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.