University of North Carolina Athletics
Beijing Blog: The Opening Ceremonies
August 9, 2008 | General
Aug. 9, 2008
While the rest of the Tar Heel football program is sweating through training camp, the normally ever-present Kevin Best is absent. Don't worry, he's got a good--or is that gold?--reason. The Deputy Director of Athletic Communications is in Beijing this month, where he's serving as the Information Manager for all Olympic events at the National Stadium. That includes the opening and closing ceremonies, all track and field events, and the men's soccer final. Kevin will file periodic dispatches from Beijing for THB.com.
OPENING CEREMONIES
My apologies for not updating the blog in a few days. Things are moving at a rapid pace here in Beijing now that the games are upon us. It was a long day for all those involved in preparations for the Opening Ceremonies. I'm not looking for any sympathy, but it was a 20-hour day for my staff of 10 and I as we welcomed more than 320 camera crews and approximately 400 rights-holding broadcasters to the Bird's Nest.
I hope many of you were able to watch the ceremonies. I'm guessing it was the most-watched sporting event in world history, especially when you consider that at least half of China was watching (500 million) in addition to the other 203 countries that are represented here.
While full of pageantry and unbelievable choreography, the ceremonies are really about the athletes. From the obscure Indian badminton player to the NBA stars of Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki, the Olympics, and particularly the opening ceremonies, bring together the world's best athletes from all different cultures and ethnic backgrounds. Others I recognized from my viewpoint perched on turn one in the southwest corner were Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Tyson Gay, Yao Ming and Andrei Kirilenko. Nadal and the Spain delegation certainly had the most fun during the walk around the stadium. They panned for cameras, threw hats into the audience, posed for pictures with the dancers and ran up onto the flag stage. They tried their best to disrupt the flow of things, but it was all in good fun.
A couple of numbers that I'm sure you heard on NBC last night...the opening ceremonies were comprised of more than 15,000 performers and more than 10,000 fireworks. The fireworks were blasted from areas throughout Beijing, including Tiananmen Square.
TRANSFORMATION OF THE BIRD'S NEST
Now that the ceremonies are complete, crews are working at a dizzying pace to turn the Bird's Nest into a track and field stadium. Not more than five hours after the ceremonies were completed, cranes were brought in to tear up the field floor and prepare for the delivery of the grass field, which is being grown about three miles outside of Beijing.
The first event here is set for Friday, Aug. 15 with the women's heptathlon 100m hurdles. That doesn't mean I'll be off to the Great Wall just yet. Changes have to be made to the media set up and we'll be here to make it happen. We also might get pulled over to aquatics, which is next door to the Bird's Nest. The Water Cube might be an even more spectacular building than the stadium, with its flat roof and walls of bubbles.
SECURITY CHALLENGES
Now that the ceremonies are over, I can relay a few interesting security challenges we encountered during the preparations. I have sympathy for the security guards because of the numerous types of access devices one must have to enter the stadium. Media members had to have a sticker and a ticket to be admitted. Others had to have a sticker and an armband (some green, some yellow, some purple and some blue). Still others had to have a personal escort to enter the building even if you had all the required access devices. Fans had to have a ticket of course, but everyone had to go through security checkpoints, commonly referred to "mag and bag" at the Games.
I had the unique opportunity to attend a security meeting at the Office of Common Domain, a very Communist Government type building, three days prior to the opening. The building was square, made of white cement, outlined in black and needless to say, was not very inviting. The walls inside were pure white with not a photo in site. The only thing on the wall was a clock. At least it wasn't a clock with Mao's face like the watches the peddlers try to sell at Tiananmen Square. Seated around the room were the media manager, the photo manager and eight security personnel. Most were in uniform, but the head of security, who was seated directly across from me, was dressed in a fashionable black Sacramento Kings t-shirt. Nice to see they have fans across the world.
I was the only person who did not speak Chinese. About an hour later, I thankfully left, more confused than when I had arrived.
