Now Hear This

Saw some Tweets about this, and later read the news that Michael Phelps landed a new endorsement deal. Has it really been four months of "waiting in the weeds" since news broke of his adventures in South Carolina? (photo courtesy H2OAudio.com)

In other "news," this week's version of The Onion News Network has a quirky video feature on the latest in the world of gymnastics Olympic champion and "Dancing With The Stars" champion Shawn Johnson. I was chuckling until The Onion's broadcast crawl flashed a spelling error regarding Olympic figure skater Debi Thomas (d'oh! copy editing!).

On a more serious Olympic note, however, it was all business in Lausanne, Switzerland, this week as the four candidate cities for the 2016 Olympic Games presented their latest and greatest to the International Olympic Committee, as reported here by Philip Hersh of the Chicago Tribune.

Heading for Hoffman Estates

Fifty years ago, residents in a then-rural NW Chicago suburb voted to incorporate the Village of Hoffman Estates, according the the city's website. This weekend, this Sears Centre in the village's entertainment district will host the 2009 Tyson American Cup, which is one of the most prestigious international gymnastics events.

To contribute to the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid effort, I'm heading to Hoffman Estates tomorrow afternoon for a three-day volunteer gig at the Tyson American Cup. Should be a fun way to learn first-hand how the Chicago 2016 bid team continues to gain positive momentum toward the big vote IOC vote in Copenhagen this October.

This will be my first Olympic-level event experience since Beijing, and it will be fun to (hopefully) again see some of the athletes who succeeded in China while learning about the next wave of gymnastics greats who will compete. According to the organizer's press release with quotes from Bela Karolyi (last spotted at, of all places, the Water Cube just after Michael Phelps' eighth race in China -- see photo), there are bound to be surprises.

Hoping to post an update or two from the event. In the meantime, some notes from the Beijing gymnastics events are here.

Sunday Gymnastics

The Beijing National Indoor Stadium was the scene of day one for women's gymnastics. Though my seat for the big event -- opening competition for the women's teams from USA, Japan, U.K. and Italy -- was for the 300s section, I never made it that far up in the arena.

After helping a fellow American with a photo request (they forgot their cameras, so I snapped a shot to later e-mail), I followed my new acquaintances into the 100s seating (the helpful and plentiful volunteers never did ask my exact seat number). This entry point combined with my assigned Olympic credential later opened doors to the media photo pit for the event (overlooking the balance beam and vault, just a few yards away).

The USA women did not disappoint. All the team seemed to be trying their best (it was slightly challenging to keep up with the scores and rotations). Italy had the best floor exercise tunes (Madame Butterfly, ohh, la, la). After the second rotation, and feeling like there was nothing to lose, I moved to another corner of the arena and sat on the front row overlooking balance beam -- sweet seats!

Turns out more than two things come from Okahoma ...

To my left, a fellow Oklahoman: Mr. 1984 Gold Medalist Bart Conner!
Behind Bart: His wife, Nadia Comaneci, trying her best to keep track of their very young son!

Though gymnastics' golden couple did not respond to requests for a blog interview, at the conclusion of the fourth and final rotation, most of the building was cleared. I lingered for a bit and discovered the photo pit again, this time transformed into the post-event media Q&A area, sans security!

I did not want to push my luck any further on the access coup, so did not attempt any interviews with team USA. But there was no problem snapping a photo or 10. The day was off to an awesome start, and it wasn't yet noon!

Here Comes The Rain Again

Breakfast at Novotel (across the street from our apartment at Lee Gardens), a first for Beijing since my first morning in town: Rain!

It poured buckets for a few minutes, and now is a steady drizzle. It's a welcome cooler morning and I'm humming one of my favorite Eurythmics tunes.

Something else cool: My first ticket to an event! Some Olympic volunteers in the hotel after breakfast were giggling about an item that was handed to them before I walked up to get a map. Some nice person had just handed them a stack of gymnastics tickets for this afternoon! Two pins and about $25 (180 yuan) later, I emerged from the hotel with a cake event ticket (these babies are selling for more than $1,000 on eBay)!

Now before everyone starts giving me hard time for scamming these local volunteers, please note I did not take them for a ride. Rather, they kindly directed me to a ticket office near the hotel and that is where the purchase took place. I gave two pins to the helpful volunteers as a Xie Xie (shay-shay = thank you), and will blog about the women's gymnastics hall later.

Man, I love the Olympics!