Report From Beijing - Report No. 4

Written by Janita Adams
Saturday, 09 August 2008
Talofa lava Samoa After a very restful and quiet night, there was an air of excitement in the Olympic Village as each athlete and official awoke knowing that the Opening Ceremony was just hours away. Team Samoa made the most of the morning doing their regular training sessions knowing that the transport and training services would close down in the early afternoon in preparation for the big night ahead. This morning from 11am - 1pm an Oceania Welcome Reception was planned to bring together the 15 island nations, and introduce each team announcing their flag bearer. Ele Opeloge was chosen to play this role for behalf of Samoa, much to the delight of our entire team. As part of this Oceania intiative, Samsung hasprovided free cellular phones for each of the 66 athletes from the Oceania region, not including those from the Australia and New Zealand contingent. The reception was opened by Dr. Robin Mitchell the Secretariat of ONOC, followed by the encouraging words of Mr. Kevan Gosper, the President of ONOC, and in the island style the food was incredible, of note, was of course the world Famous Beijing Duck. Following the reception it was back to the Olympic Village to get in a ittle bit of a rest before getting ready for the much anticipated Opening Ceremony. As promised by the Organising Committee, the timetabling worked like clockwork. At 630pm we left our apartment block, at 640pm we boarded the bus, and at 7pm; no sooner, no later, our bus departed for the National Indoor Stadium, the assembling area for the 205 countries competing at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The moment we stepped off the bus we were greeted by cheering, waving dancing volunteers calling out “Welcome to Beijing”, a trend that continued right through the journey to the National Stadium, through the tunnel, during our march, throughout the ceremony, and right up until we returned to our apartment block in the early hours of morning. Thank you to all of those who stayed up to watch us march into the Opening Ceremony. Remember that when we were waving, we were waving at you, our country SAMOA and we aim to make you proud as we represent our country here at the 2008 Olympic Games. The feeling that came across each one of us as we entered that stadium is indescribable. It was a moment of pride and great honor for each one of us that we had been selected to represent you all, and a feeling of great joy overcame each and every one of us, while a sense of team unity swept through our team. The ceremony itself was incredible even though we only got to watch small bits of it as we waited for “the call”. The highlight had to be the lighting of the Olympic Flame! But not only that – the incredible process leading up to it! You have to see it to believe it!! The buzz back at the village was incredible and we all stayed up to chat and eat the yummy snacks prepared for us before finally returning to our rooms to earn a much deserved rest. Tomorrow we have a breakfast meeting with our President, Vaeolenofoafia V. Tapasu Leung Wai before our athletes continue with their rigid training schedules. A number of our officials will be present to support Mua’ausa Joseph Walter for his Archery Recurve Ranking Round from 330-530pm, which will determine his competition pool for the 13th of August, and then our entire team will go to support Farani TAVUI in the Men's Light Heavy (81kg) round against Croatian boxer, Marijo SIVOLIJA-JELICA at 9pm this evening. Thank you for your support – keep your messages coming! Our walls are filling up and the team love knowing that so many of you are with us in prayer and spirit. Keep watching and we will do our best to make our country, Samoa, proud!! Comments (4) Subscribe to this comment's feed boxer written by jim daly, August 09, 2008 just to say, I hope your boxer is ok, Love and Light .Jim (Ireland) Opening Ceremony written by 495, August 09, 2008 Wow, the next host has a lot to live up to. China has set the bar very high. What a show!!! Best of luck to the usos and sisters representing the malo peeps. O the Nice the puletasi written by manaia, August 09, 2008 she looks great in the puletasi, I am proud to be Samoan malo Tavui written by amu, August 10, 2008 leaga o le ga e sasalu au fusu..se o mea faapega ga o le kuu lava i lalo o le ulu ae feoai solo i luga lima, ka age le logo o le la lava e ola hehe...malo faamalosi,,koe kaumafai i le isi au paga. Write comment Name Email Title Comment

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