Beijing Goodwill Press Tour

To begin my road to the Olympics, I traveled to Beijing in August of 2007 with 6 U.S. athletes for a Goodwill Press Tour. Our goal was to introduce a reputable and gracious group of U.S. Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls to the Chinese public as representatives of the U.S. Team, creating goodwill and solidarity, while expressing admiration and respect for the hard work the country has put into hosting one of the most significant events of our generation. Our timing was in line with the celebration of the one-year countdown to the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games, and our athletes definitely made a positive impact on all of those they met.

The athletes we selected were (L to R):

• Gao Jun, table tennis: qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games. Won a silver medal for China at the 1992 Olympics, became a U.S. citizen, then competed for the U.S. Team in 2000 and 2004. Is very well known in China.
• Lindsay Pian, archery: did not qualify for the 2008 Olympics.
• Donny Robinson, BMX cycling: qualified for the 2008 Olympics, the first year BMX will be contested in an Olympic Games. He won the Olympic Games test event in Beijing in 2007.
• Howard Bach, badminton: qualified for the 2008 Olympics and also competed in 2004. Won the World Championships in doubles badminton with his partner in 2005.
• Erin Popovich, Paralympic swimming: won 6 medals at the 2000 Paralympics and 7 gold medals at the 2004 Paralympics. She will be back competing in the 2008 Paralympics, which take place in Beijing this September.
• Iris Zimmerman, fencing: a 2000 Olympian who did not qualify for the 2008 Olympics.

As you can tell, we chose athletes in sports that are popular in China (though not necessarily in the United States), as well as athletes with some Chinese or other Asian ancestry.

We started out with a day of press conferences, round table interviews and photo shoots. We had approximately 70 journalists in attendance and received extremely favorable coverage, especially because of our athletes' ability to eloquently and delicately handle some of the difficult topics of these Games, primarily air quality, food safety, human rights and China's determination to win the medal count. We had gone through media training with them the night before and it was great to see them do so well with the questions thrown their way.

After the pressure-cooker press conferences, the athletes were relieved to let loose during some fun photo shoots...

We ended the first day with a formal dinner at the residence of the U.S. Ambassador to China, Ambassador Clark T. Randt. He and his wife and children hosted our group, some Chinese Olympic athletes and officials from the Chinese Olympic Committee, including the Vice Mayor of Beijing, Liu Jingmin. I was seated at the head table (oddly, in China they're more interested in "dignitaries/staff" than athletes) and we followed up dinner with some table tennis in Ambassador Randt's courtyard. He told us he has much more success negotiating with the Chinese after they see he can play their favorite sport!

Ambassador Randt is on the left, followed by Howard Bach, Erin Popovich, USOC Chief of Sport Performance Steve Roush, Mrs. Randt and their daughter Claire.

On our second day, the Chinese government hosted us at the Shichahai Sports School, one of hundreds of sports training schools throughout China that prepare Chinese athletes in their particular sport. Starting at a young age, promising athletes are selected for one sport that fits their body type and strength, and they focus only on that sport only for the rest of their childhood and athletic career. Half their day is spent in school and the other half is spent training in their sport. It was really interesting to see. These young athletes were so focused and determined! And there were just seas of table tennis courts and badminton nets.

The U.S. media has written about China's sports schools quite a bit, as they're credited with the increased Chinese dominance in Olympic sports (see June 2008 articles in Time Magazine here or The New York Times here). We toured the school, played with some young athletes and got to watch a special sports demonstration, all with Chinese TV and newspaper cameras in tow.

Throughout the rest of our time in Beijing, we toured some Olympic venues (again with Chinese cameras capturing the athletes' "oohs" and "aahs"), visited the Great Wall, met with U.S. Olympic Team sponsors based in Beijing, exchanged gifts with Chinese Olympic athletes and conducted final one-on-one interviews. Overall it seemed to be a success based on how well the athletes conveyed themselves and the goodwill they created. It was a fun trip to plan and be a part of!