After spending the first two days of the Beijing Olympics in the Beijing cluster, Saturday brought the first trip up to the mountains, where I wanted to catch a couple of different events, including seeing Kennett graduate Sean Doherty kick off his third Olympics.
Getting to the mountains is not the easiest of tasks in the time of COVID. The first thing I did when I got to the Main Media Center this morning was stop at the transportation desk to inquire about the process for getting on the high-speed train, which connects Beijing to the Yanquing and Zhangziakou clusters in the mountains. As it turns out, it’s not too hard, as there in an app that allows us to log in as Olympic participants and book tickets.
So, I booked a seat heading up to the mountains on the 9:30 train to the furthest cluster, Zhangziakou, since that is where the biathlon, cross-country skiing and ski jumping venues are located, along with the snow park that is home to the freestyle skiing and snowboarding competitions. I hopped on a shuttle at the Main Media Center and rode to the train station and waited for the train.
The train is pretty new and moves pretty quickly (at one point I remember looking up and seeing a speed of 165 kilometers per hour on the board) and covers the many miles in about 50 minutes. At the end of the train trip, I hopped on another bus and made my way to the Zhangziakou Press Center, which serves the same purposes as the Main Press Center, just in the mountains. I walked through a little and found the Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken (the latter was not open) but didn’t indulge. Then I hopped on another bus and climbed a bit higher in the mountains to the Genting Snow Park, where I watched the snowboard slopestyle qualifying for the women. While it was chilly, the place was a work of art and truly impressive with great views as well.
From there, I headed back to the ZPC and got on a different bus, which took me to the broadcast center, which serves as the transportation hub near the ski jumping, biathlon and cross-country ski venues. I hopped on a bus and did a quick tour of the cross-country venue before heading to biathlon to watch Sean.
Sean had a great race, coming out of his second shooting stage in second place and handing off to the final leg in fourth place, with the team finishing seventh when all was said and done. Sean graciously took a few minutes to talk in the freezing cold and after I transcribed my notes in the venue media center, I hopped on the bus that eventually (one stop later) got me to the train station for the trip back. And that’s where I’m writing this, as I wait on the train (it will be posted when I have internet back at the media center).
It was a good day for sure, albeit incredibly cold. And the return train didn’t leave me enough time to get to see the US women’s hockey team as planned. I’ll be back in the mountains tomorrow, this time starting in the other cluster for men’s downhill.
I anticipate the wind and cold will be out there with me.
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