Rio Olympics 2016 – Gary Hermansson

Transit to Rio

After the 48hr delay for traveling to Rio, things progressed as planned on Tuesday.  During the waiting period when checking in with Air NZ to confirm flights, I found that that I had two ‘recognition upgrades’ waiting for use in their system. So I decided to request an upgrade to Business Class for the flight from Auckland to Buenos Aires and somewhat to my surprise, given the late notice, I managed to get it approved!  I also changed the flight I was scheduled to take from Palmerston North to an earlier time so I had a fall-back option if there were any problems – there was not this time around.

At Auckland I connected with several of the media group and with the Men’s Hockey Team who were on the same flight.  I felt a bit self-conscious about the upgrade so I quietly slipped on board and made a discreet turn left into Business Class – then followed all the perks of that status – personable service, quality meals, the chance to lie down on a bed and plenty of space.  I watched Taita Waikiki’s great movie (Search for the Wilderpeople) and in keeping with the Olympic focus I also watched ‘Eddie the Eagle’ (also a good watch).

The flight to Buenos Aires took around 11 hours, and then we had a 3 hour wait before catching an Airlingus flight to Rio.  That flight was also about 3hours in duration and it was a difficult flight because of it seemed like just a tag-on. Wouldn’t you know it, only one of my two bags turned up, so there was the hassle of having to log an incident report and try and put together some clothing options to get through the night and start the next day. It took about 45 minutes to get to the Village by bus and by the time accreditation was sorted and keys handed out, I got to bed around 1am.

In the Village

I slept quite well for about 4 hours and then couldn’t get back to sleep again, so I got up around 6.30am to familiarise myself with the set up.

 

Once connected, I went out and about on a bike (we have about 25 on them for use) to go to Breakfast in the massive dining tent and then around the Village area.  Then it was networking, greeting people and sorting out a few minor facility issues.

With athletes now starting to come into the Village, we have started the formal welcome and orientation process.  They are greeted in groups (often with a welcome haka and a ritual handshake/hongi/ hug line).  Then Rob Waddell acknowledges their Team connection, Bruce Hamilton (Lead Doctor) talks then through health and well-being issues, Tania Kura (Security) covers keeping safe in and out of the Village, I talk to them about psychological challenges and services, and Trevor Shailer (Deputy Chef de Mission) talks about symbols and rituals, leading into each person being presented with their unique pounamu pendant by Rob (Chef de Mission).

In the case of the large rowing team, they were also presented with their competition uniform.  They are quite a formidable group – very lean and mean.