Olympic Day 3/4 - Opening Ceremonies

Alright, Days 3 and 4 are being written about in the same post, because I didn't get back to my room until nearly 2am! Opening Ceremonies was a blast, but we didn't even walk into the stadium until nearly 11:45!

But before we get to the Opening, I had practice! We had a small mishap with which bus to get on, competition pool or practice pool, so the morning started off a bit rough. We almost missed our bus to practice! That would've been bad. But luckily we made it, and didn't lose any practice time. A few hours later we were back at the village, and we finally get our outfitting! We went through processing already as I said in my last post, but we didn't actually get our things until two days later! Nerve wracking? A little bit. After lunch we got back to our rooms and I organized the outfitting that Mariya and I decided to keep with us.

Not shown: Another duffle bag and backpack FULL of outfitting

 

This is what I've been told is "Christmas in July". I believe it! It doesn't look like much, but so much has already been sent home to my parents that I'm going to have to go through it all again when it finally arrives! We had a little bit of down time before we had to line up for the ceremonies, so I took a trip up to the Athlete Services rooms in another USA building. Check out some of what's up there:

They have pictures of all the USA olympians COVERING all the walls!

Children wrote good luck notes on paper hand prints and made a Flag out of them!

 

It's all so cool. I have an Olympic Flag that I took up there, and it's going to be left in one of the rooms for all the USA athletes to come and sign! It'll truly be a keepsake later with all the Olympic athletes signatures on it from London 2012. I can't wait to come back from Ireland and see if people have started signing it!

Now, onto what most of you are wondering about. What is Opening Ceremonies like for the athletes? Let me tell you, people ask what all we saw, but honestly...not much! We began lining up at 9:15pm outside our building. Not all of the USA athletes marched in the Opening, but considering there are over 500 athletes representing the American delegation we are a sight to be seen. Our outfitting was designed specifically for the Opening Ceremonies, and just imagine a mass of people in this!

Mariya, Sanya Richards-Ross and I

 

It's dark outside! Thank goodness it was cool. I heard from a lot of the athletes that were in Beijing in '08 that it was brutal at those Openings. It was almost 90, humid, and wearing relatively the same design. Thank goodness we had better luck. We were told it was supposed to rain, so they were handing out plastic ponchos if we needed them, though luckily for us we didn't need them. We walked as a mass from the village to the stadium. It was like a race to the finish! I don't think I've been stepped on that many times, or stepped on that many other people while trying to walk forwards! I managed to be on the right side towards the front of the crowd, meaning I made it into a few different tv cameras. I was also the closest to the crowd being on the right side. Walking into the stadium was amazing! I can't even explain the energy that came from the audience. The USA also seemed to take up the entire stadium by ourselves. I think that's because we spread out a lot as we walked in, everyone taking in the sights and wanting their share of camera time. After our trek around the stadium, all the countries intermingled in the middle on a large circle. Pretty much it became a mosh pit of athletes taking pictures and talking to each other, and taking in the last bit of the Opening Ceremonies that we actually get to see. If anyone saw Opening Ceremonies, where the people riding bikes, with the blue wings, and where one flies up into the sky...that's where we came in. So anything before that? I know I got to know a bunch of different athletes, took some pictures, and survived a kilometer sprint to the Stadium in a mass of people while signing autographs and giving lots of high fives. But the actual ceremony? I honestly don't even know what happened!  haha I've been told Mr. Bean was in the orchestra, there was a giant Shadow Ghost thing that wound around the stadium, and that the Queen jumped out of a Helicopter to get to her seat. I feel like the last one is a little far-fetched, but I bet the skit was good. :)

The Olympic torch, and Finale of fireworks

 

The lighting of the Olympic Torch was exciting. Second only to seeing them raise the Olympic Flag. It's finally hit me everyone...I'm competing in the OLYMPIC GAMES!!! Who would've thought I could've gotten this far? I wanna thank everyone who's been so supportive of me. :)

I'm in Ireland now, and since we didn't get back to our rooms until around 1:30am because of the Opening Ceremonies, I didn't actually sleep before our 3:30 wake-up call to make it to the bus to the airport. We've already had one short practice in the pool here, and I'm excited that we're in the same hotel we were when we trained here before Olympic Qualifiers. Everyone is so nice, and is so happy to support us. Tomorrow it's training, and it's gonna be long ones. 8:30-11:30, and 1:30-?? We weren't actually told an ending time...that's slightly frightening. But well worth it when we compete on the 5th, 6th, and 7th of August!

Hope everyone is enjoying these posts. I'm going to be glad I did them every night once this dream become reality comes to a close. :)

--Mary