Fast, Faster, Fastest!!!

Two days ago I had the day off, so I decided to abuse my accredition to go take some nice pictures at the OAKA complex (where the Olympic Stadium is). Yiorgos, a colleague from the Athletics desk decided to join me, and we arrived there around 18 hrs.

We spent the next hour or so wandering around on the complex taking picture after picture. As Athletics was going on we wanted to go into the stadium but were told that our accridation wouldn't get us on the stands. We needed tickets! Quite strange as we are allowed almost anywhere, including the dressing rooms of the athletes.

We decided to walk around the stadium and to visit our colleagues from the Athletics TIC desk (Technical Information Centre). They are located in the stadium underneath the stands and provide mostly start lists and results and handle some last minute requests, like arranging Coaches Seating Area passes. We also wandered around in the hallways of the stadium, bumping into one athlete after the other. I even shared a bathroom visit with Michael Johnson, who's there for the BBC. I beat him in the 300ml Urine Bowl Sprint... :-) (Sorry, getting a bit cheeky here)

At some point a colleague called us and told us he would get us on the stands. Originally in the Athletes spectator area, but as that was quite full, he dropped us in a spectator box at the 50 meter line. And it was the night of the Mens 100m Final!!!

First we saw the Dutchman Liefers make the Mens 1500m Final, some big guy win the Hammer Throw and saw two Swedes win gold (Mens High Jump and Mens Triple Jump). As we were surrounded by Swedish supporters, you can imagine that the sights were not only on the pitch...

And then there was the 100 meters. Earlier in the night we saw the semis where all favourites made the final. It was the final event of the evening, the topping on the cake. The 8 gladiators came on the track some 20 minutes before the start, doing their stretching and some practise starts. As the Hammer Throw finished before schedule, there was nothing else going on at the stadium. All 140.000 eyes (assuming that no cyclopses were present) were focused on the sprinters. The stadium DJ put on the famous 'Sirtaki' and the crowd clapped along the rhythm. A few sprinters decided to do their warm up on the beat of this song which increases in speed continuously. The crowd went nuts!

I assume most of you saw the race on TV. Seeing it in the stadium is amazing. 70.000 people being as quiet as can be in anticipation of the "on your marks... go!" and the erruption of noise as soon as the start shot is heard. What a climax! Things to do before you die: Watch an Olympic Mens 100 meters Sprint Final live!



After seeing one of the fastest 100 meters of all time, it was time for us to participate in one of the slowest 100 meters of all time: Between the stadium and the exit, but not before Yiorgos scored an autograph from Ato Boldon (twice Olympic 100m medal winner for Trinidad & Tobago). Ato was a bit in a hurry and tried avoiding having to sign too many papers. It's a good thing he went 'incognito' by wearing a sports shirt with Boldon written on the back...

On the way to the exit the Swedes decided to provide some of the entertainment by massively jump into the fountain to celebrate their two gold medals, singing, jumping, chanting and circling around the 20 meter high fountain. Obviously the Greeks responded with their favourite Euro2004 chant, as they do whenever some fans decide to celebrate a medal. Yes, also in the HHH.

Talking about the HHH. It is the hottest ticket in town. Many athletes are done with their events and now visit the place nightly. And not only the Dutch ones. Last night the entire Brazilian swim team was there, including Peter "Xuxa" Dral, known locally in Brazil as Fernando Scherer. Xuxa is leftmost on below pic.



That's it for this long posting. I need to get on my way to the Adidas store as yesterday I was told that volunteers get 35% discount.

Cheers,

Roberto

PS: I took 90+ pictures at OAKA, now totalling 350. Too bad I can't post them here, but there will be an on-line gallery within a few days after my return.