Tuesday was supposed to be the big day in the velodrome, with the athletes arriving for practice and all, but it turned out to be Wednesday that featured the most action. We talked to a couple of athletes on Tuesday, but by Wednesday we had the German, Belgian, American, Irish and Dutch teams on the track. When the German and Dutch teams were on the track together, there had to be about 30 bikes riding around together. It was interesting how some of the riders who didn't have teammates, like the sole Irish rider, hooked up with the larger teams to go around the track and train. I'm curious how the etiquette works on that.
So I got my first flash quote of the Olympics published on Wednesday. We tried to get some time to talk with the German team, but unfortunately they had a party at their embassy to get to, so we took a rain check on them. A couple of the riders did talk to us, like the Irish team, and I got a chance to talk to the only Belgians to make it to the Olympics for track cycling, Kenny de Ketele and Iljo Keisse (shown above doing the exchange that is the most distinctive part of the madison race). They're partners in the madison, and Megan and I got to talk to them after their training session. They only affirmed what we're starting to learn, that Olympic athletes, or at least Olympic cyclists, are as down to earth as any athletes you can find. They're generally very giving with their time, and when they can't talk they promise to make time in the future.
The best part about talking to the athletes during training is that, with most of the journalists still away at other venues and sports, we get a chance to talk to the athletes without others there. They get to know our faces and our uniforms so that when they have dozens of people asking them questions, hopefully they will take a second to answer one of ours. It's really important that we get that recognition now, because after the other journalists get here, we'll generally be in the background.
It was also exciting to see the team from the Netherlands here for one reason, Theo Bos (the solo photo). Ernst, Dutch himself, is excited to see his countryman, while the girls in our group have been looking forward to seeing him for a while. He's one of the better looking cyclists in world, and so the girls have been having fun watching him practice. He is favored to win the individual sprint, so his talents go far beyond his looks. He's also supposedly the owner, or at least rider, of the world's most expensive bike, coming in at somewhere around 1 million dollars. I'm not sure is that's true, but hopefully we can find out for you.
This should be a good Olympic games for the technology side of the Olympics as well, as cycling has taken a path similar to swimming and their record-breaking bodysuits. Apparently the Australians have a new bike they're waiting for the Olympics to unveil, and the U.S. team has bikes that were designed by NASA, again a rumor, but these Olympics will feature some of the most advanced bikes in the world. And since we're talking about the U.S. cycling team, that's been the story of the city Wednesday. Four members of the team wore masks to help against the pollution when they got off of the plane Tuesday. We could only talk to one American cyclist on Wednesday, Giddeon Massie, and we didn't ask about it since our job is to talk about the sport and the athletes, not outside issues. The masks were designed and given to the athletes by the United States Olympic Committee according to The New York Times, but the blowback from the masks was enough for the athletes to formally apologize. It just makes me wonder how they thought this wouldn't cause a fervor. The masks are pretty conspicuous, and they were the first, and only to this point that I know of, athletes to wear masks to fight the pollution in Beijing. I understand their rationale, that they train their whole lives to be at the top of their game and must do everything to ensure that, but they couldn't have thought that this wouldn't be an issue. I also love the apparent hypocracy by the U.S. Olympic Committee, as The New York Times also reports that they gave the athletes the masks, then became very unhappy with the athletes for wearing them in the airport. It seems like a mixup that could have easily been avoided.
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