Friday, August 2: Donna's final thoughts

Note: Like most blogs, this is in reverse chronological order.
To start from the beginning, scroll down to the bottom and click on "older posts".

As promised, I want to recap our Olympic experience along several dimensions.  I am writing this from the plane headed to New Jersey to celebrate Julia Sommer’s wedding.

First, let me say that I think the French did many things well to make the Olympics a great spectator experience.  Some of the highlights:

• Transportation.  First, we bought a pass for the week that worked flawlessly on everything. I bought our passes in advance to be shipped to our home, but you also could purchase them in many places there.  As a result, even when our local friends had to stop to buy specific tickets, we zipped on through.  Second, we downloaded a free transportation app that worked beautifully.  You set up your home destination and selected the venue you wanted to go to, and it gave you all your options.  It operated in real time, updating as the situation changed – if something was late, or you missed the first leg, it would show an alternative.  Finally, those ubiquitous pink signs in all the stations were tremendously helpful.  They were easy to spot and usually very clear about where to go.  They even had them inside EACH subway car, to highlight which stops had which venues.  It's hard to believe how much effort this took, and will take in cleanup afterwards. Other than the fact that much of the transportation was not air-conditioned, which made for several miserable rides,  I think they get pretty much a perfect score on transportation.
• Volunteers.  They were everywhere, with a distinctive color shirt that was easy to spot. They all were super helpful.  Most were bilingual.  Sometimes we just wanted to check as to whether we were on the right track, and we could confirm with them.  We read that there were 50,000 of them – I can’t imagine organizing that.
• Security.  While in a sense it made the whole situation feel like you were in an armed camp, after a while you stopped noticing all the armed guards, helicopters and even snipers on buildings.  We saw them in every nook and cranny of the city, even parts far from the Olympic activities.  But it did make us feel more safe as a result.
• Event queues.  Other than the opening ceremony, which did not go well, the queue process seemed to work fine.  Each place was a tad different – some had metal detectors, some frisked you, some made you drink from your water bottle, all checked bags more or less thoroughly, etc. – but overall they got the job done and did it quickly. 
• Chatchkas.  Lots of t-shirts and memorabilia were for sale.  Boutiques of them everywhere.
• Water.  Almost all venues had water stations for refilling your water bottles with potable drinking water, often very cold.  This was a lifesaver several times for me! Some venues also had tall water misters that you could walk through to cool you down.

 Okay, it’s only fair that I also point out the things they could have done better:

• Food.  Come on, France.  Nachos for dinner?  They could have provided better food options.  We ended up solving the problem by bringing our own.  But, really.
• Entertainment.  When you arrived at a venue early, they used the big competition video screens to entertain you.  They did this in a variety of ways.  Some had music, even with singalong lyrics.  Some had silly things, like a “dance-cam”, where they would feature spectators dancing.  Many had a “find Pierre” activity, which was a guy dressed up as Pierre Leboutin, the creator of the modern Olympics, and they went around the audience looking for him.  (At first we were surprised that Pierre happened to be just coincidentally at our venues, but we eventually realized there were many Pierres.)  But only once or twice did they offer a video explanation of the sport that was going to be performed.  It struck us that this would be very helpful, and would have saved us a lot of puzzling it out.  For example, they could run a 15 minute to 20 minute segment a half hour before starting each event that you could count on to explain the event.  It seemed like a missed opportunity.
• Tickets.  It was hard to buy tickets.  We all had different “lottery” times to be able to buy, and it was hard to coordinate.  You had no visibility into what was going on for the events you were buying.  It was hard to tell where your tickets were.  Alain seemed more on top of this than we were, so he somehow figured this out, and we ended up with great events.  But I was unhappy with several of our seats.  I guess I’m spoiled -- when I purchase seats, I’m generally able to select the exact seats within a venue.  Another gripe: sometimes we would have to shuffle past 30 people to get to an aisle.  Not only did this not feel safe in very steep bleachers, but it was a pain to disturb people whose seats were packed in very close.  I might have preferred seats further back, but closer to an aisle.  Also: be clear with the consumer about what they are buying. I thought we actually had tickets to BMX, but we did not; it was for the video overflow venue.  I would never have paid for that.
• Ticket resale.  All tickets were electronic.  The only way you could sell them was through the official site, and they could be transferred only once. If you bought the ticket yourself, and managed to find someone to buy it, you could sell it on the system.  But if someone else bought them – in our case, Alain had relatives with different lottery numbers so we purchased some tickets through them – then you could not transfer again.  Also, on the official site you could not resell at a different price, only at face value, minus a fee that went to the Olympics.  We had one event that we double booked – women’s Rugby 7 – and I would have happily sold those tickets at less than face value, but I was not allowed to.  We tried giving them away, with Guy and I randomly approaching Australians – who love rugby – but with no success.  So those were a total loss.
• Shade.  I know that they could not predict how horribly hot it would be, but chances were pretty good that it would be hot.  I think it would have been far better to have somehow invested in seating that could be shaded to some extent.  Or to provide more shade in alternate locations, such as setting up shaded areas with big screen viewing.  Sitting in the full sun, in 95 degree heat, on metal stands, was a recipe for extreme discomfort.  They built whole towers for video cameras.  They could have also built some shade.
• Video screens.  In many places the video screens were fantastic.  But in a few places they were not really visible.  In the swimming stadium we were seated above the screens, which were obscured by infrastructure.  They could have been lower.  In the rowing event, we had to crane our necks to see them.  They were often essential to see the action, as well as the scores.
• Opening ceremony.  As I wrote earlier, this was a bust as far as I was concerned.  Nice try, but a total fail.  In addition, the queueing system that night was terrible,  with lots of chaos, people cutting, and lines that seemed to snake around everywhere.

 Okay, finally, here are tips if you decide to go to a summer Olympics.  The next one is in LA in 2028.

• What to bring.  We had a lightweight backpack that fit in our suitcase that was perfect as a day pack.  We brought small binoculars, and we loved having these.  They did not need to be super strong, but it’s fun to be able to see some of the action up close.  Empty water bottle – we just bought water bottles the first day and reused them from then on, so easy.  They didn’t seem to mind us bringing in food, so stocking up with a few sandwiches worked well.  We had neglected to bring any national t-shirts to wear, or flags/banners to wave for the U.S. athletes, so we felt bad.  You could buy flags from all nations, but we didn’t see those until late in our stay.  They gave out French flags and French face paint everywhere.  Some people came prepared with rub-off tattoos with their national flag.  Of course, there were some very decked-out people, with wigs, costumes, etc.
• What sports to pick.  Of course, you may have some specific sports that you are passionate about, so go for it.  We were indifferent so picked somewhat randomly.  I will rate below our preferred sports and why.  But I must say, given the heat (which I assume would be a risk in most summer Olympics destinations), I would lean heavily towards indoor sports where you know you will be in an arena, and leave the outdoor sports for those that you just can’t miss.  The location may not be obvious – swimming was inside, for example.
• Where to stay.  We had an AirBnB apartment, which we liked, since it gave us access to a kitchen, washing machine, etc.  But the best part was that it was centrally located, making it easy for us to go back to the apartment midday.  We did this often both to rest and to shower ; we had many 3 shower days.  I wouldn’t want an apartment too far away from the action.
• Pacing.  We went to two events a day, which worked well.  We met others who crammed in more, but you would have to be very careful to  pick ones that are close together.
• Bring good walking shoes.  Here is the total of our walking over 7 days of Olympics:
  • 108,104 steps
  • 44.3 miles, or 6.8 miles/day!
• Walking limit. I can’t imagine there will be that much walking in the U.S., but if you don’t think you can handle it, register as handicapped!
• Timing.  Don’t bother arriving at venues 1.5 hours in advance, which is what they advised.  We starting aiming for an hour.  Then a half hour.  We learned that if you come too early, you just wait in the line until they open the venue.  If you come later, you walk right in. With reserved seats, it made no sense to come too early.

A note on volunteering:  I had thought it might be super fun to volunteer for the Olympics.  Perhaps you are considering that for LA.  Just to say, it didn’t seem as much fun when I observed it.  Those folks often spent hours standing in one spot and pointing a pink finger in the right direction.  Sometimes they stood in the full sun, and other times indoors or in shade.  Yes, they definitely helped us from time to time.  But, overall, unless you could volunteer with something that required a bit more skill, I think it would be boring.

Finally, here is my rank order of the sports we saw in terms of naïve spectator enjoyment. 

The first category are the ones we liked the best, not in any special order. These were athletic, were fast paced, involved a clear strategy, and had understandable rules.  I would go back to see any of these sports live again:

• Kayak (down the rapids)
• Rugby 7
• Badminton
• Gymnastics
• Synchronized diving

The second category are ones that were fun to watch, but less obvious in terms of strategies other than "try to go as fast as you can".

• Swimming
• Rowing (on calm water)
• Horse jumping

 The third category – don’t bother.

• Fencing.  Totally incomprehensible in the way they score it.
• Archery.  Mildly interesting, but too hard to really see, and not any evident strategy or athleticism.

That's it. I’ll be amazed if anybody gets to the end of this note, but if you do, thanks for reading!

  

Thursday morning, August 1

This morning we went out to Versailles – over an hour by train – to see the equestrian jumping competition.  We were again impressed at the signage and volunteers who helped get us to the right spot.  In this case they had Olympic busses available to shuttle us to the site, which was quite far from the train station – a 20 minute ride.  Once we arrived, we had another long walk of over a mile to get to the actual competition venue.  We were struck again by how difficult this would be for some people.  That said, this time we did see some golf-cart style cars available to take less able people to the stands, and there were definitely people making use of those.

The competition was enjoyable to watch. Each national team has 3 riders. Each rider goes separately around a set route that includes a bunch of different jumps – some wider, some higher, some very close to each other, etc. We had excellent seats, placed near one of the most challenging areas.

If they knock over a bar on a jump (which happened frequently), they would get a penalty added to their time. So the score was time plus penalties. Each time a bar was knocked off, before the next rider, the volunteers came out to reset the jumps as well as to rake in front of them. We saw some riders who completed without penalty, but many who did not, so clearly the jumps are very difficult. It seems amazing that horses can lift themselves so high off the ground.

I should mention that pretty much every venue has cameras on overhead wires that take some of the video … this takes an amazing amount of infrastructure, and we saw many towers that were built just to handle these roving cameras.

We watched the first set (one rider for each country), and happily, the U.S. was in the lead!  We took a break before the second set to get out of the sun for a few minutes.  

We got back in the stadium after the first rider of the second set.  Then something really crazy happened …. The second American rider is announced, and I looked up at the screen and realized that I knew the person!  It was the son of a friend from the industry.  I gasped – oh my, I think that’s Scott’s son, Karl!  We have met him several times.  I had remembered that he was an equestrian but had no idea he was competing.  Suddenly we were cheering for someone we actually knew!  

I’m happy to report that he had an excellent ride, with no penalties, and helped the U.S., which ultimately ended up in the 2^nd position (the third U.S. rider wasn’t as good).  Note that this was the qualifying round, not the medal round, so it went from 20 competitors down to 10.  But we will definitely be following to see how the U.S. team does in the final, and we hope that Karl earns a medal.  I texted my friend Scott right after Karl’s ride to verify and he confirmed that it was his son.

It was our last Olympic competition so I will be finishing this blog.  I am going to write some overall observations and some tips for visiting the Olympics, so check back for one more post, which may not happen until the flight home. 

I have one other story to report which is not so pleasant, but is worth sharing as a cautionary tale.  After gymnastics the other night, we went out to dinner with Guy and Alain in a very nice restaurant,: Le Train Bleu, in the Gare du Nord.   The restaurant has a gorgeous Beaux Artes interior and delicious food, although it was quite uncomfortable because it was not air-conditioned.  We were tired, sweaty and happy, so enjoyed ourselves.  

When it was time to leave, we gathered our belongings and Guy realized that he could not find his backpack.  We looked all over, and it was nowhere to be found. It had been snatched!  We checked with the restaurant staff, but they had no ideas.  Fortunately Guy had given his phone to a staff person to charge, so it wasn’t in his backpack and he still  had his phone.  But he did not have his wallet, with his identity cards and credit cards, nor did he have his house keys.  Guy had put the backpack on the back of his chair, and our theory is that it may have fallen to the floor and somebody grabbed it.  It just was very surprising to have happen in an upscale restaurant, with lots of staff around.  I had been sitting facing Guy the whole meal and noticed nothing.

So poor Guy, although tired and sweaty, ended up at the local police station that night making a statement.  He managed to locate the backpack because his airpods were in it, but it was in a large building, so the cops couldn’t do anything about it.  He did have a way to get into his apartment that night, after checking with the security company that no alarms had been set off.  He then spent that evening and the next morning to stop the credit cards, get in a locksmith to change the key, get a new identity card, order replacement prescription sunglasses, and so on.  Amazingly, he had no cash in his wallet.  So, it was greatly inconvenient to Guy, but the thieves ended up with nothing of value to them.

But they tried again today.  They called Guy, having spoofed his local bank’s phone number, so it looked like it was coming from them.  They knew the bank manager’s name as well.  They tried to talk Guy into giving his access codes, and they also tried to get him to wire money, claiming that the wallet was now in Senegal, and he had to take these actions in order to defeat their access.  Apparently the person calling was very convincing sounding. Guy almost fell for it but thankfully did not.

So here are some lessons:  when in a public place, keep your backpack in front of you, on your lap, or on the floor by your feet.  NEVER EVER give out access codes to someone who calls you over the phone.  If someone calls you from your bank, tell them you will call them back using a published number.   

Wednesday afternoon, July 31

Wednesday afternoon we went to see archery.  It was a nice set-up with a beautiful view of Les Invalides, which are grand buildings from the 17^th century.  Actually many of the Olympics venues are set up to ensure that you see a Parisian landmark in the background or close-by.  

This venue also had archery activities for visitors set up outside, which I thought was clever.  Of course, the bows/arrows were quite different than those used on competition and the targets were much closer. Some were even plunger arrows for little kids.

Our seats were excellent  -- right in the center.  Two contestants take turns shooting their arrows and scoring points.  As always it took us a while to figure out the scoring process, but eventually we figured it out, and it made it fun to watch.  That said, there seemed to be very little strategy involved.  I could not see the arrows hitting the target at all, so for that, I relied on the video screen.  The scores were often quite close.  

photographers hide in green bunkers so they don't get hit with an arrow!

When there was a tie for the match, a little tradition was invoked, where the announcers told us to “split the pie”, and we all were to put our hands in the air making a very specific motion.  It was quite silly, but I loved it as lots of people participated.  

We watched quite a few contests (including one where two Brits, both surnamed Hall, were competing …. I expect they were brothers!).  The matches got called off part-way through because it looked like a storm was coming in – but we were pretty much ready to leave anyway. 

I have to say that this sport seemed like the least athletic of all the sports we have seen.  If you want to get into the Olympics and you’re not much of an athlete, take up archery!

We stopped with Guy for a casual dinner in a cafe, complete with a view of the Eiffel tower, chocolate mousse, and a surly waiter.  

 

Wednesday morning, July 31

This morning we went for what I had looked forward to the most, BMX bicycle.  It is bicycles performing tricks like skateboarders.  However, it was probably our biggest fail of the Olympics, showing how hard it is to predict what will work out and what won’t!  BMX was located in the “urban park”, which is a transformed Place de la Concorde where they built 4 separate small stadiums and a bunch of common space.  This area was built to showcase urban sports – skateboarding, break dancing, BMX, three-person basketball, etc.  You enter the bigger space then go to your individual stadium.  In the common space there are also some demonstrations, food booths, and water misters to cool you off.

 The problem was that although I thought we had bought tickets for the BMX event, we actually had “general admissions” tickets which did not entitle us to a seat in the arena with the competition.  Instead, we were directed to a second arena.  Although it also had the skateboard ramps, there was no live action, only a video on a big screen (and not even that big) showing the live event happening in the next stadium.  It took us quite a bit of time to figure this out, and then to find Alain, who was holding seats for us.  So there we were, in an arena looking at a screen, in the blazing heat (well over 90 degrees), with no shade and no breeze, metal stands and a concrete, empty skateboard platform.  Needless to say, Len and I lasted approximately five minutes before we abandoned this activity! 

the unused BMX bowl showing videos of BMX events elsewhere

We then walked over to the area where breakdancing was going to be performed.  At least there we found some seating in the shade.  We learned that there would be a DJ demonstration shortly so we hung around to watch that.  It was a bit more comfortable, given the shade, although still somewhat stifling.  They also had a graffiti artist at work, in keeping with the urban theme.  We had our picnic lunch (having learned to bring sandwiches with us) and watched the DJ for about a half hour before returning to our apartment.  Apparently he was a famous DJ.  There were no dancers yet, but a few spectators jumped up to do some moves, which was encouraged by the space – it was meant to be your opportunity to participate in activities.  

Just this much activity left us exhausted and drenched with sweat, eager to get back to our AC and a second shower of the day.  I suppose if it hadn’t been so hot, we might have enjoyed watching the BMX on the video – you could hear the cheering from the stadium next door – but under the circumstances, in our view it was totally unpleasant.

Tuesday evening, July 30

 at the Women's Team Artistic Gymnastics...

 

Guy asked: "Are we in France or America?"

watching four sports at once: vaulting, balance beam, floor exercises, uneven parallel bars

can you spot the woman on the balance beam?

spotlights on the crowd create a moving pattern

Simon Biles is the superstar

It was definitely a thrill to see the USA women gymnastics team win the gold medal.  Wow, what a show!  It was the only time that we saw people outside the venue with signs up trying to buy tickets.  I doubt they were successful – it was the most popular show in town.  It seemed like the audience was 75% American.  Flags and American-themed outfits dominated.  We had neglected to bring USA logowear ourselves, so we borrowed a flag for a photo!  The arena at Bercy was very nice – I think the best venue we’ve been in.  Comfortable seats, good sight lines, easy in and out. 

The arena is set up so that all four skills are performed at once:  balance beam, vault, parallel bars and floor.  This is a bit confusing to watch as all 4 locations were operating on their own schedule.  Some are starting while others are finishing.  Then they wait until the score is posted, which can take some time, before they let the next person proceed, which is entirely different for each of the four sections.  Vault took less time than the others, so that group always finished first.  Two teams are assigned to each skill, with team members alternating.  Then, when everybody is finished, they have the “rotation” where the teams formally march to the next skill area. So there are four sets of competition.

They show the score for each person once it is posted, but they don’t keep it there long, so we often missed it because we were watching something else happening.  This made it tough to follow along with the results in the arena – those of you watching at home on TV probably had a much better sense of it.  They did show the team score regularly, so we knew that US was in the lead from the beginning.  But the shifting fortunes of the other teams were a bit harder to track. 

Our seats were nearest to the parallel bars so we had a great view of that competition.  We also could see floor exercise very well, but the other two were more distant.  That said, we had brought some small binoculars so enjoyed seeing the other skills through those, and they showed replays on the big screens. 

It was interesting that the various teams were so differently built.  The Japanese were tiny gals, whereas the Americans were much more muscular – the Chinese were in between.  I think that this sport used to be for the small, pre-pubescent girls who could fly through the air but it has evolved to being much more athletic.  All the teams that won were larger and more muscular.  It takes real muscle and strength to do this sport.  Simone Biles, the “greatest of all time”, is very short, but she is sturdy.  It was fun watching her – she smiled quite a bit.  Everywhere she went, there were five or six cameras pointed at her.  When they say someone is in the spotlight, that doesn’t begin to describe what it is like for these gals.  There seemed to be one camera person per athlete given all the media from all the different countries.  We saw media everywhere – in the stands interviewing random people, outside interesting random people, on the floor videoing everybody’s every move.

Canadians and Japanese -- notice the size difference

 
We’ve found that in each event we spend a bit of time “decoding” what is happening.  Where are the judges?  Where are the referees?  Who are those people over there?  How is it scored?  Why did X just happen? How many people advance to the next level?  Do they get multiple tries, and do they average those scores or take the best?  When we figure something out, we feel very pleased with ourselves.  For example, Guy pointed out to me that the judges in gymnastics sat with white screens between them so as to prevent them from being influenced by the judge next to them.  We could spot the 4 different set of judges.  In badminton the other day, we watched the many line referees who sat in a quite specific way with their very specific hand signals to indicate “in” vs. “out” and other faults.  I’ve also noticed how choreographed the whole event is.  Nobody walks anywhere randomly.  People arrive in a specific order, walk at a specific pace, wave and turn simultaneously, and so on.  There is very little that is spontaneous.  I think that’s why the press makes such a big deal out of any spontaneous display of enthusiasm from an athlete.

 It was fun to watch the award ceremony.  First they had to build the podium in front of our eyes – that took a bunch of people.  Then the ceremony itself.  Unfortunately, we were facing the backs of the athletes, but they did turn around a few times to acknowledge the arena.  It seemed like nobody left until after the ceremony. 

All in all, one of the highlights of our Olympics!

Tuesday morning, July 30

This morning we headed back to the place where we saw the kayak races, this time for rowing on “calm waters”.  Unfortunately, the weather has turned super hot – over 90 degrees.  I thought we would be fine, as the races started early, but even arriving just after 9:30am, it already was pretty bad.  We were sitting in unshaded stands.  We had a great view of the finish line, but the big screen was not well positioned for us to be able to see the rest of the race and for some reason the audio was simply not audible where we were sitting.  Without the screen to give you context and without the audio narration which was really great at explaining things, it mean just sitting there sweltering and watching the occasional exciting finish, while not being sure exactly which boats were from which countries.  We watched a few races of single and double sculls.  Then we decided that the enjoyment to misery ratio was not high enough, so we left after an hour.  As we walked along towards the exit, we could hear the audio and see some other screens, and definitely appreciated the racing more, but were happiest once we got to the air-conditioned train.  

I should note that we are doing a heck of a lot of walking.  Each venue requires a ton of walking just to get to your seat.  This rowing venue required particularly long treks (with only part of it shaded).  For going to and from the venue, we walked 4 miles today!  There is a handicap access somehow, but it’s not very visible, and, surprisingly, one doesn’t see little carts taking people back and forth who would have trouble with the walk.  I cannot imagine an event in the U.S. that would assume people could walk 4 miles in order to participate.  Even people with canes or in surgery boots were just walking along with the rest of us.

Our apartment (AirBnB) is great.  It is in a wonderful neighborhood – lots of grocery options and bakeries.  Good metro access.  It has some little oddities – it is somebody’s home, who they vacated for the games, but on the whole, it is serving us well.  Thankfully there is a portable air conditioning unit that we move from room to room now that it is so hot outside (we didn’t need it until last night).  However, the unit needs to be vented, which means we have to leave a door to the outside open, which seems to let in hot air, too.  Hmmm. 

I had intended to go to the “urban park” this afternoon to see break dancing and skate boarding, but, alas, it is simply too hot to be outside in the afternoon, so we are back at the apartment resting.  Tonight the big excitement is getting to see gymnastics …..

amazing temporary infrastructure everywhere

Monday, July 29

 We have found everyone to be in very good spirits, cooperative, patient and respectful.  We have been in conversation with people from Australia, Great Britain, US, Germany, China. People take photos for each other, let others pass through lines, take turns, etc.  At the swimming, we saw next to a young American, Leo, who swims for Oberlin College.  Leo was an absolute encyclopedia of knowledge about swimming.  This turned out to be very handy for us, since we know pretty much nothing, and Leo seemed to enjoy having the opportunity to educate us.  

Now for a word about food.  France, as you know, has one of the greatest cuisines on earth.  Somehow that did not translate over to the Olympic venues.  We had assumed that we would be able to pick up a decent bite to eat at an event.  But when we went to get dinner at the swimming event the other night, there were exactly two choices:  falafel and nachos.  We selected falafel only to arrive at the front of the line to find them sold out, so nachos all around.  The next day, I got up and went to the local patisserie, picked up a few sandwiches, and we happily had a picnic inside the venue yesterday evening.  This was a particularly good idea given that the only choice there was waffles.  

On to yesterday’s agenda …

We enjoyed having lunch with Guy’s daughter Clara, whom we have known since she was small … but now she is all grown-up, married and expecting a child of her own.  Then we went to badminton.  I must say that this was a surprisingly thrilling sport to watch.  We had great seats, along the center of one of the courts.  There were three courts playing simultaneously, which made it a bit strange as you would hear people cheering for a different game than you were watching, and you wanted to watch all three.   It felt a bit schizophrenic.   We played badminton a lot as kids, and it is basically the same game, only that little shuttle seems to go a heck of a lot faster than I remember!  It is surprising how it starts fast, and then falls, so you can see it is hard to judge whether it will be out of bounds are not.  It’s much more athletic that I had imagined as well – these men and women were very powerful, fast and agile.  I particularly enjoyed the last match we saw of men's doubles – The Danes were ferocious – I predict they ultimately get gold.

Then we transitioned over to the Grand Palais, an enormous exhibition space in Paris that was remade into an athletic venue for fencing.  It is just amazing the amount of construction and adaptation that these games take.  Either the organization of the queues is better or we’re getting more tolerant, because the entry process seems to go quite smoothly now.  

I will have to confess that fencing is my least favorite sport by far.  I found it totally incomprehensible – no sense of who won a point and why.  Had no appreciation for the skill involved.  Len and I left early on this one.

the Danes playing aggressive Badminton

games on three courts at the same time

lunch with Clara

the helpful pink fingers are everywhere

fencing in the Grand Palais

Sunday, July 28

 As promised, I got some photos of the red turd mascot – both as a hat that people were wearing and as a cartoon.  Also, I forgot to mention that the French national symbol is the chicken, so you also see plenty of chicken hats and chicken costumes.  There also are people scattered around who will put the French colors on your cheek with a lipstick-like applicator.  We happily participated, figuring that the US colors are the same, so what the heck?  

Yesterday was more lines and more security.  Both are very impressive.  I actually had to drink from my “flask” yesterday, so felt happy that all those signs were not main in vain.  There is great signage everywhere …. You literally follow pink lines on the floor or pink signs everywhere.  In most places there are dozens, seemingly hundreds, of volunteers with big foam pink fingers pointing you which way to go.  I’ll try to get a photo of one of those for tomorrow.

Yesterday’s first event was kayak.  We had to travel over an hour to get there but it was a new train and very comfortable.  There was a lovely walk through a pretty residential area and then we arrived at the venue.  I will say that even though the lines are huge, they are pretty good about processing you quickly, with lots of entry points.   Our seats were great and this event was super fun to watch.  We watched the women’s semi-final, with 22 contestants vying for 12 spots in the final.  They go down some rapids and through gates, both downstream and upstream.  You could see how it took both enormous strength as well as concentration to get to the right gate positioned the right way.  You lose time for touching a gate and you lose a lot of time for missing a gate.  There are judges besides each set of gates who decide on the spot whether there is a penalty, which can be reviewed later.  We left before the final as Alain wanted to get to see the first match at the swimming.  

A word about Alain – he is a new friend (an old friend of Guy’s) – and he is the expert amongst us on all-things-sport.  He is so dedicated that he carries an iPad with him to watch other competitions while we are at a live competition, and can be spotted watching at just about any moment.

Our second event was swimming.  We went very early, thinking we would have time for a light dinner but, alas, the line stretched for miles, so we got on it more than an hour and a half in advance, and made it into the stadium only ½ hour before the start.  The food on offer was falafel sandwich or nachos.  We all decided on falafel, of which they ran out before we got to the front, so nachos for dinner.

This is an old stadium, and we climbed some very steep steps (without handrails!) to get to the very top, where our seats were.  I swear we bought better category of seats, but there we were, on the roof.  We couldn’t even see the live video screens from where we were.  That said, we could see the pool perfectly well.  The spectators were very animated – loads of singing and cheering.  The place becomes totally silent when the swimmers mount the starting blocks, then erupts once they are in the water.  The first race was the big one, with local hero Leon setting a new Olympic record in the men’s 400 meter medley.  He was quite impressive – way ahead of the others.  The was a good pace of races, both men's and women's, and different strokes, interspersed with medal ceremonies.  We watched the US win several medals and even got to sing the Star Spangled Banner.

We had a heck of a journey getting home with several Metro glitches (some self-imposed, others not) but eventually made it back to our apartment to collapse after a very full day.

Saturday, July 27

 Now that we have completed the Opening Ceremony and our first day of the games, I thought I would write a little bit about the experience.

#1 – lines, lines, lines.  This is connected to #2 – massive security presence.  Everywhere we go, we see police, unarmed security, and armed military style people with fierce looking weapons.  To enter a venue, you have to plan on an hour or more.  First, you may go through identity check – can you produce identification to match the name on your ticket?  Second, you go through security check of all bags.  Today, we even got a pat-down in one venue.  Third, you go through ticket check.  Finally, you are told to prepare to take a sip of your water!  I guess this is to prove it is not gasoline for a bomb.  However, in spite of many signs about getting ready to take a drink from your “flask”, nobody asked us to do so.  

 

dirnk?

I found the Opening Ceremony quite disappointing.  We had great seats, overlooking the Seine.  There was a big video screen across from us, but no matter how big, it was pretty far away (for example, I could not read the country names on the signs on the boats).  The audio was excellent.  But, in the end, the majority of the interesting activity was not in our sight, but was on video.  Since it started to rain pretty badly, I found myself wondering why I was sitting outside watching a video screen at some distance away.  Yes, the boats eventually cruised by us, and we enjoyed waving at the athletes, but after a few hours, and being soaking wet, we decided that was not worth staying for.  I’m sure if it hadn’t been raining, it would have been more enjoyable.  But even if so, I’m afraid that it wouldn’t have given us any better content.  Clearly, if you were based at the finish line, you would have seen some of the super exciting stuff.  I think the idea of the opening ceremony on the Seine was a bold move, but one that ended up serving the remote audience far better than those of us on site (who paid dearly for tickets).

Our first event today was diving.  We saw women’s synchronous springboard diving where two women dive together and try to be absolutely identical.  They start with “easy” dives (relatively speaking), and progress to harder ones, earning more points.  It was beautiful to watch.  Our seats were not great, but it still was fun to be there, and we could see the dives as well as replays on a big screen.  And we watched the U.S. win a silver medal, so that was cool.  The Chinese won gold, and it seemed like half the venue was full of Chinese people.

Our second event was Rugby 7 (7 players on a regular size field).  This event took place in the Stade de France, the giant stadium on the north side of Paris.  It was about as opposite from the diving as could be imagined.  Instead of a small venue full of sweet Chinese gals waving their little Chinese flags, and taking a thousand photos of each other, and instantly going silent as soon as the divers stepped on the boards, we were now surrounded by 80,000 rowdy French rugby fans with face paint, crazy wigs, and assorted props (notably, a fellow near us with a giant, stuffed boar’s head), who were loudly chanting and singing.  The Rugby 7 game itself was a strange mixture of American football, soccer, hockey, wrestling and gladiator.  It actually was super fun to watch.  The games are very short – only 15 minutes – and a lot happens fast.  I’m happy to report that the French won a gold medal, which was a big upset to Fiji, who was expected to win.  Len and I left after the last American game as we wanted to beat the crowd out of the stadium.  I’ll look forward to hearing from Guy and Alain as to how long it took for them to get out.

The city is well organized for the games.  The transportation system is marked throughout for all the venues.  There are several apps to use, such as how to get from one venue to another.  You would think that this would be a boon for all the local businesses, but instead they are complaining because the regular tourists are not here, and the Olympic tourists seem to be otherwise occupied, and not doing their normal touristy things.

Also – I should mention that they have the ugliest mascot for these games.  I haven’t taken a photo yet – will add one before I’m done.  But I think of it as the “red turd”.  Apparently it is supposed to be like the hats worn by the French during the revolution.  The rest of the graphics are pretty nice.

-- Donna

PS:

is this taking equality too far?