Grand Canyon University Athletics
Pan American Games-Day Two
10/21/2011 8:47:00 AM | Dominique Daniels - BMX
Dominique 3D Daniels-Day 2 in Guadalajara at the Pan American Games:
Today was as interesting as yesterday and it actually started last night as some of my roommates decided it was better to stay up most of the night rather than sleep. I know they didn’t mean to be a pain as many are away from home for the first time and the excitement of being here affects everyone differently. I think I finally got to sleep around 1:30 a.m. and I had to get up at 7:30 a.m. so I was a little tired to start but we sat down to have breakfast with athletes from Cuba, Venezuela and Chile. Our communication was a little difficult but we told each other about ourselves and our homes and family. I was surprised that two of them had heard about me through the internet because I have raced girls from their country. The guy from Cuba was very interesting as he loved the idea of America hoped someday to visit or live.
After breakfast we went to practice at the track, although much progress had been made it is still not race ready but hopefully it will be by Thursday. Most of the riders were there and the competition will be tough; although a couple of riders are out due to injuries at practice.
The countries are housed together at the Olympic Village and they really cheer each other on when in competition. I took some photos of the village and cafeteria so you can see how large it is and how many meals they serve a day.
There was a major event going on at the stadium next to the Olympic Village and there are well over 100,000 people here. The traffic is crazy but controlled and the military/police presence is unbelievable. I hope to get some photos of it tomorrow after practice but we will see as there was no way to get close today; people were lining up early this morning.
I had lunch with girls from Barbados/Trinidad, Brazil and Mexico and had dinner with an Argentinian Horse rider and wrestler or Tae Kwon Do from Ecuador. I am amazed that although we are from all over the world we really aren’t that different. They talk about their families and it seems everyone wants to visit America or at least Disneyland. I was also surprised by the level of religious importance the athletes talked about.
We have an international area attached to the Village and they had music from around the Central American countries which I enjoyed. But honestly, it was more like a food court from any U.S. mall; there was a Starbucks, Burger King, Dominos and Dunkin Donuts (so much for international).
I’m going to try to get to bed early so I don’t have to take another COLD shower and I will see how tomorrow goes.
Dominique