Convivial hosts: Chinese volunteers like this one at a soccer training field were everywhere during the Games, rain or shine, and they were inevitably cheery. (Marcos Brindicci/Reuters)
A reporter’s journey through the Olympics
He encounters consistently friendly Chinese volunteers, lamb skewers at 3 a.m., Swedish ping-pong, and the arcane rules of fencing.
By Mark Sappenfield | Staff writer / August 25, 2008 edition
Beijing
It is 2:30 a.m. I have no idea what day it is. The men’s 200-meter dash finished a few hours ago. One measures time by events here, not by days or hours.
I am walking back from the Bird’s Nest in a light drizzle, thinking that, for journalists, the Olympics are nearly as much about these moments – in the wee hours of the night, story freshly finished – as they are about the actual events. The Olympics seem mine now, personal. Other than a Russian TV crew doing a daily wrap-up in front of the glowing red spaceship of the Bird’s Nest, I am alone.
Or so I thought.
Without warning, four Chinese volunteers appear from nowhere in some sort of über golf cart, as if a normal cart woke up one day and became a Cadillac Escalade. They are offering me a ride back to the Main Press Center.
The Main Press Center is, at most, a five-minute walk away – hardly a hardship. It is 2:30 in the morning. There are four of them. And they are all smiling.
This, I think, is the Beijing Olympics.
Volunteers at every Olympics are a unique breed of human, infused with the angelic temperament needed to deal with journalists 24 hours a day. But here in China, I have sometimes felt as though they stopped short only of fanning us with palm fronds and offering grapes as we write our stories.
When it began raining, volunteers gave us free ponchos. I have ordered lamb skewers in the media cafeteria at 3 a.m. Nevermind that at every other Olympics, nothing in the media center would have been open past midnight. Here, there were a half-dozen people to serve me, and another two at the register. I will remember this as the Clockwork Olympics.
Manpower, you see, is not a problem for China. But that can’t explain the cheeriness – the overwhelming impression that they are, in fact, overjoyed to serve you lamb skewers at an hour better suited for viewings of the “Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
Since language difficulties limit conversations to, “Can you please turn this television to the water polo?” I cannot claim any great insight into why this is. But it seems that everyone is simply happy to be a part of the Olympics.
By now, I must be in 1,000 photo albums across China. To travel the 10 minutes from the Main Press Center to the Bird’s Nest is to run a gantlet of digital cameras, flashing in every direction. At any one moment, 30 people are standing on the Olympic Green, pretending to hold the Olympic flame in their hand, Lady Liberty-like, as someone snaps a picture. And I’m in the background, hurrying to the javelin.
This is a wonderful thing – to be in a place that loves the Olympics. Mostly because I feel the same way. I fall in love all over again every two years. Not with any specific athlete – or at least not in a way that requires me to apply liberal amounts of Hypnôse Homme. There is romantic love. There is platonic love. I suggest that there is also Olympic love.
I love that, on the last day of the men’s table tennis competition, the only person who could have prevented a Chinese sweep was a Swede who played every point with the enthusiasm of a teenager, even though he was a 40-something at his sixth Games. At times, I expected him to start break dancing.
I love the way that all the athletes of the women’s heptathlon waited at the finish line for the last competitor to finish, then took a victory lap together, hand in hand, like sorority girls amazed that they had at last found friends willing to do something as crazy as seven events in two days – a sort of Olympic hazing.
I love the way American wrestler Clarissa Chun’s hair looked like an exploded firework atop her head, utterly spent after six minutes of nonstop motion.
Yet the Olympics, I admit, are a high-maintenance date. After all, they ask you to know the most intimate details of 301 events, some of which involve scoring systems invented by nuclear physicists in an MIT laboratory. Others ask me to return to Mrs. Siff’s French classes and the correct use of the accent aigu.
•••
Olympic journalism can sometimes be a case of the blind leading the blind. On the first day of the Olympics, I was at the fencing venue, trying to understand why it was that Tunisian Azza Besbes appeared to be playing a completely different sport from the rest of the women.
American fencer (and soon-to-be bronze medalist) Becca Ward explained – or thought she did: “My coach told me she does a lot of remises.” Then, with another bout in a few minutes, she walked off.
A lot of what? This is an Olympic moment. I should ask her to explain, but I don’t really want to reveal the fact that I am a moron. Not having any idea what a remise is, I write down a single letter – “z” – which is the only sound I hear as she speaks the word. It is a letter, I later learn, that isn’t even in the word.
Yes, I am an accredited Olympic journalist.
After pestering the patient man who works for www.fencing.org, I learned that a remise is an offensive maneuver when you should be playing defense. In saber fencing, it seems, it is important who starts an attack. If you attack when you should be defending, and you both hit each other, the one being attacked will lose. This, I also learned, is called “right of way.”
I told this to an American journalist who was watching the bronze-medal bout with the expression of someone trying to translate Sanskrit. He threw up his arms as though in a gospel choir. “You’ve opened up a whole new world!” he cried.
He, too, is an accredited journalist.
I learned that repêchage is French for “loser’s bracket” and that you only qualify if the person you lost to makes the finals. This is because in sports like wrestling, there is no seeding; the two best wrestlers can face each other in the first match. This strikes me as the dumbest idea in the history of sport. But then I watch it, and there is a peculiar intensity to the event. It is not a crescendo, it is zero to 60 in five seconds. The best match of the day could be the first.
This is the beauty of the Olympics. It is like an exchange program for sports fans. There are some places where “hike” is an exotic term, part of a strange world where beefy men run around intensely for five seconds, then stop so John Madden can analyze 13 replays of a 1-yard gain.
The Olympics ask the same of me. Each day is an education, and for someone who loves pure sport – the idea of human beings pushing each other to new levels – the Games are a two-week all-you-can eat buffet. And this time, I could even order the lamb skewers at 3 a.m.
3. Lin Ennis | 08.25.08
Great article. Thanks for the behind the scenes look.
I tired of seeing American dominated event replays. Like we’re not smart enough to enjoy 10 sports! Oh, did you say 301? Not even close in my TV viewing. I would have appreciated a glimpse at all of them.
The only replay I saw worth watching was Phelps’ “fingernail victory.” People had a hard time reconciling what they saw above the water with what happened below. The replays helped.
4. Andy | 08.25.08
Those volunteers really showed the majority attitude of most Chinese to the Olympics Games. They are very proud of hosting the Games, and they want everything goes as perfect as it can. Even it means that they need to make a lot of sacrifices. This is a a typical Chinese logic, which most westerner don’t understand, but did explain a lot of things.
5. Dave | 08.25.08
You know, every Olympics needs left-of-center people like Eddie the Eagle, the Jamaican bobsled team, or the year The Grateful Dead sponsored the Lithuanian basketball team.
They had the absolutely coolest jerseys, didn’t they, and what a class act the Deadheads were.
But here in America, it was all about Michael Phelps and his impossible mission, with scant attention given to anyone besides him and the men’s basketball team.
Thank you for giving us out here a ground-level view of a stranger lost in a strange land, and how the experience changed you.
25 years ago, I had to work in Zagreb. To a man, everyone I spoke to was so proud of their country being able to host the Olympics, and your article brought back fond memories of my trip. I only wish I’d given my Harley-Davidson T-shirt to the guy at the hotel desk…
6. Joe | 08.25.08
I agree with Ramachandran. I watch a lot of sport coverage online, especially after frustrated by the numerous replays of American finishing moments and interviews of American athletes. Some of the interviews are so boring that even the athletes has nothing to say. Come on there are many events to cover in Olympics! NBC, you can do better.
7. Douglas Ritter | 08.25.08
A couple of thoughts:
1. Yes, China did a wonderful job on the Olympics (as did Nazi Germany), and before you start throwing tomatoes let us not forget that sports aside, China is a totalitarian government. They mandated that these Olympics would be perfect and their people complied. I give the Chinese people great marks for their spirit of volunteering and wanting to be gracious hosts.
2. I had an opportunity to watch the Olympics in Italy for a week, and you know what, all the government owned TV station showed their was events in which Italians participated! Imagine that. Yep, if there was an Italian in the event it was shown. (The good news, A lot of the Beach volleyball and gymnastics was not shown.)
3. But yes, NBC concentrated on just a few stories, and missed the decathlon, and many other great stories, like Steiner lifting 570 pounds (I grew up on ABC creating drama out of weightlifting and the decathlon). The US women’s Basketball team was actually better than the men’s, with respect to their competition. Hey those girls can play!
4. Complaining about NBC coverage has become the quadrennial gripe. Thank goodness for the Internet, where one could watch any event they wanted, when they wanted, sans announcers. Bliss
8. tere | 08.25.08
I give NBC a failing grade for their coverage of this Olympics event.
All they did was showing Michael Phelps again and again and again. Don’t get me wrong, I think Phelps is a great athletic, but when you have a national broadcasting network that is so narrow-minded (or nationalistic) that it doesn’t want to show anything else that doesn’t glorify American greatness, then they might have incidentally turn off a lot of viewers who would like to enjoy other sports too, besides the ones being dictated by NBC.
It’s sad that we are quick to criticize China as totalitarian regime, but when NBC or US airlines treat their customers like craps, then we were told to accomodate….
9. Mike Brennan | 08.25.08
In response to Ritter.
In response to Ritter.
Yes I’m sure China is the same as Nazi Germany. I’m sure the Chinese GOVERNMENT can force all the volunteers to be cheery 24/7 and force them to give rides to journalists at 2:30 in the morning. I’m at a total loss as to how media brainwashed people can be and view the success of the Beijing Olympics as something simply “mandated by the government”. The success of these games is not in the fireworks, the state of the art stadiums, the grand opening or closing ceremonies but everything else in between; the open heart and hands of an entire nation that left its mark in every individual that had the opportunity to accept it. Please only post comments about articles you actually read and understood next time.
10. Robert | 08.25.08
Yes, it is a great success! The reporter only saw those smiling vulunteers, who were carelully selected by the government. You did not know millions of migrant workers had been evicted before the openning of games; you did not know their tears, their tough life, their heart-breaken stories! You only saw the volunteers smiling. How great this report is!
11. Tom | 08.25.08
NBC’s coverage showed a lack of sportmanship, too much cheering on a few individuals while completely overlook the main spirit of Olympic, which is Participation. Analysts are so biased on USA team while critizing other non-US team. Hardly see a smiling face from Nastia Lukin who is the worst sportwoman while welcoming the warm smiles of Shawn Johnson. These are the 2 extremes of USA team. We have yet to see another event that can match that of China. The world will be a better world with emphasis on harmony rather that violence. Well, at least we have 2 weeks of peace at last.
12. Hebe | 08.25.08
In response to Robert.
So do you know precise direct example or just imagination or rumors? If chinese are brainwashed, what about you? The truth is: people without their own scientific brain are all brainwashed in different percentage, including AMERICAN!
13. Alfred | 08.25.08
Robert,
It is better to make a trip to China to see for yourself and decide whether Chinese people are brainwashed or whatever, instead of relying on your own media.
Every country has strengths and weaknesses. United States has also its own flaws too.
14. Joe | 08.26.08
Robert, it looks like you are brainwashed by the American media.
Their view of the world is American, Europe and Japan only, the rest are mostly enemies. Most of these neglected countries have different religions and do not speak English. If you are talking about the million smiling volunteers are careful selected the government, then I challenge US to come up with half a million of volunteers, no smiling needed. Robert, if your observation of “millions of migrant workers had been evicted..” is based on the American media, I suggest you seek another source since good successful stories about China do not usually attract audiences.
15. Drs. William K. Gelok | 08.26.08
My view is that the chinese experience never should have taken place, it is confirmed by the unbelievable undemocratic way this games were handled and chinese nationalism displayed .
Look for instance at the two woman hosts guiding the medal winners ; if that took a little too long the winners were directed to go on…….as if they had to be thankful for being on sacred chinese grounds…. Compare that with the nice joyful ladies in Sidney ………
And then, that talk about how London could give a better performance…… well: leave the fireworks and give that money to poor athletes and simply show a tape of chinese fireworks! I believe the rumours that the chinese are very good at faking spectacle!
16. get2400 | 08.26.08
I am so joyful to see a real coverage of china at least in some ways that i even can’t believe that .You can surely castigate china as a totalitarian regime and describe chinese’s pride of their country as nationalism .But i am very curious that are you proud of your homeland : The USA ? Or do you must bear sth which you don’t agree in somecases ?Are you wholly agreeable with your government ?Do cogitate that ,if you still can’t get apprehended as the data shows more than 93 percent of chinese are very jocund about their government .
17. hutopia | 08.26.08
我是中国人.看老外评论很有趣.我为祖国成功举办奥运会而自豪.说好说不好无可厚非,只是太多个人成见可不好,这样难免以片盖全,有失平心而论.这么多志愿者,这么真诚的微笑,说是洗脑洗出来的,也太…..我想,志愿者听见这话会伤心的.
18. tonypow | 08.26.08
Celebration of Olympics Bronzes
What happened?
How can we lose gold count to China, a third world country?
Let’s have a national holiday of mourning. No one objects I bet!
Let’s have a national contest of the best excuses of winning so less gold medals.
It has to be the BEST, so it could worth a gold in this category.
What to do?
Borrow more money from China to buy foreign coaches…
No Speedo to Australia and China.
My secret weapon is to import 8 Jamaican runners. Money talks!
Bribe the judges (a little harder as everyone hates us but money talks again).
Change all the rules to our favor: 5 medals for basketball, 1 for table tennis, 0 for diving…
All tiebreakers must go our way as our sponsors own the Olympics.
We will amplify their “shortcomings”:
copying our advance lip sing technique, working too hard, starting before you can walk…
The Chinese must have put slippery jell on our batons and/or the gym apparatus.
Develop a dope that can take out all dope traces from our body.
“One country, all medals” is our new Olympics slogan.
The more wishfully we think, the closer we succeed.
How to heal now, really?
Write to Dear Abby for starter.
Bronze is the same as gold if not better.
If you do not believe me, ask any blind person here.
It is harder to get a bronze as we have to LET two others to win.
We’ll train our athletes for the bronze from now on.
NBC should interview bronze winners only as they are the real winners.
Actually we’ll be happier to be #3 and build a better relationship with other nations.
Stop laughing. It is a fact!!!
Phelps, we love you more with 8 bronze medals - it is no easy job to let 2 and ONLY 2 pass you 8 times.
If everything does not work, turn ugly.
Ask McDonald’s and KFC to give away their “food” (better than opium) to China FREE, so their next generation will be so fat that they cannot walk to the subway station.
Send soldiers to grab the medals, esp. gold. Hey, we have the best offense.
Will the world be better if we only fought for gold medals only (bronze medals in our case)?
What an Olympic spirit to celebrate the winning of the bronze!
– The author is Tony Pow. 8/22/08. Created for fun. No politics. No dumb nationalism. No ego. 90% false, 10% true. 100% fun. Hope no offense to you. Please feel free to distribute/change… —
19. Tom | 08.26.08
For Those who complaint about the smiling faces of Chinese volunteers, try this:
British volunteers speaking French to the French athletes.
American volunteers speaking African to the African athletes.
Japanese volunteers speaking Chinese to the Chinese atheletes.
So stop complaining till we can show that kind of harmony & hospitality. I promise myself that I got to see China one of these days to get rid of my junk US dollars.
20. patrickyin | 08.27.08
dear author,
could you tell me the price of your lamb skewers?
it is said that the price of buffet in Media village of Beijing Olympics is so cheap.
as an accredited journalist,do you think it is moral to eat this buffet???
21. th | 08.28.08
我是中国人.看老外评论很有趣.我为祖国成功举办奥运会而自豪.说好说不好无可厚非,只是太多个人成见可不好,这样难免以片盖全,有失平心而论.这么多志愿者,这么真诚的微笑,说是洗脑洗出来的,也太…..我想,志愿者听见这话会伤心的.
这么多志愿者,这么真诚的微笑,说是洗脑洗出来的
yeah i agree, ppl say the chinese are brainwashed, seriously can any gov control the thoughts of 1.3 billion ppl or tens of thousands of volunteers? it’s just not possible or even logical. guess that’s what you get after years of fear of the word “communism”
22. Lulu | 09.02.08
Wow….. the assertion that the Chinese people have been brainwashed into supporting the Olympics is so ridiculous that I can only question the intelligence of those who think in such a manner. By that definition, only the Chinese people WITHIN China (who are, according to the some of the above comments,brainwashed and hand picked by Chinese government to act cheery 24/7 because they cannot possess opinions of their own)can support the Olympics. But that is completely untrue. People in Taiwan, Hong Kong and many Chinese Americans/Canadians across the world who, mind you, are not going through the brainwashing process in which you have suggested, are very excited about the Olympics being hosted in China.
China has its problems. But it is logical to accept that people in China(and many Chinese outside of China) are ACTUALLY happy that they are getting to host the Olympics( the biggest celebration in Sports) and a chance to improve the image of their country. And that they do not have to be ordered by the government to feel this way.
Next time, Please think before you speak.
23. TMD | 09.05.08
the author made me sick.
he may be happy when nobody care him in wee hours.
u r not welcome here in china.
TMD! SB!
forgive me use this phrase!
25. Silvia Wilson, from S.Korea | 09.06.08
Thank you for a look behind the scenes. In fact, the reason I selected this article was because I had some questions about fencing. Very interesting!
NBC isn’t the only network to focus on its nation’s sport stars. South Korean TV did the same thing. I noticed that BBC provided coverage of UK athletes. So, what else is new!
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1. Ramachandran | 08.25.08
Your comments reflect the true olympic view. After being forced to watch and hear the recorded and edited version of NBC, I felt that Beijing oltmpics was a pure American event where few others participated and cheated.
Like in every other subject, NBC view was that, Americans are interested only in the performance of US athelets, except of Usaine Bolt. This was the worst olympic coverage I have seen in the last 40 years. 10PM is the prime time for the silly comments from the NBC and not a great world sports event. NBC could not tolerate that China beat them in Gold medals, in the opening and closing ceremony performances, and in the smiling volunteers.
Can you imagine an american event where thousands of visitors were so well treated for so many days.