The Media Mecca

So I visited my future office as I was very graciously granted a tour of the MPC (Main Press Center) of the Beijing Olympics by my volleyball manager. It was pretty much an entire building composed of offices and amenities for those of the media and media affiliated.

I’ve been to quite a few busy office buildings, including companies with prime real estate in midtown Manhattan, but nothing even comes close to the hustle and bustle that the MPC housed. There’s a laundry list of amenities, but those that I saw and those that come to mind at first include a barbershop, a massage parlor and last but not least a McDonalds.

An Olympic First

As part of a trial for the Beijing Olympic Broadcasting and the Olympic News Service, I was the first ever video flash quote interviewer. This was definitely one of those, “Wow, cool!” after the fact moments, but it was still a very fun experience nonetheless. I was told only twenty minutes prior to the game that I would actually be participating in this event and there definitely was some apprehension. I have had experience with a microphone, a camera and an extremely tall athlete before but this was definitely on a different level. Thankfully I was the anonymous hand holding an obnoxious green microphone, but the mere knowledge of the fact that I could have a lot of people listen and “watch” me ask a stupid question to an athlete was mind-blowing.

The humor of it all is probably that the one thing I jokingly requested beforehand, a box to stand on so I could be more in-line with the height of the extremely tall players ended up being somewhat of an issue. The summary from whichever headquarter in charge of this trial commented on the soft volume of the interview/flash quote itself. A very large part of that was my fault, as I was intimated of placing a microphone right up against an athlete’s mouth, much less one who has the comfort of the locker room just mere minutes away.

Spare box anyone?

The Return of a Legend

‘Jenny’ Lang Ping is probably the most decorated volleyball player to come out of China. Nicknamed the ‘Iron Hammer’, her ferocious serve and precision spiking led China to their first Olympic volleyball gold medal in the 1984 Los Angeles games. An ironic twist is that Jenny is now the head coach of the US women’s team, a rival to the favored Chinese team. A week ago while I was watching Jenny run her team through practice, I couldn’t help but to stare in awe as she still was able to spike extremely efficiently as many of her current players were not able to successfully defend her spikes. Every player from 1 to 12 had their fair share of embarrassing moments as a nearly 50 year old woman was toying with them. I remembered jokingly making a comment to our ONS manager that Jenny could probably still play at an effective level.

The point of the Lang Ping introduction is the fact that the Chinese women played the US team tonight. I was extremely curious as to what kind of the reception Jenny would receive as the opposing head coach. While I can’t say I was entirely surprised that Jenny received the loudest cheer, far surpassing any individual or team for that matter of the tournament so far. China didn’t just merely welcome Jenny back; they still remembered her accomplishments and gave her all the love in the world for them. Want to know how important she is? Chinese President Hu Jingtao was in attendance.

In another nail biting game, the US team edged the Chinese in a five set match. While the crowd stayed behind to cheer their home team for a very valiant effort, the noise was definitely on a completely different level as Jenny walked through the mixed-zone and raised her hand in acknowledgement of the crowd’s appreciation. It didn’t matter that she was an enemy, an obstacle in the way of the beloved Chinese team, Jenny was and still is a Chinese legend.

The Home Crowd

I might have witnessed the greatest display of patriotism ever tonight. Qualifying by default of being the host country, the Chinese men’s volleyball team played their second match of the 2008 Olympic Games. China has not qualified for the Olympics in twenty-four years and the men’s team has not enjoyed much success in recent years. Almost always overshadowed by the dominant women’s team, one that took home the gold medal in the 2004 Athens games, the Chinese men are relatively unknown to most mainland Chinese, let alone the international community.

Their relative obscurity did not diminish the amount of support they received one bit. The stadium was packed to the brim with the 18,000 seat stadium filled with almost entirely of Chinese fans expressing their unrelenting support. The noise, the energy and the emotion was unparallel to anything I’ve ever been a part of. The Chinese team was facing a young Venezuelan squad which included a lot of talent, but not nearly enough experience to make a serious push for the quarter finals. As one of the few teams that the Chinese had a decent shot of beating, the anticipation and expectation was oozing through the crowd. Every point won by the Chinese resulted in a thunderous cheer and every Venezuelan serve was greeted by a chorus of booing. The match definitely lived up to anyone’s wildest expectations as it was only decided by the fifth set tiebreaker. The entire Capital Stadium was rocking when the home team prevailed 16 to 14.

As a supposedly unbiased member of the media, I even couldn’t help but to cheer.

USA vs China Men's Basketball

With an estimated one billion viewers, this game will go down as one of the most watched sporting events ever. Political implications aside, I find it fantastic as a Chinese-American to watch something this special mainly because I've proved myself on courts everywhere I played that I could hold my own. I remember when I first played at Purdue, I would rarely get the ball passed to me but after awhile I was able to play just as well if not better than some of the other guys.

China was blown out at the end of the game 101-70, but one only has to look at the standing ovation Yao got when he left the court with around four minutes left to understand how important sports can be regardless of nationality. Yao was injured for the majority of the season playing in the NBA and he still isn't near 100% now, but in an interview earlier this summer he did state that if he was unable to play in this year's Olympic games, it would be the biggest disappointment in his career.

There was an obvious difference in skill level between the two teams, but I'm extremely proud to root for both teams and to see how much appreciation basketball recieves in China.

First Real Day at Volleyball

The games are now very much underway and I've just finished my first day as an ONS Flash Quote Reporter. All the work and trouble that we've gone through since last October has now finally accumulated into this. It was worth every second.

My day started off with the host country China playing against an obviously outmatched Venezuelan women's team. Just a few days ago we were able to interview the Venezuelan squad and the scary thing was the fact that most of the athletes on that team were quite a few years younger than us. There are at least four members of the team who are under 18 and the oldest player is 25.

China was able to save most of its energy, as they played the entire match with mainly an even mixture of starters and second-string players. Post-game mixed zone was quite possibly the most chaotic thing I've witnessed in my life. Chinese media mobbed each and every player that walked through the zone and hearing the soft-spoken Chinese girls was like listening for a single raindrop in a thunderstorm. I was quite disappointed as I wasn't able to get the quality quotes that I was used to getting in the much less frantic training sessions. I did managed to redeem myself by being a useful copy-taker.

The second game of the evening was a much more evenly matched USA versus Japan. The US women were heavily favored to win the game, but it was common knowledge that Japan wasn't just a pushover. It was obvious that this was going to be a game where every point counted as neither team managed to push their lead to over five points throughout the first-set. Halfway through the second set, which Japan managed to win, we learned of the news that Todd Bachman father-in-law of the USA Men's Volleyball head coach was brutally murded earlier that evening. The news is a complete shock, and it completely undermines that purpose of the Olympic games.

The rest of the evening was extremely frantic as we ran back and forth from mixed zones, ONS offices and Press Conference room. It ended up being a late night but it was worth it.

Opening Ceremony

First off I have to say, there probably wasn't a better way to spend three hours in Beijing than to watch one of the most extravagant shows on earth. The Chinese government was not joking when they said they utilized nearly ten thousand people for the various acts. The final figure would end up being nearly fifteen thousand performers with nearly five thousand members of the army and military sector.

My aunt and uncle were able to obtain tickets to the actual event, but from what I've heard from them afterward, they ended up watching the jumbotron more than the actual performers. These sort of grand scale events are made for TV. To emphasize that fact even more, the director of the entire ceremony is a renowned Chinese/HK action movie director Zhang Yi Mo, who is known for his attention to detail, which is much better suited on a television screen anyways.

I spent my opening ceremony in my dorm with the company of a fellow ONS volunteer. Her dorm on campus does not have a TV so she came to watch it in my room instead. It was a very interesting experience as her knowledge of Chinese customs and cultures and my love for sports and athletes in general made for some interesting home commentary.

The ceremony was absolutely fantastic in all of its aspects, but the drummers at the begginning blew me away. The coordination required to successfully pull off something like that is just mind-boggling. Congratulations to China on an amazing job and good luck to London to create its own legacy.