July 21st

Last night we said goodbye to the shooting and fencing teams. Because we train with the fencers and know a lot of the shooters, we hung out with them for a bit last night in the international center (a hangout area near the dining hall for all athletes). When I woke up this morning to go to get snapped back into shape by the resident chiropractor, I saw Cody Mattern (fencer) getting treated in the sports med clinic. He told me that all flights were canceled in and out today because of an air traffic controller strike in Brazil. No one has been able to confirm the exact cause, but I do know that no one left or came into the Games today from the US. We are expecting the arrival of Scott Christie (one of our coaches from Colorado) tomorrow, but so far we have not heard if he will be coming in or not. Athletes get to the Games several days out so I dont think this will impact anyone unless it goes on for a while. On a side note, Brazil is hosting Pan Ams in an attempt to prove that they can host a major Games event. The Olympics has never been hosted in South American, and Rio would like to be the first city down here to win an Olympic bid. The organizers have done a real stand up job putting this together. Hopefully the airline problems will not effect their future bid prospects.

Today was the first time we have been able to sleep in since leaving Colorado on Tuesday. Our first practice was running at 8am, followed by breakfast and catching the bus to our venue at 9:40. (The buses from the village leave EXACTLY on time, so you have to be at least 5 minutes early or risk of missing your shuttle.) After the 40 minute ride to the venue, we shot and swam and caught the bus back to the village. It's the dead of winter down here, which means it is about 80 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and a bit humid. While that is not really all that hot, I am not used the humidity so I am trying to stay inside and away from the sun as much as possible. The afternoon was capped off with a fencing lesson from Janusz and a nice lazy couple of hours watching DVDs I brought. Dennis and Mickey went to watch beach volleyball on Copa Cobana, and I think Sheila is nose deep in a book somewhere.

Now for the fun part. Here are the pics that I promised yesterday:

This is the shooting and range and fencing sall. The targets are electronic and the scores are shown on the computer screen next to the athlete. The fencing sall is in the same room. They were setting it up today, but it should have 6 strips setup by tomorrow. It is nice that both shooting and fencing are in the same place. It means spectators will not have to find another venue and athletes will have a more leisurely transition between the two sports.

Here is the swimming pool. It is an outdoor 50 meter pool with 10 lanes. I dont have a feel for how fast it is, but I am guessing it is pretty quick. The pool is about 7 feet deep all the way across and it has fairly cold water. In the background of the photo on top, you can see a stadium. That is the field hockey stadium. Because this is a Games event, there are a lot of other sports being competed in our area.

This is the dining hall. There are around 5,000 athletes here and a bunch of coaches, medical, and staff on top of that. The dining hall has 12 food lines that serve virtually all day. At it's peak, there are a couple thousand athletes in here. The room itself looks like a temporary tent that will probably be taken down after the games.

Here are some views from my room during the day and night. We are about 6-8 miles from the beaches so we cant see them, but it's still a cool view. This village was constructed for the 07 Pan Am Games and all the units are already sold out. One Brazilian soccer player bought an entire building as an investment. The Para Pan Am Games will come in after we leave, and then they will turn the keys over to the new residents.