Many Canadian athletes to skip opening ceremony
BEIJING -- Canadian triathlete Simon Whitfield will watch Beijing's lavish Olympic opening ceremonies from a bike shop in Victoria while Canada's track and field athletes will stage their own festivites at their training base in Singapore.
The swim team won't march into Beijing's National Stadium with the Canadian delegation on Friday night either. Same goes for the women's soccer team.
Whether it's due to a conflict with their competition schedule or because they're training elsewhere to avoid distractions along with Beijing's polluted air and suffocating heat for as long as possible, a number of Canada's Olympic athletes are choosing to skip the opening ceremony.
Whitfield and his Olympic teammates, who don't compete until Aug. 18 and 19, are staying in Victoria as long as possible so they can enjoy the comforts of home. They'll arrive in Beijing early next week to give themselves a few days to acclimatize before the race.
"For the third Olympics in a row, I'll be watching (the ceremony),'' Whitfield said last week. "We've organized at the bike shop to order some Chinese food and watch the opening ceremonies.''
The Canadian Olympic Committee expects about 200 of the country's 330-plus athletes to attend the ceremony along with a contingent of mission staff.
It's understandable that some athletes want to stay away, says Canadian chef de mission Sylvie Bernier, a former athlete herself who won a gold medal in diving exactly 24 years ago Wednesday at the Los Angeles Olympics.
"Every Games there are teams and athletes who decide not to walk for many reasons that we respect,'' she said following Wednesday's flag raising at the athletes village. "It's a long day, it's tiring, it's going to be hot and humid. Of course, we're here to perform. That's our main goal, to make sure athletes compete.
"Our focus will always be on our athletes.''
Flag-bearer sympathizes
Kayaker Adam van Koeverden will carry Canada's flag into the stadium Friday but he doesn't compete until the second week of the Games. If he had to be on the water within the next few days, he wouldn't even consider attending.
"You can't expect people to go for a two-hour walk and stand up for hours after that the day before, or even three days before, their competition,'' said van Koeverden. "These athletes are competing all the time not just every four years and it's a really big stretch on their routines to do something like that.''
The ceremony is expected to last more than three hours but it's a much longer affair for the athletes, who have to arrive in the afternoon to take their places for the procession and then won't get home until the wee hours.
"For people that have races the next day it's a no-brainer,'' said Canadian rower Kyle Hamilton, whose men's eight will race in the heats on Sunday. "There is no way we want to do that. The buzz we want to create is on the podium. Whatever it takes to do that we want to do. I don't begrudge anyone who decides not to go to the opening ceremony. It's way close and way to late. It's not worth it for us.''
It's worth it for veteran shooter Susan Nattrass, who will compete at her sixth Olympics. She's marching, even though she starts her event Monday.
"Everyone's different,'' said the 57-year-old Edmonton native. "I love opening ceremonies, so I would go. Now if I was competing the next day, I would do the march in, but maybe not stay for the whole thing. It's a hard decision. I think for some people, it's not good for them. For me, I love it.''
The women's soccer team is also taking a pass. They say making the 120-kilometre journey from Tianjin, where the team plays its first two games, makes going to the opening ceremony unrealistic. Plus, they play on Saturday night.
"The opening ceremonies are late,'' said captain Christine Sinclair. "We knew it a long time ago so we could sort of deal with it then. We get to go to the closing ceremonies instead.''
Ceremonies still under wraps
Athletes from more than 200 countries will enter the stadium according to Chinese characters as opposed to the standard alphabetical procession. This means Canada will come in at No. 65, sandwiched between Gabon and Ghana.
Many of the details about the ceremony are being kept under wraps, including the theme song and who will light the Olympic flame. Some 91,000 fans are expected to pack the stadium to watch an event that celebrates China's historic past and burgeoning future.
Known for their elaborate fireworks, the Chinese won't disappoint on Friday with 15,000 shells set to go off at the stadium and another 14,000 near the iconic stadium known as the Bird's Nest.
Rain is in the forecast for Friday but organizers are hopeful it will hold off. They say they may cancel certain aerial spectacles if the inclement weather persists.
"We are quite optimistic about the weather on that day, we have help from God,'' Zhang Heping, director of the organizing committee's opening and closing ceremonies department, said during a news conference Wednesday.
It won't make much difference to the swim team and the track teams, who both plan to hold their own, unofficial festivities. The swimmers will celebrate at the village before beginning competition on Saturday while the track team will do the same at their camp in Singapore. They'll trickle back to Beijing over several days during the track competition.
Three members of the Canadian team will be in town Friday en route to Singapore and can march in the ceremonies if they want to.
Canadian coach Les Gramantik said the logistics in Singapore are better for his athletes. Less distraction equals more time spent focusing on the task at hand, he says.
"The athletes village (in Beijing) is nice, but it's like living in a shopping mall, there are thousands of people there,'' he said. "Here in Singapore, we have exclusive rights to the track, we're in a very nice hotel, it's a nice clean environment.''
But he understands that some athletes will be disappointed to miss the experience of parading into the stadium with their teammates.
"Yes, if it's someone's first Olympics and they want to march in the opening ceremonies, I feel bad for them,'' he said. "But all our athletes know they're here to compete and compete well. The opening ceremonies have no significance in an athlete's life except a personal one.''
Swimmer Mike Brown knows there's no way he could march because he competes on Saturday but he's a bit disappointed that he'll miss the experience.
"I didn't go to the opening ceremonies in Athens either,'' said Brown. "But that's just the way it's always been. You can't complain about it too much. I'm at the Olympic Games. I'm experiencing everything else. I've got to be in bed early Friday night.''
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/st...8086/20080806?s_name=beijing2008&no_ads=
Prev
When they were drumming and chanting she says "I don't know what they're saying... but they are drumming and saying something" followed by the others chiming in... "so desu ne!" Such personality, gotta love them, especially listening to them watching the fireworks "Eeeehh!! Sugoi! Subarashii! Oooh!". They also give the most random facts ever about a lot of Countries, that you'd wonder how they would know... and why it would pertain to the Olympics at all. Great ceremony so far, really impressive stuff.
Pretty awesome show, it will be a tough act to follow...
Linear Mode
