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Geroid quietly finishes his Olympic Regatta and leaves the world stage

Time to exit stage left

At dawn on Wednesday, I quietly exited the Olympic Village, bound for life on “the other side”. I felt like a Big Brother contestant leaving the house, except Davina McCall and the cheering fans were not there. On the upside, at least I was not being booed!!

The ‘Olympic Machine’ was still working away flawlessly, but it’s components are being whittled away day-by-day as more and more athletes finish their competitions.
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Geroid Towey writes about disappointment in the Olympic Regatta

Final proves a bridge too far

After our repechage, we were upbeat and felt like we were on the cusp of making the semi-final one of our best races at the Games. We needed to, because the group draw pitted us against the top teams in the world with only three teams to emerge from the battle as finalists.

We drew current world champions (Great Britain), current Olympic champions (Denmark), current world silver medalists (France) and current world bronze medalists (Italy) along with the United States.

We were by no means fazed by the task in hand and quite often during the year had found ourselves in the mix with these crews at various World Cup regattas. And here at the Games all teams posted similar times in the heats.
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Gearóid Towey writing in the Irish Times blog, Village Voice.   He reflects on making weight as a crew and how alluring the Olympic Village dining hall is.

Primed and ready for battle

The Beijing ‘Olympic Machine’ is well oiled and moving along at a steady pace. So far, everything is glitch free and the volunteers are still smiling - I’m beginning to wonder if they have some sort of “happy chip” implanted for the duration of the Games or whether they are genuinely happy to be slaving away here!Nonetheless, they are enabling us to go about our business without worry, which should be the aim of any sports event organiser.
The dining hall is the most exciting place in the village. As I mentioned before, it caters for everyone’s needs and tastes. There is even a free McDonalds here, not that we have eaten there.

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Gearoid Towey is writing for the Irish Times

Rain and result fail to dampen spirits

With the Olympics well and truly under way, the hosts are still playing a blinder. Torrential rain for the last two days here has failed to dampen the spirits of both athletes and volunteers alike.

In fact, the presence of heavy rain has pushed the scorching temperatures into the background and yesterday felt like a warm Irish summer day, ideal for those of us who must compete in the outdoors.

Usually I pity those who participate indoors. Aside from the competition, the long hours of training indoors - and I suppose it’s inane predictability - would take its toll on me eventually.
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Gearoid Towey is writing for the Irish Times.  He arrives at the Olympic venue

Scene set for fantastic Games

I am writing this on Friday, August 8th, the day heralded as the new beginning for China, the opening day of the Olympic Games 2008.
 
We arrived 10 days ago and on entering the Olympic village it was plain to see that the Chinese had gone all out to secure the tag of “The Greatest Olympic Games Ever”.
 
The village resembles a high rise luxury apartment development in Dublin and is staffed by an uncountable army of volunteers, who, almost certainly exhausted, maintain bright happy smiles at all times. I am even on the look out for a grumpy one but so far, I have failed.
 
The Olympic village is a hive of energy. Right now, it houses the majority of the athletes who will compete at the highest level over the next two weeks, and the sense of anticipation, mixed with excitement, apprehension and extreme focus, which got everyone here in the first place, is definitely felt in the atmosphere around the place.
 
The variety of different shapes and sizes of people here is mind-boggling; from the neck-craning basketball players to the pint-sized female gymnasts. I look at these little women and wonder what they have been through to get here, and all seem to be under scrutiny at all times, no matter where they come from.
 
At certain times of the day, the dining hall becomes a Lord of the Flies-esque scene as each person battles to get their food of choice (anything from Asian to Mediterranean, Halal to good old mashed potatoes!). More often than not though, once your own routine has been established, you can slot quite easily into the ‘Olympic Village Machine’, which runs like clockwork, especially the Chinese edition.
 
Our competition starts this Sunday, with the heavyweight four going into action on Saturday. They will always compete the day before us. The regatta venue is in excellent order. Purpose built rowing courses are like swimming pools, they are the same the world over and it is the installations that make the difference.
 
I have never seen this degree of attention to detail before, however. We have spotted volunteers washing stones on the banks of the lake and they are permanently cutting grass, pruning trees and ensuring the place is spotless.
 
As for the famous smog, well, it is here but it is not as bad as many would have you believe. The rowing venue has been shrouded in it the last few days, but this is preferable to being out in the baking sun. Right now, the sun is like a faint yellow disc, the heat is there but the intensity is lower, and as we have been here for ten days, we are ‘at one’ with the humidity.
 
For these types of conditions you just need a strategy for coping with it and the discipline to carry it out, if you can maintain that, it makes life a lot easier.
 
We travel out from here every morning (50 mins or so), do a session, rest in a ‘day village’ they have out there, do another session and come back to the village for dinner and rest. We sometimes get to chat to other members of the Irish team but everyone is in their own little bubble at the moment, doing last minute preparations and trying to relax as much as possible.
 
Ireland will have a small posse going to the opening ceremony, as many compete the following day, and the opening extravaganza can be a long draining evening. It is still undecided if the rowers will go or not.
 
For myself, my path to the games was definitely the one less travelled. This time last year, I was retired and didn’t want to see the inside of a boat again. Someone asked me around 12 months ago if I was going to the Olympics in Beijing? My answer was that “it will take a miracle to get me on the start line in Beijing”.
 
I’ve found out over the last year, that miracles are bloody hard to come by!
 

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