All-round Athlete

Fifty-three track and field athletes who participated in the Athens Olympic Games gathered here in the large conference room of the Athletics Management Center.

On the rostrum, Director Luo of the National Team Olympic Track and Field Delegation is introducing some on-site arrangements for the Olympics to the players.

“Because of the large number of participants, the athletes of our country mainly arrived in Greece in three batches. The first batch is currently the sailing windsurfing team, rowing, kayaking team, women’s football and gymnastics team, of which sailing sails Athletes of cricket, rowing, and kayaking have arrived in Athens. After all, water sports are greatly affected by wind and waves, so they need to arrive early to adapt to training.”

“The second batch of large troops will arrive in Athens on August 8 by special plane. The table tennis badminton, weightlifting, diving, swimming, archery, boxing, etc. are all in this batch. The male basketball players are relatively tall, Will take another flight to Athens. The first two batches of athletes will arrive in Athens before the opening of the Olympic Games on August 13.”

“As for our track and field delegation, we are scheduled to go to Athens in the last batch. We don’t have a special plane, we need to take a flight by ourselves. Specifically, we will be divided into three teams based on the principle of proximity. To Athens; coach Huang from Huangpu will transfer to Athens via the Netherlands; coach Sand from Huacheng will transfer to Athens via Hong Kong. Depending on the flight, it will be from August 17 to August 19 Arrived in Athens.”

“Another thing I want to say is to participate in the opening ceremony of the Athens Olympics. At the opening ceremony, our delegation is going to form a phalanx. Some of the athletes are recommended by the organization. Other athletes can also sign up if they want to participate. So does any of us want to sign up?”

Participating in the Olympic Opening Phalanx is a very glorious thing, but it is also a very tiring thing. The Olympic Opening will have to go through many rehearsals in advance, which will take a lot of time. The opening ceremony is scheduled from 9 pm to 12 pm on the 13th of Athens time. If the time of the return trip is counted, it is estimated that it will be tossed to three or four in the morning.

The opening ceremony consumes a lot of energy from athletes, so many athletes will not choose to participate in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in order to avoid affecting the state of the game.

In addition, Director Luo has just said the transportation plan of the track and field delegation. If you sign up for the opening ceremony, it means that you have to go to Athens several days in advance, which is equivalent to leaving the group of track and field delegations. In the traditional concept, Acting alone without the collective is obviously a not-so-good performance.

Moreover, if you leave the organization and arrive in Athens early, not to mention clothing, food, housing, and transportation, training alone is also a big problem. As a professional athlete, not training for a day may affect the state, let alone several days in a row.

Therefore, when Director Luo asked if anyone wanted to sign up for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the athletes in the stadium did not raise their hands. Even if some people wanted to participate, they saw that they did not make it.

Seeing that no one raised his hand, Director Luo nodded in satisfaction, and he didn’t want an alternative in his team.

At this moment, an athlete sitting in the back row suddenly raised his right hand and shouted: “I want to sign up for the opening ceremony!”

Dozens of people in the conference room were all stunned, and then looked back collectively, and found that it was Zhang Guan who raised his hand.

“Huh…” Director Luo was speechless. He didn’t expect that there was such an ignorant athlete, and this ignorant athlete was still one of the benchmark figures in the track and field delegation.

But then Director Luo thought, after all, Zhang Guan was only 18 years old this year, even if he was a big kid, and played only one international competition. It is normal for this age to be curious about things.

“Zhang Guan, I’m afraid you don’t know yet. It takes a lot of time to participate in the opening ceremony. You have to get up early and get rehearsed. You have to rehearse in advance and walk around the stadium several times.” A coach in the front row reminded.

“Yes, our track and field delegation will arrive in Athens several days after the opening ceremony. During this time, you will have to stay in the Olympic Village…” Another coach also said.

“It’s okay, it’s just time to get familiar with the venue and local environment in advance. And I think it’s a glorious thing to be able to participate in the opening ceremony of the Olympics, especially to participate in the athletes’ team, to represent the motherland in front of the world, for me It’s a great honor.” Zhang Guan replied.

People who originally wanted to discourage Zhang Guan suddenly shut up. They didn’t expect Zhang Guan to set the tone so high at once, even speaking on behalf of the motherland, which rose to the height of ideological consciousness. How can others persuade.

At the beginning of Zhang Guan’s registration, everyone thought Zhang Guan was young and curious, so some senior coaches sitting in the front row would persuade, but listening to Zhang Guan said it was obviously early. There are premeditated people who want to participate in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

Director Luo sighed helplessly. As Director Luo, he could not change his words naturally. Since Zhang Guan raised his hand in public to sign up, Director Luo could only agree to let Zhang Guan fill out an application form and report At the Olympic delegation.

The official responsible for the propaganda of the Youth League soon gave a reply, agreeing to Zhang Guan participating in the athletes’ team at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

In the opening ceremony, the player’s phalanx prefers the famous and good-looking athletes, the name of the first flying man in Asia, so that Zhang Guan will not be rejected for registration, not to mention Zhang Guan itself is a big man of more than one meter nine in the queue At the time, the overall image also has advantages.

…

The next day, Zhang Guan went to the bank and exchanged a part of the euro, and all the euros in the bank card were taken out. Now the sum of the euros on Zhang Guan’s body is more than 160,000.

The maximum face value of the euro is 500 yuan, so 160,000 euros is a little more than three bucks. A large envelope is installed, and it can be easily inserted into the mezzanine of the bag.

According to customs regulations, there is a limit to carry foreign currency out of the country, but the Olympic team took an Air China Boeing 747 special plane, and the customs side released all the way, so Zhang Guan successfully brought so much euro cash into the plane.

At that time, the handling fee for cross-border withdrawals was much higher than ten years later. International credit card giants were also trying every means to block UnionPay. As a result, the international credit cards handled by domestic UnionPay were not available in many places. In addition, foreign exchange The Administration’s limit for cross-border withdrawals is 5,000 yuan per day, not US dollars, but national currency, which can be said to be pitiful. It was changed to 10,000 per day in 2008. Afterwards, Chinese tourists gradually went to the world, and The country’s foreign exchange is also relatively sufficient, and the cross-border withdrawal limit has slowly been increased to 100,000 yuan per day.

It is precisely because of various restrictions that Zhang Guan chose to carry euro cash directly. In fact, at that time, most people who went abroad also carried foreign currency cash. The entire Olympic delegation, except for those big-name athletes who often go abroad, have foreign bank cards. In addition, basically carry cash.

There is no direct flight class from the capital to Athens. If you take a civil airliner, you need to transfer. This time the Olympic delegation was chartered by direct flights, so it took more than six hours to arrive in Athens.

The time difference between Athens and the capital is five hours. The flight departs at 2 pm in capital time and arrives in Greece at 3 pm in Athens time. The Athens Olympic Organizing Committee has provided a special “Olympic Family” channel for the participating countries in the Olympic Games, which can directly pass the customs clearance procedures. The Olympic University’s Pakistan University has already stayed in the closed parking lot of the airport. After the athletes left the airport, they After going to Pakistan University, I went straight to the Olympic Village.

The delegation did not hold any ceremonies at the airport, nor did it contact the media. This arrangement is undoubtedly disappointing the waiting reporters. There were more than 200 reporters waiting at the airport that day. They could only shoot some athletes across the road. Picture of suitcase.

The Olympic Village of the Athens Olympic Games is located at the foot of a mountain. The Olympic Village is divided into accommodation areas and international areas. Both areas have access restrictions. The accommodation areas only allow athletes, officials and Olympic village staff to enter.

Most of the buildings in the accommodation area are three-storey buildings, which adopt an apartment-style layout. In addition to the living room, each apartment has four bedrooms, two bath rooms and a balcony, which is actually a four-bedroom, two-bathroom and one hall. pattern. There are two beds in each bedroom, that is, an apartment can accommodate eight athletes.

At the same time, the Olympic Village also has facilities such as hospitals, religious service centers and libraries, all of which are free of charge.

Next, Zhang Guan will participate in the rehearsal for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

Before the arrival of the athletes, the Athens Olympics Organizing Committee has held many opening rehearsals, including rehearsals for opening performances, light and sound rehearsals, rehearsals for torch relays, ignition rehearsals, etc. It is possible to send only some athletes to participate, but the flag bearers of the side team must participate in the rehearsal.

The flag-bearer of the Chinese delegation is the little giant. Since the men’s basketball team is going to participate in the rehearsal, all the men’s basketball team members will naturally follow the boss to participate in the rehearsal of the Olympic Games opening ceremony. The name also followed.

…

Rehearsal day at the Athens Olympic Stadium.

As soon as he got out of the car, Zhang Guan grabbed the team’s interpreter and said, “I have a stomachache. I have to squat in the bathroom for a while. Please help me take a leave!”

“Are you all right, let the team doctor show you?” the translator asked.

“It’s okay, it’s just a bit unacceptable,” Zhang Guan said.

The translator nodded. It was quite normal for diarrhea symptoms to occur two days before going abroad because of unacceptable soil and water. Zhang Guan was not alone. He pointed to a sign in the distance and said, “Don’t lose it. We will gather there after the rehearsal for a while. That is the sign. If you can’t find us, just wait there. Don’t Run around.”

“No problem, you can rest assured that you can never lose it.” Zhang Guan said as he rushed into the bathroom not far away while covering his stomach.

A few minutes later, seeing that all the teams participating in the rehearsal entered the stadium, Zhang Guanyou slipped out quietly. He took out a tourist map of Athens, looked at it carefully, and then quickly disappeared into the crowd.