Sara In Rio: Saturday, August 13, 2016: Going to events - watching four-years of hard work in action

We are all screwed up on days here. It’s hard to keep track of when it’s a weekend and what the date is, since every day is a day where we have to be on. We get these daily updates from Scott (the appointed USOC director of Flamengo) and the night before, he had to literally send three updates on a correct date. Luckily, we have a whiteboard in our office where we write the date in big letters so everyone can see it. It was Saturday.

As I have mentioned previously, our office location is right across the street from the Lagoa (a lake), where all the Rowing events are held. And, there were some Rowing finals were today! I knew I could peak through the fence to watch the event, without even needing to buy a ticket and go in. It was the finals of the single skulls and the men’s and women’s 8 boat, the quintessential Rowing event. So, I didn’t mind just walking over by myself and peaking through to watch. However, Scott walked in to our office an hour before and offered us all tickets. Perfect! Because we were a little late, we did have to peak through the fence for the singles, but we still got a great view of the finish line where our US girl took home a silver! We made it inside the gates for the women’s 8. The US team has dominated this event for the past 11 years, winning every Olympic and World Championships in that time span. A heavy favorite. The stands were packed. For once. One issue that Rio has had to deal with during these Games: ticket sales. So many of the venues (except for some finals) have been scarce in attendance at best. If you’ve been watching, you would have noticed. But for this event, the stands were full. However, we didn’t venture into the stands and instead stood on the sidelines by the part where the “finish line” section was. A perfect view.

The US women came out in the lead, and carried it the entire way! Despite being the heavy favorites, there’s never a guarantee in the Olympics. The Games are a place where anything can happen. As my mom says, sports events are the best reality show because they are actually real, and not scripted, whatsoever. Today, the quest for Gold once again succeeded for those women, and they cheered in joy after crossing the finish line.

The men didn’t have as much success, coming in fourth. The worst spot to come in at the Olympics, being right off the medal stand. However, the men didn’t even really have a chance at third, whether or not that helps. They were actually lucky to come in fourth. Although I'm sure it still stings for them, that was the spot they were expected to get, at best. A miracle on ice (water) wasn’t in the cards for them today. And so, the boys in the boat will have to spend the next four years for another shot at a medal. Another four years for a six-minute race.

Although it was a Saturday, we had a good amount of work for the Paralympics to keep up with… Paralympics is another beast in its own… That I prefer not going into...

I took a break from that and asked if help was needed around our area. And, I could not believe what I helped with. Packing things up!!! Wow. I didn’t realize that the end was in sight. Saturday was exactly one week until I was to leave. I know that there are still many events to go, but there are also more sports that have already finished up, their Olympics complete. At Flamengo, the only sports left training here are the basketball teams (sometimes) the girls water polo team (and very sparsely), and one kayak sprinter (who we never see). After this morning, rowing was over. Gymnasts are done training here. Judo is done. Men’s Water Polo is done. Men’s and women’s Rugby are done. And so, we started loading equipment into containers to be shipped back to the US. It was a strange feeling to see that the culmination of four years’ worth of work was coming to a close, into a box.

We went over to the mall again for lunch, and I had a wonderful grilled salmon. Although we could have made our free cold sandwiches, it is worth the money to go out and enjoy the food of Brazil.

For dinner, I had planned to meet up with one of my great friends, Ryan. Ryan is one of Tony’s best friends, ever since they were little. Ryan also lived with us as a roommate for the first couple years after Tony bought his (our) house. In these three years that I have known Ryan, we have become extremely good friends—he is beyond a stand-up guy. Ryan is also working down in Rio, as a director of video production (or something kinda like that). In Denver, he works at the Pepsi center, directing the video for everything that you see on the jumbo-tron. His role here was similar, except for at the Diving venue. It was our first time to meet up (it’s just hard coordinating things here), but we went out for a wonderful dinner and were able to catch up on our time here. Always fun to see friends from home!

Then, in the middle of dinner, I got an email from one of my co-workers (Rachel) who had scored some tickets to the beach volleyball game that night, with one extra, and asked if I wanted to go. It started at midnight. That is way past my bedtime here, but of course I had to go! I jumped at the opportunity. As of this day, I only had a week left of my time here. I had to take advantage of everything I could. And the Beach Volleyball stadium is right down the street from our hotel. I run past the venue every morning.

Going into the Volleyball stadium… now I felt like I was going to a real Olympic venue! It started at midnight because they do some events super late here for prime-time TV in the States. Truth. But, the midnight dark sky contrasting with the bright lights enhanced the aurora of the magnitude of this event, and it was a perfect setting. Beautiful. The sand glistened in the light. The players had to wear their sunglasses and visors from the lights, despite the time of day.

The round of 16s were today. Men and Women. Elimination games. The first match we watched was Australia vs. Poland women. Poland won the first game, but then Australia came back to win the following two sets and clinched their way into the next round, the quarterfinals. Then, was the main event we came for. The US men versus Austria. Our men's team are one of the top favorites here (just maybe not as known as Kerri-Walsh of course). Phil Dalhausser won the Gold in 2008, so he's not new to the top of the podium. After his Gold in 2008, he worked another four years to repeat, but lost early on in the tournament in 2012. So, he's worked another four years for his next shot. And here he was. His experience and expertise showed as the pair won the first two easy sets to move on to the quarterfinals in a couple of days.

I stayed up until 2am for this (it ended a tad earlier, but then getting home, getting ready for bed, etc took some time as well). I knew I would be hurting from it considering an early morning the next day. But, I would never take it back for anything.