Olympics Diary from Kate Johnson (Part 1)
8/6/2004 12:00:00 AM | Rowing, Olympics
University of Michigan women's rowing alumna Kate Johnson (1998-2001) is a member of the United States women's eight boat which will compete at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Greece. Johnson is providing periodic updates on her trip.
Hello to you all!! We are in Bulgaria now and safe and sound. Safe because we have 30-some security guards with us everywhere we go.
We arrived in Athens last Friday morning where the airport was ready for the Olympic family. We stepped off the plane and were escorted by volunteers through the credential line at the airport. Our bags were taken to the American College at Greece and we were shuttled to the first part of our day of processing. We arrived at the college in time for lunch and there was one of my college coxswains in the flesh, Helen Dalis! She was a great surprise. After lunch our team headed up to a lecture room where we were given the run down on our stay in Athens. Everything from a talk from the head of security (former head of CIA) to media, athlete communications, and even a video from President Bush and well-wishers from Hollywood and the media wishing the U.S. Olympic team good luck in Athens. The best was yet to come.
After our Olympic Games run down we went to process for our gear. We were split into two groups. The softball and sailing team had just finished getting their gear when we showed up. Half of our group started on the bottom floor while the rest on the top. We grabbed a huge laundry basket and were given our sizing sheets. We went from table to table checking our sizes as more and more clothes were thrown in our basket. Opening Ceremonies, Closing Ceremonies, podium uniform, media uniform, you name it we have an outfit for every possible situation and then some. We got camcorders, watches, then we went downstairs and signed up for more venue tickets, went to a tailor to get alterations done, signed up for our specialized Olympic rings, signed tons of posters, saw the doctors to make sure we had all drugs currently in our system on file, had our pictures taken, and at then end of it all we went to a DHL station to ship home whatever we didn't need or didn't have room for. It was an incredibly exhausting and awesome day. Halfway through it all I looked up over a stack of clothes to find Abby, one of my college roommates, throwing stuff into my basket. I went back to her quarters where she is staying with the rest of the USOC staff and took a much needed shower. Then it was off to dinner and back on the bus.
Back at the airport we hopped on a midnight charter flight to Plovdiv. When we arrived a police escort awaited us at 3 a.m. to take us to our hotel. Our team manager made a quick speech about how we were to be under high security for the duration of our stay. USRowing had decided to err on the side of better safe than sorry. When we pulled up to our hotel a security guard came to the window to look down at us from every floor of the hotel. It was a little intense. They run 12 hour shifts and sit on our floor day and night. We have to wear special badges to move about the hotel floor to floor. The other hotel guests have to be hassled by special searches. It definitely seems to be overkill. I feed our guard candy bars regularly.
We head to practice at the Plovdiv regatta site in a large van and sirens blare as we make our way to and from the hotel. I think that's the highlight of security's day because we literally run red lights and stop traffic with the Police leading the way. The course itself is very windy which is perfect for preparing for Athens. We do pieces every other day racing some of the smaller mens boats and our women's quad. On Sunday, our last full day here, we will have an all team regatta. All 12 boats will run an entire 2K piece our last before racing begins in Athens. It's going well. Our boat feels great, everything is going as planned and I couldn't be more excited to race.
That's all for now. We leave for the Olympics on Monday (August 9). Opening Ceremonies are a week from today. We will not be going to Opening Ceremonies because our races start soon thereafter. We're focused on our race and that's it. I will have a whole week to enjoy the hoopla of the Games once we've done our job.
Go USA!
