After finishing my last World Cup race before the Olympics on Sunday, January 30th, we drove to Innsbruck, Austria to get our 72 hour PCR test and then on to Zurich, Switzerland for a mini hotel quarantine before we fly to China on the 2nd. The hotel quarantine was mostly because we had an extra two days after racing and before flying and wanted to be extra safe with exposure right before travel. The days felt especially long as we were all eager to start our journey and excited to join our teammates who arrived about a week earlier than us, but I hunkered down in my hotel room, did some yoga, body weight workouts, lots of computer work and focused on staying healthy and rested!
On February 2nd, our coaches took our oversized luggage early to the airport to get checked. For five athletes and seven staff we had eighty (!!!) over sized luggage (mostly skis and tuning equipment). A couple hours later around 3 pm the whole team headed to the airport to check in our personal belongings. We flew on a charter flight for the Olympics which was actually quite full with two men’s hockey teams and various other athletes and staff.
We arrived to the airport a comfortable 4 hours before departure so after checking in and making sure all our customs forms (you need to know your specific seat number for the customs form because if someone close to your seat tests positive upon landing in Beijing you are marked as a close contact) and entry QR codes were verified, we headed to the lounge. I also took a nice hour walk through the airport to stretch the legs before our flight and bought some new books :) We boarded at 7 pm and were on our way to Beijing not long after. The flight was a typical overnight flight and I got a great nights sleep with the help of some Melatonin and some sleep shades!
Upon landing we un-boarded and were immediately met with many Chinese volunteers in full hazmat suits directing us where to go. The process looked like this:
At every step there were tons of very friendly and helpful volunteers guiding us. We had to wait around a lot since our flight was so full and they were trying to keep everything socially distant and orderly, but it wasn’t too bad. The longest wait time was for picking up our bags which kind of makes sense given how many bags there were! Once the bags were all unloaded from the plane and on the tarmac outside we were able to go out and pick up our personal belongings. We also put all the oversized bags into a pile to be taken to the wax containers by a separate truck.
Next we loaded our bags onto a bus headed to the Yanqing Region which is where the alpine events will take place. There are three main regions and separate villages for the games: Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou. The bus ride was two and a half hours long and we were allowed one bathroom break at a little tiny outhouse building half way through the ride. It was kind of gross, but much appreciated as I have the world’s smallest bladder.
We finally arrived at the Hotel that all our staff will stay at for the games. We stayed here just for last night until we got out airport COVID test results back. We stayed here instead of the village because in the village we share rooms, and the team wanted to make sure we each had our individual room last night in case one of us tested positive, so there would be no close contacts.
Finally, this morning, the 4th, at around 8:30 AM we got our airport test results back and were freed from our rooms and allowed to eat breakfast in the hotel lobby. This felt very nice and relieving as it feels like we have been quarantined in a hotel room for the whole week! The breakfast food options were extremely varied. Everything from fried noodles to dumplings, to pastries, to typical western breakfast.
So, now we are waiting for USA staff to prepare our rooms and then we will finally get to go to the village this afternoon, right in time to pick up our Team USA gear and head to the opening ceremonies tonight!
I am super excited to finally be here as it all starts to sink in! I cannot wait to share more behind the scenes info, pictures, and stories with you all so be sure to subscribe for updates right to your inbox and also please let me know if you have any questions or want to see something in particular!
Tricia!!!
We are so excited for you and have really, really loved following your updates.
Kaci and Tess are anxious for the games to start and to catch your races.
We are sending you love, hugs and positive vibes for a safe journey…we are routing for you!
Be well and good luck❤️
Megan Freedenberg