TRANSPORTATION FOR BEIJING OLYMPICS

Transportation at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

It seems that everyone dreams of participating in the Olympic Games. As kids, athletes all over the world imagine themselves on the sports world’s biggest stage, competing for glory while representing their countries and their families in friendly competition.

For those of us who aren’t able to compete at an Olympic level, the next best thing is to be able to attend the Olympic Games. For as long as they have existed, the Olympic Games have had an appeal and a tradition that set it apart from similar sporting events, and which somehow manage to capture the collective imaginations of people all over the world, whether or not they are normally sports fans.

If you are among those that are lucky enough to be attending the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China, you are most likely excited, but maybe a bit stressed out as well. After all, there are a lot of things to arrange and prepare before the Olympic Games arrive. You may not have quite as much to think about as say, an Olympic gymnast or sprinter, but it’s understandable if the prospect of getting around during the 2008 Beijing Olympics is a bit daunting!

With a city the size of Beijing, China, combined with the tremendous influx of visitors that only an Olympic competition can bring, getting around town to various events as well as other tourist attractions can be pretty intimidating. It’s vital for an Olympic city to not only provide great public transportation, but also to be easy to get around for those who choose to transport themselves to where they need to go. For those folks, there has to be ample parking, and the roads must be able to occupy a larger than usual amount of drivers without causing chaos, and worse yet, traffic jams!

Luckily, the public transportation system in Beijing appears to be ready for the rather formidable challenge that such a large number of new visitors and athletes will bring. Not only can you get around for a fairly small fee (1 yuan for a bus ride in the city, and 2 yuan if you’re in the suburbs), but Public Transportation Cards are available, even to visitors, so that you can save money. It’s probably a good idea to take advantage of that offer if you’re going to be making lots of trips, which you likely will if you’re attending the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

If buses aren’t your style, you can also get a quick ride from one of the over 60,000 taxi cabs within the city of Beijing. Taxis can be a great way to travel because, although they are more expensive than buses, they can get you where you need to go quickly. Also, with a taxi, you can give the driver a specific destination, without having to tailor your arrival to a pre-set location along a bus route.

If you’re still not pleased, you’ll probably want to go with the subway or city rails that Beijing have to offer. For little more than what you would pay for a bus ride, you can take the subway and possibly get to your destination even faster.

Dara Torres American Swimmer

Athletes to Watch at the Beijing Olympics: Dara Torres

Dara Torres is an American swimmer who unbelievably, has been swimming competitively at the Olympic level since 1984. Even without competing in the 1996 or 2004 Olympics, she is still going to be the first Olympic swimmer to compete in five Olympic Games. Also, it should be mentioned that she’s 41 years old, and still competing at an elite level. If she swims in Beijing this summer, she will also be the oldest swimmer to ever compete at the Beijing Olympics.

Torres has become notable as a television personality outside of the pool, and was also the first non-model to appear in the Sports Illustrated annual swimsuit issue. In case you hadn’t heard, she’s also had a pretty good career as a swimmer.

To this point in Torres’ career, she has won nine Olympic medals (four gold medals among them), and in the Sydney Olympics in 2000, she won five medals as the oldest member of the U.S. team, at 33 years old. She had originally planned to retire and had no intentions of competing in further Olympics, even devoting her time to having a family in the following years. By all accounts, the Olympic career of Dara Torres had come to a distinguished end.

However, things took a surprising turn. In August of 2007, when Torres was 40 years old and had given birth just over a year before, Torres was able to win the gold medal at the U.S. Nationals for the 100 meter freestyle event. She would also go on to break her own American record in the 50 meter freestyle.

Torres was as surprised as anyone. She had joined a local club team after giving birth, just to get back in shape and have a fun outlet for friendly competition. However, as Torres is one of the more competitive athletes of her entire sport, one thing led to another, and she began competing at a higher and higher level. She raced in master’s events, but posted times that would be competitive at a professional level, surprising everyone, including herself. Since discovering that she still has the talent, she has decided to resume full-time training for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Dara Torres’ training is made a bit more complicated by the fact that she can’t get as much pool work in as her younger counterparts, so she is forced to train smarter instead of harder. She works with a team of experts to ensure that there is no wasted time in her workout regimen, and she relies on weight training more than ever to increase her strength and explosiveness.

Torres’ philosophy of training smarter rather than harder has led to her posting faster times than she did years ago, even though she spends about half as much time in the pool as she used to. She is stronger than in her younger days, although she weighs less, and is more efficient and better balanced in the water. She has also improved her time out of the blocks to start the race, which is vital at shorter distances, where fractions of a second can separate a gold medal from a bronze medal.

Dara Torres is likely to be one of the biggest stories of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Just by qualifying and competing, Torres would be making history. However, as you may guess, Torres is not merely content to just “show up”.