Sanya Richards will leave on Wednesday for China, but it will be a while before she arrives in Beijing. USA track has set up camp in Dalian, China and she will be there until August 11th. Thats right, the former Longhorn will miss out on the spectacle of opening ceremonies on the 8th. Since Sanya doesn’t run her 1st 400 Meter race until August 16th, Richard’s coach Clyde Hart thinks its best she stays away from all the distractions until a little closer to events.
Richards is undefeated this year in the 400 and the heavy favorite to win her first individual Gold medal. She was part of the gold medal winning 4×400 meter relay team in 2004.
The missing piece to her Olympics experience is fiance Aaron Ross. The former Longhorn All-Amerian cornerback is in training camp with the New York Giants. Richards was happy to tell me she has a deal with AT&T so no worries on the big cell phone bill.
By the way, you can see Sanya in the latest issue of Glamour Magazine. Now take it easy, I didn’t know this until my fashion savy colleague Leila Rahimi told me about the photos of Olympians that also includes Gold Medalist diver and former Longhorn Laura Wilkinson.
First, we had Big 12 Media Days, and now… the next step in our path to football season… practice is here. UT just announced the practice schedule for the Longhorns, and the first practice is…
Wednesday, August 6, starting at 6:45 PM at Frank Denuis Fields. They’ll have another one Thursday, August 7, at the same time. Both are open to the public.
Officials say practice could be moved inside the bubble if there’s inclimate weather, and if that happens, space will be limited.
Texas also announced that fan appreciation day is at 11:00 AM on Saturday, August 16.
Up till now, this blog has primarily documented the behind the scenes planning and preparation for our upcoming trip to Beijing.
I’m thinking that it might be a good time to switch things up a little bit.
This might be my first opportunity to cover an Olympics. For my Chief Photographer Todd Bynum, this is not his first rodeo. As a veteran of the Athens and Salt lake Olympics, he knows a thing or two about how these things operate.
The clock seems to be clicking a little faster these days. Fortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a lack of things to do or get accomplished. However, I am happy to report that the to-do lists, seem to be getting smaller.
The folks at our workspace in Beijing assure us that things are progressing smoothly. The credentials are in. The carry on lists have been approved by the Chinese consulate. The gear has been shipped. The “Heaviest Camera in Central Texas” is back from Sony, and fully operational, and most of the “recommended” shots are over.
Life is good.
The preparation and planning is not yet complete, and the work has not yet begun.
In one of my earlier posts, I wrote about our hopes to get our equipment, a.k.a. the kitchen sink, through customs in China. Well I am happy to report that after tireless days and nights of generating lists, copying serial numbers, weighing equipment and planning for contingencies, the packing is complete.
I pulled out the FLIP camera to capture this glorious occasion
Recently, I had a conversation with Amy Wong Mot, the President and CEO of the Asian American Cultural Center, here in Austin. We had a chance to sit down and talk about my upcomming trip to Beijing.
During our conversation, I just had to ask. “Amy, I keep hearing all these warnings such as don’t drink water out of the tap, don’t look people in the eye, don’t cause a commotion…..” She said, “Look at you, your a big guy, your carrying a big camera! Your a walking commotion! You’ll stick out like a sore thumb!”
So I got that going for me, which is nice. I think?
Hopefully, being described as a “walking commotion” is not a form of foreshadowing of events to come. I’m not sure if I’m prepared to negotiate with the Chinese Legal System.
After our conversation, I felt relitively confident that I should be able to get around without any major problems. After giving me a list of key phrases, such as excuse me, thank you and I’m sorry. She wanted me to remember that folks there in Beijing will be there long after the games have come and gone. The last thing that I would want to do, was to make them feel unappreciated or taken advantage of.
Austin Swimmer Eric Shanteau has been cleared to travel to China and compete in the Olympics. Shanteau was diagnosed with testicular cancer a week before the trials. USA Coach and UT Coach Eddie Reese said on Wednesday that Shanteau’s latest blood test shows that the cancer has not spread. Shanteau qualified by finishing 2nd in the 200 Meter Breaststroke at the Olympic trials.
“We got a long way to go, and a short time to get there. Were east-bound, just watch ‘ol bandit run!”
The theme song from “Smokey and the Bandit” seems to properly set the tone for our seemingly endless preperations for the Beijing Summer Olympic Games.
In 9 days, 3 of us from Austin News and another 3 folks from WOOD-TV, in Grand Rapids Michigan will be on our way to China to provide unprecidented coverage of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Summer Games to approximately 30 stations back here in the states. It hardly seems real. I feel like I’m running out of time to get some projects accomplished.
Maybe I’m having an anxiety attack, or maybe I’m just overreacting. My friend Jenny Hoff, told me not to worry about it, all I need to do is generate another list of things that I need to do before I go.
I think we know how I feel about lists.
But as Paul Carroza from RunTex always says, “If you can measure it, you can manage it.” I used to think that he was just trying to sell bathroom scales, but now, I’m starting to think that he and ”the Hoff” might be making a good point.
Perspective is the name of the game. These games are going to be one of the largest world wide shared experiences in Olympic history. Maybe my worries and concerns are kinda insignificant, in the grand scheme of things. Plan for the worst and expect the best. Measure twice and cut once. When all the planning and preperation is over, all you can do is just let things happen, and BE the ball.
Not sure about the chinese translation. One way to say it is Lithium Ion. Lithium Ion is a word printed on some of the batteries that we use to power some of the backup cameras, we were wanting to take to Beijing. As we were soon to find out, Lithium Ion is also a word that tends to make Shipping companies raise the red flag. After sending a prelimary list to the shipping company in New Jersey, we found out some exciting news. With 6 hours until the manifests were due, the shipping company informed us that the list we were generating would need to be put into a different spreadsheet, and oh, BTW, theres going to be a little problem with lithium ion batteries.
I guess it’s time to switch gears and come up with a new solution.
You know they say that the view is nice from the top of Mount Everest, but you remember the journey to the summit the most.
As we prepare to embark on our journey, one thing becomes increasingly apparent, packing for this trip comes with its own set of challenges. It’s not just packing a backpack and jumping on a plane. Suddenly packing, becomes a series of lists. A process that goes a little something like this.
First, we need to generate a list of cameras we will be taking with us into China. This is needed so that we can acquire a sticker. This sticker identifies that we are a memeber of the traveling media in Beijing to cover the Olympics. They are going to very strict about the stickers. because if you shoot something that is broadcast with a camera without the sticker, bad things can happen.
Then we need to generate a manifest for the shipping company. These lists are fun because they identify every single piece of equipment that we are shipping to China. The best part of this list is the detail involved. The manifest requires that you list serial numbers, weight, estimated value, you get the idea. It takes a lot of pre-planning to figure out what gear to ship, because if something happens at customs in China, it could delay the entire shipment. Which could potentially leave the shipped gear sitting on a dock, insted of the workspace where it needs to be. That would be a bad thing. So from here we have to come up contingency plans to figure out what gear to ship and which gear to carry on with us on the plane. This intoduces us to our next list, The carry on list.
The carry on list is my favorite list. You may be asking yourself, “how could any list be your favorite?” Well, let me tell ya. This may not be the biggest list that needs to be generated, but it comes with the most strings. Once the list of carry on equipment has been generated, you get to take 3 copies of the list, and all the gear to the Chinese consolate. Once you get to the Chinese consolate, you present the list and the gear to the woman working with the media who plan on going to Beijing. Although only one person can talk to her because she doesn’t like to deal with a lot of people. The 3 lists and gear are then inspected and either approved or denied access to the country. The three lists are then stamped and 2 copies are returned to us. One stampted list to be presented when we get off the plane in Beijing, and the last stamped list to be presented before we get back on the plane. But here is the best part, You can’t even think about visiting the inspector at the Chinese consolate until you recieve your Olympic Credentials. Which will be here, at some point.
For your viewing pleasure, here is a little look behing the scenes of my Chief Photographer Todd Bynum, generating the shipping list. Truly a look at the more glamourous sides of world travel. enjoy .
