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We landed at Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt on the Main—as
in River) at a little after 5:00 a.m. Germany time, so it was still pretty
dark out. There are two Frankfurts in Germany—Frankfurt am
Main (Frankfurt on the Main River)—and Frankfurt am Oder (Frankfurt
on the Oder River). The one on the Main is the one most people know
about, but for some reason, the Germans will not offend the people who
live on the Oder River, even though it’s basically a backwater town
compared the one “am Main.”
For me it was really only 10:00 p.m. Duluth time when we landed, and being
a late-nighter, I was still firing on all pistons, but I knew the sleep
monster would be lurking in the coming hours.
As an athlete competing primarily on the European continent, sleeping
on the flight over the Atlantic was always super important for the first
week’s competitions, because you really had to beat the jet-lag
to race even remotely close to your ability that first week. As
scheduling usually had it, we had to compete usually 2 or 3 days after
arrival, so we got pretty neurotic about getting sleep on trans-Atlantic
flights. We realized that we had to go to bed that first night over
at a normal bed time or you’d totally mess up your sleeping patterns
for at least a week. Cat naps that first day can be the death of
you, and consequently could really ruin your whole reason for being over
there in the first place.
Which is why it’s now nice to be a non-athlete, because now I can
watch the movies on the plane if I don’t feel like sleeping…which
is what I did on the way to Frankfurt. So when we hit the ground,
I joined a couple of USOC guys named Jay and Lance as they ditched a few
indecisive USOC females, and went out into the airport in search of a
great cup of coffee. Jay is a director of a “Sport Partnerships”
portfolio of sports, meaning he is the main liaison between the sport’s
governing body in the U.S., and the USOC. He’s got some biggies
like Track and Field, Swimming, and Wrestling. But for the Games
in Athens, Jay will also help the operation of the delegation by working
in transportation. Jay was also a top-level Taekwondo athlete in
the late 1980s and competed in the Seoul Olympics in 1988, when Taekwondo
was an exhibition sport. Lance works in the high performance division
of the USOC. He will be tasked with taping all the live international
TV feeds of all the events, which sounds like a couch potato job, but
considering how many things are happening at once at the Summer Olympics,
you come to realize it’s a huge job!
We finally found a place that was open where we could sit down. The Germans seem to think that stand-up coffee bars are the ticket, but
I don’t think any of us felt like standing at this point. The little “Stube” was smoky which is predictable, and even
though it was 5:30 in the morning, there were three Germans nursing huge
beers. Also predictable.
I wasn’t all that hungry, but since I was in Germany, I asked if
they had any Weisswurst. Weisswurst is a Bavarian specialty sausage
made of ground veal and many different herbs. It is a really mild,
tasty sausage that you pull from its skin and eat without the casing with
a pretzel and normally a beer, but since I don’t drink, I had a
nice strong cup of German coffee. Weisswurst and pretzels
are a Sunday brunch thing in Bavaria—which I can only describe as
the section of Germany most like Texas is to the United States—but
just way more beautiful. Bavarians talk with a different accent—almost
have their own vocabulary—think that they should really be their
own independent country because they are the biggest state and have a
long tradition of independent attitude, but put up with the German federation
of states. Bavarians also have their own customs, and one that I
picked up and liked was the Sunday Weisswurst brunch.
The butcher and the bread baker are both off on Sunday, and since day-old
bread is nothing you’d ever do in Germany, the pretzel becomes the
bread of Sunday because of its ability to remain relatively fresh in the
middle. The Weisswurst can be bought Saturday and will still be
very fresh when boiled on Sunday. Add to it a sweet mustard, and
Weisswurst and a pretzel is a pretty nice little meal. So even though
I wasn’t too hungry, I indulged in my little Bavarian treat if for
not other reason than I could.
After 4 hours of layover and nearly as many coffees, we boarded our flight
for Athens. By this time, my body was running on 2 a.m. time in
Duluth, so I was out of it for all but about 10 minutes of the flight
to Athens. I did catch a little of the approach out the window,
but even once we landed, I sawed off again until I was shaken awake by
the hustle of people grabbing their bags from the overhead compartments.
We were about 8 people strong on arrival, and we were met by a USOC staff
person. We loaded into two vans and headed 20 minutes north to our
home away from home—the American College of Greece.
There are three official United States Olympic Training Centers in the
U.S.; one each in Lake Placid, NY, Colorado Springs, CO, and Chula Vista,
CA. But as the Olympics have become a bigger and bigger deal, the
USOC continues to try to find the littlest of advantages. Athens
marks the first Olympic Games in which the USOC will have a United States
Olympic Training Center on site at the Olympic Games. They have
rented out an entire campus, which just happens to have a nice track,
several large gymnasiums, and a 50 meter pool. The American College
of Greece is basically a little training and high-performance sanctuary
for U.S. athletes so they don’t have to hassle with the over-booked
Olympic venues for training if they don’t want to. It is really
impressive and a great idea.
Since the Olympic Village doesn’t open for another 3 days, I am
staying at the American College of Greece, or “ACG.” At the ACG, all teams will “in-process” with the USOC, finalizing
rosters, getting official pictures taken, sizing for their Olympic Team
rings, and getting all the team apparel fit and altered. They will
also receive about an hour long briefing on important information and
pertinent issues, from security, to etiquette, to transportation schedules. I will be giving a part of that briefing for the next few days before
I go to the village, so work starts tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. for me. We have a dry-run as if a team were coming in, and the day after tomorrow,
the Fencing team arrives and then we’re booked solid with arriving
teams through August 13th and the Opening Ceremonies. I will not
stay here that whole time, but I will come back and forth as Sandra, my
co-Athlete Services Coordinator, and I get tired of the same thing day
in and day out. Sandra doesn’t arrive until the 30th of July
though, so I’m kind of on my own ‘til then. I’ll
get more direction tomorrow at the staff meeting.
So for now, I’m just fighting off a wicked desire to go to bed. If I can make it two more hours, I should be good for getting on their
time schedule immediately. Then it’s off to the races!
The ACG is on a hill side overlooking the main venue complex for the Games. You can see the Olympic Stadium in the attached picture—it is the
two white, McDonald’s-like arches in the middle of the picture.
Ciao!
Chad
0007-0026-2004
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The ACG is on a hill side overlooking the main venue complex for the Games. You can see the Olympic Stadium in the attached picture—it is the
two white, McDonald’s-like arches in the middle of the picture.
[ photo credit Chad Salmela ] |
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