Qingdao China - July 29, 2008 - The US Sailing Team is finally here in Qingdao with only 14 days left until I start racing. That time is coming quickly. Most of the team arrived in Qingdao around 10:30 pm last Sunday evening after flying from San Francisco to Beijing and then here.

Our team had some business in California before we left, starting with team processing in San Jose at San Jose State University. This was the point where we received our Olympic uniforms, got medical checks and were briefed on all the etiquette and procedures we should follow while in China. At the Student Union we were given two duffel bags for all our new clothing and used grocery carts to go through the selection process as we had fun trying on the Ralph Lauren jackets and white slacks for formal ceremonies, and Nike and Polo clothing including shorts, shirts, sweats, etc. After that the sailors joined the men’s soccer team for part of our briefing. Dinner and a sailing team meeting followed.

Marina view from my room in the athletes’ village

We made an early morning start to the airport and were the first team there which was good because we didn’t have to wait long to check-in. What’s more, we were given special check-in lanes to speed the process along. That was cool! The uniform of the day at the airport was our new Nike track jackets. It was cool to see other teams walking around and know that we are all a part of one team…Team USA!!

The long haul from San Francisco to Beijing was aboard a United Airlines Boeing 747. United Airlines is an official US Olympic Committee sponsor. This was one flight that was pretty enjoyable. Lots of company from sailing team members and besides, after accumulating reward miles for past three years, I finally got to use them and upgraded my ticket. That made the made the trip so much better. In Beijing we were informed that we were no longer on the 4:45 pm flight that we were all booked to fly on, but had been bumped to the 8:30 pm flight. It just made for a very long day by the time we had arrived at the sailing venue to check into our rooms. We arrived at the venue at 10:30 pm, and most of us were in bed asleep by midnight.

After breakfast the next day, I headed down to our old training facility at the Yinhai Yacht Club and helped move boats over to the Olympic venue. Next we launched a coach boat and then it was time to get out of the heat and humidity and retreat to the comfort of air conditioning. After a gym session and dinner I borrowed a movie from team leader Dean Brenner and got about half way through it before I was asleep.

This morning I woke early and went down to breakfast around 6:15 am. Another gym workout and then I headed to the administrative building to draw for the supplied boats we’ll sail here. There must have been around 200 of us in the room as the officials used a lottery ball machine to ensure a random selection. It took about an hour to get through all the boats in the four fleets and mine was the very last number selected. I was assigned boat number 12. This afternoon we’ll receive our equipment which will let me go and rig up and go out for a quick sail.

The forecast for the next couple of days is for wind as we will be getting some of the effects from typhoon Fung-Wong that is passing the coast offshore. .

You’ll notice some changes in the content of my reports for the next three weeks and where they are located on my website. To comply with International Olympic Committee regulations to protect its sponsors’ interests, my reports will appear on my special Qingdao Olympic Blog. The URL for the page is http://www.annatunnicliffe.com/content/view/185/112/. There will also be a link from the home page of my website. The blog page will include hotlinks to official results and competition photos

Sail hard

Anna