Sunday, August 7, 2016: Experiencing Rio

This morning, I had company on my run with Rachel, one of my co-workers. It wasn’t as picturesque of a sunrise, so instead we made sure to take pictures by the Olympic Rings and Rio sandcastles. And a quick picture of the Today Show set which is located on the beach by the Beach Volleyball venue. We clandestinely peeked through the distant bushes (their man-made wall to enclose their space for privacy) to get a glance at Matt Lauer. It’s entertaining to see all these “celebrities,” even if it’s just a news reporter and from a distance. And, I guess Matt McConaughey was at USA House the night before as well. But, the real celebrities here are the athletes. And, of course, some more than others. So, we talked about which athletes we were in awe of. We started talking about some of the basketball players but decided that the entire team would fall into that category. Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte and the Gymnastics team and the Soccer team and Kerri Walsh and Ricki Fowler and soon our list just grew and grew to even include individuals that were already retired but still here in a role helping teams out. (Note: Serena and Venus might have been on that list but after they were so disrespectful in the ambassador presentation in Houston, they are off.) I thought about celebrities and celebrity status and how to become a celebrity. The most common celebrities we think about are the actors. But really, what does an actor do? Yes, I know they are talented and they work a ton, but could you ever compare what they do to someone like Michael Phelps? And what average actors make compared to Olympians? It’s insane how talented and how much hard work these athletes put in, and yet we still try to peak in on Matt Lauer.

On the run, Rachel noticed a big bug bite on my leg that I was itching. All I said was that I hoped it was a mosquito. Yes, that probably sounds backwards with all the Zika frenzy, but if you really are educated about Zika, you wouldn’t be as worried about it as the media portrays (or, at least I'm not). I would be much more scared if there were bugs or spiders in my room biting me. First, it’s winter here and the incident rate of individuals contracting Zika is very very small. Then, out of the small population of people who actually get Zika, only 4 or 5 even have a single symptom. If there are any symptoms, they might range from what feels like a minor cold to maybe flu-like symptoms. Zika is not harmful to the human (or, at least that is what the CDC knows). Zika IS harmful to a fetus. But, if you aren’t pregnant or planning to become pregnant immediately after the Games, it’s really not that big of a worry (or, at least to me again). If you are a female, they say if you get Zika, just to wait 8 weeks after it before trying to get pregnant. That’s it. If you are a male however, and get Zika, they say wait 6 months before trying to get a female partner pregnant. Apparently, the virus lives much longer in sperm. Males can transfer it to women but women can’t transfer it to men. Or, they don’t have any evidence yet of women transferring it directly. They don’t have enough information to prove if it stays in the system longer than that. Considering that most people who get Zika won’t even know that they got it, I decided to participate in a Zika study through work. It was provided to all employees and athletes to voluntarily take part of. At first, I didn’t really care to take part since I’m not that worried about it, but they test you before you leave and test you after you get back and tell you whether or not you contract the virus. And, for free. And, very quick. If you do have it, they will monitor you. I figure, why not at least get the information and see if I end up getting it. If I don’t get it, then I will know for sure that I won’t have to worry in the future. I’ll let you know how it ends up J

We headed out to Flamengo on our 8am ride and got back to work. Once again, it being a weekend day would help keep down the regular work. I helped out with tasks here and there, carrying boxes around and whatever else was needed. We watched the women’s road race today on TV (and if you haven’t seen it, I’d highly recommend watching the last hour of it and you will understand why a Cycling Road race is exciting). People may wonder and may ask: why aren’t you going to events? All they want to know is what events I'm watching, or will watch. But, that’s not why I’m here. And, if you are expecting me to be writing about event after event, you may as well just discontinue reading because this won’t be about that. This is about my journey supporting Team USA. I’m not here as a spectator to sit and watch the events. And that’s just that. I know I will go to a few, but I don’t think it will be many. A lot of people who have worked the Games before say they really only go to about 2-3 events the whole time. And, that is fine with me. 

Even if we are having a slow day, the nature of the work at the Games is that anything can happen at any second. And then, it becomes an urgent issue, so you can’t take off too many big chunks of time. And when an urgent issue arises, we have to be there and be ready to jump in and work and work and work. For example, if an athlete goes to a hearing, we might be working 24 hours straight. Right now, we are prepping template briefs, and researching rules for potential violations, in the event a case occurs to alleviate some of the work. Yes, it would be wonderful if a case never came in, but of course, everything here is unknown. Including the competitions themselves.

We got back to the hotel at 6:45pm and then left at 7pm to head out to dinner. Even when it’s your free time here, you’re always on the go (only a 15 minute time period to put stuff down). We met up with my old boss (the head of Beach Volleyball) for a nice dinner by the beach. Many many many pop-up restaurants have accumulated across from the beach, to accommodate the influx of people and provide tourists with that restaurant ambiance they always seek out. The number of tourists out and about: incredible. Just so many people walking up and down the strip. Of course, pretty much all of these people are tourists. In fact, the state of Rio declared a holiday for all their workers for the first 8 days of the Olympics. This was to encourage the locals to get out of town and vacate the streets in order to lighten some of the terrible traffic congestion that Rio cannot handle.

I’m not here experiencing just the Olympics, but also experiencing Brazil. And a nice fish dinner on the beach gave me just that.   

 Olympic Rings on beach

Rachel

Rio sand castle (during the middle of the day you have to pay to take a picture, but no one policies it in the early morning)

Morning run with Rachel

 Today Show Set

Dinner with John, Gary, and Bridget