O’Eight, O’Eight, O’Eight

Courtesy Amy Walsh Amy Walsh Official Website

Opening Ceremonies
08.08.08. The day had finally arrived—and we couldn’t go. We had made peace with the fact that we couldn’t attend the Opening Ceremonies at these 29th Olympic Games, but it was still hard to sit back and watch the events unfold on tv when we knew it was our given right as Olympians to march into the Bird’s Nest representing our country. Yet, it also would have meant hours and hours on our feet, hours on a bus, and getting to sleep at around 4 am—not really an ideal way to prepare for a match-up against China the following day.

So what did we do instead? We could have simply retired to our rooms after supper and sulked in private, but our team wasn’t going to be denied the Opening Ceremonies; one way or another, we were going to find a way to participate, albeit at a distance. We got geared up in our proper outfits— parachute jackets paired with prim white skirts—and went down to the meal room.

(There was some confusion as we went downstairs, though, as the soccer organizers tried to usher us into tennis venues. We assured them that the skirts were a one-time outfit, and they let us back into the hotel.) Once downstairs, we were met by our Chinese staff here in Tianjin (translators, chefs, waiters, managers) who seemed equally as primed to make our little exercise as fun as possible.

The CBC was there to capture our every move, and when we were given the official signal, we marched in, cameras flashing and flags waving. If you closed your eyes for a second, it really felt like we were all there with the rest of the Canadian contingency of athletes, celebrating our arrival into Beijing and announcing our intention to compete with the best in the world.

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