Morning
It was kind of a sleepy morning as i kept waking up during the night. Might have been the heat. But my morning walks along the beach are amazing. The light, friendly people, everything feels just nice.
Today I saw a lot of different forms of training. There were several crossfit groups, runners, beach volley players, personal training sessions, yoga and people just training at the outside gym. It is really cool to see how active people are around here.
I got to the venue around 8. Today at check in we were given a stress ball 😀 I guess some people have been stressed…not me..I think it is awesome here 😀
Already entering the venue media center I could see that we were many more today that the past 2. We finally had reached the 6, that we were supposed to have from the start. But today it was too much 😀 So some people stayed in the media center to help out.
We were more than fine with 2 people on the upper tribunes. That because press wasn’t clearly interested in any of the morning games. In the morning sessions we had max 5 journalists. That is very few.
So, we just watched the games and enjoyed the weather and venue.
The games today
Canada vs Brazil men (Brazil won 2:1) – this was a really exciting game. They were both really good. And the fact that the game lasted 3 sets and more than an hour shows it ( usually 1 game is max an hour).
After the game, winners threw the game ball to the audience. A Canadian guy jumped so hard to get the ball that he fell on other spectators. A Brazilian woman got that mad that almost attacked him. I think the guy was drunk. And he didn’t get the ball.
USA vs Mexico men (USA won 2:0) – this wasn’t as interesting as the first game. USA was clearly better, although Mexico played well too.
Italy vs Egypt women (Italy won 2:0) – Team Egypt has the youngest player in beach volley in these Olympics. Other than that their outfits were also very different than others. Probably for religious reasons they are very covered. That must feel really warm. They gave Italians a good game, but they were clearly the weaker team.
Poland vs Russia women (Poland won 2:0) – This promised also to be a good game. It was ok 🙂 Poland was clearly better, but Russia gave a good fight. I was surprised to only see one broadcaster and one journalist from Russia watching the game. I guess they are not big fans 😀
Latvia vs Cuba men (Cuba won 2:1) – This game was exciting once again. Really close call but Cuba was a bit better. This game also brought some Latvian and also Estonian spectators. It was nice to surprise them with some Estonian language 😀 Funnily enough they came primarily to watch the next game 😀 Latvia was just warmup.
Brazil vs USA women (Brazil won 2:0) – This was the game that filled all tribunes today. And ofcourse mostly Brazil fans. The support they give to their team is just amazing. The whole venue was dancing and singing. A really cool sight.
Afternoon
The games were really exciting in the afternoon so I decided to stay a bit longer to see the Brazil vs USA game finish. It was really exciting.
Also during the game I found an Estonian journalist – Märt Roosna. Today was actually the first day when he managed to see a competition. It just takes that much time to travel between the venues that they have to pick really carefully to manage to see something.
It is true from Copacabana it takes about an hour to the Olympic stadium. And half an hour to Lagoa stadion (rowing). So the life of a journalist isn’t easy 😀
The painter
Remember the sketch I wrote about last time? It has become a painting now 😀 The guy was ready with a sketch and now is putting colours to it.
Now it is time for some sleep and then right back to the venue again tomorrow.
