A Bead & Beijing

"Tribal Beat"

One of the beads from the last few torch sessions that I am rather pleased with.

Last night there was a segment on National TV about Sophie - it was great, although in places quite emotional when you listen to her Dad, Gary talk about her accident. It was just under 5 minutes long & can be viewed here Close Up-Sophie Pascoe. (It takes wee while for it buffer for me)

This morning she was also on both the front page of this city's leading Newspaper this morning & also another article about her in the sports section. It's really quite exciting. Less than 48 hours to go before her first race!

We've heard from Sophie, apparently they were the first to arrive in the Olympic Village in Beijing. Training was to have taken place in Hong Kong, but when the swim team got to the pool there the water temperature was 30 deg Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) & too hot for them to train in!! So an early flight to Beijing in they got to train in the"Water Cube", the pool that is used for the Olympic & Paralympic races.

Sophie said that this pool is absolutely amazing to swim in - it's extremely deep, & the lanes are extra wide. I never knew this before, but apparently the extra depth makes swimming easier & the wider lanes prevent wake from other swimmers when competing.

Perhaps that answers why world records were broken in every swim race during the Olympics ;o)

I am dying to see how well Sophie can fly through that water.