Settling in to Village life

After 4 days in the Paralympic village in Beijing, we have well and truly settled into the routine of village life; in fact, to many of us, it seems like we've been here for 4 weeks! The village is a high security area where the athletes and support staff live for the duration of the games. Its size exceeds one square kilometre, half of which consists of accommodation, comprising of rows of 7 story identical blocks, and each country takes over a number of blocks commensurate with their team size. Gigantic flags and other distinctive features indicate which country is in residence. The Greek team have suspended a massive flag running down the entire 7 stories of one of their blocks and the Australians have inflatable kangaroos on all their apartment balconies! Team GB are competing well in this contest, having shipped over a red phone box!! We've also got prime location next to the laundry service and 'super resident' centre (entertainment room, internet room, TV rooms, meeting rooms) – apparently the result of a 3 year negotiation with BOCOG (Beijing organising committee).

Phone Box – how much was the excess baggage?!

The village also contains a food hall the size of an aircraft hanger, shops, a large fitness centre with 50m outdoor pool, cinema/DVD lounge, games rooms, an evening concert venue, and plenty of green spaces.

Food Hall – it takes 20 mins just to decide what to eat!

For the uninitiated, it is quite a daunting and surreal environment, and there is potential for both athletes and staff to get caught up in this environment and forget what they are there to do! This is something that we have addressed in our preparations, and after 24 hours to find their feet, the majority of our group have adapted extremely well to life in the village. It is a real balance to get right; it's important to enjoy the experience of the games, and get the most out of it, but at the same time focus on what you are here to do, and not waste too much physical and emotional energy exploring the village and what it has to offer. Another challenge is not to overtrain, particularly as the conditions are still testing (30 degree heat and 60% humidity), although after Macau they seem a welcome relief! As the village is getting increasingly full ahead of the Opening Ceremony, we have been given practice slots of 3 hours, which helps restrict the amount of training the archers can do. One of my roles, along with the doctor and head coach, is to assist each archer in deciding how to structure their training and rest time to ensure that they are optimally technically, mentally and physically prepared for the start of the archery competition on the 9^th September.

The tension is visibly rising now as we approach the Opening Ceremony (tonight) and then the start of competition. We are all going to the Opening Ceremony and parading as part of Team GB. Many sports and individual athletes have decided not to go, as it means a very late night (potentially back at 2am), and a lot of hanging around. This is something we have been discussing since January, and as we have 3 days to recover before the start of competition our view is that the buzz that they will get from attending will outweigh the potential negative physical effects. Still, walking out to a capacity 91,000 crowd will have a huge emotional impact on people, and will be something that I will be concerned about in the days to come.

The mood in the camp is still buoyant, although living in such close quarters with brings some challenges at times! We are now in four adjacent 3-person or 6-person apartments, and although they are more spacious and comfortable than we anticipated, spending 24-7 with team mates and in some instances, competitors requires tolerance, understanding and respect for each other. This is something that we discussed extensively before we left, but doesn't prevent little niggles occurring from time to time. A key role I've had over the last few days is helping people manage this, and on occasions, ensuring that some people are getting the time and space that they need in other parts of the village. Things will settle down a bit as competition gets under way, and all in all, there have been no major issues between people; from a staff perspective, things are going pretty well right now! Watch this space…..!!