Clearing at George Mason

As with all "Games" events, athletes for Pan Ams have to process with the US Olympic Committee. For the 2007 Pan Am Games, processing is at George Mason University in Washington DC.

We arrived here this afternoon after flying from Denver this morning. Because of the time change, there was only time to swim and have dinner tonight. We are processing with some tennis and track athletes tomorrow. Processing consists of a briefing on conduct and conditions in Rio, fitting of Team USA apparel, and photos for the media. That should all take about 4 hours. After processing, we will have around 4 hours to train and rest before heading out to Dulles airport for our flight to Rio (via Sao Paulo).

We just saw on the news that a plane crashed on the runway in Sao Paulo, going off the runway and crashing into a petrol station. It appears that it was not a United flight (all Pan Am athletes are flying in on United), so hopefully we did not have any athletes on it.

More to come about processing tomorrow.