The competition is over. Let us out!
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
BEIJING -- About five hours after the gymnastics competition ended at National Indoor Stadium, long after the medals had been handed out and even after the equipment had been taken down and replaced by trampolines so that the trampoline competitors could practice, after all-around gold and silver medalists Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson had done interviews in the arena for NBC and every other television and radio station in this world and some other, and after they did a conference call in which they both said how happy they were and how proud and when they probably wanted to ask us all what else in the world we could possibly ask, it was time to leave the National Indoor Stadium.
Not so fast. Getting outside of the indoors wasn’t easy.
The entrance the media normally takes was locked. Chained shut. Really closed. So was the next entrance and the next and the next. A lonely volunteer saw me and pointed at me. I said, ‘Out.’ As if she understood. She told me ‘Venue manager’ which I believe was the only English phrase she knew.
After some pantomimes and me leading her to each of the locked exits the light dawned. And I was led down hallways and through tunnels until I came to one, small, unlocked door that led to a super-secret entrance/exit for volunteers. I volunteered to leave from that exit. It was allowed.
And when I got outside for the first time in 10 hours, the sky was blue! Who knew?
Making the escape seemed important because the concrete stairs and passages at the National Indoor Stadium seemed to be even harder than the bed at the hotel. Barely.
-- Diane Pucin
An Olympics volunteer rides a Segway Personal Transporter past the National Indoor Stadium, host venue for the Artistic Gymnastics, Trampoline and Handball events located on the Olympic Green during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Photo credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images