Let the Games begin!

It's 1:20 am and the team is crawling its way into bed after a sensational opening ceremony.

We assembled over six and a half hours earlier in the village before boarding buses to the Indoor Stadium. The waiting began. One by one nations were called to assemble outside for the slow journey towards the underground entrance to the National Stadium.

Two screens gave us glimpses of the show witnessed by the rest of the world. A loud cheer went up each time we could see teams marching, but the glimpses became few and far between.

Once the team was called to exit, the excitement mounted, we were followed by China and literally thousands of volunteers began to chant China! China! A taste of things to come.

The walk to the Stadium was lined by more volunteers, waving, cheering, supporting every team . One volunteer had red blistered hands from high fives from the 200 or so nations that had run before us!

The tunnel came and then the entrance to the stadium, the flashes and noise, the size and colour of a stadium alive with anticipation of the arrival of the host nation. China ! China ! followed us around the track, with little Zambia sandwiched in between.

The team struggled to keep to formation and scattered to wave, take pictures and marvel at the spectacle it was part of creating.

The rest you saw. The flag and the flame. The daring spectacle of the aerial runner carrying fire around the roof of the stadium to light the Olympic flame.

Bigger and better. China has set the tone for the modern Olympic Games.

Oarsome night

James Tomkins will carry the flag for Australia in tonight's opening ceremony. While the announcement, made by AOC President, John Coates, at the team reception came as no suprise, a huge cheer went up for the popular rower .

There is no doubt that Tomkins' credentials make him the right man for the job and his acceptance speech was both rousing and inspirational for the rest of the team and supporters who had packed the Sofitel ballroom in downtown Beijing.

The night got off to a slow start for many of the team as the police held back traffic including the Australian team buses to allow Kevin Rudd's motorcade free passage to the Sofitel.

Our team acquitted themselves well scoring a number of trophy photo opportunities with prime ministers past and present, sporting heros and the stars of the show, royal couple Mary and Fred.

The team reception brings together everything that is Australian about these Games, setting the scene for the opening ceremony tonight when most of the team will march into the National Stadium.

Kevin flies the flag

The Prime Minister of Australia assisted at the official welcome ceremony and flag raising ceremony for the Australian Olympic Team.

The ceremony was short and sweet with the Olympic hymn, an official welcome message from the mayor of the Olympic village, the Australian national anthem and the presentation gift to the Australian chef de mission and AOC President, John Coates. The Prime Minister offered a gift in return.

Following the ceremony the official delegation, which included Sports Minister Kate Ellis, walked through the Australian section of the village to the dining hall.

Most of the athletes had already carved the trail as they sought out the refreshing air conditioning of the dining hall.

We move on to the official team reception in an hour or so.

Australia Day in Beijing

Today is one of the key days for the Australian team during the Olympics when the whole team comes together under one flag. The Welcome ceremony and flag raising will take place in the Olympic village at 4pm in the presence of the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, who will then visit the Australian quarters and meet athletes.

Following the Welcome Ceremony the AOC hosts a team reception at the Sofitel in Beijing for all team members and their guests as well as the top shelf of Australia's corporate and political world.

The flag bearer is announced at the team reception and there is no doubt about the front runner for the honour this year with triple gold medallist and six time Olympian, James Tomkins likely to get the gig.

The team will be decked out in the formal uniform supplied by Sportscraft so look out for some stunning shots tonight on Channel 7 and in the press tomorrow.

The slalom venue is in lockdown mode as BOCOG prepares for the event and the team are having a day off . The sprint athletes are all training this morning followed by some cross training at the village ahead of the welcome ceremony.

Yesterday, Ken Wallace and Torsten Lachmann had their first session out at Shunyi followed by their induction to the Australian team. Ken even tried his hand at a few slalom gates at the bottom of the course but decided to stick to his day job.

Overall, training is going to plan, athletes are adapting to the heat and conditions and the talk has turned from "when did you get in?" to "when do you compete?".

The first Australians to kick off will be the men's football team who take on Serbia tonight in Shanghai.

For slalom, just four days to go...and counting.

Full Team Ahead

Ken Wallace and Torsten Lachmann arrived today from London bringing the team to its full complement of 16 athletes .

Ken has been training in Hungary in hot conditions while Torsten has been in Potsdam, Germany, with members of the German team.

A minor delay was caused by the loss of Torsten's paddles in London before the pair set off with Ken's coach, Jimmy Owens, for the team uniform processing.

The team is housed in four apartments within easy reach of the main facilities such as the dining hall, transport mall and AOC admin centre. Brett Kemble, Dave Foureur and Liz Broad are lodged at the Dragon Club, a hotel facility close to the venue.

The best coffee as it MacDonalds and now the village is much busier this is a popular destination.
Some famous faces appear amongst the crowds and heads turn. A tennis player called Roger caused a minor stir at lunchtime. In reality he was another athlete at the Games and looked happy that way.

The boxers have moved in on the same level as our team, and are much friendler than they look!
As teams arrive the AOC operational team kick into gear, guiding over a hundred athletes a day through to the village. The cycling team came with 800kg of gear. The swimmers bought their togs and facebooks.

The teams trained well today and spirits are high. Clint Robinson has missed a couple of days training to protect a mild throat irritation from developing further. He returned to the water today and fired up for a powerful K2 session with Jake Clear this afternoon. Jake had replaced Clint in the K4 yesterday to keep the big boat turning over for the other crew members.

The K4 women had a lactic session and some gym following on from race pace work yesterday.


On the slalom course, half length runs yesterday were followed by fine tuning technical work on sections today. With just a few whitewater sessions to go until race time it is time to build confidence, belief and comfort around the main moves and features.

Rob Bell worked on his tracking and looked to have mastered the lines through the gut breaking waves.

Tomorrow the full Australian contingent will be in action at various times at the magnificent Shunyi venue. In between sessions, some of the athletes will retire to the Dragon Club and a shared facility with the Australian rowers.

The heat is rising...

for we are young and free...

The last two days have been busy. Travelling, training, village life and the team induction have filled the schedule.

The induction was a highlight for the team on Saturday. An impressive compilation DVD of Australian Olympic greats in action to the theme of “Rise up” was followed by an inspirational poem crafted and delivered by the team motivator, Laurie Lawrence.

The team sung the national anthem with gusto and were then presented with commemorative blazer pockets by Michael Wenden, dual Olympic gold medallist and five time world record holder, to the tune of Waltzing Matilda and in the presence of Australian legend, Steve Waugh. The Baggy Green, along with John Eales and Kate Allen, is one of three athlete liaison officers at the Games. Kate, rowing gold medallist from Atlanta, is assigned to canoeing, among other sports.

The photos were keepers.

Sunday was the hottest day so far, topping 35 degrees in sunny Shunyi. The women’s crew trained in the morning and avoided the hottest part of the day.

The men, however, did two afternoon sessions and were able to fully feel the potential race conditions, a warm headwind blowing down the course.

The slalom session was also in the mid afternoon and was the first session of full length runs for the team. Mike Druce set a tough but realistic course with continual challenges giving the athletes a taste of things to come.

Team sports scientist and physio Brett Kemble have been kept busy with cooling and recovery strategies for the whole group and the hot conditions have done little to dent the commmitment and motivation of the athletes in training.

Our media liaison officer, David Pembroke, came to watch both disciplines train today. He is our buffer to take pressure off the athletes and field media enquiries as we approach the competition.

Time is flying by with just 8 days to the start of the slalom competition and only 5 days to the opening ceremony. It seems the village expands with each mealtime as new teams arrive from other countries or from other sections within the Australian team.

The latest section to arrive was the swimming team who along with rowing and men’s hockey have swelled the numbers in the Australian quarters adding to the atmosphere of a big and powerful team.

Blue sky day for Aussie paddlers

Today started with the AOC press conference featuring Robin Bell, Clint Robinson and Hannah Davis.

The trio were escorted through the village by chef de mission, John Coates who chaired the conference before returning the athletes to the village to join their team mates for the trip to Shunyi.

Being one of the first sections to arrive has meant there has been considerable interest in the progress of our team and the impressive slalom and flatwater venues. Everyone is enjoying the positive attention in the early stages of our stay in the village and on the course.

The flatwater crews completed their first session on the Shunyi course in singles getting the feeling of the warm water and hot humid conditions. The men then rigged up the K2s and K4s for a trial spin before sampling the food in the venue dining hall.

The women rested at the Dragon Club, our recovery base close to the venue, efore sharpening up with a sprint session to complete the activities at the venue.

The conditions at the venue were the best we have seen with a magnificent mountain backdrop coming into view on this "official" blue sky day.

An AOC team barbecue and a team meeting topped off a busy day.

While Warwick Draper took a breather from the course and Robin Bell cross trained in the morning, our C2 crew and Jacqui Lawrence did a hybrid session at the venue with a speed session on flatwater followed by short sections on the whitewater.

Robin Bell came out for the afternoon session and completed two sets of half length runs at race intensity, while rival Tony Estanguet and the French, who share our training session, opted for longr runs and less technical moves.

Tomorrow will see all athletes in action at Shunyi, returning to the village for rest or cross training ahead of the AOC team induction.