Olympic Impressions from Schinias/Athens. Day 4 part 2 - Tuesday 17th August 2004.
This is not intended to be commentary, as that is well covered via TV, radio, the FISA website and the newspapers. Plus it's difficult to get time amongst the other jobs. Here are odd bits and pieces those following the Games may find interesting.
The wind looks straight tail on the course, but it does gust about, and at points down the course you can see the single scullers blipping slightly, as they are hit by a chunk of cross-breeze. The wind is much stronger here than just a few miles down the coast, partly because there is a gap in the Marathon foothills which curl around the west and north sides of the course, and the wind whistles down between them and hits Schinias hard. Here's AUS Craig Jones, who has named his boat "Bobby Pearce" (after one of Australia's greatest), in an attempt to bring some good luck for this Olympics. It works for this race at least.
The German men's eights coach is still absolutely convinced his guys will be in the medal race, despite them finishing the heat in third and four seconds behind Australia, and eight seconds behind the USA's time in the other race. What took Germany by surprise, apparently, was that while they are used to doing the whole 2km at 39, they needed to take it up to 42 just to try and match Australia, and they went out yesterday to do some 250m sprints, to practise burning through the middle thousand at high rate.
But the real news which makes the eights interesting is that the Aussies, who won their heat comfortably, were in fact more than a bit unhappy with it. They swore, after being caught by the fast British start at the Sydney Games, that they wouldn't let that happen again, and several of that eight are in this Olympic crew. I gather they would have been pleased to go to the rep, to give them a chance to practise the start and a ripping first 1000 in anger again. My money is still on them for the final, though a lot of people are sure it will be USA or Canada. Of course, if all three burst out really hard, there's a decent chance one will blow a fuse with 1000 gone. In which case watch out for the Dutch or Germans, who will undoubtedly capitalise.
Just heard a bit of gossip which sounds as if someone will be in trouble. Multiple ex-medallist Peter Antonie is here, reporting for Aussie media. He is apparently going out with one of the Canadian lightweight women's double scullers (no idea which, I'm no good at this kind of thing). Anyway, Antonie was chatting to Yas Farooq, when she asked "so when's the wedding?". Back came Antonie's answer like a shot, "**** me, there isn't going to be a wedding!" Which rather surprised Yas, because she'd heard there was, from the lady herself.....
Tickets are quite an issue at the Olympics - the plethora available, that is. Despite most venues being far from full, there is no sign that ATHOC are going to see sense and drop the prices, which they should do. And for anyone thinking of taking a late flight, you can still hire cars and hotels still have spaces, so it is possible to get out here. Nevertheless, some events have seen sense are offering 1- and 5-euro tickets for the lesser positions, and where attendance is patchy, people in the cheap seats are often encouraged to move to better rows, where they can be seen by the cameras. It was the collective greediness which shot this Games in the foot a year ago, when plane/hotel packages were costing thousands of pounds/euros even from nearby countries. If everyone had scaled their avarice down a bit, they would have a million more spectators - it's mainland Europe for heavens sake, lots of us can _drive_ here!
One thing the Greeks are doing well is waste management. There has been a huge effort to reduce not just all types of pollution (including visual and noise all around the city) but also cutting down the amount of rubbish created, as far as possible. We're being encouraged to recycle bottles, plastic, paper - and at the catering venues, all the plates and bowls are made of waterproofed cardboard, with cutlery made of lollipop-stick wood (you have to beware of splinters, and it can make cutting a steak quite a battle!). Even the Olympic flame isn't a huge roaring beacon on high - although the reason it looks small may be because it's dwarfed by the two great suspension pylons holding the soaring stadium roof. There is also a huge fountain near it, also rather putting the flame in the shade. For some unknown reason most of the spectators I've seen passing the fountain seem to want pictures of it sprouting out of their heads. Original stuff.
Several of the boats racing today have extra-large bow splashboards built up, though they barely need them as the wind is dropping fast. Most look like extra bow-spikes, sharp end protruding out over the bow canvas, but the NZL bunch are using what look like those teardrop cycle helmets, much more rounded, fat end nearest the rowers and dropping back on a slant into the bow canvas. I'd guess they are the ones who checked which design works best in a wind tunnel, so it will be interesting to see what happens if there is a head-wind race day.
News in the lightweight men's doubles, where quite a few top guys will have been upset to have to do the rep. When you're a lightweight, and tall with it, as many of these men are, it is incredibly difficult to make weight three or four times in the week. Olympic champions Kucharski and Sycz, who have had problems with this before, breeze through the rep, and will be pleased not to have had to stretch themselves. Anyway, we've heard that Leonardo Pettinari has suffered a rib stress fracture, but is determined to race anyway. In the fourth rep of the light doubles, he and Elia Luini (rather the Redgrave and Pinsent of Italian sculling) took a solid lead, but when the Czechs came charging through just before the end, they were either unable or unwilling to match it. Pettinari was clearly in pain at the end, bowed over his scull-handles: he is definitely under the weather, while Luini looked distressed and at rather a loss as to know what to do. They get through in second place, but it will have cost them energy and a decent lane for the semi.
We're in repechage silly-season today - too many events where there are 13 crews in total, so the one which doesn't get through the rep is eliminated completely. Examples are the men's pair, double, four, quad, and lightweight double. Not that I'm much of a fan of endless C/D/E races, but in a way it's odd. Until you realise that FISA gets one more crew rowing, but without having to provide an extra race in the schedule. Makes sense in a twisted way, but does seem bizarre when you realise they've had four races (three heats and a semi) just to eliminate one crew....
The GB LM4- fall foul of this system, but the GB M4x profit with a stonking last 450 which takes France's breath away and sees one of our most unsettled crews into the semis. After their dismal heat, they swapped Pete Wells and Alan Campbell, moving Alan from stroke to two, and it works like a dream, bringing back the confidence it looked as if they'd lost. Nice boys these - they're quick to praise Alan for taking the change so happily, rather than throwing his ego around as we all know rowers can be prone to do. The only person suffering from the switch is poor Pete (Wells), who looks like a wrung-out dishcloth after stroking such a hard race. First of all he spends most of the ten minutes after they come in to the interview raft, dry-heaving in a corner (watch it mate, the doctors think that may be how Alex Partridge got his punctured lung). Then he has us sniggering at his attempts to give the most unuseable quote.
Example:
Back in the press room we file stories, play the usual game of guess-when-the-mythical-bus-leaves, and mull over race stats. One US newshound has a suggestion for a new metric system, based on the fact that when Rob Waddell stands by the results pigeonholes pulling out the sheets he wants, his height and broad shoulders block out a few more boxes than your average person. Oli reckons one waddell is equal to two journalists, four press officers, three and a bit webmasters, fifteen Greek volunteers and approximately 1/28th of a photographer. I'll leave you to guess whether or not he's talking about anyone particular. Redders is in tomorrow, and then perhaps we'll be able to calibrate the two together. My betting is the knightly pot will swing it: I reckon the redgrave/waddell exchange rate is comparable to the euro versus the dollar, while one mcbean is approximately equivalent to a foster (he's looking on the skinny side at the moment). Of course if FISA had their way, we'd be moving to a Single Olympic Champion currency any moment. Spoilsports.
Back to talking about buses, and I think I've cracked it. Our problem is clearly that we haven't worked out where to find Platform 9 and 3/4. I just have to go around nonchalantly leaning on the various lampposts dotting the Schinias site, and one day I'll hit the right one and fall through into a parallel universe where transport is on time to a second (and I don't have to get up at five am to watch bits of carbon-fibre following each other backwards down a lake.) Sigh. Meanwhile I'm keeping the number for my mate Lefteris in my wallet - he's an extremely amiable taxi-driver from nearby Nea Makri, who has promised to come and rescue us on his white charger (for which read scruffy Ford minicab) if we get stuck with the Fiserati threatening to lock us in the press room.
And for those of you who know me, you'll be glad to hear the media village mascot, a terribly friendly puppy whose tail revolves like one of those whirligig toy windmills, adopted us as his new pets, while the tiny fuzzy black kitten which lives under the taverna table by the main beach has decided I give good chin-rubs and now comes to visit whenever we go for a beer.
Purrrr.
Rachel Quarrell at the 2004 Olympics.