August 22nd,2008
At 10 AM there was the draw of supplied equipment, where using a lottery ball machine you’d get your board according to the lottery machine. It was a big contraption and took forever to circulate the ping pong balls and spit out the board assignments. I got ball number 45, all the windsurfers gasped, that was Gebi’s old sail number. (gebi is the ex-coach I had to beat at the Olympic trials) Take it how you wanted I looked at it with motivation.
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We were supposed to pick up the equipment that afternoon but it was delayed until the next morning because of a few of the mast tracks had a missing washer, so the poor equipment rep had to take out the mast track out of 75 boards and fix the 2 that were missing the washer. I was a bit bummed as I planned to sail that day, and had to wait yet again. All good I went to the gym again, got a solid workout in and was the first one to pick up my gear the next day.
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Having supplied equipment at the Olympic Games was new for the class and hadn’t happened since the1996 games in Atlanta. They also changed the manufacturing technique on the boards so they would all be closer in tolerance. However it also changed a bit of the feeling of the boards thru the water. I felt good, but not as fast as the training camp I had last month in China with my then slowest gear. Just a little off on the way the board cut through the water and the downwind sail feel. Otherwise everything looked great, I had the stars and stripes all across the 3rd panel of the sail and it looked fantastic. My name was stuck on the bottom of it, and was a fantastic feeling to rig it for the first time and say, that’s my sail, that’s for my country and I can’t wait to represent us well!
August 22nd,2008
The Olympic Village in Qingdao is obviously a remote village and one of a few scattered about the country that can’t compete in Beijing. That worked to our advantage, as the air quality is much higher than that of Beijing, and the village was a brand new intercontinental 5 star hotel. Much much nicer than the dorm like rooms of the Beijing Olympic Village. The US team took up the entire 15th floor, the non-favorite athletes all got a view of the city, whilst the team leader and all the pre-assigned favorites got a complete water view panorama. I got room 1501, sharing with Scott our Physical Therapist, and the city view. No complaints, I was stoked that the rooms were so nice and could check out the view from down the hall
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The dining hall was on the third floor of the building and you absolutely needed your accreditation to get entrance, I of course forgot mine the first few mornings! No talking my way out of it. The food was decent, nothing special, a bit bland and not so flavorful, but was free and had a large variety. The dining hall was open until 2 AM and you would never go hungary. When I first arrived I had 2 days until the equipment draw would happen and then I’d be sailing again on the fushan bay in Qingdao. So I went to the gym the first few days to recover from jet lag and get systems used to China.
August 21st,2008
As you all know, I had to win the trials in 2007 to get my ticket to the Beijing Olympics, and this was/is my first Olympics racing and really couldn’t wait to find out how I’d do. First was a flight from my hometown to San Francisco for processing. The equipment at the Olympics was almost completely supplied, so my stuff all fit in normal suitcases, albeit a little on the full side. When I got to the airport check in desk I saw Kenneth and Zach standing in line haggling with the United employee to get all of there bags in for free. Sure enough United took their bags all free of charge, but then I arrived at the counter, they found somewhere that I was supposed to get reimbursed later on, they found one of my bag was 5 pounds over the limit; add $50 to the bill. Just two weeks before at the same desk I had 200 pounds of windsurfing equipment that they shockingly allowed on for free. So goes my first experience of the Olympics!
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Arriving in San Francisco was easy and we all were greeted by USOC staff and were shuttled into a big charter bus that took us to san Jose University for processing. We made it to san Francisco early, so we went immediately through the processing gauntlet of the USOC. We had about 6 different stations to go thru, bank of America gave each athlete a debit card with $100 on it, so I already got paid. We did medical clearances, marketing services, ring fitting, and the all timefavorite team gear issue.
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Team gear was provided by Nike and Polo Ralgh Lauren and we went into a auditorium size room and picked up about 45 different items, ranging from polo shirts to pants and rain breakers to our opening ceremonies jackets. Each athlete did their best to try on each article of clothing before it entered your full size shopping cart. They packed it up neatly in USA ringed bags and then we were off to alterations for the suit and pants. The alterations guru was a chap from Tampa, with Sew Fast on platt, I am sure many of you have been there and he knew many of you as well.
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After that we checked into our rooms, which were dorm rooms with 5 individual rooms with two beds a piece. It was less than epic housing but we were too busy trying on our new clothes to really care about it. Graham, one of our sailors already started sporting the wide angle baseball hat from nike, along with the sweat pants and V neck sweater vest, humor was going wild with all the possible combinations. We then had a very important meeting to attend. Charlie, our 4 time multihull Olympian, immediately started to feel really sick, I should have known something was up. So for the next two hours we were in a new auditorium having USOC speaker after speaker give us rules and regulations on how to behave and represent team USA in China. There were strict rules on media and what you could post on your website and when you could etc…basically every sponsor that the USOC and IOC gets, owns you for the next 3 weeks, stripping away your second amendment rights and instead drinking coke and eating Mc Donald’s as one of your best food options. Also of important note was we weren’t supposed to bring cameras into the opening ceremonies, everybody looked at each other with shock and bewilderment. We left for the dining hall after that long boring lecture and saw Charlie again, he reassured to the team that they always do that in hopes 1 member of the team will follow all their controls. Truth is he said, go for it enjoy it record it an share it. Cool.
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We had our own secluded USOC cafeteria food that was decent, with lot’s of footage playing of the past Olympics on big LCD’s t stare at while eating. Instead of flying out early the next morning to China like all other sports teams in processing, the US Sailing team put together an event the next day at the St. Francis YC with lot’s of press, special sponsor dinners and everything else you could want in a going away party. But that meant some of our team went out for some drinks, Zach at about midnight brought back some mid 40’s ladies to the dorm and woke up nearly everybody that was trying to sleep. We then nicknamed him “cougar” for the terrible haul of ladies, the name stuck the rest of the regatta.
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So the following day we got back in the bus and headed to St. Francis YC for the going away party. We all gave video interviews, lot’s of team pictures and shook hands with all the major players that supported the US Sailing Team it was a fun event that included dinner with 300 guests! Very cool and a great send off.
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The next day we were back in the airport checking in on the way to China. During processing I picked up 2 extra bags, so I was a bit humorously concerned United would nickel and dime the entire US delegation. However this time we had our own travel agent just for athletes and staff and this made it easy to get onto Beijing. So with a 12 hour flight from san Francisco to Beijing, it was going to be extremely dehydrating as they refuse anything over 3 ounces going through security. So right next to the gate, the USOC set up a water stand and you could take as many dasani water bottles as you could carry onto the plane, that was a nice touch indeed, and should be available for all people as the airplane is the worst nutritionally place anybody
could go on, especially with all those water bottles that look like bombs out there.
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The flight was packed with all kinds of athletes on the flight, from shooting to rowers were on the 747 with the sailing team. I was quick to point out that I was a windsurfer on the sailing team, to be a touch cooler!
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Our arrival in Beijing was greeted by at least a dozen Beijing volunteers and we were ushered to the accreditation issue desk where each of us got a name tag that identified us in all Olympic venues and also our entrance Visa. It was the only time I have visited China and I didn’t need to get a visa a month before while in the states. Stu, one of our sailors somehow wasn’t in the credential system so arguments ensued on what to do with him, but the security relented and let him into the country. Next was picking up our baggage and then going to check back in for our short leg to Qingdao, the city where our sailing takes place. Somehow they decided we wouldn’t be able to make the next flight at 4 PM that was over 2 hours away so they put us on the 8PM flight, much to everybody’s unhappiness. So we all spli our time at two restaurants, Kenny G’s or Burger King. Both food was fairy gnarly and the jet lag was seeping into everyone’s bones at that time. So we took turns hearing different stories until we all fell asleep at the gate, waking up later that evening, then again when arriving in Qingdao. After about 34 hours of travel time we made it to the Olympic Village and collapsed on bed and didn’t move for more than 10 hours. Did I mention I hate Jet lag? If there is something that drives me mad about traveling it’s messing up your sleep, eating, digestive, thought and metabolism for over a week to adjust to the 12 hour time change, but going to china is much better than coming back from China.
August 20th,2008
Yes I am smiling… fulfilled “part” of my biggest dream, being an Olympian is fantastic
August 20th,2008
Hello all, I just opened my computer back up after a long hard fight in the Olympics…I am making the finishing touches on my updates on the Olympics and promise you to get them out in the next day. Thank you all for so much support and I look forward to seeing each of you very soon! Yours, Ben
August 7th,2008
For as long as I can remember there has been the fire deep inside of me to compete at the Olympic Games. I have had a long arduous journey there, one that is better to share and better to learn from. There will be no what if’s or maybe’s in a few days, finally I get to taste the competition at the worlds biggest sporting event. Memories flood my mind of all those days training like a fool, just going for it mostly alone, with little knowledge of exactly where it would bring me. So here I am at the Olympic Village, writing this on my Olympic Village bed, contemplating the exact feeling that I’ll be zoning in on for the first race on august 11th. I could be the samurai, about to use my sword in the fight of my life. I could be the bull fighter in the dust of the arena staring down the bull that is charging with his horns down. I can literally taste the intensity of the competition, and I will savor these moments for a lifetime.
I have one focus and that is to win, I know that will be difficult, I must be quick, decisive and calculated. What is about to take place I know will be life changing, something I’ve waited the majority of my life to complete. Something I could have never done alone, and I’ll be thinking of everyone of you who stepped up the past 15 years to support this bigger than life goal and wholeheartedly thank you. I hope to continue your legacy through my racing and into the next chapter; an Olympic Champion. I promise you I won’t give up the following few weeks, I’ll keep my head down and do the performance of my lifetime. It might be about the journey at the end, but right now its about winning and doing whatever it takes to win the gold, and this makes me smile larger than life. I know I have prepared for this day, not any other for more than half my life and I can assure you, I trained to medal, not finish mid fleet or be an Olympic tourist. This is competitive bliss for me, focused so intently, I feel like I finally “fit in” for the first time of my life.Thank God. Thank my family, and thank you because we’ve made it together. So now lets enjoy this ride and let the games begin. Look for me in the opening ceremonies tomorrow, I’ll be waving big!Stay tuned to bentobeijing.com for my updates and nbcolympics.com for more general ones. Godspeed,Ben
August 1st,2008
I was nervous today, it was the first day for me to line back up with all the best guys and see how my abilities stack up. Fortunately I did as well as hoped, if not a bit better. This is good news, but not getting ahead of myself, training races with these guys isn’t the olmypic games, but I was just behind the guy that won the event last year, and if I would have potentially pushed harder, well we’ll see. But that wasn’t the purpose today, it was to get the cobwebs out of the lungs and get ready for the feeling of pumping hard for 30+ minutes at a time. I felt strong, my technique felt a bit soggy, but there was lots of swell and chop from the typhoon from yesterday that left a weird feeling. That will clear out as I am here the next 10 days and will work on the right feelings downwind and up. So my confidence is up post workout. My board is straight and shimmed it properly this morning to give it the right specs. I feel like I have moved forward with the supplied equipment from the beater stuff I used all season. But that was the point, this is my key event, this is when I put it all together. I sure hope it goes according to plan and I can be a medal contender, and I am just staying internal and focusing my mind for the times to come. Keep me in your thoughts and prayers, I have taken special time each day to relax the mind and run through all the days performances so that I prepared. Talk soon!
July 21st,2008
We had Channel 8, Channel 13, St. Petersburg Times and Tampa Trib rolling today at Eckerd College, my alma mater. It also allowed me to do 2 training sessions today, which I really liked! Below is the Channel 8 piece. thursday at 6Pm is channel 10. [MEDIA=11]
July 8th,2008
Mark Twain said, paraphrased: ”The difference between fiction and non-fiction is that fiction must be absolutely believable.” Although I’d always like to think that life is predictable, it isn’t, and my life proves truth to that. When I reminisce on winning the olympic trials last year. Or currently, shocking some very senior medalists on my new found talent on the race course. I hope to share what Twain knew a very long time ago, share your non-fiction and then it becomes absolutely believable. Also to note my favorite alma mater, Eckerd College put together a news item on our campaign towards Gold. http://www.eckerd.edu/news/index.php?f=detail&id=2528
