davidnielsen's blog

Every night before the track competition, an Olympic promotional commercial played on the big screen at the Bird’s Nest.

They just showed it again before the Closing Ceremony.

The commercial featured a Greek sage talking to various athletes with names like “The Invincible Man” and “Flying Girl.”

Four years ago in Athens, the security procedures became markedly more lax as the end of the Games drew near.

Not so here. If anything, they've tightened the security.

Our bags are run through X-ray machines every time we leave our media village. The last two days they have asked to inspect my bag.

One time they had to look closely at my spare batteries.

I’ve seen some folks working at jobs here that would be very hard to fill in America.

I saw one man squatting and reaching underneath a fence with clippers to trim the grass on the other side.

I saw another man dressed in a bright orange jumpsuit and wearing a mask who swept the shoulder of a highway with an old, ratty broom.

When we return home next week, somebody is bound to ask if we ate Peking Duck.

Now we can yes, thanks to the Quanjude Yayuncun Roast Duck Restaurant.

We didn’t know it at the time, but it turns out that the restaurant is part of a Chinese chain of duck restaurants that was founded in 1864.

We went for lunch and were the only Westerners in the spacious place.

The folks with the Beijing Olympic Committee Organizing Committee (BOCOG) thought of everything.

BOCOG came up with a way to make flags wave when they reach the top of the flagpoles during medal ceremonies.

I won an Olympic medal today.

NBC was nowhere in sight.

There weren’t any photographers present, either, so I took my own picture of the medal later.

There was no elaborate medal ceremony. I didn’t stand on a podium, and there was no national anthem.

All I did was show my Olympic photo badge, sign a form and accept the medal from a gracious volunteer.

Many of my reporter colleagues feel that they aren’t doing their job unless they are critical of something.

A veteran New York Times reporter complained that there is no large public gathering place where fans can celebrate the Games after hours like Las Ramblas in Barcelona.

The U.S. volleyball program is enjoying an unexpected resurgence here. And it’s about time.

Volleyball originated in 1895 in the same Massachusetts YMCA gym where basketball was invented four years earlier. Unlike basketball, America has not dominated the volleyball competition at the Olympic Games.

Bolt ran so fast, the camera couldn't catch him

19.30

I’m sitting in the Bird’s Nest waiting for the first of nine heats in the first round of the men’s 800 meters. And I’m aging by the minute.

Sixty-one runners from 43 nations are scheduled to compete in the 800, which is two laps around the track. Glancing over the competitors’ fastest times is a humbling experience.