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August 14 - The morning started off
with a brief trip for groceries. Between Friday’s holiday (Olympic
Games Opening Ceremony -- which comes along about every 108 years), and
Sunday being the second largest religious holiday in Greece (Feast of
St. Mary), we were destined to starve if we didn’t pick up some
supplies.
As the morning progressed, team members stopped by for brief personal
chats with Chris Bedford about the day’s weather. James Lyne, Kevin
Hall’s coach, is now living with us so is able to get info directly to
Kevin. We have also set up a high-speed wireless Internet connection in
our container at the venue so the athletes may get the latest from Chris
as the head out on the water. Chris does not have a credential and is
unable to have direct access to the athletes unless they stop by the
apartment. (Carol Cronin and coach Tony Rey are seen leaving the
apartment after their weather briefing in the photo.)
Katie Richardson, Olympic Programs Manager, is also here to assist with
off site projects and to distribute athlete tickets to family and
friends. Each athlete is provided with two spectator tickets from USOC
for every day they compete.
Around 11:00 a.m. most of our competing Teams were set to head out for
the first day of Olympic competition. I’ll not report on results here
as they are documented elsewhere.
It was then time to be off for lunch in the athlete’s lounge and to
watch the racing on the TVs set up there. Each day a specific class
will be followed and today it was the Yngling class. We watched the
start of the Finn class and followed the race for about 5 minutes until
the warning signal for the Ynglings when the focus for the rest of race
one would be this race. Live cameras and GPS units were on the top four
boats (based on the most recent ISAF rankings) and in subsequent days
the top four boats in the standings will have the live cameras. It was
very interesting to see the on-board view. With DEN leading the race
and USA in hot pursuit there were numerous views of our team on camera.
Following the two races in each class, and once everyone was ashore, it
was time again to face the media. Barby MacGowan, our USOC Press
liaison, sets up interviews with specific press who want to interview
specific sailors. Today the #1 request was for Carol Cronin and her
team. One hour after the conclusion of all sailing for the day the
press is allowed into the “blue zone” to get closer to the sailors.
NBC, Sailing World, AP, the Providence Journal and the Baltimore Sun all
arrived at our Yngling as a group. Each country has a spot on the venue
that runs perpendicular to the water, with the individual boats lined up
in a row. Fortunately, as the Yngling had been the last one in today,
they were the closest US boat to the walkway that the press is
restricted to. The interviews went well and the system seems to work,
although the press would like much more access to all sailors.
A relatively early dinner, followed by last email check for the day, to
call it an early night after not getting home until 2:30 a.m. the
previous evening from Opening Ceremonies.
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