Nathan Taylor, the George E. Heekin '29 Head Coach of Men's Track & Field and Cross Country, is in London for the 2012 Olympic Games as a track and field coach for the Virgin Islands team. Taylor will be providing periodic first-person updates from London for CornellBigRed.com as well as videos from his time at the Olympics. Taylor will be coaching Muhammad Halim '08 in the triple jump as well as three other track athletes from the Virgin Islands. He arrived in London on Friday.
Coach Taylor's Video Tour of the Olympic Village
LONDON— I've been in London in the athlete's village for two days.
Today [Monday] there were twice as many athletes in the village as yesterday and by Thursday nearly all 10,000 athletes, 4,000 coaches and Olympic committee members will be here.
The cafeteria is nearly 200 yards long serving 50,000-55,000 meals a day. It's a logistical challenge of huge proportion. They have thought of everything and you can see why the preparations for D-Day went so smoothly.
Our little delegation from the Virgin Islands of seven athletes (four in track), three coaches and five officials is among the smallest and will be officially welcomed into the village tomorrow morning. The problem is that only two of us will be here tomorrow with our two sailors and their coach four hours away in Weymouth.
I watched delegations from Benin, Comoros, Tunisia, Belize, Mongolia and Trinidad and Tobago welcomed with great fanfare and the playing of their national anthems. Some countries have incredible traditional outfits that everyone will get to see during the Opening Ceremony. Some delegations are so big that they warrant a complete nine-story apartment building all to themselves. The bringing together of the greatest athletes in the world in every summer sport to one place is incredible.
Tonight I ate dinner at the same table with the Chinese Men's gymnastics team. They picked at the Chinese food on their plates and then left with big bags of McDonald's – an official sponsor. The biggest McDonald's in the world is right outside the Olympic stadium.
As a coach I'll be able to get into every track-related event, but I have to apply for a lottery for tickets for any other sport. I have hopes at least of getting in to watch some practices and training sessions during the down time but, since track is the focal point of the games and it's spread out over 10 days with two three-hour sessions each day – generally one in the afternoon and one in the evening – once track starts there won't be much down time for me.
