Badminton, Tennis and Swimming...oh my

The games are now in full swing and I am thankful to say things at work are settling down a bit now that everyone knows the routine (and the security forces have stopped randomly closing tourist sites etc...for today anyway).  As I said in my previous post, I have been busy taking our guests here and there.  Tough life!  I have been to three competitions so far - Badminton, Tennis and Swimming.  Seeing the venues up close and personal has been amazing.  It is astounding how swept up in a sporting event you can get here- even sports that you do not normally watch - like BADMINTON!

Queen, Crystal and myself with some of our guests at Badminton

Queen and Crystal in the stands enjoying....

Enjoying being forced to cheer for Canada!

Anna Rice - Canadian Badminton Player!!!

Good lord, badminton and table tennis tickets are like gold here, and I could not believe how exciting badminton was.  Anna was pitted against Eva - her rival from the United States.  Anna won the first set handily, but tenacious Eva clawed her way back into the second set and eked out a victory.  I was on the edge of my seat! That shuttlecock can really fly (badminton is a dirty sport)... the action is really fast and fun to watch. It was an amazing match, but Anna persevered and ended up the victor - 21 to 19 in the deciding set.  I went wild!  Screaming and shouting etc.  Then we went home.

The next day, our clients were off to Tennis.  I am a true tennis fanatic so I was very excited about this one.  The tennis stadium that they built is amazing - and there is not a bad seat in the house.  The first match was Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) vs. Rafael Nadal (ESP).  Awesome.  The game was closer than the score let on.  I have to say, the one thing about China is that they have huge flying bugs that I have never seen before - the ball boys oftentimes spent most of their time chasing bugs around the court.  It was like mini show in itself!

Nadal Vs Hewitt

Why does Nadal do this after every point??? He is loaded, can't he invest in good underwear?

Kathy and Maarten - sat beside me at tennis - we enjoyed yogurt as a snack... the venue snacks here are so interesting!  You can order 'bread'....with what?  We have no idea.

Match #2 was world #1 Roger Federer vs. An Estonian... This one is for you Aunt Rose!  We had great seats and really enjoyed the night. It was the first time I was not sweating like a 400 pound fat man running a marathon on a beach in Rio! 

 

The Epitome of Concentration and Precision

The following day, it was off to one of the hottest tickets in town... swimming!  The water cube could be my fave venue here at the olympics (see last posts for pics).  It is all trippy and bubbly and the inside is state of the art.  Swimming happens so fast!  I apologize for the pics because I was literally in the third last row at the top... nothing but the best for staff!  

The inside of the water cube (swimming section)

The anticipation in the air was palpable.  The reason being?  Everyone had come to see if Michael Phelps could continue his winning streak.  First up was the 200m butterfly... Gold for Phelps and in a World record time.... (actually, no less than 5 WR fell that day in the pool.  It was amazing).  The man is 7 feet tall and webbed hands and feet I am sure.  He blew everyone out of the water.

Phelps (middle) preparing to race

The crowd went crazy when he won.  With that gold, he became the winningest athlete in the history of the Olympics - 10 gold medals.  He did not stop there.  The 4x200 men's free relay from the US KILLED the competition a short time after... they won by 4 seconds in world record time of course!  So he is up to 5 golds here and has 11 total to his name.  

I hate to report the truth, but Canada did not have quite as great of a time in the pool that day... quite frankly, they sunk... did not swim.  It was heartbreaking... and lung blowing... I cheered my little face off, but to no avail.  There was one bright spot that made me almost have an aneurysm in my seat, however.  Canadian Mike Brown did us proud!  He won his semifinal and came 2nd overall going into the breaststroke final... good on ya Mike!

Mike getting ready for the race

There it was, displayed for the world to see!

Phew!  I was spent.  A few days of screaming and cheering is very cathartic.  Today it is off to athletics... not sure how we will do there, but looking forward to being in the Olympic whirlwind - the people watching and good nature is intoxicating really (once again, I must say that may also be the smog.... which Beijing Officials have deemed a "natural phenomenon" and not really pollution...) 

I have been up to a lot in the last few days... the next post will be the cultural side.  I have been lucky enough to visit some amazing places while here - the Lama temple (which, alas, had no llamas), the summer palace, the Forbidden City, silk Market.  I have also competed in some of my own events - the CCP Bowling league met two nights ago after work for the 2nd game in the series.  The pics are pretty funny.  

Will post soon.  Stay tuned.