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Saturday, Aug. 23

Here I am sitting in the USA athlete lounge checking email and getting ready to go see volleyball at 12:30. I just saw an American women's 1500 meter runner in here -we met on the bus last night coming back from track and field. She has her finals tonight around seven. She is a Duke alum!

I am still in shock from our victory. I believed in my heart that we could do it, and we did. However, the real gravity of this experience, being at the Olympics and winning a gold medal, does not sink in all at once. The impact expresses itself in ways different than you might expect. Obviously there are the congratulations from friends and family. I think most of the girls on the team have each gotten hundreds of congratulatory emails, and it is really cool to hear from all the supporters. That is one of the things I told my team before the final: to remember the complete support of people in all parts of the USA. Whole states and hometowns are behind us, rooting for us. And I think we used that energy and excitement to help propel us down the course ahead of Romania!

The Chinese locals Love Love Love medals, and they do not really care who you are or if they have seen you before - if they see your medal then you are an instant celebrity! I took mine out at the Synchronized Swimming event the other day just very discreetly to show my sister’s friend and all of the sudden people started taking pictures and wanting autographs. One person was like "swimming?" and I said “No, rowing!” But it is really cool to have the community that excited about everyone.

At the track and field event last night the Chinese citizens did not just cheer for the Chinese but for everyone. They cheered for victories and for the near misses. It was amazing how most people seemed to be truly touched and excited for everyone, for the incredibility of the Olympics. I was sitting with my teammate Elle at “athletics” which is what they call track and field, and we were only four rows from the field, we got in with our athlete credentials, and we both got chills as we saw victories and felt the power of the Olympics. It was a great experience.

The best was to cheer for other Americans. Bryan Clay was the champion in the decathlon, and although he was up by a ridiculous amount in points going into the 1500 meter run I still cheered for him every time he ran around the track at the back of the pack. He finished last in the run, but since he was up by 500 point he still won. When he ran his victory lap Elle and I got right up close and gave him a huge cheer and when he saw fellow Americans and athletes he gave us a special nod. Now my goal is to find him in the village and congratulate him.

This truly has been the experience of a lifetime, and there are so many other amazing things that have happened, but I can’t write them all now. Before, I did not understand why everyone said the Olympics are different from world championships, but they are.

Oh and our race! So much has happened since that race. Afterward our coach asked us:

"You guys remember what I said about the Olympics being just another race?”

“Yeah,” we said.

“That was a lie,” he said. “It’s totally different."

And he was right. I really had to keep it in perspective and trick my body into thinking it was a regular race at the starting line for the final to keep my nerves at bay, but afterward it was clear the magnitude of what we had just achieved. The first U.S. rowing women to win gold since 1984, and the first time ever since the race has been bumped up from 1000 to 2000 meters.

Thanks to everyone in Greensboro and around the country who have helped me from my days at Wiley Elementary and the city swim meets through the amazing support wishes just a few days ago. I really appreciate Greensboro for being a great place to grow up, and I seriously can’t wait to come home in a few days. It has been too long. Thanks again to everyone who has helped me along the way!

Wednesday, Aug. 13

A couple of days ago we had the heats, which we won. It was really important for us to win the heats because the 5 seat of our boat, http://www.mickelsoncrew.com, is doubling up in the pair. Our victory in the heat means that our boat goes straight to the finals, and that means less total races for Anna. This means more power for the final.

Our heat was interesting. We were supposed to race last Sunday but ended up racing on Monday due to bad weather. On Sunday we were totally ready and had a great warm-up. As Mary Whipple, our coxswain (the woman who steers the boat and calls out our race plan), was pulling us into the starting area, we were told to paddle it back to the docks because there was a storm coming in. We weren’t surprised because it looked extremely ominous when we shoved from the boathouse docks for our warm-up, but still we were disappointed. I called out to the official who told us about the race, “Lets race home to the docks! It’s the quickest way to get there.” He ignored me, but it was true - the whole boat was ready to race home. Had there only been one heat, it would have been the best decision. However, there were two heats, and for fairness they needed to be run on the same day, and it was unclear whether the weather would hold out long enough for two races. As it turns out, the officials made the right decision; it started to rain heavily as we rowed through the final 500 meters of the course. For pictures of the dark sky and our bewildered looks at the start, check the "Sunday Heats" gallery at www.row2k.com.

On Monday, we went out and did our race warm-up again and geared up. I thought the butterflies wouldn't be as bad this time at the starting blocks since we were just up here yesterday. But they may have been worse, or at least they seemed worse. It has been awhile since I have had that many butterflies before a race, but I think the starting line of your first race ever at the Olympics will do that to you!

The race itself was excellent. We executed our plan, listened to what Tom (our head coach) has taught us over the past four years and focused in on Mary Whipple’s voice as she guided us down the course. My focus again was on Caryn’s back, and I did my best to back up the rhythm she was laying down. The pain was excruciating, and honestly I went deep past the hurt locker and into the pain cave. I wanted to give it everything I had - the same as I want to do in the final - so that I have no regrets. Go big or go home! We won and achieved the first stepping stone to our goal.

I am already getting mentally prepared for the barn burner on Sunday (that is what my college coach, Lori Dauphiny, always calls really tough races). I am getting prepared physically and mentally to race and race the toughest most proficient race of my life on Sunday, while also remembering that I have done it all before. I don’t want this race to get too big because it is just another race and we know how to race!

Caroline actually wrote this over the weekend, but due to the frantic pace of things wasn't able to send it to the News & Record until late Monday night. The race that she refers to has already occurred. Lind and her teammates won their heat race early on Monday, advancing to the finals, on Aug. 16-17

Last night the water and food fairy came to our hotel rooms. The water in China that comes out of a tap is not of the same quality as that in the USA so all the water we drink has to be bottled water. We are also encouraged to brush our teeth with bottled water, just in case. So every few days our team managers/coordinators leave flats of bottled water at our door. Last night they also left a box of cliff bars and a couple boxes of nutrigrain bars for each room! That was pretty exciting!

I appreciate that we are at a hotel away from the Olympic village because it keeps the experience feeling like a world championship instead of the Olympics which I think is good for alleviating any added pressures. I think that if we were living at the Olympic village it would be easy to get caught up in all the activities that they have there. On the other hand I think the dining hall is open 24/7 at the village and that there is a never-ending supply of bars. That is the one aspect that would be nice - to not have to plan so much for meals and snacks. We were encouraged to bring over food from the US for snacks and things. If we were at the village I think that wouldn’t have been as necessary. But the food here is great. I have no complaints and the energy bar fairy visits around every now and then so being here is just as terrific! We will all get to experience the village in the week after racing, and truly be able to enjoy it then!

It was hot this morning at the course. Well I am not sure if "hot" is the right word for it, but humid. It’s really the humidity more than anything else that affects me. The air is so smoggy and thick that the sun doesn’t seem as bright beating down on us, but it is still super moist outside. I was drenched today and I am everyday after practice.

Things were pretty normal at the course today. I saw a friend of mine from Princeton, Sam Loch, who is 2 seat of the Australian men’s eight. We were the same year at Princeton and the same major, so we got to be pretty good friends. Princeton has a pretty good contingent at the Olympics. On Team USA alone there are four Princetonians. In addition to Sam on the Aussie team, my teammate from Princeton, Andy Morin, is in the Canadian women’s eight!

Our first race is Sunday at 5pm Chinese Standard Time (5am EST). It will be broadcast live at http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/index.html!

Aug. 6

On Saturday I got an e-mail from one of my college roommates (Ms. New York 2006) who is in Beijing for the summer doing a language program at Beijing normal University. On Sunday she came out to see me. It was awesome! It was unbelievable to have a reunion in Beijing since we hadn’t seen each other since graduation. She took a taxi to my hotel, but the real adventure began when she arrived. She had to wait at the hotel gate for me to come down from my room. I had to sign a sheet saying she was with me, and she had to hand over a picture ID in return for a temporary badge that let her get into the hotel. I was pretty astounded at the high quality of security just at our hotel. Crazy! I am excited to see how it goes when my whole family tries to come visit me, with my Southern grandma! My mom, dad, older sister and maternal grandmother are arriving in Beijing tomorrow, and I can’t wait to see them!

The rowing has been going really well, and things at the course are shaping up. They have turned the large-screen TVs on and are testing the screens. Plus, they have a cable across all 10 lanes of racing, from the 1,000 meter to the 2,000 meter mark (finish), crossing over the course diagonally and hooking up with the finish tower. I am not sure if that is an adequate description to visualize this, but basically it’s a cable that swoops down over the last 1000 meters of the course. Today they attached a little camera to the line, so I think they will get some interesting shots of the race.

It’s still super hot and humid. Today, while we were practicing our starting sequence and our finishing bump, I could feel the beads of sweat form on my shins, roll around my legs and drop into the bottom of the boat. Very ladylike. But every day at practice I try to let all of these little things such as the heat and sweat and the crazy music just melt away into the background as one big mush.

While I'm surrounded by all of these distractions, I focus on totally blocking them out and concentrate on the upper back of our stroke, Caryn Davies, who sits in front of me. As the seven seat, it is extremely important for me to be exactly in sync with her metronome-like rhythm, and so every practice I am focused on her, the boat and getting the most out of the time we spend together on the water. Every day they blast music over the loudspeakers at the race course. Today the music sounded like it was straight out of a Lifetime movie! I mentioned that to Susan Francia , who sits behind me in the six seat, and she said, “Yeah, I feel like it’s time for me to cry now.”

Aug. 1

Today was not as smoggy! This morning we had another view of the mountains. Yet even though it was not that smoggy it was still incredibly humid, and after an hour on the water I feel and look as if I have been swimming in the lake instead of rowing on it.

Despite the humidity our preparations as a boat and as a team are going smoothly. We arrived here in China with plenty of time to get acclimated to the setting and surroundings and I almost wish we did not have so much time before our race because I am definitely feeling “antsy” to start racing. Although, thinking back on the week prior to our departure from Princeton I felt the same way there; eagerly anticipating the task at hand. I guess it is just natural to feel a sense of eagerness about something we as a team have been preparing for so long. And I am sure when the time comes it will feel as Susan like to jokingly say about everything: that “there is NO time, there is just no time”!

The food has been a point of consideration from the conception of this trip even in our planning. It is important for us always to be wary of what we are consuming even throughout the year just in case there is a banned substance that is hidden in something we eat or a vitamin or supplement that we take. And the concern over food health and safety was obviously heightened with the increased importance of the races this year. Therefore we were told to bring with us in our checked bag some of our favorite snack items or bars that we were accustomed to having because it would not be so easy to run out and pick some up. This has proven true.

We have been eating our meals at our hotel, and those meals are delicious, yet my boat mates and I were craving fruit in between meals to snack on. Our coordinator advised against getting fresh fruit from the local WuMart (which is its official name I believe – I didn’t go but some teammates did). Instead we are advised to eat only certified fruit that comes to us via the Olympic village. So today was the first day we dropped into the athlete dining area at the course, since we usually eat at our hotel, and it was great!! They had fresh fruit and a great selection of meal options for us to grab a quick bite after practice before we head back. We each definitely took a piece of fruit for snacking later and some of the girls grabbed Chinese Coke. I had a sip and it seems better than US Coke I think because it has sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. Or maybe it tastes so delicious because I have not had regular coke in like a year, haha!

The whole team is settling into a nice rhythm here. Also the Canadians and the Italian team have shown up and are staying at our hotel! It is nice to see some friends and former college teammates who are now on the Canadian team!

Greensboro's Caroline Lind, who is competing in the women's eight rowing event for the U.S. in the Olympic Games, is keeping an online diary for the News & Record. In between getting ready to row for the gold - her team is a medal favorite - Lind will send dispatches describing her experiences in Beijing.

Wednesday, July 30

So it’s the third day here in the Shunyi district of Beijing and my roommate is currently at the Great Wall of China. Our coach told us this morning that in conjunction with our afternoon off we had the option of going to see the Great Wall of China. I was one of three girls in my boat that opted not to go. Instead of an adventure to the Great Wall, which I plan on doing later after some important racing, I had a leisurely lunch, got worked on by one of our physical trainers, and now and just relaxing listening to the soundtrack to The Darjeeling Limited my second favorite Wes Anderson movie. My favorite is definitely The Royal Tenenbaums although I must say this soundtrack is awesome.
This morning we had a good practice at the course and things are really starting to pick up. The first couple of days were consumed by rigging, figuring out the mode of transportation, and generally getting into a rhythm. But now other teams are starting to show up at the course and the whole experience is slowly materializing into a reality before me! Today we were out on the course with the Romanian women’s eight. They had a slightly shorter practice than us and when we were coming across the finish line on our last lap our cox Mary Whipple pointed out to us that the entire Romanian women’s eight was situated on the shore at the finish line WATCHING us! I wonder if they liked what they saw?
The cultural landscape is quite engrossing. Although we don’t get to see a whole lot in our short trips to the course and minimal interactions with the staff at the hotel, what I have seen has been interesting. There is lots of biking happening. I am not sure if it is because they have certain streets closed off because of the games or if this is normal but there is a certain paucity of auto traffic, even on these great big wide streets. But there is a whole lane just for bikers and many of the Chinese people biking have baskets carry various good and materials. Some of the bikes that I have noticed are all decked out with fabric seats with tassels and things on them and some are not just bike but sort a cross between a bike and a moped!
On the very first day at the course we were walking from the container that shipped our boats over to the boathouse and we were walking by about 10 Chinese people that looked to be gardeners helping out with the watering of the landscape around the course. I remember being so excited and having just learned the Chinese “hello” - Ni hao - trying to make eye contact with these workers to say “hello” to them. Unfortunately only one of them looked over and I was able to extend my first of many cross cultural greetings. Since then I have become more confident with my Ni Hao’s and have extended this to many other Chinese citizens in my hotel and as I see them around. It’s really nice when in another country to be able to the make the simple offering of a hello to someone in their native language; sadly even if that is the only thing I can competently say. Oh well. I am working on thank you! It’s more difficult than one may think!

Greensboro's Caroline Lind, who is competing in the women's eight rowing event for the U.S. in the Olympic Games, is keeping an online diary for the News & Record. In between getting ready to row for the gold - her team is a medal favorite - Lind will send dispatches describing her experiences in Beijing.

Tuesday, July 29

Today is my second day in China and the journey here as well as being here has been extremely interesting so far. My Olympic experience started off three days ago when we flew from Princeton to San Jose State for “processing”. We stayed there for one day and one night but this was where we got all of our USA Olympic gear! All of the USA athletes got a shopping cart and walked through a room full of stations with USA workout gear, matching travel apparel, and the outfits for the opening and closing ceremonies. My shopping cart was completely full by the time I had made it through the room! Since it is nearly impossible to utilize all the gear we all pitch in a large chunk of it to give to our spares who don’t get to go through the same processing.
However, more exciting than all of the gear, was that I got to meet the Governator of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger! My teammate Elle Logan and I got him to sign one of the hats that they gave us and we also got a sweet picture with him! The most surprising thing was that both Elle and I were taller than him!
The next leg of our journey was a 13-hour plane flight to Beijing from San Francisco. Flights never seem quite as long if you have all your friends to hang out with during them so it wasn’t too bad. The Olympic rowing venue is situated about 20 to 30 kilometers outside of central Beijing in the Shunyi district. Because of the location we are staying at a hotel near the course instead of staying in the Olympic village which can take up to an hour by car to reach. Staying near the race course is nice because it gives us a chance to stay away from the distractions (such as the other Olympians, who I am dying to meet!) and focus on the race. For the last week of the Olympics, after our races are done we will move into the village.
The most interesting things so far are :
1.The toilets - which are not like western toilets but instead holes in the ground that you have to squat over to use. However, in our hotel we have a western toilet.
2. The security – in order to get into the hotel and the racecourse we have our identification checked every time and one must go through a security screening exactly like at the airport – x-ray scan for bags and a medal detector for people. I have certain jewelry that I always wear and so every time I set of the alarm and have to be wanded down; so now I immediately hold out my arms to get checked. It’s not so bad now but when more teams arrive I think it may cause delays getting in to the course and hotel.
3. The air – it’s pretty smoggy here, so far I have not seen any blue sky and it just looks white all the time. Although this morning it was stormy and windy which cleared out the air a little bit and from the race course I could see mountains off in the distance!!