After two days here in the Olympic Village the guys and myself are learning our way around and starting to settle into our daily routines. Not everyone, myself included, has adjusted to the time zone yet, Beijing is 12 hrs ahead, but slowly our bodies are making the adjustment.
Our training schedule is pretty simple at this point in our game plan. We are working out twice a day, once in the morning at 10 and again at 5pm. One training session is on the mat and the other is doing some type of cardio workout, usually an outdoor game or something to keep things fun. The mat workout is very quick, no more than 6 min of live wrestling and maybe 15 min of technique "drilling" and that is it.
We hold our training sessions at Beijing Normal University where the USOC has set up their headquarters for training all the US athletes and is about a 15 min bus ride from the Olympic village. There are training facilities here at the village, but they are shared by all countries and their athletes so they tend to get a bit crowded. The USOC leased out the university and brought over our own equipment including all the weights, mats, etc to make sure all the athletes have everything they need to help them prepare for competition. The USOC has even brought over our own food and chefs to give us all the comforts of home. The food here in the Village is great as well, but sometimes it is just easier to eat right there near where we train and not have to fight the crowds in the village dining facility. Eating at the dining facility in the village is pretty cool due to the fact that you get to see all the other countries athletes. Tonight at at diner, Rafael Nadal, this year's Wimbolton champion was eating dinner at the next table over from me.
The team is very upbeat and confident about the task at hand of defending our world team title from last year. We held our first press conference today and everyone was really loose and had a great time with it.
Below is a link that has some pictures of the team during today's press conference and yesterday's training session which was a soccer game between the "old guys" and the "rookies." We had a great time, and for the record, us old guys won the game 2-0. There are also some pictures of our team's arrival in Beijing.
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I am the coach for the US Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling team and a Major in the US Marine Corps.
Member Since: 6/17/2008
