After virtually putting our lives on hold for the last 3 years, its finally nice to be home and a little strange at the same time. Andrew Campbell and I were joking in the customs line at SFO that neither of us had another international trip planned, and we were not so sure we felt comfortable with that fact, thinking that our hectic travel life was normal for the last few years. I said it sounded like we needed to plan trips just to feel better about it.
Three years off means getting back to things that were supposed to happen. School, work, life, friends, family, and health seem to be the top of the list. First on my list was health. Yes i am a healthy guy but i had been putting off a much needed ear surgery. Unfortunately today was the only option, so 24 hours after landing from Beijing i was in the operating room. Happy to say the procedure went well. It only ended up being about 10 minutes long, and im writing this while recovering at home. Tomorrow i should be up and about like nothing happened.
Time to get back to work on everything else but Olympics! Okay well, the 2012 program starts on September 1 in the gym…
I cant give to much information out, but, it is an awesome time to be affiliated with US Sailing Team Alphagraphics. The things the team is doing, and what we have planned for the next quad will surprise a lot of people, and maybe some others will get clued in that keep slamming US Sailing and the Olympic Team. Shame on them. Maybe they should try some Olympic sailing before criticizing or at least get a better understanding of the program.
I can confidently say the program will adopt a British Style system which the athletes and staff fully support. We will have top level sponsors, some are almost nailed down, and a few more big surprises. Also the enthusiasm of the athletes is tremendous. Most of us are planning to campaign for 2012 and i can tell you we all want medals next time. For those of us who had our first games experience, we’ve learned a lot and fell even more ready for the next games. Look for some exciting things from your new US Sailing Team.
Now that our competitions are over, a few of us have gone up to Beijing to take on the real Olympic experience. No we are rooming with other athletes, watching competitions, and eating a lot of McDonalds. It seems to be a tradition that when your done competing that you simply just go to McDonalds. Its pretty hard not to with it in the dining hall and with such an easy selection. We’ve now eaten 2 of our 3 meals so far at McDonalds… In all farness almost everyone seems to be doing it. We even overheard 2 girls totally excited that they were there ordering food. One said it had been a year, and another said 8 months. So, after such a long wait to focus on our goals, i think we’re entitled to what we had to give up to achieve all this.
Now for the good stuff. Last night we went to go see the track and field events, and some how found ourselves on the athlete bus into the birds nest. Everyone looked pretty focused with iPods rockin and hats on. We figured we would be dropped at a security gate and then go through, and with no tickets, we were pretty worried. In Olympic style we rolled up and were dropped off practically on the track!!! We were pretty amazed and tried to find out way to the stands, and found ourselves at the athlete prep area! After asking around we finally found some stairs and pretty much walked into 5th row seats at the stadium. No questions. We sat right next to the pole vaulting which was awesome to see. One better the 200m Mens finals turn was right in front of us! We watched Usain Bolt rip past us and go on to smoke the rest of the field and take the 12 year world record with him. Spectacular.
Today, we woke up at 8:30 for breakfast, and then went on a tour bus which Zach Raileys parents had organized to the Great Wall! It was amazing seeing it in person, and i can tell you it was a very steep and sketchy climb. Some parts had no steps and definitely should have, while other parts had steps that were way off with one normal step followed by one at your knees!
After getting back we’re just internetting at the USA team house and then heading off to the water cube for the womens water polo finals and some diving. After that we’re off to club Budweiser! Should be an awesome night! More from Beijing later! To much to do!
After 4 years of commitment and a lot of ups and downs its finally over. Its really unbelievable how fast the whole experience can be over and its a big relief.
With our first Olympic experience over, we’re already looking forward to the next one. We have ideas about how to approach things and make sure we have an even better chance for medaling in London.
We will spend the next few days slowly packing before heading back up to Beijing for the closing ceremonies. Hope all of you will watch might get a glimpse of us at closing!
Look for a more detailed post Olympics report once our restrictions are lifted! Until then! Thanks to everyone for all the support!
First, my apologies for not updating the blog. I know a lot of you are glued to our blog for updates! Where to begin!?
Our 2nd day of racing wasnt much better than the first. An OCS and then a decent score. Our third day of racing proved to be one of the best so far, finally getting into the swing of things. We scored a 15, and then had a brilliant race to take a win by close to 2 minutes! It was an indescribable feeling crossing the line to take a race win at the Games, and as today proved, it was just what we needed.
Today after being postponed on the water for 2 and a half hours, the breeze filled in nicely off the land to allow one race for us. It was flat wiring conditions, which we were stoked to have. We had a bad start near the pin end but tacked off onto a lift. We knew it would be very shifty and staying lifted was important. We were taken out to the right side and hooked into a great shift to round 4th! We sailed the rest of the race conservatively and held onto it. In tonight’s standings we’ve moved up to 12th! We still have 3 races left before the medal race, which is our new goal by the end of the regatta. It is the Olympics and anything can happen. Stay tuned!
Day 1 of the 2008 Olympics started off looking beautiful. We towed out to D course (the far one) in a fresh 12-15 knots. It looked like an awesome day was about to happen. However, the wind dropped off and we were back to typical Qingdao conditions.
The first race we got a perfect start, but unfortunately tacked shy of the first shift. We still had a solid rounding in the top 15, but got boxed out on the reach and downwind. We hard a hard time picking lanes in the fickle conditions, and got passed from all sides. We finished our first race in a disappointing 26th.
Nigel gave us a pretty good talk before the next race, and that motivated us. He said now the real racing happens, OCS’, protests, lots of things will happen. Sure enough, there was an OCS, and there are a few protests going on this evening.
Again in race 2 we got a fantastic start, but just werent sure what to do with it. We hung it out to the left to round about 10th, made a great move on the reach and downwind to be just with the top 5, but chose the wrong gate. We rallied to finish a solid 12th.
The regatta is long, and lots can happen. We’re keeping our heads high and we’re ready to push on. More tomorrow! Goodnight from Qingdao!
With the Games upon us now, the first thing i have to report is the opening ceremonies. AMAZING is all i have to say. Truly a moment in my life i will never forget. It was everything and more that i had imagined, and i can tell you that walking into the stadium and seeing all those people is truly breathtaking. Some of the highlights would be getting photos with the President, Kobe Bryant, and being able to watch the torch be lit from on the floor of the Olympic Stadium. Truly amazing. On top of it all a lot of my friends sent me SMS messages that they saw me on USA tv for about 2-3 seconds! I couldnt believe it!
The strangest part of the whole thing was waking up the morning after. A little bit in disbelief and shock about what actually happened, we all quickly realized we felt like crap. On top of wearing some uncomfortable shoes and being on our feet for 9 hours, we were severely dehydrated, our legs felt like jello, we had headaches, and we all got about 5-6 hours sleep. In other words, we felt hung over. This was the strangest realization that we all came to, as we loaded onto our buses back to Qingdao.
With racing underway, and yours truly to begin tomorrow, we are totally psyched with our boy Zach Railey leading the way in the Finn class. Hes sailed an excellent 4 races to hold down the top spot after 2 days of racing! GO ZACH! Our weather forecast calls for some rain in the morning, switching to an offshore breeze in the 10+ knot range. Hope it holds! We’re ready to rock!
With the opening ceremonies tomorrow, and our boat turned upside with our man Donny working on the bottom, i figured it would be a good time to include some last minute thoughts.
The general attitude in the boat park seems to be anxiousness. I think everyone has done all they can and just want to race. The waiting game has set in for a few and some team across the fleets have had panic measurements. Most seem to be with stickers on sails, but for the unlucky few that got caught trying to do something to help them out a little more, have a bit more on.
We will be the last 470 to measure on Aug 9, at 4pm. We like the idea and have taken all precautions of double checking rules, weighing the boat, and finalizing sail decisions. We feel we are ready to go, and just want to get started. No more mental games or equipment games. Its down to the racing now.
I think anything is possible in this place and your past results dont count anymore. The current is strong, and the wind is light, with some weird shifts at times. The fact this is also the biggest regatta of all our lives plays into it as well. As we have noted in the past, its all to easy to get caught with a DSQ or OCS and let your regatta slip away. However, it is just another regatta.
So tomorrow most of the team will head off to Beijing for the opening ceremonies! This will have to be the most exciting moment of my life to date and i cant wait to share the experience with everyone! Unfortunately we are not allowed to post any photos of the openings until 3 days AFTER the Olympics. So hope everyone can enjoy it on TV!
On our day off today i took a small trip into the “Black Market” with a few other team members. I didnt have anything in particular i wanted to find, maybe a watch and thats about it.
Unfortunately upon our arrival i immediately noticed that all the cases that were filled with watches, wallets, and other things had been replaced with jewelry and other not so fake items. After a little investigation, and some small talk with the shop owners, we came to the conclusion that the Police had finally made a crack dow on all the fake goods. This disappointed all of us but didnt stop us from trying to find the real stuff. We did manage to find one shop selling bags, that had a false door, and they quickly rushed us into the back where the real good stuff was. There we found all the Gucci, Armani, Prada, and Louis Vuitton bags, wallets and a few jackets. Again on our way out they had to double check before opening up the door.
After getting back to the Village we strolled down to the containers to deliver our new mats for outside. We found some huge bamboo mats that seemed appropriate for outside the containers. I also found this when i walked up which was so nice to see! I have to give a big thanks to SDYC for doing it and Andrew and I are proud to have it displayed here!
Tomorrow its back to work. Hope its as nice tomorrow as it was today!
In the effort to bring weight down for the light air regatta in a week, we’ve turned our attention to the boat. We weighed her a day ago and found her to be a bit heavy. 1.6kgs actually.
So we’ve turned our attention to weight saving principles. Our 49er crew and my roommate Chris, was generous enough to loan me a beautiful pair of titanium trapeze rings, which probably saved close to 100 grams from the other ones. First on the list was to find out where we getting all of our water in the bow from! This was an easy find, the fitting on the bow seemed to be the culprit with some of the silicone rubbing off. Our repair man Donny came thru mixing up something and laying it up perfect. I dont think we’ll be getting any more water in the hull now. Next on the list was to check all shackles and see if they could be replaced with line or a lighter shackle. Last on the list for the day ended up being the jib tracks… Not just the track itself, but the lead as well. Im not sure how much weight i took off the boat today but i was able to cut off a good half inch of the jib lead, and a good foot in total of jib tracks, which was a bit of a pain. It took close to two hours in total and my day ended at 6:30! Good thing we have the day off tomorrow!
