Well, it ain't called Gym"nice"tics

Beijing, Day 136: It’s the opening day of competition at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. It just happened. It crept up behind me, tapped me on the shoulder and said “Hey you! I’m here!” And so it began, not so much a controllable mission as a big invisible monster grabbing me by the ankles and whirling me around for 16 days. There was months of build up, rehearsals, instruction, training and serious one-on-ones with people I didn’t believe were ready. Take for example one very ambitious and eager student, so willing it hurt; I’d like to call him ‘echo’, though that’s not his name. Everything I tried to tell him, each word of advice or instruction just came right back at me like I was holding some kind of cave tutorial: Me: “What you need to do…”
Him: “Hmmm, Need to do”
Me: “…is make sure you have all your timings…”
Him: “aaah, all your timings”
Me: “…matching the competition schedule”
Him: “Mmmm, matching yes matching, mmmm”

We were ready. And like it so often does, this major event on the world sporting calendar just…happened. Before I could say “God have mercy on our souls”, Day 1 was over. And it was ok. In fact, it was quite good. My team of students from CUC (Communication University of China) who looked to me like lambs to the slaughter were more wolf than sheep and followed my commands with precision, efficiency and more dedication than they’d led me to believe they possessed. Similarly to the theory of a million monkeys tapping away on a million typewriters…soon enough these guys were going to produce. Sport Presentation (local) teams of Beijing produced some shining examples of great work. Keep in mind “TIC” (this is China) and leaving the tribune mid-competition, reading a novel and texting your mates on your mobile phone are all common procedures when in the throes of show-calling an event, but somehow, miraculously we came out the other side without a blemish. Well, maybe a spot or two. Not unlike a super action hero darting through a shower of bullets, I got to the end with little more than a few rugged looking flesh wounds. My demeanor is not really suited to the role of Director for Artistic Gymnastics, as most of the time I am quite pleasant (and remember we are dealing with a sport that produced a gold medalist called “Nastia”). That being said, there were a few occasions where I let out a curse word or two, the frustration becoming all too much at times.

Sleep, something I’ve known very little of in the past 136 days, is quite a phenomenon in this country. For all their hard working exploits the local teams manage to schedule in at least 2 hours of solid kip in the very middle of every day, regardless of what’s going on. Productivity shut down occurs around midday, and while not unlike an afternoon siesta, I found it a little disconcerting smack bang in the middle of an Olympic Games preparation! So what happened during the Games when shifts ran past 12 noon? Some just fell asleep where they were. “Simon!! Wake up!! It’s the Olympic Games. You’ll want something to tell your grandchildren!” Normally, I wouldn’t have woken him, but he is my video operator and it was in the middle of competition.

At the end of it all, I hopped out of my Director’s chair, looked back down the long and winding road of Gymnastics competition and remarked that although we may have swerved to miss the occasional stray rodent, by the end of the trip there was no ‘road kill’ to speak of. In fact, we all piled out of our Beijing Sport Presentation ‘bus’ feeling somewhat refreshed, energized and even proud of our achievements. We presented 14 gold medals over 11 days of competition, watched by mostly full-houses each day (and billions worldwide) and received glowing reports from Competition Management and the international federation. Deep breath in…hold it, and exhale… done. Good job.

I take my hat off to my team of young and enthusiastic students who delivered more than I ever expected. Buoyed by pride I have not before experienced, I leave them knowing that they too are filled with equal pride at having accomplished everything they’d set out to do…and more.

Thank you Myesha, Robbie, Maggie, Echo, Karen, Alex, Fang Fang, Simon, Gong Wong, Tony, Gloria, Andrew, Dandan and Eric (and the Fuwa). Also many thanks to Dan and Michel, foreign announcers extraordinaire.