It’s been an unbelievable few days in Beijing. First off, the opening ceremony was something I will take to the grave. This experience is something no one, not even the most gifted writer could explain properly. I will do my best to depict the experience but this will still not do the actual event justice. Here it goes.

JD and I arrived on Thursday, August 7th from Qingdao. Sally and her brothers and sisters also arrived the same day. That evening, JD had dinner with George H. W. Bush and Peter Ueberroth (head of the USOC). Really cool experience!! After he finished, we met at the MPC for a quick interview with the Today Show. I think many of you saw the clip seen (based on the amount of emails you have sent me saying how sexy I am on tv…).

I woke up bright and early on August 8th, the USOC sent a car to pick me up and took me to the Olympic Village. WOW! I have done many things in my life that warrant the word cool I am living the dream, but this was by far and away the coolest thing I have EVER done in my life.

I hooked up with my US Sailing Teammates and started walking around the village taking it all in, people watching, star gazing and just totally experiencing the village life! The first place I went was the dining hall. This place was HUGE! I think you could fit four football fields under this one roof. It had every kind of food you could imagine. It even had a McDonalds in there (I never ate there, but LeBron James, & Carmelo Anthony were eating a Big Mac after opening ceremonies)! My first star sighting was Amanda Beard (the swimmer, I got a quick picture with her!!).

Next, I bumped into Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks (he is playing for Germany here). I said hello and he couldn’t have been nicer!! Then it hit me I saw my idol from the other side of the room I could pick him out of a crowd, I nearly dropped my food try… It was George Hincapie (cyclist on ALL of Lance Armstrongs winning Tour teams). I went up to him and introduced myself and just like ALL the magazines say he might of been the nicest guys I have ever met, he even sat down with me and chatted about the recent Tour de France he competed in two weeks ago and showed me his road rash from his 40 mph crash while going down the famed Aples de Huez… I ran into a few of my wrestling friends I had met in Chicago back in May and saw a few of my water polo buddies…

At 1645 I started getting dressed for the opening ceremony, 1700 downstairs to walk over to the USA Team building to meet and gather with all the other team USA members.
We were all driven over to the fencing hall where only the USA team was and lo and behold our President G.W Bush was there to give us a pep talk. The President was there with Laura and his father G.H.W. Bush (I met them all and even had my photo taken with them all – plus a picture with the President’s daughter!).

After his speech we mingled with the other athletes and I met EVERYONE on the basketball team!! I got pictures with my favorite NBA super stars Kobe Bryant, LaBron James, D Wade, CP3 Carlos Boozer, Jason Kid, even Coach K posed for a quick snap shot with me!!!

I also I got a photo with Freddy Adu the USA Soccer Phenom and Tyson Gay was a really cool person!!. ALL were the nicest guys… The NBA stars were very good sports and took time to talk to all of us. It’s really amazing how famous those guys are. Kobe is by far and away the biggest superstar in China. When we were walking to the stadium there were thousands of people lining the barricades screaming his name (I was walking right next to him and the guy was a total pro and a nice guy I dont know how he managed but it was impressive).
I think the biggest thing that I will remember is before we walked out on the field in front of 90,000 screaming fans all 600 USA team members stopped in the tunnel and started chanting USA, USA, USA. I still get chills writing about it those three letters reverberated off the walls and through my skin. It was very emotional to be part of something like this and something people could never come close to imagining having never lived it themselves. You don’t learn this stuff or gain experiences like this in any college or any B School. Just unreal.

In case you are wondering, YES it was me who in front of the camera said “HI MOM” the fellow next to me was my sailing buddy and 04 silver medalist Charlie Olgetree, great guy and like me equally funny (well maybe a little less than I am). Standing in that stadium during the opening ceremony was an incredible experience. The most memorable thing besides the tunnel experience and walking around the circle with the rest of the team was the torch lighting. To see it in person was incredible! I am not sure how London 2012 will top that as I think it will be a very tough act to follow.

Let’s see what else have I been up to?

My sponsor Oakley sunglasses has what they call a safe house here. It’s awesome only athletes and their guests, and select media are allowed inside. They rented out the 3rd floor of this night club and remodeled it with tons of TVs, lots of display cases for ALL the Oakleys that they give us to wear during the Olympics. Air hockey tables and all the food you can eat! It’s great and it feels like home! Al Janc and Megan Pura really did a super job of making me and my family welcome. Great glasses and great people who I am very happy about being associated with.

On the evening of the 9th Sally, my brother in law Schaeffer and me headed over to the Oakley Safe House for dinner and to see what else was happening. It didn’t take very long for Sally to make some friends (who I will not name, but trust me they are very famous cyclists who just rode 160 miles and competed earlier in the day and there Olympics were done so they were ready to rock). Just so happened that I was on the VIP list at a Budwesier party at Club Bud. The six of us arrived and were ushered up the red carpet where the media waited and filmed us. That night lasted way too late. Basically, I now have even more respect for professional cyclists. I don’t even know how those guys were standing after racing for seven hours…. just insane.

Last night JD and I did another interview with NBC, it went really well and I am sure you can find it on nbcolympics.com. After the interview, I was able to score some swimming and gymnastics tickets for the whole family. During the gymnastics, I got to meet the CEO of American Century and his family. You may not make much of this, but I used to work on Wall Street and I miss it on a daily basis. They couldn’t have been nicer, what a great family and great kids! I look forward to staying in touch post Olympics!!

I came down with a bit of the flu but not to worry I was in good hands with the USOC doctor who gave me some medicine and sent me on the way.

Tomorrow, JD and I head back to Qingdao. We measure our boat on the 13th and racing begins on the 15th.

Time to go to work.

Austin