Scouting the Sites

On another trip to Beijing last summer my coworkers and I went to scout different sites the U.S. Olympic Committee will use during the Olympics.

USOC High Performance Training Center at

Beijing Normal University

The USOC has rented Beijing Normal University (BNU), a typical college campus, for our High Performance Training Center (HPTC). This will be the third Olympics we offer a training center for the U.S. Olympic Team, and it accomplishes quite a bit. First, it has tracks, courts, gyms, pools and weight rooms so our athletes can practice at any time in private. At the Olympics, since there are so many teams, they'll get one practice time per day, often for as short as 30 minutes and at odd times like 7:00 am. So our HPTC lets our U.S. athletes and teams practice anytime, without media watching, or scouts from other teams.

One of the tracks our athletes will use at BNU...

And the front entrance, though we haven't rented out this classroom building...

The USOC also will use BNU as a training table and for lodging. There will be approximately 600 U.S. athletes at the Games, but there's an additional 600 of us staff members who fall under the U.S. delegation. This includes coaches, team leaders, doctors, high performance staff, press officers, training partners (in boxing, judo, etc. they bring a partner to practice with so they're not beating up on each other) and others. Most of us can't stay in the Athlete Village or eat the food there, so we will all stay in dorms at BNU. The training table offers breakfast, lunch and dinner for our staff, as well as any athletes or teams that happened to be practicing there that day or just want an American meal.

The Liyun Apartotel is where I'll be sleeping during the Games. Here is a shot of the common area in a two bedroom suite and a bedroom. Not bad!

Construction at BNU, and everywhere for that matter...

China is known for its construction, and we definitely saw that in Beijing. They bring in workers from small villages who are very poor and build "shanties" for them to sleep in, like this one that was at BNU while we were there. The working conditions are horrible - they work 12 hours, go into their shanties for 12 hours and simply repeat over and over. Even though the pay is low, it's much better than what the men get in their villages, so there's never a shortage of labor around.

USA House

We also visited the Jasmine Restaurant, which the USOC has rented out throughout the Games for our USA House. Most countries host their own house (Canada House, Russia House, Norway House, etc.) but most are open to the public for parties and socializing. USA House is closed to the public and instead functions as a Business and Hospitality Center. Essentially, it's for our sponsors, and they get treated well here. Athletes and their teams also have parties at USA House after someone medals. The USOC puts a lot of money into USA House to make it the premier place to be, with open bars, amazing catered food, Internet cafes, great views and live TV feeds to the events.

Here is the outdoor deck of USA House, which overlooks Worker's Stadium, a venue for soccer.

Bank of America Hometown Hopefuls Family Center

Another key spot for the U.S. Team will be the Bank of America Hometown Hopefuls Family Center. Bank of America, a U.S. Olympic Team sponsor, pays for another great hospitality center, which is open to each U.S. Olympian and up to four guests. It too offers open bars, great catered food, live TV feeds to events, Internet cafes, etc. It's a great hang-out spot for the athletes and their families, and saves them a lot of money. In Beijing, the Hometown Hopefuls Family Center is near USA House in the Worker's Stadium area, which is nice.

Along the way we found time to stop by Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City too, of course!

Tiananmen Square

The Forbidden City

Inside the Forbidden City was the one place I had some Chinese people ask to take a picture with me. At first I thought they were trying to pick-pocket me, but as the day went on I realized it was because we were in a touristy place, so many of the Chinese tourists were from small villages or areas where they see few Westerners.

Overall I've felt really lucky to have had the opportunity to see some amazing historical sites and see China before the Games!