The Olympic Games
Every summer I used to watch the Olympics while I was on holidays. August is the preferred holiday month in Spain and I would invariably be spending it in our apartment by the beach in the south west coast of Spain. After lunch, during nap time, I would watch gymnastics, synchronised swimming, diving or any other sport that only appears on tv once every four years —in Spain, the only sports you can regularly watch on normal tv are football, basketball and tennis when there is some big tournament.
But this year… I haven’t watched anything yet! I don’t even know if I have the channel that broadcasts the Olympics, or what time each competition starts, or anything. What is the time difference with Brazil? Something like 12 hours, I guess. So probably not a chance of seeing anything live…
In China the biggest news related to the Olympics have been the quarrel between certain Australian swimmer and certain Chinese swimmer, which became almost a diplomatic incident, and the ridiculously cute reaction of another swimmer when she heard about her mark (you can see the gifs and watch the video here).
But today I wanted to talk about the only time that I have been to the Olympics. It was in… you guessed right! Beijing 2008. It wasn’t the August Olympics though, but the Paralympics. For us students who only got a visa covering the duration of our two academic semesters it was practically impossible to obtain another visa to stay the summer. The government just didn’t want us there during the Games so we had to leave and, the ones that were going to continue studying, go back in September. That was when I found out the tickets for the Paralympics were very cheap: only 50 RMB! (Back then that was only 5 Euro). I wanted to go to the National Stadium (known as the Bird’s Nest) and the National Aquatics Center (a.k.a. Water Cube) but there were no tickets left for the Water Cube. So the Bird’s Nest it was!
On the way to the stadium!
The Bird’s Nest.
I love the Bird’s Nest, it looks amazing! We saw several races (running on two legs and also on wheelchairs) and I think also javelin, but I can’t really remember. What I do remember is that everything was very exciting! At the end of each competition there was the medals ceremony, with the national anthem of the winner and everybody standing as a sign of respect. Every time a Chinese won a gold medal, all the spectators (the stadium has a capacity of 90,000 seats) would sing the Chinese national anthem. It was very impressive!
The Bird’s Nest from the inside. I am afraid that after the Beijing Olympics it hasn’t been used much.
It was a bit hot inside the stadium, the air didn’t move at all. Faulty design?
The racing wheelchairs look more like a tricycle that you work with your hands.
The Beijing Paralympics mascot was a colourful cow.
The Bird’s Nest at night!
Are you following the Rio Olympics? Have you ever been to the Olympic or Paralympic Games?
I’ve never been to to Olympics but maybe some day! Looks like you had a great view from above and nice to hear you got to watch quite a few events. My work office overlooks a massive indoor food court downstairs, and in that food court there is this gigantic TV screen showing the Rio Olympics. Yeah, we are getting work done this week… ;)
There is also a screen in the terrace of the restaurant downstairs and they are showing the Olympics all the time too! But I only get a quick glance when I am passing by with the dog :D
Looks like we were at the same event perhaps the same day! I also went to see track and field at the 08 Paraolympics!
I went on September 12! That would be total yuanfen, haha!
I am SUCH an Olympics junkie. And it’s one of the few times when I can watch a ton of volleyball on TV, not to mention swimming.
Fu Yuanhui is a tremendous amount of fun to watch. Better than Michael Phelps’ scowl, though that was also entertaining.
Haha yeah, pfff, Phelps.. he was laughing during the anthem! Show some respect!
The aussies are so nasty this year, they were also giving Phelps a hard time!
I haven’t seen the US swim team this dominant in…maybe ever? It’s gotta be frustrating for other countries. :( I think the French guy was the worst, though, about Yang Sun “pissing purple.” So it’s nice to see an athlete so genuine and happy.
Did you see the hottie Ning Zetao? :D It seems he didn’t win anything though.
I did see him! Yes, indeed, although Nathan Adrian still rules. Adrian scores extra points for using the word “cognizant” in his post-swim interview, too.
I try to follow the games as much as possible but the finals are always at 3-6am German time :(
I would love to visit olympics games at some point as it clearly didn’t work out for me to qualify for them back inthe days :p
Yeah some of the Chinese swimmers have hard times now due to their doping past. I would say anyone who has been tested positive once should get a lifetime ban which would remove at least two from the Chinese team right now…and of course many other athletes from many other nations! Can’t understand how such cheating can be still tolerated
There was also a huge doping scandal in Spain a few years ago. Not sure if it was Olympic participants or just other professionals. But it’s like… pfff…
These kind of scandals always bring a bad image to the sports like inthese olympics where each gold medal is viewed as a possible cheat…
I’m so jealous you got to go to the (para)Olympics!!! Looks so fun!
I’ve been watching the olympics like crazy, but unfortunately American TV is full of commerials so it takes forever to watch anything.
The reaction of the swimmer is SO CUTE! So humble! Haha, “I don’t need to do better, I’m good!” I love it.
Her faces are now GIFs all over the Chinese internet, hahaha.
Great post Marta. I went to the Sydney Olympics. So glad I did it was amazing. Your time at the Beijing Paralympics sounds great too. I am not watching much this time though but have been keeping abreast of the comments on the news about our Aussie swimmer following his comments about the Chinese swimmer.
I’m afraid that Australian swimmer is going to be considered persona non grata in China forever xD
Agree!!!
Nope, I don’t even have a TV, so watching the Olympics is practically impossible to me. But Malaysia finally won 1 medal in diving, and that’s a super big deal because we rarely win any medal at all in the Olympics, so that news is all I see on my FB wall today.
Congratulations, haha. Maybe you can watch online? (I don’t even know if that’s possible, haha. Should be?).
That looks like it was a good time – and a good deal! I think it costs 50 just to get in to the bird’s nest as a tourist now. I don’t want to spoil anything but Michael Phelps wins everything. He’d probably when a skeet shooting metal just by walking into the venue. I like watching the games on Chiness TV because the announcers are funny (such homers) and I can tune out the commercials. American olympics are horrible. I lived near Canada for a long time and their olympic coverage is BY FAR the best.
I think they were fearing the stadiums would not be filled during the Paralympics so they were selling cheap tickets. Same strategy as in the Shanghai Expo in 2010 when they gave away tickets for free and made companies arrange trips for all the workers so they expo would surpass the previous record of visitors set by Japan :P
Ha! I wrote when instead of win – that’s so awesome. I said English skills go in the toilet when abroad. Not winning a gold medal for proof reading – Zhou.
Yeah,that Japanese record never had a chance. I think China tries to beat every Japanese world record out of spite. We need 1 million more visitors – call in the army of high school students and municipal workers. Free tickets for all and down with Japan!
I have always loved to watch the Olympics, and this year I am following them as much as I can. But the best is still to come, I will go to the Paralympics in Rio! My sister will compete there and I couldn’t be more excited about that!! :)
Oh wow, that is AMAZING!! I’m sure it’s going to be an incredible experience! What sport does she practise? Way to go!!
Yes, it’s amazing, it’s huge! I can’t wait for the day to come! She practices paratriathlon, and made such a big effort to be there…! The opponents are strong and it will be hard to win something, but being there is already a big reward :)
The picture where you show the field and the stands inside the Bird’s Nest shows how enormous the facility is. Wow!
I’ve been watching whatever happens to be showing when I turn on the TV. So far I’ve seen some beach volleyball, skeet shooting, fencing, water polo, badminton, and a little bit of swimming and gymnastics. I never watch for long, but it’s fun to sample a variety.
I finally got to watch a bit of gymnastics, but it wasn’t live, it was a competition from a few days ago. The Chinese gymnasts were tiny compared to the Western girls!
I’d love to go to the Olympics some day! In 2018 Korea is hosting the Winter Olympics, so I’m hoping I manage to still be here and can attend :) It looks like so much fun~
I hope you get to go! It’s a great experience :) And time passes so fast that 2018 is practically already here haha!
I enjoyed the post. I liked the link too. Fu Yuanhui’s reaction was epic. :)
She suddenly became a star in China!
It’s funny how people can go from relatively unknown to super-famous overnight. :)
Very cool! Nah, I like to watch the Olympics, but this year it appears to be on lockdown as far as getting to watch any coverage…so I’m opting out. I tried! NBC, the US TV station that covers it, are not helping those of us out of country! Boooo!
The time difference is also a big problem for us in this time zone! The bits I’ve watched were not live…
Happy New Year !
I leave you my post about celebration of New Year’s Eve in Madrid