What a tremendous thrill it was to be in the Opening Ceremonies. Breathtaking! It was quite an evening. We left the Olympic Village at 7:20 and arrived at the staging area (Gymnastics Center). We were the last country to leave the area and left at 10:30. We started our march to the Birds nest and it took us about 30 minutes to finally enter the field. Words cannot describe the electricity that was in that arena when we first walked in. I had my video out and filmed the journey into the Birds nest. I plan on publishing it when I get it converted. It was an absolute sauna in the middle of the field. The worst I have ever experienced. I was actually shocked that nobody went down due to the heat. By the time it was over, we didn’t get back to the village until 2:00 a.m. One of the highlights was that I got a little prime time on the television as we were walking around the track.
The following morning we had a practice so I got up and went to the cafeteria to get some coffee. Every athlete looked like death warmed over. Drooping eyelids, bloodshot eyes and disheveled hair…..and those were the women athletes. We cut the practice short and headed back to the village for some rest.
Some of the athletes that had to perform the next day did not attend the ceremonies. Their coaches had ordered them to stay in and get some rest, which turned out to be a great plan. I can’t see any athlete performing at their best after being in that sauna for 4-5 hours.
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