FanHouse blogger Enrico Campitelli Jr. is on the scene in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics. The U.S. Olympic Team is the only country other than the host nation with their very own training facilities located in Beijing. They've contracted out a relationship with Beijing Normal University to set up the kind of training center our nation's top athletes have come to expect.
During a tour I took of the facilities the other day I got the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the ladies hoops stars -- including Lisa Leslie, Candace Parker, and Diana Taurasi, among others – in the middle of a closed practice. They seemed light and loose during their shoot around, as they should with the rest of the world struggling to even compete with our dominant women's team.
More photos of the basketball team as well and the men's water polo squad after the jump.
FanHouse blogger Enrico Campitelli Jr. is on the scene in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics. There's certainly no two drink limit per person at the Bird's Nest in Beijing as there are at every single venue in America. One friend of mine actually purchased eight beers at one time and had the friendly concession workers put them nicely in a box for him to carry back to his seat.
Not only are beers plentiful but they're also ridiculously cheap. You can see my purchase of 6 Budweisers and two ice cream above that came to a whopping total of 40 RMB or approximately $5.75 US. As you may imagine, we had quite the fun time watching Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay run really, really fast last night.
A few more photos I snapped of the Bird's Nest last night after the jump.
FanHouse blogger Enrico Campitelli Jr. is on the scene in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics. As I'm sure you can see on NBC back home in the states, the Water Cube and Bird's Nest are two breathtaking buildings. When we entered the Water Cube on Thursday evening here in Beijing, the sun was still out and the full effect of the amazingly unique structure wasn't visible just yet. But as you can see from the photo I snapped above after exiting the 100-meter butterfly prelims, the Water Cube's aura is ridiculous when lit up in pool blue and purple.
To be quite honest with you, the swimming prelim wasn't all that exciting and simply getting the chance to enter the amazing structure out-shined the actual swimming. The highlight of the action in the pool was clearly getting the chance to watch Michael Phelps in person during the Olympics where he is trying to break history.
More photos of Phelps and the Water Cube after the jump.
For those of you who read my personal website, The700Level.com, you'd know that I'm a bit of a Phillie Phanatic apologist. I love the furry green fella even when many sporting enthusiasts believe there is no place for mascots in serious competition. To those people, I say "I hope the Phanatic spills a giant vat of popcorn on your head, you miserable hater of fun."
Anyone who has ever been associated with the Olympics knows that the chosen official mascots of each games are almost assuredly annoying. So it was with great pleasure that I got to see the five elements of the Beijing games get to trip over themselves and fall on their faces. Yes, I know. I'll grow up someday.
The below video is from the epic Spain vs. China battle that took place a few days ago here in Beijing.
FanHouse blogger Enrico Campitelli Jr. is on the scene in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics. As of today, I've been in China for a week and have only seen one event in person: China vs. Spain basketball. That's about to change as I've got an action packed line up of events over the next two weeks ranging from random small competitions like cycling or team handball to huge marquee events like seeing the Kobe Bryant-led Redeem Team.
When I boarded my flight to China last week I only had tickets lined for the lesser-known competitions but with a bit of legwork, some networking, and sweat – okay, a lot of sweat – tickets to some of the bigger events can be had.
FanHouse blogger Enrico Campitelli Jr. is on the scene in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics. The very first Olympic event I had the pleasure of attending couldn't have been a more amazing experience. At the games an entire culture has waited 100 years for, their biggest sporting icon took center court yesterday to try and show the supportive Chinese fans inside Beijing Olympic Basketball Gymnasium and all across China a win.
Pau Gasol and his gang of offensive Spaniards allowed China to build up a fairly comfortable lead at the end of the third quarter and into much of the fourth but the host nation couldn't get things going in the fourth and Spain sliced through the exhausted Chinese squad like a chef's knife through a Peking Duck. (Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week, try the mutton!)
FanHouse already covered most of the on-the-court action of the most exciting basketball match of the 2008 games, so after the jump I take a look at the atmosphere along with photos and a video of the impressive Chinese fans.
Whether it's in front of Chairman Mao, in the middle of Tiananmen Square, or in front of some cheap Olympics signage, the Chinese love them some Kung Fu posing.
My sorry attempt to fit in with the locals after the jump.
FanHouse blogger Enrico Campitelli Jr. is on the scene in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics. I've been in Beijing for almost 5 full days now and I've yet to see an actual Olympic event just yet but I've hit plenty of the amazing places this city has to offer. Without a doubt the most amazing part of my trip so far has been our visit to the Great Wall of China.
Setting foot on the wall is something all who love to travel aspire to do and the thrill of actually walking on the wall did not disappoint in the least.
The Forbidden City was amazing at parts but the sheer size and scale of the Great Wall, at such an amazing height, is simply breathtaking. A quick video I shot from the wall after the jump.
FanHouse blogger Enrico Campitelli Jr. is on the scene in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics. Aside from the gold medal game the clear marquee event of basketball at the 2008 Olympics was the August 10th match up between the newly dubbed Redeem Team from the U.S. versus the Yao Ming-led host nation. My friends and I had hoped to watch the game from Wangfujing shopping area on giant televisions but a consistent downpour sent us in search of shelter and a cold beer instead.
We picked what seemed like a fairly touristy spot that had some quality TVs to view the game on. It was a festive atmosphere with the majority of the bar pulling for China with only my group of 15 or so Americans rooting on Coach K's squad.
Taking a cab in Beijing has proved to be challenging without any of our taxi drivers knowing a word of English. We've quickly learned that the best way to get to where you want to go is to have somebody at your hotel write down the address in Chinese and simply show it to the driver. This has about an 80% success rate.
But there are of course circumstances when you don't have the time or brains to do this which often leads to a lot of pointing at a map. This probably has about a 20% success rate. There's also some sort of strange law where certain cabs can't drive to other portions of the city that are a bit far. There's seemingly a line on a map that they gesture to you that they're not allowed to cross. That didn't help us on our endeavor to watch the Opening Ceremonies.
Anyway, the following video is our attempt at communicating with a Taxi driver to get "close" to the opening ceremonies. He tries to asks us if we have credentials or tickets which we clearly did not. Perhaps the highlight of the video is around the 1:05 mark when he shows his love of Yao Ming.
