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Beijing Weather Report

Today, we enjoyed our first clear day in Beijing. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to see a blue sky in my life. On a good day, like today, the weather in Beijing is pretty tolerable: temperatures in the upper-80s and lots of sun. On a bad day, well… be prepared to get your lungs checked out.

During the run-up to the Olympics, air quality has been a major point of concern among athletes and sports federations, even after a $20 billion cleanup campaign. China has ordered some factories to shut down, and citizens will only be allowed to drive cars on alternating days. Still, the smog in Beijing could be five times worse than safe levels, and the impact on athletes’ health is still being examined.

I don’t have any empirical studies to go off, but in my own experience, I’ve found the air is likely to be a huge factor in the upcoming Olympics. A friend here who hasn’t had a trouble with his asthma for years was reduced to a wheezing mess after a half-mile walk to a restaurant; he’s now carrying his inhaler with him wherever he goes.

Even beyond the pollution, the heat (which has hit 100 degrees in the brief time I’ve been here) and extreme humidity make any athletic activity pretty difficult. This afternoon, three friends and I played a few games of pickup basketball with some locals on a campus court. After winning our first game handily, we were embarrassed in our next four, struggling to drag our sad, tired bodies up and down the blacktop. The opposing team, in broken English, asked if we were part of the U.S. Olympic team. A couple of jokesters, for sure.

I also suffer from mold and pollen allergies, which have had me hacking the entire time I’ve been here. The humidity here - 70 or above most days - certainly doesn’t help. Britain has already started training its athletes in a high humidity environment to simulate the conditions in Beijing.

I’m actually not sure who will have the advantage here, the foreigners or those used to the pollution and the weather. On one hand, the locals are accustomed to training and playing here. On the other, they have years of smog built up in their lungs. I don’t know which will prove more important come August.

The air in Beijing is already playing a part in determining the outcome of the Beijing competition. Haile Gebrselassie, the record holder in the marathon, has dropped out of the event because of his asthma. It’s sad to say, but whoever wins a medal at these Olympics may just be whoever can finish the race.

Dream Meets Reality for Swimmer Cullen Jones

In a sport not famous for its ethnic diversity, swimmer Cullen Jones was attempting to do more than just make the Olympic team at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Nebraska this week: he was seeking to prove that a black athlete could compete successfully in swimming at the Olympic level.

Jones has declared his desire to be a role model for young minority swimmers.  Without doubt, that position is a wide open field for qualified applicants; the only other black swimmers to make a U.S. Olympic team have been Anthony Ervin in 2000 and Maritza Correia in 2004.  However, the swim career of Cullen Jones did not take off on a high note.

Ironically, Jones nearly drowned at a water park during a family vacation when he was 5 years old.  At the bottom of a water slide, he became separated from his inner tube, lost consciousness, and had to be resuscitated.  Shortly thereafter, his mother enrolled him in swimming lessons in Newark, near their home in Irvington, New Jersey.

Jones needed no inner tube on Friday when he lit his own Fourth of July fireworks with a proverbial bang by setting an American record in the 50 meter freestyle preliminaries.  He tapped the wall at 21.59 seconds after a frenetic race, revealing that he came up for air only once midway through the mad dash.  Ben Wildman-Tobriner and Gary Hall, Jr.-the two-time defending Olympic champion who held the previous American record in the 50 meter-were the only other two swimmers to break 22 seconds in the morning heats.

Jones, a silver medallist at last year’s world meet, has struggled to fulfill the promise he showed in 2006, when he became the first black swimmer to break a world record on the gold medal 400 free relay team at the Pan Pacific Championships.  He seemed finally poised to harness his remarkable abilities through renewed self-discipline at Omaha.

However, luck ran out for Jones on Saturday night in the 50 meter finals.  Garrett Weber-Gale, representing Longhorn Aquatics, exploded off the blocks with the starter’s pistol to lower the American mark for the second time this week.  Weber-Gale touched at 21.47, defeating Wildman-Tobriner and denying both Jones and Hall, Jr. a spot on the Olympic team in this event. 

However, Jones is headed to China as a member of the United States 400 freestyle relay.  His baggage contains neither the name value nor the enormous weight success has deposited upon Michael Phelps; as the cards have fallen, he will not even be competing in his strongest event.  Nevertheless, the trip to Beijing will mark a milestone of historic measure for Cullen Jones.  A generation of minority athletes, perhaps now swimming somewhere in obscurity, wait to see a face that looks more like their own open the door to the Olympic dream so that they might one day pass through.  Although the dream has endured disappointment, it has not been deferred; that face of reality now belongs to Cullen Jones. 

Elizabeth Beisel Swims Toward the Future

Among the glittering stars that will attempt to water wing their way to Olympic swimming glory in Beijing next month is a name that as yet carries no familiarity to most readers but is already a household word in the neck of the woods that I call home: Elizabeth Beisel.

Elizabeth earned her place on the Olympic team as a result of her second-place finish in the 400 meter individual medley last Tuesday night at the Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska.  She tapped in at an impressive 4:32.87, a mere eyelash behind American record holder Katie Hoff, who placed first with a time of 4:31.12.  Admittedly, Hoff presents a tough challenge and Beisel entered the race with an open mind, maturely fending off expectations that could place too much pressure on her shoulders.  Being no slouch as a competitor herself, she actually posted a .70 second lead during the back- and breaststroke legs of the medley.

Hoff, a powerful breaststroker and freestyler, cut through the water with a vengeance over the last portion of the freestyle to capture the victory.

Beisel, who next year will be a junior at North Kingstown High School, set the Rhode Island record in the 100 meter backstroke in March, a victory which resulted in All-State honors.  Off her best time, she finished sixth in that event at the Qwest Center in Omaha; a race which saw five-time Olympic medallist Natalie Coughlin set a world record of 58.97 on her way to the gold medal that secured her a spot on the Olympic squad.

While Beijing may not be the time when a gold medal is draped around her neck, the youthful Beisel’s encouraging performance under the stress of making the Olympic team raises an interesting question.  The sport’s current major stars exceed her in age by nearly a decade and likely will peak this time around.  Could Elizabeth Beisel-who will turn 16 on August 18th in Bejing-be the future poster girl for women’s swimming in the United States?

The modest, small-town girl demurely shuns the potential glare of the spotlight, choosing instead to acknowledge the depth of talent in her sport that exists in the United States.  She points out that so many young, fast swimmers are carving a name for themselves that it is impossible to make predictions that far in the future.  Yet, to the name of Elizabeth Beisel can already be attached “Olympian;” her performance in Beijing may light the way to the fulfillment of promise so rich in one so young.

Introductions are in order

Hello all you crazy Olympics fans.

Before I really get to writing here on United in Glory, I wanted to properly introduce myself and let you know what I will (and won’t) be doing on the site.

I’ve been writing on MVN for RAMblings (the St. Louis Rams’ site) for about a year now. I’m also a journalism student at the University of Missouri, and the J-school presented me with an opportunity to go to these Beijing Olympics as an intern.

I leave Tuesday, July 1 and will be stationed in Beijing until August 28 as a flash quote reporter for the Olympic News Service. Basically, once the Games get going, I’ll be at the field hockey venue, interviewing athletes after games. The quotes I get will be submitted to a computer database, where other journalists who aren’t able to attend the field hockey matches will be able to access them to use in stories.

Unfortunately, the ONS is rather strict about what I can write about in other settings, so I won’t be able to write any stories about the games I see or any stories directly related to the Games and how they work.

What I can write about, though, is the atmosphere in Beijing and what it’s like to be in the middle of the Olympics. I hope that’s something that appeals to you all, since I don’t think you get a lot of that in typical mainstream coverage. I’ll be trying to update here fairly frequently, and I’d love to hear your comments and criticism. Feel free to let me know on MVN or via email what you want to know about. Thanks, guys.