After 3 airplanes traveling more than 6,000 miles in nearly 24 hours with layovers, and four in flight movies including a great documentary on the birth of the Magnum photo agency, my colleagues and I arrived safely at the Beijing Airport. Mike Powell, Vincent Laforet, and myself dubbed “The Dream Team” by Newsweek Director of Photography Simon P. Barnett, looked anything but as we shuffled through the airport baggage claim and customs all in dire need of a shower and shave. After the long journey it was a pleasant surprise to first see not only all of our cases and bags arrive without delay, but also have a smooth transition through customs because of our pre-stamped gear list from the Chinese Embassy. Soon thereafter, we were quickly shuffled us onto a bus routed to our hotel, the Foreign Experts Building (yes, this is a hotel, and no you don’t have to be an expert to stay here) by an over-zealous volunteer who kept apologizing for her poor English. Again to our amazement, this went without any hitches and we found ourselves checking into our spacious rooms, grabbing a bite to eat in the convenient 24-hour hotel restaurant, and crashing out with the help of some Ambien.

At 5’7” and 160 lbs, I am a man of smaller than average stature (as the gangly Mike Powell continually likes to remind me) and even I found it hard to get comfortable in either of the mini-twin beds in my room sized for Jackie Chan. After waking up earlier than I wanted to, I decided that the best thing for me to do after sitting in a plane seat for the previous 24 hours was to go for a run. I am on a pretty religious workout regimen, and either run, swim, paddleboard or surf everyday, but usually can only run when I’m on the road if I’m not near a body of water. However, in the first mile of my jog, my heart rate monitor shot up to 170, and I found myself struggling for oxygen. The air was thick with humidity and the smell of exhaust, and I could only imagine how the endurance athletes competing in the marathon run, marathon swim, or triathlon were going to manage in these conditions. I thought all the articles I read about the Beijing air were negative hype, but even growing up in the Los Angeles smog didn’t prepare me for the atmosphere here. I felt like Ben Stiller in Zoolander after being in a coal mine for a day:

Derek Zoolander: [high-pitched cough] ... I think I'm getting the Black Lung, Pop. It's not very well ventilated down there.
Larry Zoolander: For Christ's sake, Derek, you've been down there one day. Talk to me in thirty years!!!

In the four other Olympics I have covered, I arrived on site 5-7 days before the Opening Ceremonies to shoot previews, acclimate, and prepare. With only 48 hours before the commencement, unlike other photographers we had little time to spare to go sightseeing and had to condense all of our prep into a couple of days. After my black-lung incident, I recovered with a decent breakfast in the hotel and went through the super convenient Mag and Bag in our hotel lobby which gets you onto a bus and negates the need to go through security check again and deal with the lines at the Main Press Center. Once again I was impressed with the Chinese making a possibly bad experience into an easy one. After our entry in the MPC, we quickly hit up the Kodak, Canon, and Nikon booths for our fair share of free swag from the Games. Next we went to the Newsweek office to check in with the team, get our Chinese cell phones and pins arranged by the great Al Pryzbylkowski, and get Wi-Fi cards from the communications office. Doing this alone took nearly four hours as it seemed that we would take four steps and run into another photographer, editor, or writer that you just saw last week or haven’t seen since the last Olympics. But that is the great thing about the Olympics, because you make friends with people who live on the other side of the world whom you only get to see every couple of years. After a bunch of hugs, kisses, and bro handshakes, we were feeling a bit peckish and decided to hit up the dining area in the MPC.

Mike Powell frowns upon the bad nutrition

Other than vaguely reminding me of my college cafeteria, the media dining area had all the gastronomic and culinary options one would expect including Chinese and Italian fare for omnivores like myself, a Coffee shop for those looking for a pick me up, and a Micky Dees (aka McDonalds) for those American Media members either yearning for a taste of home or just looking to use their free coupon for French Fries that came with the Media Welcome Pack. Whatever fuel needed to get your car moving, you could find it here and once again the Chinese Olympic Committee did a good job knowing that the way to get to media heart is through their stomachs, although I didn't see any Tsingtao beer on tap.

Members of the media have the option to dine

Divers practice on the platforms and springboards

Next we went into the Gymnastics venue, the National Indoor Stadium, and this too proved to be a nice looking venue with many photo ops. After securing our DSL line as we did at the Water Cube, we quickly walked through the photo positions to see what would work and what wouldn’t. While we were there the floor opened up for some of the female competitors to warm-up on the apparati. I am always awe-struck by gymnasts (and that is probably why I married one!) so I had to take a moment to stop what I was doing and just watch the amazing spectacle of these explosive pint-sized athletes hurling themselves through the air. After my moment, we collected ourselves and headed to scope out our final venue of the day, The Fencing Hall of National Convention Center.

By the time we wrapped up our less than fulfilling walk through of fencing, I found myself repeating my Olympic Mantra in my head "Expect the Best, Prepare for the Worst" a far cry from "Citius, Altius, Fortius". By the time we returned to the MPC it was past 6pm and we deserved a cocktail in the lobby bar after our condensed venue scouting and prep. We found a seat near the piano and listened to the Chinese Billy Joel doing his best rendition of Piano Man as we sipped on Grey Goose tonics and reminisced while the jet lag was starting to kick in. The forecast has rain for the opening ceremonies tomorrow. Ahhh, the calm before the storm…

Mark Starr, the National Sports Correspondent