- 4 Aug 08, 08:22 AM
Qingdao
Our first full day here and already the excitement is building. It started as soon as we began our marathon journey from Heathrow on Friday. From London to Hong Kong, we were treated to an array of adverts by Jackie Chan on the in-flight entertainment system.
The man with iconic status all over the world, undertook a 55-second mission impossible trying to gain access to the Bird's Nest without a ticket. Of course he made it, and of course he grinned. So did we. Because we knew we were en route to a special experience.
A three hour lay-over in Hong Kong - where the equestrian events take place - gave the volunteers a chance to outdo Chan's smile with their warmth and enthusiasm. They succeeded. Everywhere you looked around the airport there were posters "One World. One Dream."
Cynics may claim that's a cliché and somewhat ironic, given the nature of the publicity in the lead-up to the Games. All I can say to that is as we landed three hours later in Qingdao, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
Whether the Games are in China, Sydney, Paris or London, this is the greatest sporting show on Earth and it is an absolute privilege to be here.
So customs dealt with, we headed to our hotel, situated between the Olympic Marina and the Olympic training venue. An army of waiters and butlers - dressed immaculately all in white - escorted us to our rooms. Nothing was too much trouble.
We're staying in the same hotel complex (but not the same block) as the British sailing team. No evidence of them yet, as sailing manager Stephen Park has taken them off to Shanghai for a few days of relaxing and team-building. But we did bump into Team GB technical advisor Peter Bentley, who said the guys looked fit, calm and happy before setting off with 'Sparky' a few days ago.
49er Stevie Morrison has been quoted as saying Qingdao can resemble Gotham City on occasion, but so far the weather has been pretty good. Plenty of blue sky, little smog, light but noticeable wind and no return of the algae! Fingers crossed that all remains in place for a week's time.
I have got to be honest here and say that until the start of this year, I had never been sailing before or even covered an event. So learning about our 18 hopefuls and gaining an introduction to life on the water with Shirley Robertson has been a real eye opener.
Probably like many people who have no previous relationship with the sport, I had a feeling sailing was the dwelling place of people with a lot of time and money on their hands.
Over the past few months I have of course come to realise this is absolutely not the case. They are supremely fit athletes who deal with a myriad of details and technicalities that would leave many other sports bamboozled.
It's not my job to falsely appear like an expert over the next two and a half weeks - you have Shirley and commentator Richard Simmonds for that. But what I can do is try to share in the Olympic excitement and maybe at the same time help encourage a few other landlubbers that these guys are the genuine article.
And whether you're an expert sailor or not, there are some great stories waiting to emerge from these Games.
Big Ben Ainslie going for gold number three, Paul Goodison trying to make up for an agonising fourth in Athens and the Yngling girls (complete with new addition) aiming for two in a row.
Whatever your background, it will be incredible to watch.
The Olympic spirit is alive and well here in Qingdao and we can't wait for it all to start.
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Comments
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Got to say I am really impressed with the BBC coverage of the sailing so far. It's fantastic to have such a volume of coverage - 4 hours a day minimum - compared with what we've enjoyed recently, and I know that all of the guys I sail with also feel the coverage is a major improvement over recent games. I guess we feel that sailing has always been a major olympic sport and it's nice that the level and quality of the coverage actually now matches the level and quality of our Olympic Sailing Team.
Also interesting the comments made about about sailing being a sport for people with a lot of time and money. I don't think anything can be further from the truth. Like any sport, you can spend as much or as little on kit as you would like, but we are finding at club level that dinghy sailing is very much resurgent, probably as a result of the successes of Ben and his colleagues, but also because almost all sailing clubs are going out of their way to make sailing a more open and inclusive sport for all.
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Hope to see some of the Tornado racing on telly and hope it's in a decent wind. Been a convert to multi-hulls ever since visiting Wild Wind in Greece. It's a great great shame that this class has been undermined by being removed from the Olympics. It's a massive blow.
Also following the other sailors to include 'Three blondes in a boat' and Ben.
Sailing is a terrific sport, although I imagine it's a bit like cricket in England over in China, frustrating on the weather front.
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Yes - BBC coverage not bad - thank God for the Shirley Robertson and the digital Red Button. However (a) I can't find 'red button' schedules ANYWHERE which is a real pain, and (b) whose bright idea was it to send Rob Walker (who?) as the BBC Olympics Sailing Reporter when he admits himself he doesn't know the first thing about sailing! This is the 'Blue Peter' approach to sport (don't worry that he's a complete halfwit, so are 90% of audience so we can all 'share the journey' with him). Well - I find it irritating and disrespectful - the only good thing is that I haven't seen or heard anything of him on the box - let's just hope it stays that way.
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If you can't find the red button schedules you haven't looked very hard - they are the main Olympics Sailing sub-page, about half way down the page on the right hand side. Also, if you look on the Electronic Programme Guide, you can see under Page 302 what's scheduled for the next couple of days. You can use this also to set your PVR.
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I'm not sure what side of the bed (or perhaps that's bow) 'sprocket' 12:08pm got out of but I think the BBC has got is right with the 'dinghy duo'. Shirley is the sailing heavyweight and Rob provides the interest and enthusiam for the first timers to the sport which, let's face it, most of the us are. The successes of the last Olympics created bow wave of new enthusiasts into the sport and with 2012 on the way we need as much interest and involvment as we can get.
Good work BBC.
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