Development and Father of U.S. Paralympic Swimming Team Member Roy Perkins Jr.
Hello to all:
We're writing this email at 34,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean, winging westward towards Hong Kong on Asiana Flt. 209. If you didn’t know already, our ultimate destination is Beijing, where in just seven days Roy Jr. will plunge into the pool at the Water Cube in his first of nine scheduled events – the S5 100M Freestyle at the Paralympic Games. The Paralympics are the world’s second largest sporting event – after the Olympics – and more than 4,000 athletes from 152 countries will compete in 20 sports; many in the same venues that hosted the Olympics just two weeks ago.
It seems that United States may be the only country without some sort of live television coverage of the games – so you’ll have to rely on the Internet. There will be webcasts on:
www.paralympicsport.tv
www.universalsports.com
You can also get general information at: www.paralympics.teamusa.org
We’re fired up and hope you are too.
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