The skies opened up blue yesterday for the first day of the track and field competition at the Birds Nest – The Olympic National Stadium. The weather was perfect –blue skies with a light wind and temperature hot, in the mid 30’s. This was much better conditions than the previous day when there was a horrendous rain storm which lasted most of the day into the evening.
The Olympic Stadium is a first class facility. It’s a very comfortable and user friendly environment – hence its name; the Bird’s Nest. It’s one of the best Olympic stadiums that I have ever worked at and I have been to a few stadiums over the last two decades. The energy within is incredible. This stadium is built for competition. The gentle sloping design of the spectator seating makes them feel close to the action. The first day crowds as expected were excited and loud. The spectators turned out in extremely large numbers. The athletes were excited to be there and there were no thoughts about pollution.
In addition, the warm up area and related facilities at the venue are excellent. The Chinese seem to have really taken into account a lot of what the needs of the athletes and their staff would be at this venue. Mind you, there are few hiccups but that is to be expected.
Overall for the first day things went smoothly and for myself and speaking to some other country staff at the venue we found that navigating our way through this massive structure incredible easy. It is user friendly and that makes my task much easier to manage. I must say that the host volunteers are making this experience truly pleasant. I find them very helpful, friendly and polite. Most of all they are very excited to be the host and very proud to be part of the Olympic movement to “ONE WORLD ONE DREAM” and I am proud to be part of this too.
At Least that’s the way I see it..till next time….I have a Dream……!!!
