Editor's Note: Hammond resident Erica Bartolina, who is in China with her coach/husband Mike to compete in the Summer Olympics, has been sending email updates to her fans from time to time. Here is a synopsis of her recent activities as she prepares for the Opening Ceremonies on Thursday and the pole vault competition a week from Friday.)
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DALIAN, China-I finally reached my destination yesterday.
After I checking into the Olympic Village for a night, we were transferred to the coast side city of Dalian, about an hour's flight from Beijing. This is where the USA track and field training camp is, and the city has done everything it accommodate us.
Just to catch up, our last warm-up meet before we left didn't go well, and I broke a pole in practice. It was the first pole I have broken in eight years! I had gotten longer poles after the (Olympic) Trials, and it was my smallest one in the new series.
I guess I won't be needing it. Thankfully I have all the poles I will need. And aside from a bruised hand, I am healthy and ready to go.
The journey began in San Jose, Calif., where I went through team processing, orientation, and fittings. It was exciting to interact with Olympians from other sports who I have never met. Gymnastics, Judo, and wrestling were some of the non-track athletes processing and traveling with us.
Because there are so many track & field athletes and we all compete on different days, we don't travel as
a team. Our processing is spread out over several days, so there were only about 20 track & field athletes processing and traveling with me.
But now I am now fully outfitted to attend the Olympic Games! As I wear the official USA team gear, it starts to sink in a little more that this is a reality. It is such a great honor to represent the USA and be part of such a great group of people.
Mike met up with me at the airport, and was on my same flight, but now that we're in Beijing, he's on his own again.
So we're here in Dalian and will be here until the Opening Ceremonies on Thursday. We have full police escort everywhere we go, and they stop traffic for our busses as we travel through town - the same treatment they would give heads of State!
They have two new tracks for us to train at, complete with a full staff of university-aged volunteers. I think we have five assigned specifically to the pole vault area, and they are there every day waiting for us to need assistance. I'm going to have to find things for them to do!
We have a beautiful isolated beachfront hotel reserved completely for us, with full military protection, our own American chef, etc. We've never felt so special - or so protected.
The weather has been great since I've gotten here. The pollution has definitely not been a problem the last couple days, but it sounded like last week it was horrible. Hopefully this weather holds.
I am adjusting to the time difference without much problem. Either the jet lag hasn't hit me yet, or I've done something right to avoid it bothering me much.
I will be competing on (Saturday) Aug. 16 about 10 a.m. and (Monday) Aug. 18 about 7 p.m. China time. I
think Beijing is 11 hours ahead, so that would put qualifying at 11 p.m. on (Thursday) Aug. 15 in Hammond.
I will have internet access for the whole trip, so I will keep you up to date.
