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I took it easy this morning, catching up on email and watching the preliminary rounds of the women’s 100 meter sprint on TV. There were ten rounds of 9 runners each from one of the widest variety of countries I’ve ever seen. Some of the runners wore Muslim headscarves or covered themselves in loose-fitting clothes. None of these was in contention, but I think it is already a victory just for them to be out there. I really believe in the power of sport to help women overcome both internal and external limitations. I think it’s important that women have the chance play sports even when the local culture would prefer them to stay home. These women may be losing their heats, but they are winning a bigger battle.
We decided to have a big lunch since we’d be at the stadium tonight. The University restaurant had Peking Dumplings – the Chinese version of ravioli--and we ate two full plates of them between Susan, Fang, Chen and I. We also enjoyed sautéed vegetables and two super-spicy Sichuan dishes: one chicken and one beef, both full of red peppers.
After lunch, I set off on my first unescorted voyage through Beijing; although I got a head start when Fang explained my destination to the taxi driver in Chinese. I was headed to Casa Italia, the hospitality center for the Italian team, which contains a restaurant, sponsor displays, media booths, and a shop where you can buy official team clothing. It took a little sweet-talking to get in the door, but I could do the talking in Italian and one of the “guards” was a woman from Puglia. Inside, I found the Chinese working there to be fascinated by my pins and I managed to trade a couple of them for Italian Olympic Committee pins. The manager of the clothing shop even gave me a 25% discount in exchange for a pin. I got to read a copy of the Italian sports paper; it turns out the Italian wrestler I saw win a controversial match went on to win the gold medal. Meanwhile Italy’s top marathoner scoffed at the heat and humidity in Beijing, “I train in Milan,” he said—and he’s right it’s hot and humid there too.
After Casa Italia, I took another taxi to the subway station (Fang wrote the name in Chinese on a piece of paper), then headed out to the Olympic Green to visit more of the exhibits before the 7PM Track and Field meet. My main target was a display of ancient terra-cotta warriors sponsored by Johnson and Johnson. The pavilion was clever marketing: J&J’s theme is care and the angle was that they developed a treatment to preserve the life-size statues, individual portraits of the first Chinese Emperor’s army. Literally thousands of them were found in Xian, center of the ancient Chinese civilization. Four were on display here, one in almost perfect condition. There was a long line to see them: I’m glad to see Chinese interested in their own ancient history. After the warriors, I wandered around more of the regional pavilions, had my picture taken with a Tibetan in traditional costume, and won a Buddhist wood-block print by guessing the number of babies it depicts (twice more than it seems at first glance). I was also stopped several times to trade pins; the Chinese volunteers have figured out pin-trading now and they are enjoying it to the hilt.
Eventually I made my way to the Bird’s Nest stadium and climbed up the stairs to our seats, across from the Olympic Flame. On the way I saw a guy with a “Hellas” t-shirt and I said (in Greek), “long live Greece!” He came over, convinced that I was Greek or at least Greek-American. We had a nice chat in Greek and his friend gave me a Greek flag pin. I explained that I was Italian-American, “una faccia, una razza” (one face, one race), as they say.
This was my first time inside an Olympic track and field stadium and it was great. People from all over the world were waving their flags and rooting for everyone. We even got “the wave” going several times—who says international cooperation isn’t possible? We saw several good contests, including the women’s heptathlon final (Susan had been a world-class heptathlete, so it was especially meaningful for her), men’s 400 meter hurdles semi-final, men’s long jump qualifying, and women’s shot-put final. But the featured event was the men’s 100 meter final, and it didn’t disappoint. The crowd was so jazzed, they stood up for the entire thing, and after Bolt won going away, he made his way around the track waving to everyone in the crowd. It was a new world record and an amazing performance. It may even be clean: he doesn’t look like a steroid or HGH user at all.
After the race all 90,000 of us streamed out of the stadium. It was a beautiful cool and clear night and the view of the colorful Water Cube and Bird’s Nest were wonderful. The wait to get on the subway was not too long, and though we were crammed in like sardines for the first leg of the ride, we made it back home within an hour.
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