In the large conference room of the Field Management Center, fifty-three track and field athletes competing for the Athens Olympics gathered here.
On the rostrum, Director Luo, the leader of the national team's Olympic track and field delegation, was introducing some on-site arrangements for the Olympic Games to the athletes.
"Due to the large number of participants, our country's athletes mainly arrived in Greece in three batches this time. The first batch is currently the sailing and windsurfing team, rowing, kayaking team, women's football and gymnastics teams. Among them, the sailing and sailing team Athletes from the cricket team, rowing and canoeing teams have already arrived in Athens. After all, water sports are greatly affected by wind and waves, so they need to arrive early to adapt to training."
"The second batch is a large force that will arrive in Athens by special plane on August 8. Table tennis and badminton, weightlifting, diving, swimming, archery, boxing, etc. are all in this batch. Men's basketball players are taller because of their size. They will take another flight to Athens. The first two batches of athletes will arrive in Athens before the opening of the Olympic Games on August 13."
"As for our track and field delegation, we are scheduled to go to Athens in the last batch. We don't have a special plane and need to fly there by ourselves. Specifically, we will divide into three teams based on the principle of proximity. I will lead the team from Beijing and transfer via Frankfurt. To Athens; those departing from Huangpu will be led by Coach Sun, and transfer to Athens via the Netherlands; those departing from Huacheng will be led by Coach Sha, and will transfer to Athens via Hong Kong. Depending on the flight, it will be between August 17 and August 19 Arrive in Athens in time.”
"The other thing I want to talk about is participating in the opening ceremony of the Athens Olympics. At the opening ceremony, our delegation will form a square formation. Some of the athletes are recommended by the organization. If other athletes want to participate, they can also sign up on their own. So does any of us want to sign up?”
Participating in the Olympic opening ceremony is a very honorable thing, but it is also a very tiring thing. The Olympic opening ceremony requires many rehearsals in advance, which takes a lot of time. The opening ceremony is scheduled for 9pm to 12pm on the 13th, Athens time. If you include the return trip, it will probably take until three or four o'clock in the morning.
The opening ceremony consumes a lot of energy from athletes, so many athletes will not choose to participate in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in order to avoid affecting their competition status.
In addition, Director Luo has just explained the transportation plan for the track and field delegation. If you sign up to participate in the opening ceremony, it means going to Athens several days in advance, which is equivalent to breaking away from the track and field delegation as a collective. In the traditional concept, It is obviously not a good performance to act alone without a group.
Moreover, arriving in Athens early after leaving the organization, not to mention food, clothing, housing and transportation, training alone is also a big problem. As a professional athlete, not training for one day may affect his condition, let alone several days in a row.
Therefore, when Director Luo asked if anyone wanted to sign up to participate in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, none of the athletes in the venue raised their hands. Even if there were some who wanted to participate, they tolerated it when they saw that there was no one who wanted to participate.
Seeing that no one raised their hands, Director Luo nodded with satisfaction. He didn't want someone different to appear in his team.
At this moment, an athlete sitting in the back row suddenly raised his right hand and shouted loudly: "I want to sign up for the opening ceremony!"
Dozens of people in the conference room were all stunned. Then they collectively looked back and found that it was Zhang Guan who raised his hand.
"Eh..." Director Luo was speechless. He had no idea that there was such an ignorant athlete, and that this ignorant athlete was also one of the benchmark figures in the track and field delegation.
But then Director Luo thought about it. After all, Zhang Guan is only eighteen years old this year. Even if he is a big kid, and he has only played in one international game, it is normal for him to be curious about things at this age.
"Zhang Guan, I'm afraid you don't know. It takes a lot of time to attend the opening ceremony. You have to get up early and stay late, rehearse in advance, and just walk around the sports field several times." A coach in the front row reminded.
"Yes, our track and field delegation will arrive in Athens several days after the opening ceremony. During this period, you have to stay in the Olympic Village by yourself..." Another coach also said.
"It's okay. I just happened to be familiar with the competition venue and the local environment in advance. And I think it is a very honorable thing to participate in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, especially to participate in the athlete team and represent the motherland in front of the world. For me, It's a great honor." Zhang Guan replied.
Those who originally wanted to dissuade Zhang Guan suddenly shut up. They did not expect that Zhang Guan would set the tone so high all of a sudden and even speak out on behalf of the motherland. This has risen to the level of ideological consciousness. How can others persuade him.
When Zhang Guan first signed up, everyone thought it was because Zhang Guan was young, curious and ignorant of the world, so the senior coaches sitting in the front row offered words of advice. But after hearing what Zhang Guan said, it was obvious that it was early. Premeditated to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
Director Luo sighed helplessly. As Director Luo, he could not change his words. Since Zhang Guan raised his hand to sign up in public, Director Luo could only agree and let Zhang Guan fill out a registration form. Arrive at the Olympic delegation headquarters.
The official in charge of publicity at the Youth League quickly gave the approval and agreed to Zhang Guan's participation in the athletes' team at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
The opening ceremony's athlete phalanx gave priority to athletes with good reputations and good images. With the title of Asia's No. 1 trapeze artist, Zhang Guan's registration would not be rejected. What's more, Zhang Guan himself is a big man over 1.9 meters tall. The overall image also has advantages.
…
The next day, Zhang Guan went to the bank to exchange some euros and withdrew all the euros in his bank card. Now Zhang Guan had more than 160,000 euros in total.
The maximum denomination of the euro is 500 yuan, so 160,000 euros is just over three stacks, which can fit into a larger envelope, and can easily be stuffed into the compartment of a carry-on bag.
According to customs regulations, there is a limit on carrying foreign currency out of the country, but the Olympic team took an Air China Boeing 747 special plane, and customs allowed it all the way, so Zhang Guan successfully brought so many euros in cash into the plane.
At that time, the handling fees for cross-border withdrawals were much higher than ten years later. International credit card giants were also trying every means to block UnionPay. As a result, international credit cards issued by domestic UnionPay at that time could not be used in many places. In addition, at this time, foreign exchange The administration's limit for cross-border withdrawals is 5,000 yuan per day, which is not US dollars but national currency. It can be said to be pitifully small. It was only changed to 10,000 yuan per day in 2008. Later, Chinese tourists gradually went to the world, and The country’s foreign exchange is also relatively sufficient, and the cross-border withdrawal limit has gradually been increased to 100,000 yuan per day.
It was precisely because of various restrictions that Zhang Guan chose to carry Euro cash directly. In fact, at that time, most people who went abroad also carried foreign currency cash. The entire Olympic delegation, except for those big-name athletes who often went abroad, had foreign bank cards. Besides, they basically carry cash.
There is no direct flight from the capital to Athens. If you take a civil airliner, you need to transfer. This time the Olympic delegation chartered a direct flight, so it only took more than six hours to arrive in Athens.
The time difference between Athens and the capital is five hours. The flight takes off at 2pm capital time and arrives in Greece at 3pm Athens time. The Athens Olympic Organizing Committee has provided a special "Olympic Family" channel for participating countries in the Olympic Games, where you can directly go through customs procedures. The Olympic Village's Bada has already stayed in the closed parking lot of the airport. After the athletes leave the airport, they After boarding the Bada University, we went straight to the Olympic Village.
The delegation did not hold any ceremony at the airport, nor did it contact the media. This arrangement undoubtedly disappointed the waiting reporters. There were more than 200 reporters waiting at the airport that day, and they could only film some athletes pulling the ball across a road. Photo of suitcase.
The Olympic Village of the Athens Olympics is located at the foot of a mountain. The Olympic Village is divided into an accommodation area and an international area. Both areas have access restrictions. Only athletes, officials and Olympic Village staff are allowed to enter the accommodation area.
Most of the buildings in the accommodation area are three-story buildings with an apartment-style layout. In addition to the living room, each apartment has four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a balcony. It is actually four bedrooms, two bathrooms and one living room. pattern. There are two beds in each bedroom, which means eight athletes can live in one apartment.
At the same time, the Olympic Village also has facilities such as hospitals, religious service centers, and libraries, all of which are free.
Next, Zhang Guan will participate in the rehearsal of the Olympic Games opening ceremony.
Before the athletes arrive, the Athens Olympic Organizing Committee has held many opening ceremony rehearsals, including opening performance rehearsals, lighting and sound rehearsals, torch relay rehearsals, ignition rehearsals, etc. The Olympic Organizing Committee requires that rehearsals for the athletes' entrance ceremony Only some athletes can participate, but the flag bearer of the square team must participate in the rehearsal.
The flag bearer of the Chinese delegation is the Little Giant. Since the boss of the men's basketball team is going to participate in the rehearsal, all the members of the men's basketball team will naturally follow the boss to participate in the rehearsal of the Olympic opening ceremony. Zhang Guan has long wanted to leave the Olympic Village, so he pretends to participate in the rehearsal. In name, he also followed.
…
Rehearsal day, at the Olympic Stadium in Athens.
As soon as he got off the bus, Zhang Guanyi grabbed the team's translator and said, "My stomach hurts. I have to go to the bathroom for a while. Please help me take a leave!"
"Are you okay? Go back and let the team doctor take a look at you?" the translator asked.
"It's okay, I'm just a little acclimatized." Zhang Guan said.
The translator nodded. It was normal to have diarrhea two days before going abroad due to acclimatization. Zhang Guan was not the only one to suffer from diarrhea. He pointed to a sign in the distance and said, "Don't get lost. We'll meet there after the rehearsal. That's the sign. If you can't find us, just wait there. Don't Running around."
"No problem, don't worry, you won't lose it." Zhang Guan said, holding his stomach and rushing into the bathroom not far away.
A few minutes later, when he saw all the rehearsal teams entering the stadium, Zhang Guanyou quietly slipped out. He took out a tourist map of Athens, looked at it carefully, and then quickly disappeared into the crowd.
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The second chapter is here. The plot of the Olympic Games is about to begin. Make a reservation for your recommended tickets for tomorrow. Thanks to book friends gigiliu5277, Xin Weixue, Mei Zhuju, Baidu 360 Guards, TK Free Kamikaze, hzh0000, Cry and See, Feng Xue Piao Lin, and Blank Angel for the reward. Thank you for your support.
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