Whew!!! My first two days of competition at the Laoshan Velodrome are over and it's been crazy. For Friday and Saturday, I was scheduled from 15:00 to 21:00. If you factor in traveling to and from the venue, I am in uniform for about eight hours. In those hours between the two days I have tons to share. For that, I am going to break this blog into headlines that will cover everything.
GREAT BRITAIN IS GOOD AT CYCLING
All of us who learned the world of track cycling in a matter of weeks knew the British had some talent but they have dominated the track so far. Many media members and cyclists are shocked that it has been so one-sided. The Brits have won six medals, three of which are gold, in the four events that have concluded and Sunday features are gold-medal match with two Brits. (That means they have another silver and gold coming their way.) Their muscle-man Chris Hoy has two golds and will try for his third in the Men's Individual Sprint in the next couple days.
NO SIGN OF THE AMERICANS
Aside from the Men's Sprint Team that made the top eight, the U.S. hasn't done anything. Gold-medal favorite, Sarah Hammer, was extremely disappointed with her effort in the Women's Pursuit. Hammer didn't make either medal ride-off and wasn't real sure why she didn't perform better. "It just wasn't my day," Hammer said. Also, the feel-good story of Taylor Phinney, the 18-year-old product of two cyclists, ended with no medal chance. The last shot for a medal is on the shoes of sprinter Jennie Reed, who is a medal favorite.
BIG CROWDS TURN OUT
The Laoshan Velodrome has benefited from two really good crowds. The Europeans love their cycling and it's showing. The crowds have been dominated by the Netherlands, France and Great Britain. A fan aspect that is cool in track cycling is you are really close to the action. Quite a few athletes have interacted with fans when riding by in celebration and that is always a fun aspect for fans.
PLENTY OF CHAOS ON THE TRACK
It didn't take long to witness my first crash in track cycling. During the first heat of Team Sprint qualifying on Friday, a Polish cyclist went down. A track cycling crash is a lot worse than one might. The cyclist is wearing a skin-tight rubber suit and the track is silky-smooth. The result is a sliding cyclist that doesn't stop for some time. The rubber suit then burns off from the friction and the next to go is the cyclist's skin. Saturday yielded another crash but this time it enveloped Theo Bos (NED), who is one of the track stars. Bos didn't use the re-run opportunity in order to save his body to battle for the Individual Sprint crown.
FLASH QUOTE REPORTING HAS ITS BATTLES
My job is to be a flash quote reporter, which means I gather quotes from athletes immediately following events. Like many things in life, it's not that simple. There are two areas where I can be to collect these quotes, the radio/television broadcast zone or the print reporters zone. For most of the medal rounds, there are more than 100 people in the zones. All of those people have a specific objective and tight deadlines, including the flash quote reporters, so things can get a bit crazy at times. Also, as everyone knows, most athletes operate in their own way. Just because one athlete wants to go talk to reporters doesn't mean the next will. A lot of these battles give myself some excitement and thrill in doing the job.
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