Dunfermline Press | Opinion | From Macau to the Olympic Village

Thursday, 4th December, 2008

Published: Thursday, 4th September, 2008 14:00

From Macau to the Olympic Village

By Olympic Blogger

Macau is an extraordinary place! With a Portuguese Heritage, and now site of a booming economy, the islands feel part of a James Bond Movie, with opulence and luxury on the one hand, and part Blackpool with easy going fun and kitch buildings on the other!

Not that the Paralympic team have seen much of that, barring the occasional off site trip to "The Venetian", an amazing shop and Hotel complex which rises high into the Sky!

The Westin Resort has long been a favourite with UK teams, including the recent TEAM GB Olympic squad.It is comfortable with fantastic staff and everything is geared to make the athletes feel at home and as well prepared as possible. I have been really impressed by the standard of preparation on offer by the BPA ( British Paralympic Association) and watching the different sports on site,all of whom have their own ways of assisting the athlete to be the best they can be. At the start of the week there were what seemed like hundreds in the Hotel, as each day has gone by different sports have left to go to the Olympic Village, and now as I prepare to go tomorrow there are only a very few left.

Neil is settled in the Village and has already visited the Birds Nest Stadium and trained on the warm up track. His classification went well and so we know he is ready to go now so it will be good to catch up with him and make the necessary arrangements as he continues on his 10 day taper to his first race. All that we have done over the last two years is distilled into two thoughts, which frame everything he should be doing now. Focus - and - Relax. like all sports A sprinter has to be able to do both at the same time, and in a 100m race when there is no margin at all for error, everything has to come together, with a fluidity which comes only from instinct, and the hundreds, even thousands of repetitions done in training.

tomorrow we leave and so finally the time has come! the Opening Ceremony on the 6th looks as if it will be spectacular and the local papers say that both the National Stadium, to give the Bird's next its formal name, and the Water Cube are sold out and over one million seats have been sold for the duration of the Games. Its hard to comprehend these kinds of figures!

So, now to Beijing! "Let the Games begin!"

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