Liezel Huber's Olympic BlogBEIJING, China - It was a whirlwind few days but Liezel Huber made it all the way from Canada to California to China, and now she is primed to play the Olympics under the American flag for the first time. Come along to Beijing with the doubles co-world No.1 in the latest Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Player Blog straight from the Chinese capital.Saturday, August 8, 2008Hello from Beijing!
I came here directly AND indirectly... I finished the doubles final in Montréal last Sunday just before 5pm, did the trophy ceremony then ran into the tunnel and to the locker room. My husband then met me outside, gave me a kiss and told me my bags were in the car and it was waiting to take me straight to the airport! I got there by 5:30pm and we took off at 7:30pm, arriving in San Francisco at 1am. From there I was driven to San Jose and got to sleep around 3am.
San Jose was where all of the American Olympic athletes did USOC processing (USOC is the United States Olympic Committee). It's an ambassador program that lasted all day - 8am to 6pm - and teaches us how to handle ourselves during the Olympics. We were treated to some really great speakers, one who held the record for the long jump and one who was a silver medalist in water polo, then finally we got our uniforms. That was a highlight for me. They look great!
On Tuesday at 7am we went back to San Francisco and flew out to Beijing. So the journey that began in Montreal at 5pm on Sunday ended on Wednesday at 2pm, Beijing time. It was a whirlwind. I don't remember sleeping that much but the adrenaline kept me going. I was so excited and honored to be in that whirlwind.
My husband, Tony, is not here with me. He was given the opportunity to come and we definitely considered it, going back and forth on it, but we ended up making a personal decision on it. The regular season is very individual, but this is more of a team event. He travels with me everywhere and he's my coach, but it's important for the Olympic players to bond with the coach we have here. I should be fine without him for just this one time. I can't wait to see him when I get back!
We arrived in Beijing with our luggage right there, then we were taken straight to our hotel. There was just a zillion people everywhere, which you'd think would be chaotic, but they are SO organized here. Everything worked out perfectly. Your credential acts as your visa, so we showed it and we were on our way. I had packed extra clothes just in case my luggage got lost, but they're so efficient here so it's all with me! After we got to our hotel we went right out and practiced, just to get a feel for the conditions. We hit for an hour and a bit, from about 7pm to 8/8:30pm. We weren't looking for a gold medal performance that day, just trying to get a feel for everything. And it worked - the next day when we came out to practice, it went great. It's funny how just a little bit of getting used to conditions can help down the road. That night we all slept heavy though!
I actually stayed at the Olympic Village the first three nights - the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. It's so clean and pretty, and the landscaping is lovely. The food is great too. This is only my second Olympics - I competed in Sydney - and it was so great Down Under I didn't know if anywhere could top it, but I think they've done that here. But now that competition is about to kick off, I decided to come back to the hotel starting tonight, Saturday night. There are so many distractions in the Village, and we tennis players are so used to maintaining focus throughout each day leading up to competition. There are so many athletes there, all I can think of is where are they from, and look at their muscles! I was also coming home at 11pm each night when I normally go to bed around 10pm. It's just amazing how so many of the world's athletes can be concentrated there though. I'll definitely go back for some meals and socializing with some of the new friends I've made, but my top priority is focusing in on a medal!
The opening ceremony was amazing. Team USA met at 5:15pm in the Village. It was amazing to see everyone dressed up in our Ralph Lauren outfits, including matching hats and scarves! It was really hot though. We were all dripping and fanning ourselves, but it was worth it. We looked so stylish. We were then escorted to another stadium, which they use for fencing I believe. We weren't sure what was happening - I thought it was for a big group photo or something - but it turned out we were all about to meet the President, George W Bush, as well as a few others - former President Bush, current First Lady Laura Bush and her daughter, too. The two Presidents congratulated each and every one of us and wished us the best of luck. The tennis squad also had a picture with the current President. It was fantastic. That alone was worth this trip, it was such an honor.
We were then taken to the stadium right next to the main stadium, which they use for gymnastics. We all waited a while to be led out for the opening ceremony (since the United States was country No.140 on the list because it's so far down the alphabet!) They gave each of us a food bag to hold us over during the wait, which probably meant they had to hand out thousands of them... another detail they took care of really well. We all just mingled during the wait. At 8:08pm they started showing the ceremony on the big monitor, and at about 9:45pm they called us out. We were all chanting "USA!" in the tunnel. I got goosebumps. I'm so fortunate to be representing the nation that has adopted me. Now I can say I'm an Olympian, but also for the US. At the time I was on such a high I didn't really get emotional, but I can tell you the day leading up to this and ever since, it's easy to get teary-eyed. Anyway! By 10:30pm we were all on the field.
I have started collecting pins. I have about 50 of them so far. My goal has been to get pins from the smaller countries. I already have Micronesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Iran, Cayman Islands, Kiribati (I had never even heard of Kiribati before!), Mozambique, Virgin Islands, Netherlands Antilles, Syria, Oman, Seychelles, Trinidad & Tobago, Zimbabwe, Qatar, Sri Lanka... for me it's so exciting! And we're getting another 100 pins tomorrow so I'll definitely be going into the Village and preying on people
It's not just about collecting the pins, but also meeting the people. We met so many nice people last night. We saw Americans taking photos with Kuwaitis. Sports brings the world together.
I didn't get to sleep until about 2am last night and woke up at 6am today! I'm not used to doing all of these activities and I've been completely knackered since I got here, but we're all so excited to be here. I've been telling myself to slow down, but it's tough. Tonight we're going to go to a market with air conditioning - and I'm very excited about the A/C! We've been saying it's hot here so many times that it's getting old. But it's true. I can't put lotion on my face because it just drips off. Anyway, the market has clothes, jackets and bags, and I hear you can haggle the prices, so I'll see if I can bring out some of my haggling skills
I don't play on Sunday but I'm looking forward to watching my teammates play.
Oh and one more thing... I'm not going to name any names, but I think there are other players in competition with me for the pins... it's getting quite competitive!
Talk to you all tomorrow!!
Liezel
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Sunday, August 9, 2008
Hello again everybody!
Today was long. There's really no other word to describe it! We left for the courts at 9:30am; before we left we had been told it was raining and we had a choice to stay or go, but in those situations I usually go because I don't want to worry if it has stopped raining or not. It was tricky but we made the right decision.
We watched some of our teammates play and cheered as loudly as we could for them. The main stadium of the Olympic Green Tennis Center is beautiful inside. It would be even more amazing on a sunny day. And it was packed - I believe the remainder of the Olympic Tennis Event has been sold out, actually, which gives us players a very nice feeling, like the people here really appreciate tennis. Of course, the bad news today was that we had rain delay after rain delay...
It was a constant drizzle throughout the day and it doesn't take much for the lines to get slippery. I had practice courts booked but they kept getting pushed back: my first one was from 1-2pm, then it was moved to 4-5pm, then cut down to 4-430pm, then moved again to 6-7pm and 7-8pm and again cut down to 7-730pm. We finally moved it voluntarily to 8-9pm because we didn't think the court would be dry, then we just decided it was over. They cancelled all of the matches and sent us all home at about 7pm. We came back and got room service... and spent some time admiring all of the pins we've gotten!
That's one of the great things about today - I got a lot more pins! It actually tired me out looking around to see which countries I could find... I had to stop and tell myself to just relax. But it's just too fun! Today I got Nepal, Bahamas, Brazil, Venezuela, Slovakia, Ukraine, Latvia, Denmark, Croatia, France, China, India, Sweden, Great Britain, Japan... I couldn't be as picky as I was yesterday, when I was looking for all of the smallest countries, because we weren't in the Village today. I just saw I also got Portugal, Czech Republic and Austria today... So today it was all about quantity. By the end of the day it got harder to chase after them. Some of the players from countries I didn't have yet had run out of pins. Togo is supposed to bring me one tomorrow. Some players already have American pins too, so they don't need mine. We'll see how it goes tomorrow though - I'm hoping to go into the Village. This is serious business! Although for me, the fun is in meeting the athletes from all of the different countries, not necessarily just getting any pin I can. I remember who gave me every pin.
Again, I won't mention any names, but I saw someone's collection today and he has the Cook Islands and Lesotho. Lesotho is a country completely surrounded by my home country, South Africa. I've always found it remarkable to have a country that has no other neighbour or coastline even... I grew up knowing about Lesotho and I'd probably trade all of my pins for that one! Maybe I can make him feel sorry for me... hehe. I've got a lot of days left though, so I hope I'll get it.
I also went to the gym today, which is lucky, because as I mentioned we never got to hit. The gym was packed! There were even some fans taking pictures through the opening in the greenery. I have no idea how they figured out they could get pictures from there, but there were lots of them out there!
Speaking of trading and finding things, the market was great yesterday! We got such bargains. Here, it's all about negotiating. The vendors will give you a price and if you play your cards right, you will pay much less. I paid about a quarter of the original price for a shirt yesterday. I started walking away from the vendor when they initially wouldn't drop the price, and they did end up dropping it. One of the coaches had actually bought that same shirt for much less earlier in the week and I told her that I wouldn't buy it for any more than that, and after she wouldn't drop it any more I began walking away again, and as I turned the corner she did. So I got the shirt! I ended up paying $7 or $8 for a shirt that was priced almost $30. I hadn't bought anything for my coach and housekeeper for a while so I ended up getting two more as well! It's easy to get caught up in the chase, but all of the haggling is draining. You don't want to rip them off but you don't want to get ripped off, either. It's how they do business though!
Right now I'm just surfing the web. I'm reading up on the medal count and how awesome Team USA has done in swimming. I'm wishing for more and more medals! We had dinner just now too. I got a sandwich. I don't normally eat a sandwich for dinner but I've been having so many noodles with chopsticks the last few days, I had to get something new! It's not the noodles I was getting tired of really, it was probably the chopsticks. I always give up after four or five bites! I had a Diet Coke too... I always like to have one at the end of the day. Normally I eat a lot more food during the day, but this sandwich was filling.
I also have to report to you we got some more Team USA gear today. I've been sporting it all day. The highlight of my entire experience is proudly wearing it!
The plan for tomorrow is going and watching one of my teammates play if it's early, but I have practice later in the day. I'd also like to squeeze in watching another sport if I can. There's volleyball at 12:30pm, which would be great; our basketball team plays at night too, which will be unbelievable. I'll see when everyone is playing and work my schedule around it. It's important to savour the Olympic experience and support the other athletes!
I'm going to read some USA Today now... It was great talking to you all and we'll do it again tomorrow!
Liezel
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Monday, August 11, 2008A very busy day in Beijing!
We began the day with a big breakfast at the hotel. It's my favorite part of the day! We had eggs, bacon, toast, pancakes, cereal, OJ, cappuccino... I ate for an hour. It was like I wasn't going to see food the rest of the day! We really got our money's worth. And it felt just like home
We went to the site at about 11am; I wanted to go there early because they said there was a 70% chance of rain, and I didn't want yesterday to happen again. But we got an hour and a half of practice in, which was fantastic. And then it was off to the Olympic Village!
Actually, before going there, I had a bit of a run-in with a divider... When you're coming back from practice, there's a dividing screen near the open door, so people won't look in. And there's not much room to walk by with your bag... Anyway, my bag got caught on this 8-10-foot screen, and it just came down on me. It was pretty heavy and had sharp edges, and it hit the back of my arm and my back. My wonderful teammate saw me bent over and in pain, and when you're initially in pain we all know the last thing you want to do is talk because it's such an initial shock. So she just said, 'Liezel, let's go to the trainer.' I actually started crying because it was hurting so much
Then I stopped off at the sink and told myself to get a grip! I ended up having two blood scrapes on my back. There was nothing on the back of my arm at first, but about an hour later it really started bruising. Hopefully the swelling goes down for tomorrow, which is our first match. One of the girls joked I probably wouldn't be good at childbirth - pretty funny, and probably true! But the trainers did a great job in patching me up. I'm trying to stretch the area all the time so it doesn't scab over. They gave me ice and anti-inflammatory cream. So everyone, please watch out for that screen!
We had lunch soon after getting to the Village but I wasn't very hungry, probably a combination of the big breakfast and how hot and muggy it was. I had a piece of bread and fruit. Of course, by afternoon I was starving again. Anyway, I am happy to report it was a very successful day for my pin collecting! I've had to add more straps to my credential, as I've been putting them on there (you can see them all in the picture I've put up!) Today I got Malta, Mali, Papua New Guinea, Andorra, Argentina, Paraguay, Cuba, Haiti, Guatemala, New Zealand, Estonia, Russia, Tajikistan, Nicaragua, Grenada and Bolivia. There's a lot I still have to get so I'm not satisfied! Although my main goal is playing tennis - and because of the rain, we might have matches every day, given we keep winning - I'm still excited about collecting pins and meeting athletes from all around the world.
In the Village, Team USA gets internal television in their places. There's a sport on every channel. We get a daily program telling us which sports are being shown at which times. They bold the medal rounds, so that helps us pick which ones we think might be the most important to get a glimpse of. During the lunch break we went back to the apartment and watched a recap of how our team was doing. We sort of knew the results but it was still making me nervous because I hadn't seen any of it yet! A funny thing also happened as we were walking around... I saw five athletes in a row wearing the exact same shirt and shorts. They were five good-looking guys. Then a sixth one was following right behind them. I didn't have the guts to ask what they do but I did ask where they were from, and it turns out they're Icelandic. If I was single again maybe I'd go there! If any single ladies are reading this, I think there are lots of good-looking men in Iceland!
We also headed to the administrative offices for Team USA in the Village. On the second floor there are a bunch of athletes just on the computers and hanging out, relaxing. You can go there and mingle or just do your own thing. I spoke to some of the volleyballers, who I'd first met on the plane or at the Opening Ceremony. It's like a large extended family. We're not just a tennis team, really; we're a team. It's very cool. It's so much different than every other week of the year.
This is mainly an individual sport but we've been watching each other's matches, trying to make it as much of a team sport as we can. I think we all appreciate it. Some of our players win and some lose, but we're all supporting each other.
I had dinner at the courts. It wasn't my first choice but because there were so many matches pushed to today's schedule, one of the matches I was at ended at about 9:30pm, and I couldn't wait to get back here to have something to eat! And to think they still had two matches to go on that very court... this is what rain will do to a schedule! Right now it's 11pm and I'm hungry again, but I can't justify eating this late. I won't get to sleep until midnight!
I'm hoping we're not playing early in the morning tomorrow, because it's so late right now. But if we are I'll be ready. I'm excited to play. We're healthy. We've also been preparing for this for a long time.
Goodnight and talk to you all again tomorrow!!
Liezel
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Tuesday, August 12, 2008Finally we got to play! The waiting is done. We expected to play well and we did - we won our first round match, 62 61. It seems straightforward from the score line, but in tennis that word doesn't really exist. I actually started off with an error, which wasn't great. I have high expectations of myself. My regular partner and I always use the phrase "ride the wave". Because I'm No.1 with my regular partner, people always come out against us with nothing to lose; I feel it's the same situation with my partner here, because people look at us as one of the teams to beat. It was pretty even at the start, but then we just rode the wave. We began playing to our strengths and to their weaknesses, and before we knew it we were shaking hands. We were so positive and energetic, and I had goosebumps because it was our first match of going for the dream.
I thought I was tired the other day, but right now I'm exhausted! When we came off the court we were sopping wet, and we weren't even out there that long. We couldn't have asked for the umbrella to be opened any faster! Afterwards I went on the bike for a bit then did our press commitments, then, of course, it was time to go to the Olympic Village to collect pins!!!
I now have five straps on my pass. Today I got Mexico, Luxembourg, Suriname, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia... some of these I'm not even sure of... that's bad! Honduras. I tried to find Angola because my grandfather was born there, but I couldn't. My effort was pretty poor today, compared to previous days. I just began talking with everyone and sometimes wouldn't get pins. I'm a little off my game. It's easier early in the week when basically everyone you see you haven't gotten pins from yet; now I have so many it's hard to spot the ones I don't have. Zambia. I may have lost a little bit of my competitiveness today, but it was probably because I was tired from the match. I'll just rest well tonight and get ready for our next match... and finding some more pins, too!
I have to tell you about what happened right before our match. We were in the player lounge and the match that was on before us was at a set and 4-all or 5-all, and I went outside to warm up (because I couldn't warm up inside with the air conditioning!). I came running back in and our manager says to me, "I've been looking for you, 41 is here!" I didn't get it. Then she said, "You don't understand... the 41st President!" And I saw it was President Bush and his daughter, as well as some secret service members. I actually met him the other night but I told him the exact same thing this time: "Hi, I'm Liezel Huber from Houston, Texas!" And like the other night he said, "Yeah, baby!" I don't know if he does that every time someone says they're from Houston or if he just remembered me, but it was great! He wished us the best. For him to come and wish us support was very classy. All of these people are coming and congratulating us and encouraging us, but really it's we who are honored. This experience gets more and more elating.
The bruise on my arm is pretty. My back is fine though. This is all from the self-inflicted injury I suffered yesterday! I kept waking up in the night to check on it, because I want to be at my best here - not just for me, but also for the team. But I'm happy to report it's okay. Yesterday was a tough day for our team, as we lost three players; today has been better, which is a great turnaround.
Now I'm back at the hotel. It's about 9:30pm and I wanted to get to bed before 10pm, so I'm on target. Tomorrow the matches don't start until the afternoon, so I'll be able to sleep in a bit. Today was a bit tough because we got back so late last night then had to play pretty early. As tennis players we have to be flexible with playing times, conditions and everything. What we need to remember is that it's the same for everybody; it's all about who can adapt to the situation better. Anyway, I ordered room service. I have a fruit plate - I'm not sure what some of this fruit is though! I normally don't order room service. Two nights ago I got "Chef's Special Chocolate Cake with Ice Cream" with one of my teammates, but by the time it came the ice cream was more like soup. This fruit plate was supposed to come with yogurt and honey - which is what drew me to it - but they aren't here, so it's just the fruit. When my husband travels with me we never get room service. He says it's overpriced and when the food finally gets to you it's cold. But I've been having it every day here. It's easy, and I don't have to dress up and go out. All in all, I'd much rather have dinner with my husband though!
Speaking of my husband, he's back home right now at a barbecue. I'll bet he doesn't mind missing out on my room service! I talk to him just about every day, even with the big time difference here. I'll wake up 15 minutes earlier so I can call him in the evening his time. But I always manage to call him during a meal. Conducting business is tough, but other than that it's fine. I use Skype, which saves so much money. I wish I had invented Skype, I'd be retired by now!
I've been using Facebook a lot here. I have my own personal account, one for the Huber Tennis Ranch and one called "Go Liezel, Go USA", which is for people to support me during the Olympics (a boy who takes tennis lessons at the ranch created it for me and it's fantastic!) I'm very new on Facebook. I got it about a month ago. It's already one of my Favorites. I'm not sure if I fit the age range it's most popular with, but that's okay! The reason I joined it initially is I was looking for a friend of mine from kindergarten - another Liezel, actually - and I managed to locate her! It's almost like we never lost touch. I'm so happy, I'd been looking for her for so many years. So that's one of the benefits of Facebook, as well as posting pictures and exchanging messages. I really enjoy it!
Nothing else to report, really. My main thought is that I'm disappointed with my pin collecting effort today. I'm starting to get soft. I've been giving away my USA pins when people ask for them, but then not even asking them for any back. I think it was probably just an off-day today. Tomorrow I'll definitely make sure to be greedier - on and off the court!
Goodnight!
Liezel
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Wednesday, August 13, 2008It's 1am and I just got back!
Our match was fourth on after 4pm today, so it was a pretty late one. I just came back to the hotel, had a shower and ordered a sandwich. It's rough coming back at this time of night; hopefully I can get to sleep soon! I also hope I won't fall asleep with half the sandwich in my mouth. I guess we'll find out tomorrow...
All in all, it was a great day. We won our match tonight and it feels like we won a Grand Slam! It was a very tough one. We won 6-3 in the third set. Really, it was only a point or two that made the difference; luckily, it was in our favor. When the draw came out, we knew these could be tough opponents. I have a lot of respect for one of the girls we played in particular; she's one of the true up-and-coming players out there, and while her singles ranking is pretty high as it is, she should probably be even higher. We were broken right off the go. Actually, there were a lot of breaks throughout the match, but we just hung in there. By the end of the match we felt really comfortable and were able to get the crucial break. As soon as we finished I called my husband from the court to tell him! We were all so happy - me, my partner, our teammates, coaches... It was a tough match but when you're playing with a new partner you go through these stepping stones. As a doubles player, I know how positive our attitudes were today. I'm very proud of how we came out and fought through it. One nice thing is that we don't play tomorrow - because we don't even know who our quarterfinal opponents will be - so we'll have some time to recover for our next match.
This morning seems like so long ago. I slept in quite a bit - I think I slept for 10 hours - and then we went to the courts around 11am. Other mornings have been a rush here, but today's was a very easy one. We hit from 12-1pm then, of course, it was time to go to the Olympic Village! Originally it was just to get food, because we've decided not to do pin trading until after our matches each day. But I did sneak a couple
Cameroon, Saint Lucia, Botswana... Actually, Botswana was the first pin I got that I didn't get myself. My friend had an extra Botswana pin and asked me if I had two of anything so we could trade them, so I gave them one Cayman Islands pin for their Botswana pin, but in this deal I also asked that they get me another one I don't have yet. So I look forward to that! Today wasn't such a great effort for pin collecting but I'm at over 100 pins now. I know it's only half of the countries out there but I'm working on it...
One of my teammates just came in with another pin for me, from the Cook Islands! I've been after this one. She went to watch some other sports tonight and I gave her one of my USA pins, asking her if she saw a Cook Islands one to get it for me... and she just came to me with it - MY DAY IS MADE! Oh my God. It says "Cook Islands, Beijing 2008" with the running symbol and rings on it. It's beautiful. This one is worth a lot. Here I am, 1am, sitting in my night robe in my hotel room, and I've scored a Cook Islands pin!!!
We didn't get to meet any presidents today, but our time at the Village was fun. We went for lunch, saw some of the swimming recap on the internal TV, watched some tennis (we can watch anything at the Olympics and we watch tennis... go figure) and went for dinner. You can't eat too much before a match but there's lots of fried rice here so that was nice. We didn't go on until about 9:30pm and when we were done there were still some matches going on. It has been a long day for everyone, but the dream is still alive. None of us are complaining. We're working very hard to play our best and hopefully get a medal!
Some of our teammates have started going back home already. They're done here - either they're out of the competition or their event is over. It's sad - the more, the merrier. I was thinking, if we had lost early, would I stay or go? You're torn. You do have to get back to your business, but I think I would probably stay. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I took some time out today and just watched all of the people going by, and I realized I'm just so proud to be here. I used to think this would be my last Olympics, but now I'm not so sure. I really want to do it again. I don't know if my health will keep up for four more years, and it's such a strong nation to be selected for, so who knows if I'd make it onto the team again, but now I really want to do it again. Hopefully I'll be able to go to London in 2012. It'll be on grass. How awesome would that be? My favorite surface
Now we'll be going to sleep and probably only get about six hours of sleep, because we're going to watch beach volleyball in the morning! All week I've been saying I'm going to watch other sports, but I've been so focused on tennis I haven't been able to. One of our teammates is friends with the top beach volleyball player in the world and got us great seats. I'm so excited! I've never seen a volleyball match, let alone a beach volleyball match. I'll dress in my Team USA clothing for sure. You know what though... I'm not even sure how they score the game. I'm going to have to learn while I'm watching. Do I need to wear different shoes because it's on sand? I'm sure my team will tell me if I'm not dressed appropriately. One time I put on boots and a checkered shirt to go to a country western bar with my friend in Houston, and he said, "Okay, you need to change your shoes." I told him they were the only boots I had and he said they don't wear those anymore. But he said nothing about my shirt, and when I got there I knew I was dressed pretty lame. Hopefully I don't have another day like that tomorrow! I don't want to stick out like a sore thumb. But that's just life sometimes... I usually just use the excuse that I'm a foreigner if it happens! I'll be watching the volleyball tomorrow but my eyes will be looking around for pins...
Now I'm going to say goodnight, then eat this chicken sandwich. I will let you all know that I've had this same chicken sandwich all week. It makes me feel at home! And I'm not very good with chopsticks.
Talk to you all tomorrow
Liezel
P.S. I've attached a photo of my doubles partner's son, who is at his very first Olympics... We're starting him early with the team spirit!
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Thursday, August 14, 2008Hello again everybody!
I got up very early today... I'm not sure if I even got six hours of sleep! Then it was off to the beach volleyball game. I grabbed a croissant and an OJ on my way out. Normally I call my husband in the morning but this time getting to the game on time was the priority! Team USA beat Denmark quite handily - well I don't know anything about volleyball, but it looked like it was a convincing victory. Afterwards we got to see the players when they came through the tunnel. My teammate knows one of the volleyballers so we got to congratulate them. I took a picture of two of their fans, which you can see just above this paragraph
We all came back after the volleyball game and I took a nap for an hour and a half or so. I can't remember ever sleeping in the middle of the day unless I was sick, but it was so good! Then we went to the village for dinner and, of course, some more pins... I have so many now, I'm actually writing down the ones I get. I'm treating this like a business now. I'm happy to report I finally got South Africa! I'm very happy, that one obviously means a lot to me. I also got a second Qatar pin - often times, countries will have more than one pin, and this one is really pretty. I also got Ethiopia, Cyprus and the Philippines. I got a Luxembourg one too, but I think that's a double too. I still haven't hooked the Cook Islands one I got yesterday onto my strap. I don't know if I'll even take it out of the plastic it came in!! I tried to get Namibia again today; I saw some people from Namibia and I started talking to them in Afrikaans, which is my first language, but they looked at me and joked that I looked lost - I was covered in Team USA clothing so I don't blame them for getting confused! Anyway, they didn't have any pins on them, but said they'd bring me one. Hopefully I'll run into them again.
I have to tell you a funny story about yesterday... I wasn't supposed to be pin swapping but at lunch I was dying to get the Angola pin, so I asked my teammate if I could go to the next table and ask for it, and they let me. Anyway they said they didn't have any pins on them and said I could go back to their place and get one, but because I didn't really know who they were, I was hesitant to do that! So I told them we had to get back on the bus, a little bit of a white lie I guess
Well anyway, today I watched China playing Angola in basketball and I saw my friends right there on the TV! Haha... hopefully they'll understand!
I'm really not like this normally. All my life I've never collected anything... except for tennis plates. I like to collect antique tennis plates. They can be as old as 1880 and upto 1980 even. They can have any sort of tennis design on them, but I'm a bit picky about the quality of them. I don't want a million of them. I usually just get one or two per year. I'm always looking on eBay, going to antique shops and meeting tennis memorabilia collectors. It's fun! There's this lady - her name is Jean and she lives in California - and she gave me the book she wrote about antiques. She has plates, racquets... you name it, she has it. I've never been to her house but if I have the opportunity sometime, I'll be there in a flash. She's well aware of my tennis plate affinity. I was playing in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon and I told her if we won, I'd trade the trophy for this particular plate she has, which has the picture of the Wimbledon semifinal ticket on it. Normally I hate clutter though, and that's why I'm questioning myself on these pins... Like what am I going to do with them when I get back? Of course they'll bring me amazing memories, but they'll probably end up in a drawer somewhere in the house. Maybe one day my kids will stumble upon them. I think this is why I've been slacking the last few days, because I'm starting to realize this is a bit of a phase, really. Or maybe I feel like I've already got the most pins and the competition is over. But I know there's really no competition, it's all in my mind! I don't know how to explain this :S
A friend of mine just sent me a message to say congratulations on how we've done so far, and that as well as it's going here, it's also going well at home. They gave me an update on my dogs and everything. One thing we don't get asked about much is what it's like being away from home so much; I can tell you it's always hard being away from home. I miss the dogs, my family, I even miss my bed. It was very thoughtful of them to send me an update - thank you! One funny difference is that at home, I always read the USA Today in the morning; here we get it at night, so I read it before going to bed. I'm not sure which day I'm on
My doubles partner just messaged me too, asking if I'm watching the match on TV now, which one of our teammates is playing. I'll try and find it for sure, and I hope she wins
I almost never watch TV though. I don't even know how to work a remote control properly! Whenever me and my husband go to hotels, the first thing he does is switch the TV on. I was brought up in South Africa when we never watched TV. I just like the peace and quiet. Sometimes we'll have the TV on but I keep it on mute. But nowadays in the US, TV is on all the time. Meals, before going to sleep... when I have kids I'll have to lay the law down!
Earlier in the day, another one of our male teammates had an amazing win over the world No.1 to reach the semifinals. He had never won a set off of him before but today he won two of them to beat him for the first time. It was phenomenal. I was right there in the stands, screaming so much, so if you heard me - probably something along the lines of "Come on, you can do it!", then that was probably me. And I have the hoarse throat to prove it now!
On another note, you may be wondering why I haven't named a single person by name all week. It might sound odd seeing me call people "teammates", "doubles partner", "world No.1"... It's because the International Olympic Committee has official guidelines stating I can't refer to any of the other athletes competing here by name. But hopefully it's pretty obvious who I've been talking about all week!!!
China wrapped up a lot of medals today. That's not good news for Team USA! It seems like the Chinese are good at everything. They knew they were going to host these games for a while and I think they really prepared for it. From fencing to swimming to table tennis, it's just amazing how every time I look at the medal podium, China is getting a medal. It's remarkable that they can be this good at absolutely everything. And I doubt this is going to be a one off. But it's obviously inspiring to play in your home country. All I'll say is 2016 - go Chicago! I gave someone a USA pin this week and they went to give me a Madrid 2016 pin, but I said it was okay and they could keep it... I'm for 2016 Chicago!
I'm amazed they got any tennis in tonight. We all thought the whole day would be cancelled because of the rain. When we left the courts there was still a bunch of matches to go on. It's now 11:15pm - they'll go until 1am or 2am, for sure. But it's really fun. The atmosphere is great. They'll probably be shooting for Sunday finals now though; they originally had some finals on the Saturday. Finishing on time seems impossible now.
We ended up not hitting today. After yesterday's tough match it all sort of caught up with me - the flying, the activities, the jet lag - and so today was a nice break. We know our quarterfinal opponents now - the Spanish team won their second round match today - and it will be a tough one, so I'm happy we'll be fresh for it. My regular partner and I played them in the semifinals of Roland Garros and they played incredibly and went on to win the title. But this is a different surface and we're an aggressive team, so hopefully that will give us a bit of an edge. I have a partner who is very powerful and I believe in her 100%; I'm sure she believes in me 100%. We'll compete hard. We're so close to the medal round, we're going to fight so hard. We're just thinking about the first point, the first game...
For now, I got the chicken sandwich again... I'm terrible. I feel disgusted. I'm so off the sandwich by now that I can only eat half of it. We had dinner around 6:30pm so of course I got hungry now. But like I've said before, it's a good sandwich. I don't know how many more I can eat this week though! I can't wait to go to New Haven next week. They have this restaurant program where you get a free meal at one of the Top 25 restaurants in the city. It's one of my favorite weeks of the year. So I can get skinny this week on half-chicken sandwiches because next week will make up for it! They have this competition too, where the player who goes to the most restaurants in New Haven wins a prize. I've won it the last two years. In 2006 I won World Series tickets and last year I won a really nice handbag. I'll probably get there a bit late this year so someone else might take my title... but I can't get too greedy. First tennis then pin collecting, now the restaurant competition? I think I need to take a step back
Goodnight and talk to you tomorrow!
Liezel
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Saturday, August 16, 2008Hey everyone!
It's been more than 24 hours since I've updated my blog... I promise it wasn't on purpose! You see we lost our quarterfinal match last night. Our scores were 57 76(6) 86. If you looked at the total points won, I am sure it was very even. The match was that close! We never had any match points, but came within two points of winning... Obviously we are very disappointed and would love to have gone further, and maybe win a medal, but it wasn't in the cards.
As you are reading this, I'm on the flight to New York! Right now we're in the airport. We've cleared customs and immigration and are waiting to board. I'm leaving Beijing with great memories. I had the best 10 days ever. Yes, the scheduling could have been better and yes, I would have loved to have a medal in my suitcase; but all in all, I'm very grateful for this experience.
We didn't get back to the hotel until 1am last night. I had room service again and hung out with the team. I don't like to pack! I procrastinate when it comes to packing. I ended up only sleeping four hours, because I hadn't packed. Now, sitting here, I can't wait to get on the plane and sleep!
I want to say thanks to all of you for reading my blog. It's been real! Thanks also for all your support. Please do keep cheering us on, as the year is far from over. Please come and visit us in Houston at Huber Tennis Ranch too!
I will say my sad goodbyes now, as we embark on our 22-hour journey. It has been an honor to share my Olympic experience with you! Go Team USA!
Lots of love,
Liezel
