Hi!  This is Colleen (Michele’s Mom) . Mich is unable to access her blog here in Beijing due to a restriction,

Mich sent this email.  She will look into solving the problem. If you want to contact her , her email address is eraymich@gmail.com.  

 

Hi

Sorry there has been no communication but I think that the Chinese have found a way to make time fly…

I will write a longer mail soon, so here are the highlights so far:

 

It is super HOT!

The Chinese are unbelievably organised, friendly and helpful.

The Village rocks… Saw Roger Federer yesterday, and Raphael Nadal.

The Food Court is dangerous…

Every athlete here is a champion in their sport, and in their country. The best.

It is super HOT!

I’m at the Olympics….wow. I think it’s finally sinking in.

The opening ceremony was awesome, we came into the stadium singing Sho-sholoza, what a vibe. And did you see that dude running along the lip of the stadium? He must have had quite a view!!

 

 

Mich x

 

 

 

Sitting in Turkey airport waiting for our connecting flight to Dubai, and then on to China. I read in the newspaperon the plane that the Iraqi team is now allowed to compete at the Games. I’m happy for them, politics has nothing to do with athletes.

Said goodbye to Ant Stott and Nic Burden at the airport. They are off to Spain to do Sella and some other races there. Best of luck to them. Ant has a blog now. Its www.antstott.wordpress.com

Jen has a blog too. Its www.jenhodson.wordpress.com

I will put a link up to both in my Links section. I have also made a new page with the TV schedule for the Games on it.

Here’s an interesting bit of statistics. I have just been charging my Garmin, and I looked at the paddling training history, and since the 25 February 2007 until yesterday, the 4th August 2008, I have logged around 1500 hours, 5000km and burnt 299028 Calories paddling (not including racing and time trials, and most warm ups). And 800km, 73 hours of running (Although I run mostly without a GPS, just a stopwatch…so this is not too accurate). Anyway, not too sure how correct this is, I am not focusing too hard on my maths skills here, and the Turkish coffee I just downed is making it hard to think

This from the IOL News Website:

On SuperSport 6, which will be a 24-hour Olympic channel, viewers will be able to catch live action of all the gold medal events.

SuperSport 5 and 7/10 will also feature live action when there is a clash of event times.

Live links

There are two overflow channels: 198 on DStv, which will broadcast to the continent, and DStv 199, for South Africa only.

SuperSport will be represented in Beijing by Crystal Arnold, Ponga Liwewe and Gerald de Kock, with Robert Marawa and Leigh-Ann Paulick presenting from the Randburg studios.

There will be a daily magazine programme, with live links to SuperSport’s representatives in Beijing.

The programme, on SuperSport 6, will run for two hours from 7.30pm and include interviews with athletes and highlights of the day’s events.

SuperSport Update on DStv channel 200 will include a 20-minute package of highlights from Beijing, incorporated into the regular highlights programmes on that channel.

As part of SuperSport’s build-up to the Games, look out for Going For Gold, Africa To Beijing, Great Women Of The Olympics, Golden Moments Of The Olympics, The Olympic Spirit and Olympic Century.

Coverage from the opening ceremony at the national stadium in Beijing at 2pm (on SuperSport 5, 6 and 7/10) to the closing ceremony on Sunday, August 24, again at 2pm, on the same three channels.

On the new media side, SuperSport will ensure you are kept up to date on every detail.

SuperSport Active on DStv (press “OK” while watching any sports channel to access this service) will have news, the medals table and coverage of all the major sports, and selected results from Africa’s athletes.

The SuperSport and Sascoc websites will have full coverage of the Games, including all schedules, results, tables and video highlights.

I know SABC will have coverage too.

Here is the link to SASCOC’s website with TV Schedule

http://www.sascoc.co.za/default.asp?cid=14073&des=content

It’s great, you can either click on the day/date or the actual event and it will give you the time and channel.

Here are my events:

18 August

Michelle Eray

Women’s K4 500m Heats

10:30 - 10:42 (SA time)

19 August

Michelle Eray

Women’s K2 500m Heats

12:00 - 12:12 (SA time)

20 August

Michelle Eray?

Women’s K4 500m Semi Finals

10:10 - 10:12 (SA time)

SS6

21 August

Michelle Eray?

Women’s K2 500m Semi Finals

11:10 - 11:12 (SA time)

SS6

22 August

Michelle Eray?

Women’s K4 500m Final

10:20 - 10:22 (SA time)

SS6

23 August

Michelle Eray?

Women’s K2 500m Final

11:20 - 11:22 (SA time)

SS5/SS5A

Rainbow

We are solidly into our 2nd week of the final training camp. Our K4 is feeling good, did 4×500m this morning in the rain.

Hoping the weather clears up soon

Yesterday we escaped to Budapest for the day. We went to the Bodies Exhibition. It was incredible! You could not get a better understanding of human anatomy anywhere. Here is the link to the website http://www.bodiestheexhibition.com/ 

If the exhibition is ever nearby, go have a look. It’s totally worth it.

Here is a link to a very interesting website (it’s also to the right in my Links section)

www.benitadewitt.com

Benita is a great physiotherapist who has some great techniques to keep you well balanced and injury-free. Her bankies method has kept my back in check for quite a while now. And the best part is that she loves to share all her knowledge.

Enjoy!

Wayne and Louise Craig from Off The Hook in Plettenberg Bay had the most awesome going away party for me last Saturday (5th July). They went out of their way to make it such a special evening. Their whole restaurant was decorated with SA flags, and pictures of me racing and training.The food was fantastic-seafood snacks, fish, calamari etc. It was so special to find out that I have so much support, and people watching my progress. I hope to do you all proud at the Olympics.

Thanks to all who came, and thanks to Lisa Jerling for the fantastic cake in the colours of the SA flag. Here’s a picture of it:

 my family

Thanks to Lyndall from SAB,

(Mands and Lyndall)

And to Dave Rissik for your Good Luck Charm. I hope you know: a few years back when I was trying to make the decision whether or not to give up my life as I knew it, and live out of a bag, and make it my mission to go to the Olympics, that it was a small chat that I had with you, that made up my mind to go for it! Your stories of the Games, and how great it was for you (to go to THREE OLYMPICS! we have a legend living in Plett), really inspired me to go for it.

Thanks to Marty for his nice words. I still remember when I first started paddling, and Mart, Daniel Conradie, Hanno Smit and James Mangold used to work me to exhaustion. The best part of the session was catching waves at The Reef off the BI Hotel. One day, after the session, catching some fun waves, Mart turned to me and said “Don’t forget ,e when you’re famous.” I said “Mart, don’t forghet me when you famous!” The G4 winner had no clue how talented he was, and what he was going to achieve in the future!

Thanks again to Wayne and Louise and all their staff for the super evening. And thanks to everyone for coming and for all the support.

 B singing the anthem.

I will post the TV schedule for the Games once I know it.

Just had a small altercation with the lady behind the counter over a few measly kilograms! I have 7 paddles, most of which are  to bring back for people in SA, which Icleverly put in one box, and wrapped up. It unfortunately ended up weighing 10kg… 23kg is not a lot of weight to play with

Anyway, managed to shuffle things around a bit, and now I’m sitting at the R34 coffee shop! I fly to Amsterdam, then straight on to CT! I am very excited to be coming home for 10 days.

Here are some interesting facts from the weekend’s racing.

All 3 men in the 500m K1 were under the old World Record. Both Tim Brabants (2nd) and Adam van Koeverdan (1st) went a 1.35 which is SUPER fast! So the new World Record is held by Adam from Canada. The Olympic final is going to be very interesting.

Bridgitte Hartley won SA’s first ever gold medal in the 1000m K1. She didn’t just win though, she opened a large gap and kicked some serious international butt!

Here is a photo from www.flatwater.info showing how windy it was…

If I had a ski there I am sure I would have been faster!

It’s been a great World Cup. The weather cleared up, and the wind dropped a lot. Bridgitte won SA’s first ever Gold Medal at a WC event in the 1000m. Here’s a picture of her with her bling:

Our K4 final went ok, we ended up 6th. Shaun made A finals for 500m and 1000m. Bridge and I were very unlucky not to make A finals for the 500m K2. We finished 4th (by 0.1 sec) in our semi-final, in a time that would have won the first semi-final! That’s sprinting for you! We went on to win the B Final. Which is one place less than the Duisburg World Cup (we finished 9th there, 10th in Poland). Jen came 4th in the B Final.

I’m off to Hungary tomorrow, then back to SA on Tuesday. Excited to be coming home to recharge before the final Pre-Olympic training camp.

More photo’s and news to follow…

Poznan is windy… So windy our heats were cancelled yesterday afternoon. Luckily, because we managed to sink the K2 during our warmup! So we raced this morning, and came 2nd. Our semi-final is on Sunday morning.

The K2 Heat Start (no wind yet… only 10m/s)

We have our K4 Final at 1620 today. Go here for race results: http://www.wc2008.pl/