OMG .. Might the little Giants play an exhibition game in Beijing next season? I’ll be there.
A Chinese footballer? I don’t see him coming because the physical attribute is so important. I could see Chinese baseballers. And there are basketballers already in the leagues in the US.
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Tennis and golf are luxury sports in China.
The summer 2003. One weekend Yishi summoned group of her Qinghua friends, we marched to the countryside, eight families in six cars. As we were driving, my children saw more high-rise buildings. ChangPing used to be a remote area to us, the city slickers, now a part of Beijing landscape. There were skeletons of street vendors selling peaches.
“I bet they bought the peach from the city to sell here.” Wang commentedThere were some farmlands, but patchy. I forgot the resort name. The hotel was adequate. The amenities included an indoor tennis court (carpet), small swimming pool – I only remembered those two, since that’s all I cared and used. The tennis court looked clubby, dark and felt seldom used. The court fee was astronomical, US$32 per hour. With that, you get two lazy ball girls who dressed to the tee but didn’t nothing. The manager didn’t like my Ked sneakers, insisted that would damage their court surface, made me rent a pair of sneaker for 5 RMB.
The swimming pool was ok, although small, was about US$8 per day.
That night, we had dinner at the village, obviously. The shack was ok, looked the part, one story with outer and inner courtyard. Looked like a formed living quarter, without a main dinner hall, all small rooms, perhaps the bedrooms. The savvy lady who served us was pretty sleek. No makeup, non-nonsense with a short haircut. Just like any working girl you’d found on the streets of Manhattan. Her black jacket looked like from Ann Taylor (it was July), simple and profession. A ball pen was hanging on her neck. We decided to have the hot pot of games, plus few suggestions she made. I couldn’t pin down her accent. Her exchange with us was short and terse. Was she hiding something, or running away from someone/thing? Bad teeth.
Kids had a field day. We seemed the only diners there. So kids had run of the place. From the courtyard, to the dinning rooms – they dined in another room since each room was so small ..
The food .. .. the hotpot tasted great, but the games were over cooked, chewy. ..
That night, we played baifen.
Sorry it’s been six years since, but Irene still remembered this incident:
Six of us played with two decks of cards. Two wives with four husbands. Irene was kind of slow and put down an extra card in the base. Now, as a good sportsman, I would or any of my girlfriends who play with me often, would inform me regardless of being my partner or opponents because we all want a good game that being played fairly.
When the hand was depleted to the last round did Irene realize she was one card short.
One of the husbands who I found very cocky laughed with triumphal,
“I saw you put that extra card down.” He said, taking pleasure in my misfortune.
“Really? Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.
“Why should I tell you?” He retorted.
He did have a point.
During one of his seven wins in France, Lance Armstrong waited for his closest competitor who falls off the bike to get back on before racing again.
Ok, I wasn’t dealing with world class. But was it my fault for always hoping for?
希望仍在人间
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The Seven Gold Medal winner is upset. Why no one has bothered to invite him to Beijing? It would be a great idea to have him on hand to present the medal to Phelps. Speaking out himself cheapens his legacy. I for one, would love to see him greeting Michael on and off the deck.
I’ve gone nuts and screamed my heart out for the Men’s 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay, the Americans beat the French, setting new world record by 4 good long seconds. Golfer came to the room, asking if we could let him sleep. Pumpkin said appologetically, “it’s Mom ..”
Did you hear what the Frenchies were saying? Something like .. ‘oh .. The Americans? We’re going to smash them,” Alain Bernard said. “That’s what we came here for.’ .. hahaha .. The last few seconds were remarkable. Jason Lezak (a good looking dude) caught up and won – his anchor leg was a historical 46:06 seconds. Michael Phelps got his second Gold. Don’t miss out on his reaction! The roar is epic too.
I last timed myself, the 50m (25 yard x2, the short course) was something in the neigborhood of 45 seconds. Not too bad for an old bag, no? Oui.
There is something so elegant and beautiful, and gracious about the swimmers. Definitely not their nakedness. The way they create the water flow (breast stroke is excluded, sorry ..), the V shaped body .. .. It’s so mesmerizing and overwhelming.
I can’t believe that I’m a such sour loser. When I saw my favored swimmers being passed, I would wonder out loud if the leader or leaders is/are taking enhancing drugs. Pumpkin looked at me .. .. Do people get emotional in a multi-nation competition? I think so.
I was surprised to see Mary Carillo does some segments for NBC – gymnasts. Who would believe those babes or jumping fleas still in diaper are actually 16 years old?
Why do we have to wait for NBC to air it tonight? Go online.. NBC scheduled at 7:30pm when it’s happening in the morning. In the past, NBC or other major net works would get hammered for not broadcasting live, like French Open. That’s in the past, we had no recourse. Now it’s the Youtube era. My cousin got up at 4am in LA and is watching it online.
Baseball or softball isn’t a foreign sport, I played it in primary school in the middle 70s in Beijing, Zhongguancun Erxiao 中关村二小 as past of physical education, in our front yard. The positions weren’t as clearly defined as in MLB. Not sure Mao banned it. I enjoyed it a lot. To my dismay, once a class had to be canceled because US president Ford was to visit the Summer Palace and our school was at the corner of the route in Zhongguancun. Our school was even considering to ban few students (who always failed) from attending schools during the period. The article’s assertion that 150,000 people play seemed low, I played, so did my g/f who attended Qinghua University fm 1980-85 played as part of phy ed – two years basic and then one year specialized (两年基础体育课,然后一年专项体育课) – just to name two, and we weren’t athletes. One of my classmates played tennis at sport school in Sichuan, she gave it up once she moved to Beijing. At the time, late 70s, sports could not compete with A+ and getting into a top college. True that we played a lot of ping pong and badminton in China, but let’s face it, baseball is a slow sport, can be really boring. Despite the love I have for the game, but I have no patient to watch it, ice hockey and football are the spectator sport. Remember back in the autumn 1986, I was awaken by the sound of cheers, honking, beer bottle chattering on the street in the middle of the night. Ha, Mets just won. The following day, every one were talking about the Mets and its win. It still couldn’t move me to watch. One game per season is my max tolerance. When Jack was around, Golfer’s buddy, I did go to Central Park to play pick up game with him. First time, the team captain complained that he didn’t want a girl on his team. Jack told him, “too bad .. she waited for her turn ..” Grumpily, the huge guy took me. It turned out, I was pretty good at bat but a lousy fielder, :).
I’d claim plausibly and at length that I was born in the year of Fish when I was asked about my 属 zodiac sign. The problem is, the twelve animals showed up at the gathering were all terrestrials 🙂
Water sport has to be my most beloved activity, a life long pursue. And I much favor the distance 1,000m over 50m or 100m sprinting. After 20 (or 40 in the short course) or so laps in the pool, I feel so invigorated that I could take on the www, the whole wide world. No matter how many aces I dish out, nor how many love games I’ve won, or harmony camaraderie on court, tennis just doesn’t produce that type of feeling. Both my parents and my godparents loved swimming. My first lesson was in Kunming Lake 昆明湖 at Summer Palace when I was only 1 year old, breaststroke, of course. Dad was the drill sergeant out of the four. He demanded certain number of laps each time I hit the pool while others were just satisfied at the fact that I could demonstrate the basic survival skill in the water. Even 旱鸭子 Nainai would take me to the pool.
Although the public pools in Beijing were scarce, and water sometimes could be green (no kidding – once a kid drowned due to the fact the life guard couldn’t see through the dense green water..), but they were all 50 meters, the real standard Olympic size. There’s one near where I lived, and one at renda fu, my middle/high school. But we mostly went to the Summer Palace to swim and boat. I was really bad at sport in school, one semester even failed my physical ed: swimming didn’t count, and I hate to run/jump.
When I returned to Beijing starting 5th grade, I immediately met a good friend Dai Rui who’s on the swimming team. She didn’t have a swimmer’s built, but her dad was there to be her advocate, so she got on, with Wang Piaoshi – it happened that they both were breaststrokes. My free style and dive were all learned from her. We spent many afternoons at the Summer Palace, climbed onto the thin wooden bench in the middle of the lake and practiced dive. The water there was bearable, not as muddy as nowadays. I still remembered the muddy floor, very silky but eerily – from time to time there was a hard stem. My rating of the four strokes is butterfly, free, back and breast, in that order. When I got to Hong Kong, I still couldn’t swim free continuously. No matter how much I tried.
By the way, the tiny Hong Kong all pools are 50m, if you wondered. So one day I saw a gorgeous dress, had to have it. When I took it to the register, did I realize I omitted a zero. Embarrassingly, I told the clerk so. She gave me a meant look that showed plenty of whites of her eyes. But the store manager came over, said she’ll give me a discount and hold it for me for three days. When I gone to swimming afterward, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. So I said, IF I could do a 1,000m free without stop, then I’d reward myself with it. Motivation drives people, large or trivia. I did it and still have it in my closet now. Back then, for three months I didn’t buy a single new dress.
I never had any training nor did I take any lessons. After settled down in New York, aside from the shocking realization that Olympic Pool in American terminology is 25m, I happily resumed, and added half baked flip turns and backstroke. I did few years at a local masters swimming club, three early mornings a week before heading off to work. It was organized by Steve, a 6’5” tall with a solid built firefighter – submarine I nicknamed him. On the first day, he eyed me over from head to toe, and said, “get in, let me see ..” When I was too slow to jump in, he put down his coffee, picked me up like a hawk caught a hen, then threw me into the lane. Oh well. What I remembered of him over the years was (joking) that upon his entrance into the pool,
1, next room would be flooded, and
2, he’s already half way across the lane.
Sorry If I can’t get over the fact that the out sized Americans with out sized land and out sized wallets only build pool that’s half the length and called them Olympic size. And they pocket the most gold medals fair and square. Many of those athletes have to make living to support pursuing their dreams in the water, vs China or Russia where the athletes are well taken care of by the states. Or this was yerteryear’s info?
Over the years, I tried to learn the fly couple of times, for I just can’t erase image of Matt Biondi came rushing down the lane, so vivid, impressive and yes, very graceful. His long arms could scope up the world. The butterfly has to be the most elegant stroke of the four, breast being the least. Pumpkin’s back and free are great, but I consider her butterfly the most enchanting. When she was little, her waist didn’t have enough strength, so all I could see was her head up and down the water, like a little puppy about to drown lastingly.
People, I need help here: the meaning of ‘Olympic-sized Swimming Pool’ could have such drastic meaning in different countries: 25m in US and 50m in the rest of the world (almost, I reckon? Full disclosure, I haven’t traveled the world … yet).
I grew up in Beijing and taken to swim in the then-not-so-muddy Kunming Lake in the Summer Palace when I was only 6 moths old. Since then I perfected my breaststroke in the public pools that measured 50 metres, my high school’s included. I also swam at Morrison Hill in Hong Kong, London, Frankfurt, Paris, etc., even in Cairo, which were all 50m!
Then on my fray to the USA, first stop was Honolulu. When I made the reservation I chose a hotel boasting an Olympic-sized pool on its brochure. Little did I know. So when I strided over to do my laps, did I realized it’s so small. Did I go to the wrong pool? No. “This IS the Olympic-sized pool”. The hotel employee who’s passing by told me. Excuse me??? Ok, I shouldn’t argue, after all, it’s a hotel.
Then I wandered into New York and eventually settled down. Now I really needed a pool to quench my thirst. Hmmmmm … few Olympic-sized pools I went to, were all half the size, well 25-yard. I was really dumb founded: why can’t US have the regular pools as the rest of the world do, as poor as China and puny 寸金只土 as Hong Kong??? I am bewildered at the fact that American swimmers are grabbing record amount of medals at each summer Olympics with little (almost none?) imported help (i.e. like in badminton, so to speak).
Granted, there are few pools in NYC that are 50m, but given the size of this country and plentiful of the capital … this is my point and perplexity. Don’t you think that I hadn’t ask. The replies from various coaches were
“I have no idea …” to “Oh, this [short course pool] is cheap to maintain.”
HHhuh? Pardon me! Thinking that in 2003 when I went to Beijing and visited my high school. Guess what? The out door 50m pool was long gone, instead a sparking indoor Olympic-sized pool was built. (Ok, disclosure: my high school ranked 3rd in the country.) What’s more ironic is the adjacent Renmin University (my high school is on the campus of the Uni), only few yards away – has just built its own luxury indoor pool, 50m. Oh well, short course has it advantage: great for practicing flip turns, 🙂
Out of north shore on LI, there are two I used to go. One is built in 1998 for the Goodwill Games, Aquatic Center at Eisenhower Park, and the other is at Hofstra Uni where my kids learned to swim: King didn’t … Pumpkin improved. Most time, both pools are being cascaded into short courses to accommodate more teams and swimmers. Ok, getting bit anal: The dimensions of an Olympic pool are required to be 25 metres by 50 metres, stated by FINA.org, (FR 2.1.1). Truthfully, 25m = 82.02 ft, so the American’s short course is less than 25m. No wonder I have such good timing in 500m and 1000m (ok that’s a self-deprecating joke), and it’s legal! Americans are litigious, and yet there is a lawsuit over the pool size. Hmmm..
