Beijing Bound Jitters... Part 1

...And so it begins.... I'm not quite sure the Pre-Olympic Jitters decided to hit me a 4am Monday morning, maybe its because I leave in exactly 27 hours for "Olympic Team Processing" in San Jose before taking off for Beijing the following morning. Maybe its because I foresee the tons of things that I have to do today before I leave Tuesday morning....funny, I was just telling myself how strange it felt to not have so many things I actually need to do. But as I sit here in bed, typing, my mind wonders to all the small things that need to be tied up before I take off and that task is now seeming to grow larger. Then again, the jitters, nerves, anxiety...whatever you want to call them could also be starting due to the 3rd live radio interview (and 3 TV interviews, 2 newspapers and 2 magazines) in 2 weeks that I'm doing in...5 hours 29minutes, make that 28 minutes. Whatever the reason, the nerves are here, and they are here in full force.
My roommate, 2004 Olympian in the high jump. Tora Harris, has started a you tube account called "flame and rings". The premise of this you tube account is for documenting a few athletes progress as the games get closer. He has an entire room full of HD cameras and hard drives and is truly blessed at making videos and presenting them in a unique, athletic, but unbiased perspective. He started videoing his girlfriend of several years, Shuying Gao, Asian Record Holder in the Pole Vault, who also is part of our training "family" here at the Olympic Training Center. Shuying, or "Sandy" as we call her here, has been living and training here in San Diego for a few years now and has been an awesome in teaching me new Chinese words and customs as I prepare for the games...so has Tora, seeing that he is fluent in Mandarin as well. Anyways, Tora has documented alot of his and Sandy's training (which he has dubbed "Red Vault") and has them posted on his youtube account, his videos can be found at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/lianjuin

Tora happened to be at my last throwing session before I leave for Beijing in...now 26.5 hours, and made a quick video of the brief but very intense session, it can be found om his "flame and rings" account here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CxO5aARRTs&fmt=18

Keep an eye out for his series of videos, "flame and rings" as he will be in Beijing filming Sandy (and me I hope) throughout the Olympic Games...


Well, I suppose I am going to try to go back to sleep... however I can tell you that I will be logging onto the Starbucks website as soon as I sign off from this blog entry to see what time they open, (thats my attempt at humor at 4:35am ;) I have a feeling that these eyes wont get much rest over the next few hours, all though I will make an attempt. Wait a second, what time does Sports Center start on the west coast ;) Beijing Bound Jitters Parts 2, 3, 4, and so one to come soon!

Good talk,
M++