My First Olympics

It's now been 1 year to the day that I've first set foot in China. The experice has been well beyond what I could have realisticly whished for. When people asked me why did I decided to come to China, why Beijing? I answered them: “For the trip, the adventure, to learn Chinese, although I might not have put as much effort into it as I should have, because it’s city exploding with growth and opportunities, but mainly because of the Olympics. If it wasn’t of that, I would probably be partying on the beaches of Thailand.” I came here almost 1 year in advance in the hopes of sneaking my in. Well, now that’s it’s over I celebrate mission accomplished.

Like I explained in the precedent blog post, I was working for (www.jetsetsports.com). They are the official hospitality provider for are the Olympics since 1984. In a nut shell, they organise the entire trips for many of the Olympic sponsors and their guests. They are also the main tickets providers and work solely on the Olympics. They have already started working on the 2012 London games and of course on the 2010 Vancouver ones as well.

I was supposed to start working on the 7th of 8th of August up until the 25th but an unexpected phone call asked me if I was available to take 2 group photos, 1 on the Friday and the other on the Saturday preceding the opening ceremony. “Of course, no problem!” The only thing was that the first one of 500 and the other of 1000 people. It was extremely important and had to be perfect as it was going to get blown up really big for the main office. “Can you do that?” Humm… it was time to “switch gear”. I only had 2 or 3 days to prepare for this new daunting challenge. Of course I had done many groups shots before but never anywhere near of that scale. First I needed a special type of camera that allowed high enough resolution to make sure that everyone would be recognizable once on a 6 feet wide print. In Canada, finding where to rent such a camera probably wouldn’t be too difficult after a few phone calls but here I wasn’t too sure where to start looking. By chance I had met 1 or 2 days prior the rep. of a high end studio light company. So as I was still pondering whether or not it was even feasible to appropriately light up such a big group, I gave him a call. One of his associates had exactly what I needed. For those that it interest, it was 45 megapixels digital back mounted on a Hasselblad medium format ( 3x4 inches) camera. Apparently, all an all this is worth something like 25 or 30 000$. Quite a nice toy indeed.

The photos were to be taken on the steps of The Temple of Heaven. It was a rather large area and I was confident we could fit it 500 people no problem but double that? I was crossing my fingers. I wasn’t even sure what a crowd of a 1000 people looked like. The first group was composed of 500 Chinese drivers whom composed their whole fleet during the games. Thankfully, we had a team of guide to help us position them and translate. Everything went smoothly. The next day was the rest of the personnel, 700 of which were Chinese students specially hired for the duration of the Games only. On both days, weather was perfect. We had a nice even soft light for the first group and a deep blue sky like we rarely see during Beijing summer for the second one. We were a few people to organise and position everybody and it went surprisingly easier and quicker than anticipated. Then the moment came. It was really something to have so many people screaming their excitement at you. Needless to say, there was lots of energy in the air.

The day of the Opening Ceremony, I was a bit disappointed not to be able to attend it. It would have been the cherry on top. I of course watched it on TV like everybody else. Actually, it was during a party for the occasion. It was in a completely renovated hutong, those typical Chinese houses with interior courtyard. It was a nice evening but still a bit bummed out. The Opening Ceremony inside the Bird’s Nest was the ultimate objective but the rest of the Games turned out to be very positive despite a rather slow and quiet beginning. Eventually my schedule filled up a bit from the middle of the Games onwards. In the best of cases, I was following small groups of people everywhere while taking photos of them of course. That’s how I was able to assist several sporting events even though that was not originally planned. I had been warned that I probably would not be able to watch any of the event because the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) were illegibly going to stop any professional photographer, other than the media accredited ones, from entering the venues which turned out not to be the case at all. That’s China, you just never know…

The first one was the preliminaries for artistic gymnastic. It was as I entered the stadium, not the Bird’s Nest but a much smaller one, that I first realised: “That’s it! You made it. You are at the Olympics!” After that, we went to watch a match of Men Basketball. It was Lithuania vs. Argentina, a very exciting match, the crowd went wild. They were the same teams that ended up fighting over the bronze medal at the very end of the Olympics. In the following days I was able to watch a few games of Beach Volleyball and Women Basketball (China vs. Czechoslovakia) and (USA vs. New-Zealand), Women Water Polo (USA vs. Australia), Women Ping Pong (China vs. Singapore) and (China vs. China). As for the sporting events, those that I was most happy to attend were the 10 m. Men diving semi-final in the famous Water Cube, during which I was on TV several times. I was at the same height as the diving platform and right across from the camera that were filming the divers positioning themselves right before their dives. So I called my mom so that she could watch me live talking to her ever the phone live half way around the world. Ahh technology…

The other “most special” sporting event that I was given to watch was without a doubt the 100 m. Men Final sprint in the Bird’s Nest. Just to finally be able to come up close and even enter this architectural marvel for the first time after 11 tantalizing months was, for me, extremely exciting in itself. I practically didn’t sit on my seat at all. Instead, I took the opportunity to walk around it and on all levels with a huge smile right across my face. It was just as gigantic as stupefying; 91 000 seats spread over 3 levels, simply enormous. I had found myself a good spot where I could watch the runners crossing the finish line and celebrating. All was fine, I was able to take a photo of the finish but right after that one of the runners started going totally hysterical with joy. He was jumping, screaming, lying down, the camera was going around him, the whole lot. I was certain that he was the winner so I was focussing on him, but no, he wasn’t the winner. I don’t know what was the actual winner doing during that time but that other guy fooled more than one I’m sure. Anyway I was able to get a shot of the record holder a bit later on when he was holding his shoes and country flag.




















































Towards the end, I was crossing my fingers really tight hoping to be able to go to the Closing Ceremony after having missed out on the opening one. Not only my whish was realised but I had to kill a few hours in the VIP Olympic Hospitality Center (OHC) where food and alcohol flowed freely and in abundance. I know it’s not usually like me but then I went pretty easy on both. I didn’t want to



overdo it and feel uncomfortable for the big event. Those whom it interest probably watched the Ceremony on TV so I won’t spend time describing it. I was sitting on the 14th or 15th row, almost right behind the flags. It wasn’t the best place for an overall general view but still, I’m not complaining, far from it. I was simply overjoyed to simply be there. A magical day.























All in all, I'm happy and satisfied with my first Olympic experience. I could have hardly whish for more. Everything went extremely well. I hope to do it all over again in Vancouver 2010. Until then well, I want to visit the rest of China and Asia. It’s my only plan for now. There’s the Paralympics starting up very soon. I hope to be able to get involved with that too if possible. After that well, we’ll see in time and place… ;-)