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One night in the Nest

By Zhao Huanxin (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-21 08:30

The Bird's Nest is packed with crowds cheering for track and field events, including the Women's Triple Jump Finals. [China Daily]

When I got two tickets for the athletics competition to be staged on Sunday night in the Bird's Nest, I was more worried than excited.

The pretty, coveted tickets meant only two of our three-member family could go see the Games. I wondered if couples were allowed to bring young children along without a ticket, so we as a family could witness the event that Beijingers say is taking place "on our doorstep".

The taxi driver suggested I call the Olympic ticket hotline (12580) for some tips when I found no answer on the back of the ticket. To my chagrin, only children below the age of 2 could be brought along for free. The driver wished me good luck after I told him mine is already eight.

The National Stadium, or Bird's Nest, is only 10 minutes drive from where I live. For months, my son Tian Tian has been bombarding me with questions like: "How big is it?" and "Are there really eggs in the Nest?" To the last query, I assured him: "There are surely eggs for people to harvest - athletes will snatch their medals day and night there."

The Bird's Nest shone radiantly red in all its splendor as we drove towards the entrance around 6:30 pm. After a grudgingly long queue wait, it was time for us to pass the security check. I had planned to leave after seeing my son and my wife in. But, as I stood there, in the middle of it all, I became reluctant to miss out on the "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity. I desperately pulled out the child card.

"Could you let us three in, for we could just manage to get two tickets, and my son is desperate to feel the experience of the Olympics for himself," I heard myself pleading with the guards.

The three of us laughed our way to the M zone of the stadium after a lovely, young ticket checker cleared us by kindly cautioning: "You've got to share the seats."

Once we passed through, we found ourselves inside a huge arena packed with crowds cheering, applauding and sweating for a bonanza of track and field events unfolding before us. Like thousands of other Chinese spectators, never before had we sat and watched top international sportsmen sprinting, jumping and throwing for gold and glory.

Though sandwiched between us, my son was a cheerleader around us. He clapped his hands vehemently when Zhou Chunxiu picked up her bronze medal on the podium. Zhou won China's first marathon medal on Sunday.

My son reacted to all the happenings on the field. He was completely shocked when a hammer-thrower miscalculated his last throw and it crashed into the net. I heard him yelp in astonishment as a steeple chaser hit a real snag - falling to the ground after failing to cross a hurdle in the women's 3,000m steeplechase.

But the thing my son enjoyed most was joining in on the Mexican waves. Spectators stood up row upon row, applauding or yelling with their hands up, when Russia's Gulnara Samitova-Galkina broke the world record, earning her country a gold in the women's 3,000m steeplechase.

My son was loving it, but complained he did not have enough eyes for all that deserved to be watched. But undoubtedly he had one more thing to be proud of: adding Jamaica to his modest vocabulary: "Jamaica! Jamaica! Jamaica!" We had practiced the word at top pitch so many times as three Jamaicans featured in the women's 100 m finals, with sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser leading a clean sweep for the Carribean country, devastating her rivals in a head-to-head showdown to become the world's fastest woman. The Jamaican squad also smashed some other challengers in other races on Sunday night.

Fierce racing aside, there was also a lighter note in the stadium on Sunday night. When the packed audience heard it was Romania's Constanina Tomescu's birthday, crowds sang Happy Birthday, followed by thunderous applause. She celebrated winning the first ever women's Olympic marathon title for her country as well as her 38th birthday.

When we filed out of the Nest at around 11pm, we joined streams of people lingering on the boulevard between the Nest and the Water Cube.

On our way home, we saw entire families of sports fans - dressed in shirts painted with bold slogans and sporting faces with stickers reading "One World, One Dream" and "love" heart signs.

Compared to them, my family was much less prepared for the festivities. But we had one thing in common: We all spent a night right in the Nest, for us to remember for all our days to come.