To any one still reading

I leave China in about four hours. I am very ready to come home and spend time with my family:) I have had such an amazing time here, after the competition I was really able to see China. As you can see from all the pics. I also just soaked up the rest of the Games, Closing ceremonies were kind of emotional for me. Seeing the flame disappear symbolized the end of my first Olympic experience. Now this entire thing will be a memory, what an amazing one it will be ( except for my injury:(. Well I am sooo happy you could all join in with me and my family on our adventure here, I have enjoyed sooo much the support and messages. Everyone take care... and 2012 here I come!:)

The Olympic Village

Diana brought us into the Olympic Village, oh my goodness what a privilege! The athletes are treated so well. The facilities are first class, the grounds are beautiful, someone does their laundry, game rooms, gym with everything you could think of, 50 meter pool, computer rooms, bank, free phones, and the biggest restaurant ever. While we were there we ate in the restaurant it seats 6,000 and the food was amazing. They had Chinese food, American, Italian, and the most amazing salad bar. There were huge bins of fruit, drinks, ice cream. It was like a free grocery store, but on the biggest scale. Just being a visitor in the village gave you the chills. We saw many familiar athlete faces in the village. All I can say about our visit to the village is WOW!!!

Tea Tasting

We are sampling tea in a tea house, they don't make tea the way we do there is a process to it almost like a ritual. We tryed Jasmine and Black tea very different from here and good.

Hutongs

At one time most of Beijing was made up of Hutongs they are very narrow lanes that would wind through out the city and is were most of the people lived. This pictures is one of the homes that we were able to go through. The family was at the Olympics and allowed us to visit their home this was considered a wealthy family by China standards. Their homes are made up of four separate areas one for the mother and father that is the building directly behind us. and to the right is the kitchen and one of the daughters bedrooms and in front of us is a servant area. It is a beautiful home. The home next door is very poor the area is very mixed. There are very few Hutongs left in Beijing they are being destroyed to make room for the massive progress going on here. The people are not upset about loosing their homes and being moved by the government because their life is improved.

The babies here are so cute

These are the locals just adoring this baby, he was really cute.

The old way of life.

We saw many elderly men riding their spouses in this fashion. It is very sweet to see the elderly you can see they hold on to the old ways.

Julie and Diana Rickshaw Riding

We took a tour of the more residental area and how most of the people live, it is the simple life here.

Rowlett High School at the Olympics

Coach Young will this one work?

Rowlett High School at the Great Wall

Coach Young Rowlett High School has made it to the Great Wall!

Track/Great Wall

We have been going 24/7 today is the first time I have had a chance to write and it not be midnight. To catch up the first day of the Games were amazing. We began the day at 5 am; it’s hard to sleep much longer considering 5 am here is 4 pm in Texas. We headed to the Olympic Green at 7am and thought taking the subway would be the best route that morning. This was two hours prior to the start of the Heptathlon. The subway was a BIG mistake the bus that took us there was no problem but once we got to the subway station there were thousands of people, but what we have learned here is one for all and all for one, you just push your way through. Ron, Julie and I were all holding on to each other for dear life in hopes of not losing each other. We had 3 subway transfers to get there, which means getting off one subway line and getting on to another, all I wanted to do was stay where I was I did not want to get off once we were on I was in fear of the masses. The first transfer was the scariest, we were in line to get on to the train there were people in front and in back, you had no way out. I was holding my breath imaging what was going to happen when the train would arrive. All of a sudden I could hear the train coming we all latched on to each other and gave each other a possible one last look, all of us had a little fear in our eyes. The door opens and it was a blur I moved but I don’t think I was moving my feet. I was face to face with the door and could go no further I struggled to turn around to see Ron and Julie, we all had made it in. When you get on the subway in the States you let people off and then you proceed to enter, not here. To get off you have to push, much like a Salmon trying to spawn, so we went into spawning mode to get off. Once we safely made it through the subway an hour and a half later and 2 years older, we had 30 minutes to get to the venue, but wait the line to get through security was huge. Thirty minutes later we made it through security, there security here is so tight not like in the States. Diana was in the 5th heat so we knew we should have until 9:15 so once through security we had 15 minute to make the mad dash to the stadium. When you see the stadium you could not do anything but stop and stare in awe of the massiveness of the structure, it is truly a sight to see. Ron and I were running until we reach the gate to enter the stadium and thought we were in the right area, but no she directed us to a stairway I looked up, and already in heavy sweat mode saw the tallest stairway I had ever seen in my life. Ron went dashing up, I followed but realized there was no way that I could continue having to walk feeling I would never reach the summit. I finally made it walked through the tunnel and into the stadium and chills ran from my head and the way down, I now know the feeling Diana had when she saw the inside of this incredible facility. I had to again just stop and stare it just takes your breath away, to think of such a moment is beyond words. Ron and I finally get to our seats, sweat just pouring, but we made it as they had just finished heat three of the heptathlon 100 hurdles. Can you imagine making the way to China and missing the first race. This was some major stress, but we did it. We were set to go cameras on Diana and geared to go and then as you know disaster hit at the end of the race. The next day Diana was doing better, but I know watching the second day of the Hepthalon was hard for her, yet happy to see her teammate win the bronze medal.
The jet lag has been hard we all are struggling once it reaches 6 pm. The evening track sessions start at 7 pm we all struggle to stay awake. We have not adjusted to this yet and we are on our 5th day here. We are having a great time, yesterday we all went to the Great Wall and what an amazing sight, it’s hard to believe this wall is 4,100 miles long all in the mountains in very rugged terrain. You wonder how in the world they build this by hand. We took a gondola up the mountain and tobogganed down that was so much fun! Well today’s adventure is to the Summer Palace where there are beautiful parks and then back to the Olympic venue for evening track. Tonight there are some good races and some finals to see. Hopefully tonight the jet lag will ease.

Hello.....

Well....I first wanted to thank everyone for their unbelievable amount of support reading all those post meant so much to me. I wish so badly that yesterday did not happen the way it did, but it did. When I walked out there to run that race I felt an emotion that I had never felt before it was amazing!!! I was so unbelievably pumped up, I was about to jump out of my skin! Once the race started I felt great and right when I was attempting it quicken a little more is when I got injured, I pushed my body a little to far I guess. I felt a popping sensation over the top of the seventh or eighth hurdle and knew what had happened( I did the same thing in March). I attempted to keep going but soon realized my body would not allow it. So my competition as ended. I wanted so bad to be out there for the whole Heptathlon, but I was not able. I will not let this ruin my Olympic experience I will still soak everything in and cheer on my teammate Hyleas to the gold!! This has still been so amazing, and I feel so proud to be an Olympian. Thanks again for all your post I have looked forward to reading them every time I am on the computer. I will be spending the next week with Julie, Mom, and Ron and I will update you in the next day or two.

Update

For those of you following Diana’s progress today as you saw she was not able to compete after the first event. The day began great blue sky perfect weather and no smog. Diana said she was feeling great and was ready to go. Diana was in the last heat, this was the fast heat the gun fired and all were pressing hard. When Diana came up on the eighth hurdle she pulled her hamstring and struggled to get over the last two hurdles and cross the line. You could see she was in a lot of pain. She knew it was over and this was a heart breaking time. Diana wanted nothing more than to be out there competing. We are so proud of her and know she would have done an amazing job if given the chance, but the strong hearted person she is this will only make her a stronger athlete.
We love you Diana, it meant a lot to us to be here with you no matter the out come.

Tiananmen Square, Beijing

Hello All-
We made it! We got into Beijing around 8:00 pm Wednesday night. I think I left off while we were in Chicago well not much of a hitch there, just when we went to check in as the plane was loading in Chicago they did not have us on the flight, well nothing like a little panic at this point. Luckily we had our print out of the itinerary and they were able to put us back in. The flight to Shanghai went pretty well considering it was 14 hours long, we watched several movies (The Bucket List was so good), not much sleep at this point since it was during the day in our time zone. When in Shanghai they were able to get us on an earlier flight to Beijing which got us in 2 hours earlier than expected. That was the tough flight the wall was starting to hit us, our heads were bobbing back and forth, side to side and the oils began to secrete not a pretty sight. After the flight a bus meet us for a 45 minute drive to the hotel, again heads bobbing eyes rolling back. So here we are both of us can’t wait to hit the beds. After about a 30 minute check in off to the room. Fifth floor ok, well guess what no elevator only stairs, and thank goodness all our running has paid off. You don’t want to make that trip often. So we get in our room and I am not kidding the bed, oh good God the best I can describe it is a piece of plywood with a bed pad on it. I guess that is how all rooms are in Beijing not firm but hard. Thank goodness we were so tired I think we would have slept on a bed of nails last night. I think I am getting a little anxious about the bed tonight. Julie should be coming in shortly we are just waiting for her; she should be in around 6:30 this evening. I don’t think we will be seeing Diana tonight we are about 45 minutes apart and has to get up early in the morning. So hopefully we will she her tomorrow in between her two sessions.
Ron and Chris/Toots

Tomorrow it begins...

Well I have not talked to mom or Ron yet their phones are not working! But I did receive one email. It is about 1:30 here I believe, and Julie arrives at 4:30 into the airport! I am so excited for them to cheer me on, I will be secretly looking for them in the stadium tomorrow;) It is finally here!!!! I feel great and I am so happy that it is time for the big show. My body and my mind are ready to roll, I just need a good night sleep. I start at 9 am, so I will be taking the bus over to the stadium at 6:30am. I will compete in the 100m hurdles and the high jump in the morning then I will have a several hour break ( only a long break at world champs and Olympics) Then come back in the evening and throw the shot put and run a 200m. On the second day I will again compete at 9am in the long jump then another long break and I will the contest the javelin and the 800m that evening. My goal here at the games is to compete well....to compete well for me, to not hold anything back and put up the marks I know I am capable of and that will make me the happiest girl in the world! Not placing gold, but doing my best and where that puts me in the competition it puts me. I have no control of how all the other competitors do so I will solely focus competing my very best and the rest will play out for it's self. I will not be able to update you after the first day since I will not be done until late that night so it will be a couple days before I can tell you all the details of my competition. I am sure Mom, Ron, and Julie will write you the next couple of days. Well time to go rest... I will talk to you soon!
D

China here we come!!

Good bye Dallas, Hello Beijing

Well today we are beginning our journey to Beijing. Up at 3:30 am and off to the airport by 4 an early start to the day, but what a day. Our flight to Chicago has a take off at 6:00 am. I am writing this on the airplane in route to Chicago and so far so good we only were stop by a cop on the way to the airport, luckily he let us off with a warning. We were going 67 (speed limit is 60) on the Bush and for those of you living in Dallas you know driving at that speed you would be passed by every car on the road and you better be in the right lane considering the norm is 70 - 75. Anyway, I think the cop was board and needed someone to talk to at 4:20 in the morning. Once we arrive in Chicago we take a flight to Shanghai which takes off at 10:30 am, now that flight is a bit longer 13 and a half hours, that hurts. Then when we arrive in Shanghai we will have a 4 hour lay-over and then one more leg to Beijing this will be a short 2 and a half hour flight. Total travel time with lay-over will be 20 hours; we may be unrecognizable by this time. You know I would happily fly for 40 hours in cargo to be here and see Diana. We are so blessed. Signing off for now we will let you know how it goes once in BEIJING BABY!
Ron and Chris/Toots

This was suppose it be a picture, but turned into a little video with an excited Chinese man in the back, haha

This is after we walked our lap in the opening ceremonies. This is Kara Patterson, Jillian Camerana, and me!

Hi Everyone!!

I am here with Coach Sloan, He says WHATS UP!!! I got him a pass into the village today. I have been showing him around and was able to show him all the pictures I have been taking, there were a few tears ;) Now we are going to go check out the shops and eat a little food. Tonight I will be going with a few other athletes to the Womens basketball game versus China!! It should be great. Well...I worked out this morning it was my last "real" training day, the next three days will just be rest mode. I will do more of just a general warm-up, then it is GAME TIME BABY! Well time to get some food, I will post pictures tonight. Talk to you soon

Unbelieveable

WOW.............it was amazing. I will start from the beginning of my experience. We all met below our buildings at about 5:15pm. From there we walked to the buses, it was crazy if you looked down the row you could not even see the end, it was bus after bus waiting for all the athletes. From there all the USA athletes headed into the fencing building and entered the 'media room'. We were all grouped by sport, except track which was broken up into many groups. There we were suppose to hear from the President of the United States, George Bush. After 15mins of waiting we heard he was arriving and everyone had there cameras ready, but in comes the Basketball team. Because they are so high profile they do not come on the same buses as us 'other athletes', haha! It was pretty cool though, Lebron James, Carmello Anthony(got pics of them too), and many others came strolling in, all the athletes went pretty crazy taking pictures. After about ten minutes of that they organized us and announced the entrance of the President of the United States!!!! He was accompanied by his wife Laura Bush, George Bush SR, and one of his daughters, Barbara. He talked for just a couple minutes and then took pictures with each individual group. He started at the other end so we had a little bit of a wait, but while he was doing that Former President Bush walked around the other side and met with each group. I took a picture with him and he told me to smile when I felt the pinch! Hahaha he was a funny man. I also got a picture with his daughter Barbara, I talked to her for a little bit about being from Dallas, she was super nice. We finally made our way around to George Bush and I have a really cool picture with him and all the field athletes. He shook all of our hands and was very friendly and nice. After that I met with the first lady, who was also very nice and upbeat. From there we walked over to the gymnastics building where all the other countries were waiting . As we sat in there, there was a big screen that would show when each country was up to begin the walk into the stadium. As we sat and waited countries tried to start the wave, others broke out in dances, and others cheered every time a country was called. Finally our country was called....number 140. We gathered and formed lines of 10. I was in the third row on the inside, I was walking in lane one. As we made our way to the stadium fans and helpers lined the streets cheering and yelling Kobe Bryant's name( they love him here)!!!!! As we were just about to walk into the stadium the whole US team was chanting USA USA USA, it was crazy!! At that moment when we walked in I was overwhelmed. we took our lap and waved to the crowd, on the back curve is really when I started to cry and thinking I am walking in the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games!!!!! Some one next to me said "we are in best place in the World right at this moment"! He was right, it was truly amazing. After that all the rest of the teams walked their lap and the Olympic oath was made. I know by now all of you have seen the lighting of the torch, it blew us all of our feet( Mom I know you were waiting for that moment to see what they would do and I bet you did not think of that)!!! Well.......after standing for many hours it was worth every bit of foot pain;) I had the time of my life. Now it is competition time!! I will now focus all my attention towards August 15 the start of my Heptathlon, but last night will never ever be forgotten!

Hours Until the Opening Ceremonies

Hi Everyone!!! It is about 1:45pm here right now. I got back into Beijing last night about 8:00pm. It turned out to be a pretty long day, but I am back in the Village. We have a meeting today at 3 to go over all the things we need to know before everyone meets, I believe around 5pm we will head over and begin the celebration! I can not believe today is the day! I started out the day by heading over to Beijing Normal University, which is a facilitate were all the USA athletes can train, and it is pretty cool. I explored the place and found the boxing room, the wrestling room, fencing, basketball, and swimming. I took pictures and will put them up soon. And now I am sitting in the computer room for the USA team in the village and just had Tores, the 40 something swimmer sitting right next to me:) Well......thinking about being apart of the Olympic Games opening ceremonies already almost overwhelms me. Also reading all of your messages means so much to me and really makes me realize what I am apart of. Thanks so much and I will be waving proud and strong out there on the field tonight. I will be taking as many pictures as they will allow and I will write when I can to tell you all about the experience. Talk to you all soon!!!!!

Oh to answer your question Janet, at the track they have many helpers out there. When I high jumped the other day this girl and a boy were the ones helping me. They spoke some english and were so sweet. Well.....a couple days after that we went downtown and as we got off the bus a bunch of helpers were there waiting to guide us around. My two little friends were there so I spent all day with them. We had so much fun!!!! That was the girl that is in the picture:).

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Diana,

I just heard it's Valentine's Day in China today, August 7th. All young single women are to make an offering to the night sky to find their true love, it goes back to an old Chinese legend. You are to make offerings of flowers, incense, paper and embroidery, and there will be your true love. So make your offering tonight. Just a tid-bit from the Today Show.

Love You Mom and Ron

Todays Update from Dalian, China

It is 2:45 in the afternoon right now and I am just relaxing and catching up on emails and stuff! Went to practice this morning at 8:30am. I had a good practice today I hurdled and long jumped. The track was pretty crowded today, we have the option of a morning workout or afternoon to early evening and I guess everyone choose the morning today!! The air was cleaner today than is was the past two days which was a nice change. I head back into Beijing tomorrow evening and will stay there for the duration of the Games. The opening ceremonies are coming so soon!! I am excited and I will do my best to stand out in a crowd of people dressed exactly like me :) Ian Waltz (Discus) gave me a tip to try to be on the outsides you get a better chance of being on camera, I will do my best, I guess if I get close to the flag you might be able to see me too. If you do catch a glimpse of me I will probably be smiling from ear to ear and have tears in my eyes. Well the rest of the day here is going to be pretty relaxing, I might play a little ping pong that is the hot game here. All the athletes get in heated competitions! It's fun! Talk to you soon!!

Todays Update from Dalian, China

This is the resort in Dalian, China that is only occupied by the USA Track and Field team. I am taking the top pic from in my room, and the other is from the golf course looking back

Hi Everyone!!

I'm back!!! To answers some questions asked; Dalian is about an hour flight from Beijing, i will be flying back to Beijing on the 7th. Also the Olympic Village is alot closer to the stadium that I had first thought. I believe the drive is less than ten minutes.
Things are still great, we went into another part of downtown Dalian and it was pretty cool. Some of the helpers came along from the track and assisted us was we walked around, I had the coolest two people I actually got to know them at the practice track the other day, they are so cute!!! We walked around, experienced real chinese food and saw some very interesting things!!!!! That took up most if the day, other than that we had a team meeting and voting for who we would put in as the flag barrier for track and field and our nomination was for Lopez lamas a 1500m runner. Tommorow I will head to the track at 830 am and hurdle and long jump. It has been pretty darn hot here ( from the sounds of it not like tx!) and also a lot of smog has rolled in the past several days. It was so clean and clear when I first came in ( you will see in the pics), but now it is very smuggy, it looks alot like fog. Hopefully Beijing will be better, it was when I first arrived on my way to Dalian. Well that is about it. I am exhausted and ready for bed. It is 11 pm here and I need to hit the hay!!!! Night And thanks so much for the messages I love reading them!!

Hot Times In Texas

Good Morning Diana,

Only 5 more days to go to Opening Ceremonies. It was 108.5 here and for fun we baked chocolate chip cookies in the Civic. Cooking time varied just a bit only 45 minutes in a preheated car. The cookies surprisingly turned out crispy and quite tasty. Look what fun you're missing here. Tomorrow is going to also be a scorcher day 106. Wish we could be in Dalian at the beach.

We all enjoyed your last post, keep them coming. Have you had any problems adjusting to the time change? How has the temperature and humidity been? Keep us up on your activities!

Love us all!

Mom

P.s. Hi Diana - had a good time at your house Sunday. We are thinking of you and are all so excited for you. Cookies were very good!!!!! Love Janet

Hello from China!!!

Hi Everyone this is Diana reporting from Dalian, China. I am at the training camp and it is sooooo pretty! I also stayed in the village for a night, everything has exceeded my expectations. I am soaking up everything. Here at the training camp we have an entire resort for us, with a golf course movie room, bowling alley, etc. It sits right on a bay, that I have a great view of from my hotel window. I will upload pictures soon! I started training here and feel great! After training today they took us downtown, whenever we leave our resort they completely stop traffic for the whole trip, with police escorts and all. Also when we shopped around there was a guard following our every move, kindof cool:) Well my stomach is grumbling..... oh ya that reminds me they have brought in an American chief that is amazing!! He has spoiled us it is so nice, he cooks everything from scratch. Well I am off to dinner, I will update soon and upload pics!

Hi Diana, You made it!!!! While you are living it up in China we are pigging out on Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches! Hope your flight was nice and thinking about you all the time. Take lots of pictures and do as much as you can. We all love you sooooo much :-)))))))))

Diana running an exciting 800m at the Trials!

Hey All,
Diana begins her adventure early this morning flying from Spokane to San Francisco, (30 Aug). She will then be bused to San Jose for USA Olympic Team Uniform selection and fitting. The uniforms are tailored overnight and returned to them before being bussed back to SFO for their flight to Beijing, (31 Aug).