Beijing, we'll be back!!!

Just did a quick trip last week to Beijing with Drew, the AOC and a small group of Australian Rowing Team coaches. It was great to be there and see first hand the rowing course, athletes village, other facilities and the city itself. The purpose was to simply get familiar with the facilities and environment around us. Being that it is China, somewhere that we haven’t been before, and the fact that it is far from similar to Australia and Europe where we would normally race, we thought we should definitely scope the place out so that there are no surprises in August.
The first day we got to see the rowing course which was quite good. It is big, reasonably well set out, seems good to row on. Although there appeared to be a bit of smog around (couldn’t see the finish line from the start of the course) it didn’t seem to have any effect on breathing, so all should be ok come the Games. That night we had the chance to catch up with one J Day and Melissa which was good. I rowed with Jase in 1995, 1999 and the 2000 Sydney Olympics. We went to a traditional local restaurant in downtown Beijing called ‘No Name’. It was quite good to catch up with them.
The next day we were able to get access to the Olympic Village which we felt pretty privileged. It is still being completed but the main part of the construction is finished. Out of all the villages I’ve been in (Atlanta, Sydney and Athens) I’d have to say this has the potential when completed to be the best. We saw the rooms which were pretty roomy but unfortunately us delegates from Rowing Australia were banned from the rest of the tour as the AOC went on to see the remaining areas like the dining hall, athlete areas, social areas, sports/recovery areas etc. This will be the first time we will be staying in an Olympic Village for the week of racing. In the past we have stayed in alternate accommodation closer to the rowing venue then moved in to the village in the second week when racing is over.
Each morning we went for a walk around town and came across into Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City and other great ancient pieces of architecture. The city is an eye opener, even the habitual spitting from the local men on the streets. I believe they are attempting to stop that bad habit as well as turning off the industries in Beijing and the surrounding areas to minimise the pollution as much as possible.
We feel a lot more comfortable with the concept of competing at the Olympics in Beijing and practically have our plans in place of what we need to do and how our movements will work to optimise our performance and recovery between races to enable us to achieve our best possible performance.

PHOTOS TOP TO BOTTOM:
1)The gang in a Taxi - Me, Tony Rice, Andy Randell, Rhett Ayliff, Noel Donaldson, Chris O'Brien and Drew.
2)Looking from the start at the Rowing Course
3)Drew & I at the rowing Course
4)Tiananmen Square
5)Don't really know, but its really old and looks good
6)Forbidden City
7) The Olympic Village
8) Model of the Olympic precinct with the stadium at the front in the middle, swimming centre just to the left and the village down the back left.