BEIJING -- The week leading up to the start of the Games, as well as the first 3 days since the opening ceremony, has been very busy at the training facilities. Teams are practicing every hour and several will scrimmage another country during their allotted time. Drs. Connaughton and Zhang have been poolside and courtside, respectively, for these activities and have been regularly interacting with the team coaches, athletes, support staff, media, and other Olympic staff volunteers.  Teams from the following countries have utilized these training facilities: USA, China, Argentina, Italy, Greece, Germany, Australia, Malaysia, Cuba, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Canada, Hungary, Spain, Brazil, Russia, Poland, Mexico, and Latvia.

Tickets to the actual competitions have been sold out for quite some time; however, we had the opportunity to watch two live women’s basketball games (Korea v. Russia and Latvia v. Belarus) from center court, fifth row at the basketball competition venue.

Security at the venues has been very tight with the utilization of police, security guards, undercover personnel, and Chinese military.

-Dan Connaughton

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