Olympics News and Info

The Most Exciting Olympic Event to Watch in Person: Beach Volleyball

Filed under: Beijing, China, USA

FanHouse blogger Enrico Campitelli Jr. is on the scene in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.

Americans Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers won themselves a gold medal on Friday by beating Brazil on the hot sand in Beijing. If you ever get the chance to attend a summer Olympics event in person, beach volleyball is the way to go.

Having seen a riveting performance of rhythmic gymnastics a day earlier, the gold medal match of men’s beach volleyball was absolutely the most exciting event I’ve attended at the 2008 Olympics thus far. Not only is there high flying spikes, slams, blocks, and digs, but there is cheesy rock and roll in between plays.

Oh, and cheerleaders in bikinis.
The U.S. duo started out slow and found themselves down a few points early in the first but battled back to win the first set after three or four set points. The drama was intense and the venue had a nice split of American and Brazilian supporters with the U.S. having a slight edge in rowdiness.

Brazil fought back to win the second set and push the chance to take home gold to a third and final set.

Phil Dalhausser came out blazing in the third and there was never really much doubt that this was the United States’ day at the beach.

“Obviously, Phil wanted this medal pretty dang bad. He was just ridiculous out there,” Rogers said. “When he gets on a roll, I just pull out my pompons and give a little cheer and keep smiling and clapping. That’s what good blockers do: When they get on a roll, good luck to you.”

“I got in a zone, I guess,” Dalhausser said. “I blocked it all out. It’s just one of those things where you see everything perfectly and it all seems to be in slow motion.”

With events like rhythmic gymnastics, shooting, or even athletics, beach volleyball stands out as a well produced, exciting atmosphere where the crowd can really get loud and into the match. Having gotten the chance to watch USA basketball destroy Germany, I’d take this exciting beach volleyball gold medal match over the Redeem Team.

Olympic Moment:
After the medal ceremony, Todd Rogers jumped into the stands to find what looked to be his parents and/or grandparents. It was pretty awesome seeing the emotion beam from all of their faces.

Many Americans, like myself, can be pretty cynical when it comes to cheering on our nation, but when you find yourself watching two guys like Rogers and Dalhausser trying to bring home the gold, I bet you’d be wishing you were sporting some Team USA gear to show your support. I know I was.

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Watching Team USA Win by 49 Points Is Fun but Also Kind of Boring

Filed under: Americas, China, Europe, USA

FanHouse blogger Enrico Campitelli Jr. is on the scene in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.

Before coming to Beijing for the games, all of the buzz in my group of travelers was about trying to score the hot events. Right near the top of the list was a ticket to see Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and the rest of the 2008 USA basketball team play. The opponent didn’t really matter.

I was lucky enough to score a seat in the second row of the upper bowl of Beijing Olympic Basketball Gymnasium to watch as Team USA made Dirk Niwitzki and the German team look like a third world country. The US squad won by forty-nine.

Sure the high flying dunks and attempted alley-oops off the backboard were entertaining but after the US had a twenty-five plus point lead things got a bit boring. Should a fan in attendance simply marvel at the display or hope for a more competitive game? I say both.

The second game of the double header was Argentina vs. Russia which proved to be a much more hard fought game that went down to the final minutes, something hard to find in Olympic Basketball.

Argentina’s Andres Nocioni led the way and helped them put away the Russians who put up a tough fight to the end.

The biggest commotion of the two game set was clearly when the crowd realized there was a soccer legend in the arena. Argentina’s great Diego Maradona was there to cheer on his boys against the Russians. Once the Chinese realized who he was, or simply that he was someone famous, they mobbed his section in an attempt to take photos of the once great soccer star. Security was forced to move Diego to the media section for some peace.

The crowd for the USA vs. Germany game was silent. By my estimates, 75-80% of the crowd was Chinese and they didn’t seem too interested in cheering for either team. The loudest cheers I heard were when walking out of the venue, the entire crowd started doing the one “Jai-Yo!” cheer led by a volunteer with a megaphone. I thought I was leaving a Phish concert or something in Camden.

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Havertown, Pennsylvania Produces Winners (And Me!)

Filed under: Beijing, China, USA

FanHouse blogger Enrico Campitelli Jr. is on the scene in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.

I’m in Beijing, China. Not sure exactly how far it is from Havertown, Pennsylvania — the town I grew up in — but it’s safe to say it’s a few thousand miles away from the comfort of a WaWa Shortie Italian. Knowing that fact, I wonder what the chances were that I’d run into not one, but two people from Havertown while in Beijing on the same night.

And both of them just happened to be sporting Olympic Medals they won earlier that day.
I was invited to be a guest at Anheuser Busch’s Club Bud in Beijing on Sunday night to enjoy a night of icey American Lager’s (free! and delicious!) and gold medal gawking.

The first notable to strut down the red carpet was Carl Lewis who I once stood behind in a security line in Paris’ Charles De Gaulle Airport. Random.

After Lewis, the random athletes from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the U.S. started to arrive with their hardware hanging from their necks. There was nothing particularly interesting about any of these athletes besides the fact that they’re the best in the world at their sporting discipline of choice.

Then Havertown’s own Brendan Hansen strutted in with fellow U.S. swimmer Cullen Jones. Before coming to the games I knew of Hansen, a Haverford High School product, and had hoped to bump into him while in Beijing. Brendan was part of the relay team that helped Micheal Phelps win his eighth gold medal in Beijing. After introducing myself and telling him of my Havertownian roots, we chatted briefly, but I let him enjoy his celebration.

It’s not until I used the bathroom that things got funny.


Random Dude peeing next to me to short, tiny white dude sporting U.S.A. gear: “So what sport do you play.”

Short White Dude: “Rowing.”

Me, while peeing, thinking I’m funny: “You must be a coxswain.”

Short White Dude: “How do you even know what a coxswain is?” (Little known fact about me: I was a rower for one year in high school. It sucked.)

Me: “So where are you from”

Him: “Philadelphia.”

Me: “No way, me too. Where’d you go to high school?”

Him: “Bonner.”

Me: “No way. So do you know Eggy, Tugger, Spross, Brady, etc?”

Him: “Are you [expletive] with me?”

Then he whips out a medal from underneath his Team U.S.A. Polo shirt and says something to the effect of “Dude, I’m from Havertown and I’ve won a medal at the Olympics in Beijing!” Pretty awesome.

As it turns out, his name is Marcus McElhenney (pictured above) and he was the coxswain on the boat that won bronze on Sunday. He is also friends with tons of kids I know from growing up.

You can take the boy out of Delco but you can never take the Delco out of the boy. Even in China.

I was once again hanging out with the Washington Post’s Dan Steinberg, who was actually working, and he’s got some video of the amazing belt Cullen Jones was sporting last night.

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A Quick Glimpse of Team USA’s Training Facility, WNBA Stars Included

Filed under: Beijing, China, USA

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.
You can read more about some of the impressive facts about the training center at Beijing Normal University in a piece the New York Times did about two weeks ago.

My buddy Nick, who is also pictured above with Candace Parker, posing with Lisa Leslie:

The entrance to the women’s practice. Oops:

A quick glimpse of the shoot around:

And the water polo team in the background before their huge upset of Croatia. This is also where Michael Phelps got in some training work.

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Beer Is Really, Really Cheap at the Bird’s Nest

Filed under: Beijing, China

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.
As I mentioned about the Water Cube previously, half the attraction of attending some of the lesser known events at the China Olympics is getting the opportunity to enter the amazing venues built specifically for the games.

The Bird’s Nest lived up to all of the hype as it was simply an amazing place to watch a sporting event. Not only is the design aesthetic through the roof but the rest of the facility is clean, smooth, and a pleasure to sit in.

With beers costing something around 75 cents each, it’s safe to assume we made a couple trips to the 浴室. (see below)

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The Water Cube Is Amazing, Swimming Prelims Not So Much

Filed under: Beijing, China

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.

We did get the chance to see a few Olympic records broken which made for a tad bit of excitement but overall, swimming just didn’t do it for me.

Here are some more photos I snapped:

Phelps is the fourth swimming from the top. You can kind of see the red and white of the flag down his leg in this photo:

Watching the medal races on CCTV has been more exciting than actually being there live in person for races that only determine who gets to race in the semis and finals.

But this view is amazing:

And another:

And a quick shot of the Cube and the Nest together:

Much more on the Bird’s Nest to come. I’m seeing an athletics event inside there tonight.

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Olympic Mascots Are Typically Annoying Unless They’re Falling On Their Faces

Filed under: Beijing, China

FanHouse blogger Enrico Campitelli Jr. is on the scene in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.

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.

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Olympic Moments: Watching Yao Ming & China Play in Front of Home Crowd

Filed under: Beijing, China, Europe

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.

An example of the cheering that went on:

The tickets for basketball events at the Beijing Olympics get you in to watch two games. The warm up to China vs. Spain’s headliner was Germany vs. Greece. Due to scheduling conflicts we showed up late in the third quarter just in time to see Dirk Nowitzki enjoy the remaining portion of the game from the bench. Greece looked dominant as Germany looked lost. It was ugly.

With security getting into the facility being rather thorough, I wondered how the Greek contingent present somehow smuggled a large drum into the arena to lead the Greeks in cheer.

China vs. Spain

Much like many of the events at the Beijing Olympics, the lower spectator portion of the arena (sponsor tickets) was not full and the public was packed to the brim. There were hundreds of Chinese flags with a handful or so of Spanish flags mixed in.

We were lucky enough to stumble upon some killer tickets the day before the game putting us in the 19th row behind the basket. I’ve got another post discussing tickets in Beijing in the works.

The venue the game was played at had a unique façade that gave it the look of a top-notch facility. The inside itself was rather unremarkable yet very clean and adequate with concession stands that offered a hotdog-like sausage on a stick without a bun. We think there was supposed to be a bun but they were sold out. Do not recommend. Go for the ice cream instead.

The Chinese showed their support in force making up a guestimated 85% of the crowd. Being a bitter Philly fan, I was impressed with their fervor and support. China’s early and consistent performance likely contributed greatly to the cheering. I’m told they get awfully quiet when their team is facing defeat early.

The actual cheer they do isn’t very creative with the same chant being used over and over (not that I understand what they’re saying but it’s simply repetitive.). I’m told its literal translation means “add gas” to give the team some extra fire.

You might be better of giving them one of those hotdogs.

Overall the fans were great and made the game a blast to be at. I was hoping China could pull this one out to give the locals a thrill.

There were some goofy timeout cheerleaders and fans dancing to get on the big screen just like an NBA game. One mascot on stilts took a header into the hard wood that I totally thought would have killed the person under the costume – assuming the Chinese do use people in their costumes, yes?

So the game itself was a barnburner with China coming seconds away from making the nation of a billion happy. They looked exhausted in the fourth and had nothing left in OT. Spain’s speed took over and China basketball ended the day with their second loss in as many games.

China took the loss and their chances of medaling in hoops have faded but their love for Yao, Kobe, and the sport of basketball is astounding.

If you’re reading this and you’d like to hook me up with some tickets to the basketball medal games, I’ll give you my first-born — only if she’s a female, of course.

Kidding!

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Challenging Tickets Can Be Found in Beijing if You Try Really Hard

Filed under: Beijing, China

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.

Three of my friends picked up tickets in front of the venue for yesterday’s USA vs. Nigeria soccer match for a very reasonable mark up.

It doesn’t hurt that my roommate in China is a former winter Olympian who walked at the opening ceremonies in Torino but never got the opportunity to race, as he was an alternate. With sponsors and teams traveling from games to games every two and four years, the Olympic world is rather tight-knit. It certainly helps to know people who may know people with tickets.

The score for us so far, besides seeing China basketball, was a ticket to the a swimming event at the water cube later today. It kicks off at 6:30 a.m. ET and we will get the chance to see the beastly Michael Phelps swim in the 100-meter breastroke prelims.

Random aside: I had the chance to hang out with Washington Post blogger extraordinaire, Dan Steinberg, of D.C. Sports Bog at a posh club where we had hoped to catch Team USA unwinding after their game with Angola. LeBron and co. never showed but Mr. Steinberg tells a nice recap of the evening.

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Strange Things in Beijing: Posed Pictures

Filed under: Beijing, China

In addition to locals tucking their shirts under their arms exposing their gut to cool off and naked babies peeing in public, there is a third phenomena unique to Beijing: people doing odd poses for photo ops.

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.

Her again:

Me:

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