It’s long been a dream of mine to attend the summer Olympics. Last spring I was in Beijing visiting a friend who’d just moved to the city and would be staying for a few years. Could I crash at his place? Sure! So I just had to find some tickets.
It took almost an hour of searching, but I eventually found the site where non-Chinese residents could enter the ticket lottery. A lottery? My normal instinct was to say “screw you” to lotteries; First off, I don’t like the way they make me feel: needy and powerless, like waiting behind the velvet rope outside a club, hoping I’m attractive enough to get past the bouncer. And this was a lottery for tickets to an event sixteen months away. Plus, I imagined 1.3 billion industrious, smart, good-at-math Chinese citizens, each with their own friend who worked in the ticket office.
On the other hand, I had no choice. And maybe China would allocate a fair percentage of the seats to foreigners, give the games legitimacy. Shouldn’t there be rules requiring that and shouldn’t the Chinese government take care to honor those rules? And why was I being such a bitch about it?
Prices turned out to surprisingly affordable (6-50 dollars) – a good sign; only the opening and closing ceremonies were pricey – $200-750. Here, another one of my instincts – parsimony – kicked in. $200 for the opening ceremony? Not worth it. Which was my thinking until my friend said, “Should be magnificent – they’ll really be out to impress.”
So I made my ticket selections and entered my credit card info, trusting that the site was in fact legit and not some elaborate fishing scam. That was April ‘07. Not until November did I learn the results:
No opening ceremony.
No ping pong.
No fencing.
- Badminton
This should be great. The Chinese are, I think, badminton’s world champs. When I used to live in Taipei, the park near my apartment had a half-dozen vigorous games going in the mornings. Laugh all you want, Americans; real Badminton is fast and fierce; nothing like the lob-and-lob pass-time we bring to the beach or backyard. - Basketball
I personally think it’s great how Olympic basketball has evolved into a different, dare-I-say-more-entertaining game than the showboating we’ve grown dull to in the States.
Actually, I don’t really dare say anything as I typically watch zero games of basketball (pro and college combined) per year. Still, I’ll be in the stands in Beijing, rooting for Uzbekistan or Argentina or whoever happens to be playing. - Swimming
This I am most looking forward to. I was a competitive swimmer for nine years and am hard-wired for adrenaline, physically incapable of being passive while a swim race is happening. I’ll be on my feet, shouting out the names of American Swimmers and wiping tears from my eyes. Go USA. - Equestrian
I have absolutely no idea about this sport. It was available, and I figured maybe it’d give me a chance to put on some special outfit – a straw hat and seersucker suit. I’ll have little idea what to look for, what determines who’s good. Do people typically drink while watching Equestrian?
Squash, incidentally, is a totally rockin’ sport that would make a great addition to the Olympics. My understanding, though, is that in order for a new sport to be added, an existing sport must be taken out. Got any good candidates?
My tickets arrived in the mail yesterday. Fifteen months in the making. Sweet.
Assuming all goes well, I’ll start planning for the 2012 Olympics shortly after returning from Beijing.