96 Hours in China
On the evening of January 9, in a little hotel in Brezno-Osrblie, Slovakia, I received a phone call from the US Biathlon Association High Performance Director, where he said “I’m sure you’ve done the math. You’re the 5th spot for the Olympic team.” Well, no, I hadn’t technically done the math, but had done some calculating in my head-I was elated! But the 5th spot? What does this mean for a country with only four spots at the Olympics Games? It means that I was the “Named First Alternate for the US Biathlon Olympic team.” I got to travel to Beijing, in the event that one of the four athletes got sick and was unable to compete in the Women’s Relay. For the men, this unique spot went to Vasek Cervenka. Technically, I am not an Olympian, rather a member of the U.S. Olympic Delegation.
Last IBU Cup in Nove Mesto before heading to China (Photo: Igor Stancik).
So what did this mean in reality? I got to race more IBU Cups, spend a week in Ruhpolding, and then travel to China for four days. And do a lot of spectating and cheering! Do I wish I had been able to race? Of course! But only if I had earned one of the four spots, and not because any of my teammates were ill. Do I think I made the best of a funky situation? Yep! Continue reading below for a peek at what 96 hours in China looked like!
Saturday, February 12
11:00am. PPE’d up and ready to fly. Vasek and I flew from Munich to Paris to Beijing. The flight to Beijing was 11 hours. Before leaving, I told a German biathlon venue manager that I was going to Beijing as the reserve athlete, he said “ah, yes! The jokers!” So Vasek and I dubbed ourselves the jokers.
12:00pm. We were warned there would be no food or water on the flight from Paris to Beijing. We were wrong! We were presented with lots of water and a variety of snacks, including Chinese Chips Ahoy!, meat in a bag, and plenty of Wet Wipes.
Sunday February 13
9:00am. Land in Beijing.
11:00am. Board a bus to Zhangjiakou, the mountain town about 200km from Beijing where biathlon and cross country, as well as freestyle, snowboard and ski events were held. It was cool to see Olympic signs all the way from the airport. At one point, I saw some rings in the distance. Perhaps it was the Beijing Village, where figure skating, hockey, and some other sports took place!
3:00pm. Arrive at the hotel. Then navigate the bus system to the Olympic Village to receive our accreditation, then to the biathlon venue. Upon exiting the bus at the venue, I saw GRP teammate Caitlin Patterson. There’s always something extra special about seeing a friend thousands of miles from home after many months apart.
5:00pm. Watch women’s pursuit! All 4 American women qualified for the pursuit, for the first time, so this was extra special. It snowed the whole race. Reportedly, this was the biggest snowstorm the area has received in 13 years, making for some slow skiing conditons.
6:45p. Watch men’s pursuit. Also awesome!
8:30pm. Eat dinner in the Olympic Village Dining Hall and sing Happy Birthday to Susan! The Dining Hall was an experience in and of itself. There were hundreds of athletes, lots of food, and hundreds of individual eating carrels separated by plexiglass.
9:30pm. Return to the hotel. Sleep, a while later, after relaxing from all the excitement.
Monday February 14
9:30am. Breakfast after a long, much needed sleep.
10:30am. Find the gym in hotel that was connected by a tunnel. Did some treadmill running, as we weren’t allowed outdoors except to get on the bus, or while at the venue.
2:00pm. Ski the course with Coach Armin, just in case I got to race! Then proceeded to ski for a while with Susan, Caitlin, and Caitlin’s brother Scott. In the picture below, you can very faintly see the reconstruction of the Great Wall of China. I am not sure the details of the project, but I did check it out a few days later.
4:30pm. Team photo.
8:00pm. Dining hall dinner.
8:30pm. The obligatory Olympic rings photo! This one was with USBA teammates Joanne and Canadian buddy Megan.
9:00pm. The long, meandering bus ride home.
9:45pm. Spend too long puzzling over a bus schedule to watch aerials. Decided that sleep is more important.
A cultural note: I found my little slice of China an interesting mix of old and new. Below, you’ll see a twig broom. These brooms were ubiquitous and were used for all sorts of things, but mostly sweeping snow off roads and sidewalks. This was in sharp contrast to the robots that were around, for uses like delivering Vasek room service!
Susan, myself, and Caitlin. Skied more with them in China than in Craftsbury this season.
Tuesday February 15
A semi-relaxed morning in the hotel before:
11:00am prerace workout with the rest of the ladies. I wasn’t able to shoot, but needed to have an awake body just in case I raced the next day! I did have shooting coach Matt Emmons take a photo of me on the range; I needed some proof I didn’t just spectate (note my very large Staff bib!)
1:00pm. Eat lunch in the Athlete Lounge and hang out in preparation for-
2:30pm. Men’s relay! Super exciting to watch our men race. Before the race, as I was heading out on course with spare poles, coaches said “good luck” to me as a fellow staff member, the camaraderie making me smile.
5:00pm. Hang out in the Olympic Village with Joanne, Deedra, Susan, and Clare. We went to the Coca Cola Cafe, where there is a pin trading wall. Apparently, pin trading from country to country and sport to sport is a really big thing at the Olympics. I came a few weeks late to really get the full pin experience, but did trade a few.
6:00pm. Begin an adventure! With only four days at the Olympics, I really wanted to see some other events. So, after careful perusal of the event and bus schedule, I found my way to the Genting Snow Park for the Men’s Aerials Qualifier. Here, I put any shyness aside and made friends with several women on the US Aerials team. They were very welcoming, explaining the completely-foreign-to-me sport. They cheered for everyone of all nationalities, congratulated all the athletes, and were friends with all the competitors. Biathlon is very close, but I think the smallness of Aerials really accentuated how close-knit that community is.
8:30. Dinner
8:50. Bus home and collapse into bed.
Wednesday, February 16.
The final day! So naturally, I had to do it all. Teammates Jake and Sean joined Vasek and I for breakfast, as our hotel breakfast was a luxury compared to the village meals. The staff and volunteers were really excited to take pictures and trade pins with us!
12:30pm. Count and pack up ammunition to fly home. Each of the 1,150 rounds of ammo was individually counted.
1:00pm. Ski. I skied with team doctor, Brett, which was super fun! At the end of this ski, I decided this was the one chance in my life to see the Great Wall of China, so I took a jog in my ski boots to see the reconstruction. What I saw was a long pile of rocks, some metal fencing, and lights. At night the lights shine and it is visible from far away.
2:30pm. See Armin while he tests skis. He reports to me that "everyone is healthy” so I will not be racing. As it should be!
2:45pm. Pack rifle to fly home.
3:15pm. Watch women’s relay. I got the privilege to watch with USOPC staff Mara Smith, mental strength and conditioning, and Megan Chacosky, dietician. These two women have become an integral part of my life and I am so lucky to have them “in my court.” It was extra special to see them in China.
5:15pm. A mad dash with GRP teammate Jake to the cross country team sprint! We could have found a bus, but it seemed more efficient to run the mile, in winter boots and jackets, to the xc venue. It was really cool to watch both the men’s and women’s team sprints finals. It made me miss ski racing a bit!
6:30pm. At the bus stop waiting to go back to the village, Hallie to Jake: “want to go watch aerials with me?” Jake to Hallie: “I guess, sure!” We also met biathlon legend Martin Fourcade waiting for the bus.
7:00pm. Watch aerials until we turned to popsicles and found out it was -5F, and we got to hang out with the aerial women again.
8:00pm. Back to the village for a GRP team photo.
9:00pm. During my ski with Brett earlier in the day, I had mentioned a weird cyst on my ankle. He was able to do an ultrasound of it in the USOPC sports med clinic, to see where to go next with it. It seemed like a full-on doctor’s office!
10:00pm. Back at the hotel, get ready to depart.
Thursday February 17
1:30am. Depart hotel for airport. There were still volunteers/staff in the lobby for security and the daily PCR testing station was still set up.
In the airport, I hung out with a Bulgarian athlete and wax tech, which was fun! It’s always fun to learn about different teams and hear their experiences. They were en route to World Juniors in Utah! The airport was a small madhouse of lots of athletes with LOTS of sporting equipment.
9:00am. Depart China.
I will not regale you with any more details, but I did meet a woman who is a FIS Technical Delegate for Freestyle Skiing, also traveling back from China. She was really interesting to chat with! Life lesson: don’t take photos after a 24 hour travel day.
A huge thank you to everyone-USBA teammates, GRP teammates, USBA staff, and friends from other countries, for making my feel welcome and appreciated during my quick trip to China. Thanks for reading!