Chuck In China: Winding up the Wind Down ...

Here we have a heartfelt post from our faithful correspondent, Chuck Hayden, father of Olympic swimmer Brent Hayden. It’s been great having Chuck doing some of my work for me, because he’s been providing us with a seldom heard from viewpoint, the parent. No doubt, he’s been charming the Chinese with his folksy and genuine manner.

Enough from me. Take it away, Chuck …

"Winding up the Wind Down, or Erratic Errata"

All -- and I do mean "all" -- of the medals you see being won at these wonderful Beijing Olympics have been bought and paid for by their home government's funding. There is no such thing any more as the clerk/weekend athlete who trains in their off hours and achieves anything at the Olympics. Eddie the Eagle has left the building!

All of our relatives and friends believe that chasing around the world in support of our sons & daughters is a holiday and part of the good life, and wonderful holidays. There is not much which could be further from the truth.

I have met with parents and family of all levels of upper and lower world-class elite athletes from around the world, and we all have things in common: We all worry about how our kids will do. It is unshakeable, we try to look for the positive. We bleed for our kids when things go poorly (which for everyone, they do at times. For some, the media just doesn't report on it. Other times, it is a media feeding frenzy.)

We all know that the good is mostly overlooked, or celebrated for a short time. Vultures are always waiting to pounce.

In the swimming world, at least, our kids are not playing on a level playing field. No, I am not talking about the availability of the new technologies in swim suits. The prevalence of performance enhancing drugs is common and becoming more prevalent all the time. Canada, thank God, is clean!

The highs are high and the lows are so low.

Athletes "scratching" from events: This is always a coaching/administrative decision. Swimming in Canada has always emphasised relays over individual performances. I guess that's the 'Canadian Way', but it is not the athlete’s decision.

I would like to thank Randy Starkman and the Toronto Star for this opportunity to put my two cents out there. I would also like to thank those of you who took the time to read. My opinions, and they are only my opinions and experiences, are not those of Randy or The Star.

These athletes are not resting on their laurels. They are already preparing for the World Championships in Rome next year, the Commonwealth Games, 2010, in Mumbai, India, the World Champs 2011 in Shanghai, and the next Summer Olympics in London, England in 2012.

And, a last note: Please support these fine young men & women who, yes, love their chosen sports, but who give up so much to compete for and hope to bring glory to the country they love so deeply: Canada. They are the best of the best!

Thank you all for your time,

Chuck

(Chuck, I hope this doesn't mean you're gonna stop writing. I got more than a week left at this thing! -- Randy)

Chuck In China -- Our Man on the Scene

STEVE RUSSELL/TORONTO STAR

Hayden clan getting their feet wet in Beijing - especially Brent, pictured above as he prepares for competition.

Our faithful correspondent Chuck Hayden, father of world champion swimmer Brent Hayden, has arrived on the scene in Beijing, making his “Chuck In China” missives even more official.

His insightful look into the life of a parent of an Olympic athlete has been a great addition to this blog. The fact it means less work for me is just an added bonus. His son Brent begins competing here Tuesday in the men’s 100-metre freestyle heats.

We’ll let Chuck take it away …

Here’s my latest edition of "Chuck in China" or "The Blog from the Smog."

On the daily weather in Beijing, they refer to the weather as being “overcast” and I suppose it is. It's overcast with a one to two kilometre thick by several hundred kilometre wide pall of smog. How do you tell the difference between smog and cloud?

"Taste"! (Reminds me of a joke about thermometers, but that's for another time).

We landed on Thursday and could not see the tops of buildings, or clearly across the oh-so-wide boulevards. You can feel the smog on your skin, in your nostrils and taste it in your mouth.

Anyone with breathing or respiratory problems must be having a time of it. If you do have those, don't come to Beijing.

Also, the temperature is rather warm. At street level with the crowds, the temperature must be about 95 F. (Sorry, I don't do Celsius.)

But, if you just refer to it as being "warm,” it doesn't seem so bad. Everyone is sweaty, and when greetings are exchanged , the hugs and handshakes are 'slick'

There is also big police and military presence, which is to be expected. But, they are not intrusive. They are there to establish a 'presence', and to set up barricades and shut down many main roads and thoroughfares to allow for the many official pre-Games functions.

Makes getting around Beijing a real pain, but everyone is hopeful that these incidents will decrease or disappear once the Games themselves get underway.

But something I was not prepared for was the people. Oh, the people! The people of Beijing are wonderful. They are at once hospitable, friendly, helpful, love to have they and their children’s pictures taken with us foreigners.

Our host cannot do enough for us. But he is not the only one. Everyone we have had any interaction with has been a joy from to waiters to taxi drivers. I was prepared to be swarmed and run over on the sidewalks, and the opposite is true.

Yes, there are literally hundreds of thousands of others sharing the sidewalks and boulevards with us, but they move deftly around you. There is no rudeness or pushiness. And I do not believe this is because of their "hospitality classes." I believe they are among the friendliest people in the world. Everywhere we have gone we have been treated so very well.

Oh, and for our first meal here, we went out for Chinese food with our host and family. Eight -- count ‘em eight -- very large dishes of fresh, hot steaming food, plus a couple of large beers and sodas came to a whopping 137 yuan, or about $23 Cdn

If I had shown my compound key card, it would have been 88 yuan. And, NO TIPPING! And the service was gracious and prompt.

Yes, it's rather warm, the lines are long, as are the roads, but the Chinese people are making this a wonderful experience for our family.

Now to try to not make ourselves ill fretting about Brent's events.

Chuck in China, Part II

We’ve got a second installment of a Parent’s Eye View from Chuck Hayden, father of Canadian Olympic swimmer Brent Hayden, the world champion in the men’s 100-metre freestyle. To keep in mind what kind of gamer Chuck is, he’s doing all this – and heading to Beijing – having just come off a knee replacement.

Chuck writes about the tyranny of ticket buying today. The Vancouver Sun had a story last week about the difficulty parents of swimmers have had in getting tickets to see their kids compete at the Beijing Games.

They are definitely not alone. It’s been a real nightmare for most parents. The parents of Canadian water polo goalie Robin Randall are making the trip from tiny Drinkwater, Sask., all the way to China – without yet having tickets.

Anyhow, Chuck gives us the inside scoop on what it’s like for parents …

We are about a week and a half out from departing for Beijing. The excitement and nervousness is just starting to become palpable. But my wife, Marilyn and I seem to have an unsaid agreement not to talk about it and keep busy with preperations.

Obtaining tickets to watch our kids swim was an interesting and, not completely successful, exercise.

Last November, Swimming/Natation Canada (SNC) sent out an order form to all swim families who thought their son/daughter would possibly be going to Beijing, asking for their ticket requests.

The total number of tickets requested was about 575. In the past, SNC purchased these tickets up front from the worldwide outlet CoSport. Then each family purchases the tickets they requested from SNC. It's a great way to purchase ones tickets to see their kids, as it circumvents what is a common occurrence of parents vying for tickets with other parents on e-bay and other sites and sellers.

Except, of the approximately 575 tickets requested, SNC was able to obtain 27. That's right: Twenty-seven tickets for ALL Canadian families to watch their kids. I understand this number "27" is a somewhat magical number; for Israel, Great Britain and others were given the same number.

Under Olympic rules, and tradition, 40 percent of all tickets must be kept for visiting Olympic Committees, such as the Canadian Olympic Committee, etc. So, where were the tickets?

This was a major problem and was brought up by the IOC to the Beijing Olympic Committee. They didn't really have any good answers, except something about systems crashing under the high demand for tickets.

Not good enough, for the rest of the world still has no tickets to watch the main Summer Olympic events. This ticket scarcity spread across many sports as well. A friend of a friend has a daughter on the USA Women's Softball team – and they have no tickets!

By March this year, some more tickets began to magically appear. Now SNC had approximately 115 tickets of the 575 originally requested. Better, but still many families will not see their swimmer swim.

After our Olympic Trials, which nominated a total of 27 swimmers to the Team, our ticket needs were over 600 tickets. Shortly thereafter ticket availability rose to about 315 tickets. So we have approximately half of the tickets requested and needed to watch our kids.

What followed was a rather complicated but mutually agreeable to all formula to distribute tickets in a fair and equitable manner. This was undertaken by three parents from across Canada, who spent literally hundreds of hours divvying the tickets up. Then there is a rather complicated system for dispersing tickets when one’s swimmer does not advance to a semi-final or final heat.

The Hayden family did quite well: We received all the tickets which we requested, except one. Conversely, one of the families who worked on the formula and distribution received almost none. It totally depended on tickets available for which days and events and which days your son/daughter was swimming.

For the tickets we received, we are over the moon. I had resigned myself to the fact that I most likely would not see my son swim in Beijing at the Olympics, and that his mother may see him once or twice.

But, we know that Brent will swim the way he swims whether we are in the stands or not.

One thing I must say about tickets is that aside from the absence of tickets, those that are available are extremely reasonably priced. For three of us to attend all of Brent's events, with "B" or "middle of the road" tickets, comes to $900.00 (Cdn) on the nose. That's for 12 sessions times three people.

By comparison, Athens Olympics 2004, the same "B" tickets for 12 sessions times three was $3,550. The Commonwealth Games 2006, in Melbourne, Australia, was $2,100. And, those were "C" tickets; or, the 'cheap seats'. So, thankfully, this time the tickets are not breaking us.

The Hayden family is not rich, but we do okay. To say we sacrifice to go and watch our son compete would be misleading. Yes, we do make choices and forgo some things. But it is a joy and something we could not be kept from.

However, not all families are as fortunate. Very good friends of ours, whose daughter narrowly missed being on the Canadian Olympic Swim Team for both Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004, are financially unable to go to Beijing to support and cheer on their daughter. A while ago, circumstances completely out of their control caused this.

They are devastated, but putting on a brave face. I told them at the Canadian Olympic Trials in April this year, that we would be there for their daughter. Two days ago, I received an email from them literally begging us to represent their whole family in Beijing for their daughter. I could feel their pain, their sorrow, their tears.

I also know of one family in another sport who are going for five days only because their son was able to sacrifice and put together a quick trip for his mother and sister to be there.

There are, I am sure, many families of athletes who have put everything they have into just keeping their son/daughter in their sport; and have nothing left to be able to afford to go watch their athlete compete in Beijing.

And no, no one gets a free ride.

Support for amateur athletes in Canada, though improving tremendously, still has a long way to go. Most funding that I know of is "from the top down". That is the top performers get the greater share of the funding. As long as this philosophy is followed, Amateur Sport in Canada will never have any depth.

The plight of our friends is weighing heavily.

Chuck In China ...

One view rarely heard from throughout any Olympic journey is that of the parents, the ones who generally have done a lot of the hard slogging to help their kid get to the Games.

We’ve been lucky enough to enlist a couple of parents who’ve agreed to supply us from time to time with their experience of the Olympics – Chuck Hayden, father of swimmer Brent Hayden of Mission, B.C.; and Lien Chao, mom of shooter Avianna Chao of Toronto.

Chuck Hayden is one of the great storytellers. Check out the anecdotes he provided in this profile of Brent. Lien Chao is accomplished author, her latest book just recently published, the Chinese Knot, an excellent collection of short stories on the Chinese immigrant experience in Toronto.

It’ll be a real treat to have their insights.

Here’s Chuck Hayden’s first entry:

So, what’s it like to be the parent of a member of the Canadian Olympic Team?

I can’t speak for others; but for this family, it is at the same time, exciting, exhilarating, nerve-wracking, and scary!

Then, you realise that having your son/daughter on the team means you get to spend even less time with them than before.

So now the question: Do we go to Beijing to watch and support, or not?

Well, of course we go!

CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO

Brent Hayden's family is off to Beijing to support the Canadian swimmer.

So anyway, we’re off to Beijing!

Now, flights, accommodations, and all the questions that surround those. Once Olympics come to a city, all hotels, restaurants, B&B’s as well as airlines put their prices up – a lot! But, that’s just part of the game, and the sacrifices one makes for their kids.

Beijing has its own unique set of obstacles.

First is getting a travel visa, the criteria for which seems to change almost daily, if not hourly.

At first we needed our flights, accommodation, reason for visiting, and our valid Canadian passport.

Then we needed the name, phone number and address of our Chinese host. We are staying with the relatives of good friends here in B.C., who most graciously arranged everything.

Then we were told that we needed a copy of the host’s Chinese Passport, with photo. And, his Chinese personal ID number (much like our Social Insurance Number). Already I am sure that our hosts will say that this is too much, and beg off. But they did not, they provided most graciously all which we requested.

But, the next requirement blew us out of the water: We are required to produce a copy of our host’s Certificate of Ownership for the property where we are to stay! At this point, I would have begged off! But our hosts came through within hours. Already we are so in their debt, and we are still in Canada!

Oh, did I mention that within 24 hours of arriving in Beijing, we are all required, with our host, to present ourselves at the local police station to register and be documented?

But, yes, we are now on our way to Beijing to cheer on our son, and the whole Canadian swim team. And, it will be good; for we are like a family.

The China Visa office in Vancouver is open 9am to 1pm Monday to Friday. They process only 200 applicants per day, though each applicant may have up to any number of applications. Our first attempt, we left our home in Mission, B.C., at 7am and arrived at 9:15 a.m., only to be told that they were full and come back tomorrow. They kindly suggested that we arrive a bit earlier.

After asking around, we found out that applicants start lining up at 6:30 a.m. or so. It took us two more trips, leaving home in Mission at 5:15 a.m., to have our application forms accepted as complete. It took one more trip to pick up the completed visas. So, we now have our visas, flights, and accommodation.

This was the experience of most of our swim family friends. I also understand from our friends ‘back east’ that the average was one trip, and a fifteen minute wait, with apologies from the visa people for having to wait so long!

Next time: Our tale of tickets to watch swimming.