Greetings from China

It has been a busy couple of days since we left the States, and our Olympic training schedule shows no sign of stopping or slowing down as I whittle down the days and hours until I line up for my first Olympic appearance. But I wouldn’t have it any other way—I am absolutely thrilled to be in China, and am enjoying every minute.

We got off to a very early start on the morning of the 25th with a 4:30 am bus to the Newark airport. There, some of us boarded a flight bound for San Francisco. Some of us were not so lucky however, since the flight we were on was overbooked. Despite many announcements by the flight crew that the entirety of the Olympic rowing team was present and needed to be on the flight in order to complete team processing in San Jose that afternoon, the coaching staff plus Marcus eventually ended up on a later flight out of JFK. No worse for the wear, we all joined up at San Jose State University to complete Team Processing which consisted of: medical review, commemorative ring orders, head shots, stipend distribution, and finally—team apparel distribution. Getting the gear package was definitely the bulkiest part of the day (and the most fun). The process was simple: line up outside a gymnasium-sized room filled with clothing items, get a giant shopping cart, walk around the room and get fitted for innumerable Nike and Polo items, fill shopping cart, exit. I had heard that the gear package was enormous, but I had no idea just how enormous until I had stripped on and off countless pairs of pants, shorts, capris, t-shirts, polos, jackets and hoodies. Then came the shoes. All in all, it was exhausting but a total blast and everyone at the processing center was totally awesome and organized.
To top it off, we were surprised mid-distribution with a visit from California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger! I have been a fan of Governor Schwarzenegger for a long time, and Ellen and I had just finished watching all three Terminator movies the week prior, so it was especially good timing and a really special element of my Olympic experience that made a very long day very memorable for me.
After getting everything sorted, organized and shipped from processing we groggily made our way back to SFO in order to catch our plane to Beijing. The flight over was mostly uneventful, made more bearable by my wise investment in some compression socks and a wide variety of snack items. I was seated between whitewater canoe athletes Rick Powell and Benn Fraker. It took a little while for me to get that they were both whitewater and canoe, since I didn’t know that was a possibility (I’ve only ever encountered flatwater Olympic canoe athletes). They are in for a real treat at the Shunyi whitewater course, because the facility is absolutely amazing. Good luck, guys!
Right next door to the whitewater course is the stunning rowing venue: eight lanes of manmade waterway with an enormous and separate warm up and cool down area (after the battles I fought and won in Lucerne and Munich, I am really looking forward to this). The grandstands absolutely tower over the finish line area, accompanied by multiple jumbo-trons and a very effective PA system. Because visibility was limited to about the 250m mark on the first day at the course, imagine our surprise on day two to find that the Shunyi venue is actually framed by some beautiful mountains in the distance beyond the starting line. Coming into the venue on the second day and seeing the mountains beyond the course really added a whole other dimension of magnificence to the venue. Unfortunately I think the mountain view may be a rare and treasured occurrence as they were nowhere to be seen today.
As for the weather and conditions are concerned: what conditions? After surviving all that Lake Carnegie can dole out, we are prepared for just about anything. Heat? Humidity? Aquatic vegetation? Wakes from various carefree launch drivers? No problem. We are ready.

All in all, my first few days in China have been fantastic. The warmth and hospitality we have experienced here have been so great—the hotel staff and Olympic volunteers are doing absolutely everything they can to make us feel as welcome and comfortable as possible during our stay. A few more days on the sleep/wake schedule should have me functioning at 100% normalcy (whatever that means). In the meantime, training continues at full speed in some fast water. We were some of the first athletes at the venue, but it will be filling up quickly over the next few days as more teams move in for competition.

Now, back to season one of Melrose Place on DVD to pass the time.

See you out there,

--MK