The Opening Ceremonies were amazing. We were flown to Beijing arriving mid day on the 8th. We had all day to check out the Athletes Village - it was huge and very well done and it was really neat to see all the different athletes too. Checking out the Athletes gym was quite amazing, seeing all the different body types doing all their pre-games prep. At 6pm all of us were herded together to take buses to the Stadium to wait....there were over 300 buses waiting for us. It was an unbelievable sight of just rows and rows of buses. First we got taken to the Stadium where they hold the Gymnastics events. We were to wait there until Canada was called to walk into the Opening Ceremonies (63rd country). While I was waiting I walked around, traded pins and met lots of athletes. Perhaps you might even recognize a few of them on the pictures??? A long wait later we finally got to walk into the stadium. The roar of the crowd was unbelievable and there were so many distractions of where to look in amongst all the excitement. A few of my teammates and I got to pole position in the Canada line up and made several pictures in newspapers. I carried my big Canada flag that had lots of good luck wishes on from the West Van Community Day, friends and family!!! You guys were all there with me! Thank you! We stayed the night in the Village and left the next morning back to Qingdao. Full VIP service, the plane stopped on the tarmac, we walked off the plane straight onto the buses that were waiting for us and were shuttled back to the front entrance of our village. That was very welcome after a very short and tiring night.

And now for the racing... 4 Races under my belt!

Yesterday we waited on shore for a few hours due to lack of wind. We were finally sent our around 2pm and luckily the wind filled in nicely... to a maximum of 7knots or so. I had a pretty good first race - I ended up finishing 13th. I had a great start near the 3 up from the pin but then the right side ended up coming out ahead. I did not round the top mark very well, but fought back, had a super second upwind beat and was able to make a massive comeback from 18th place.
The second race I had a super start on port at the committee boat end. I was at the top mark in 9th and throughout the race I had lost a place, then regained that place, then lost a few then made a huge again....and I was 9th at the second last mark, then on the downwind I lost a bit and unfortunately let a board get inside of me at the last mark to the finish. This caused me to be on the outside of the rounding and the gap was open for another board to come through. I was getting rolled and there wasn't much I could have done. I finished 14th in that race - a bit disappointing after working so incredibly hard to be up there.
I do have to say that I have been consistent in my results so far and with only 4 races sailed, much can change and consistency does pay off :-)

Today is our rest day!!!!!!!! A much needed one as I am in need of rest.
Thanks for your support,
Nikola Girke