London, England - We've been here for a week and so much has happened already. We arrived in London on Tuesday morning and went to Team USA processing right away. Processing includes fittings for opening and closing ceremonies outfits, team headshot photos, ring sizing, and Nike fittings. The whole thing took close to four hours and I walked out of there with so much Team USA gear that don't think I'll ever need to buy clothes again. After our opening and closing ceremonies outfits were personally tailored, they were delivered to the rowing village and a few of us tried them on.
Closing ceremonies outfits
The main Athlete Village in London houses most of the athletes at the Olympics. Since our rowing venue is too far away to travel to each day, we have our own rowing Olympic Village that's about an hour west of London. All of the nations are staying here together. It's a bit different than our normal world championships routine, where we have our own hotel or only share it with one or two other nations. It's pretty neat to see all the nations in the dining hall and around campus together. 
The race course is at Eton Dorney Lake. Is is notorious for being windy and we've been experiencing some of that in our first week. But nothing unrowable or too crazy. Fingers crossed!
A very calm morning on Dorney last week
On the surface, it honestly feels like any other big international race we've raced at, like the World Championships or World Cups. There are several noticeable differences though. The first is security. It is pretty nuts. The Athlete Village is completely walled off and we go through so many security checks on the way in that it almost feels like we're in prison once we're in there. At the race course, only specific people are allowed near the boats, docks, and boathouse. At many other races, anyone can wander around the boat racks and parents are not hard to meet up with. Not so at the Olympics.
The second big difference is the lack of people. The Olympic program is smaller than any world championship or world cup program. At last year's worlds, there were 1200 athletes. The Olympics caps the number of rowers at 550. The course seems pretty empty, but that helps you remember the weight of this regatta.
The sticker on our boat (it's upside down because the boat is in the rack).
Overall, the London Organizing Committee has done a wonderful job so far. There are helpful volunteers everywhere, and one of them even let us hold his official Olympic torch!
Standing on the upper level of the boathouse, overlooking the finish line area and grandstands
1 comment:
So exciting, Kristin! Thanks for the updates from the heart of the Games!
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