All-round Athlete

Chapter 43 Arriving in Athens

In the large conference room of the Athletic Management Center, fifty-three track and field athletes who were going to compete in the Athens Olympic Games gathered here.

On the rostrum, Director Luo, the team leader of the national team's Olympic track and field delegation, is introducing some on-site arrangements for the Olympic Games to the players.

"Due to the large number of participants, the athletes from our country mainly arrived in Greece in three batches this time. At present, the first batch is the sailing windsurfing team, rowing, kayaking team, women's football team and gymnastics team. Athletes from the cricket team, rowing, and kayaking have already arrived in Athens, after all, water sports are greatly affected by wind and waves, so they should arrive earlier to adapt to training."

"The second batch is a large team, which will arrive in Athens by special plane on August 8. Ping and badminton, weightlifting, diving, swimming, archery, boxing, etc. are all in this batch. Because male basketball players are relatively tall, Will take another flight to Athens. The first two batches of athletes will arrive in Athens before the opening of the Olympic Games on August 13."

"As for our track and field delegation, it was arranged to go to Athens in the last batch. We don't have a special plane, so we need to go there by ourselves. Specifically, we will divide into three teams and set off based on the principle of proximity. I will lead the team from Beijing, and transfer via Frankfurt. To Athens; those departing from Huangpu will be led by coach Sun, and transfer to Athens via the Netherlands; those departing from Huacheng will be led by coach Sha, and transfer to Athens via Hong Kong. According to the different flights, it will be between August 17th and August 19th arrived in Athens."

"The other thing I want to talk about is participating in the opening ceremony of the Athens Olympic Games. At the opening ceremony, our delegation will form a phalanx, and some of the athletes are recommended by the organization. If other athletes want to participate, they can also sign up independently. So does any of us want to sign up?"

Participating in the Olympic opening ceremony square is a very honorable thing, but it is also a very tiring thing. The Olympic opening ceremony has to go through many rehearsals in advance, which will consume a lot of time. The opening ceremony is scheduled for 9:00pm to 12:00pm on the 13th, Athens time. If the return journey time is counted, it is estimated that it will last until three or four o'clock in the morning.

The opening ceremony consumes a lot of energy of the athletes, so many athletes will not choose to participate in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in order to avoid affecting the state of the game.

In addition, Director Luo has just talked about the transportation plan of the track and field delegation. If you sign up for the opening ceremony, it means you have to go to Athens several days in advance, which is equivalent to breaking away from the track and field delegation. In the traditional concept, It is obviously a bad performance to break away from the group and act alone.

Moreover, he left the organization and arrived in Athens ahead of schedule. Not to mention food, clothing, housing and transportation, training alone was also a big problem. As a professional athlete, not training for a day may affect his state, let alone several days in a row.

Therefore, when Director Luo asked if anyone wanted to sign up for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, none of the athletes in the field raised their hands.

Seeing that no one raised their hands, Director Luo nodded in satisfaction, and he didn't want a strange person to appear in his team.

At this moment, an athlete sitting in the back row suddenly raised his right hand and shouted: "I want to sign up for the opening ceremony!"

Dozens of people in the conference room were all taken aback for a moment, and then collectively looked back, only to find that it was Zhang Guan who raised his hand.

"Huh..." Director Luo was speechless for a moment. He never thought that there would be such an ignorant athlete, and this ignorant athlete was also one of the benchmark figures in the track and field delegation.

But then Director Luo thought, Zhang Guan is only 18 years old after all this year, even if he is an older child, and he has only played one international game, it is normal for this age to be full of curiosity about things.

"Zhang Guan, I'm afraid you don't know it yet. Participating in the opening ceremony takes a lot of time. You have to get up early and stay late, rehearse in advance, and just walk around the stadium several times." A coach in the front row reminded.

"That's right, our track and field delegation will arrive in Athens several days after the opening ceremony, during which time you have to stay in the Olympic Village by yourself..." Another coach also said.

"It's okay, it's time to get familiar with the competition venue and the local environment. And I think it's a very honorable thing to participate in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, especially to participate in the athletes' team and represent the motherland in front of the world. It is a great honor." Zhang Guan replied.

Those who originally wanted to dissuade Zhang Guan suddenly shut up. They didn't expect Zhang Guan to set the tone so high all of a sudden, even speaking out on behalf of the motherland.

When Zhang Guan first signed up, everyone thought that Zhang Guan was young, curious and ignorant of world affairs, so a few more experienced coaches sitting in the front row would persuade him, but hearing what Zhang Guan said, it was obviously early Premeditated want to participate in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

Director Luo sighed helplessly. As Director Luo, he could not change what he said. Since Zhang Guan raised his hand to sign up in public, Director Luo could only agree and asked Zhang Guan to fill out a registration form and report To the Olympic team headquarters.

The official in charge of publicity at the regiment headquarters quickly gave a reply, agreeing that Zhang Guan would participate in the athletes' team for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

The athlete phalanx of the opening ceremony gave priority to athletes with high reputation and good image. The title of Asia's No. 1 flying man made Zhang Guan's registration not be rejected. What's more, Zhang Guan himself is also a big man of more than 1.9 meters. There are also advantages in the overall image.

...

The next day, Zhang Guan went to the bank to exchange some euros, and took out all the euros in the bank card. Now Zhang Guan has more than 160,000 euros in total.

The maximum face value of the euro is 500 yuan, so 160,000 euros is a little more than three stacks, and a larger envelope can be filled, and it can be easily stuffed into the mezzanine of the carry-on bag.

According to customs regulations, there is a limit to carrying foreign currency out of the country, but the Olympic team took an Air China Boeing 747 plane, and the customs side let it go all the way, so Zhang Guan successfully brought so much euro cash into the plane.

At that time, the handling fee for cross-border withdrawals was much higher than ten years later, and the international credit card giants were also trying various methods to block UnionPay. As a result, international credit cards processed by domestic UnionPay at that time could not be used in many places. The authority's limit for cross-border withdrawals is 5,000 yuan per day, which is not US dollars, but national currency. The country's foreign exchange is also relatively sufficient, and the limit for cross-border withdrawals has gradually increased to 100,000 yuan per day.

It is precisely because of various restrictions that Zhang Guan chose to carry cash in euros directly. In fact, at that time, most people also carried foreign currency cash when they went abroad. The entire Olympic delegation, except for those big-name athletes who often went abroad, had foreign bank cards. In addition, basically carry cash.

There is no direct flight from the capital to Athens. If you take a civil airliner, you need to transfer. This time, the Olympic delegation chartered a direct flight, so it only took more than six hours to arrive in Athens.

The time difference between Athens and the capital is five hours. The flight departs at 2:00 pm capital time and arrives in Greece at 3:00 pm Athens time. The Athens Olympic Organizing Committee has provided a special "Olympic Family" channel for the participating countries of the Olympic Games, where they can directly pass the customs clearance procedures, and the University of Pakistan in the Olympic Village has already stayed in the closed parking lot of the airport. On the University of Pakistan, went straight to the Olympic Village.

The delegation did not hold any ceremony at the airport, nor did they contact the media. This arrangement undoubtedly disappointed the waiting reporters. There were more than 200 reporters waiting at the airport that day, and they could only take pictures of some athletes pulling Photo of the suitcase.

The Olympic Village of the Athens Olympic Games is located at the foot of a mountain. The Olympic Village is divided into an accommodation area and an international area. Both areas have traffic restrictions. Only athletes, officials and Olympic Village staff are allowed to enter the accommodation area.

Most of the buildings in the accommodation area are three-story buildings, which adopt an apartment-style layout. In addition to the living room, each apartment has four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a balcony. In fact, it is a four-bedroom, two-bathroom and one-living room. pattern. There are two beds in each bedroom, which means eight athletes can live in one apartment.

At the same time, there are also facilities such as hospitals, religious service centers and libraries in the Olympic Village, all of which are free of charge.

Next, Zhang Guan will participate in the rehearsal for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

Before the arrival of the athletes, the Athens Olympic Organizing Committee has held several rehearsals for the opening ceremony, including rehearsals for the opening performance, lighting and sound rehearsals, rehearsals for the torch relay, rehearsals for the ignition, etc., as required by the Olympic Organizing Committee, rehearsals for the athletes' entrance ceremony Only some athletes can be sent to participate, but the flag bearer of the square team must participate in the rehearsal.

The standard bearer of the Chinese delegation is a little giant. Since the boss of the men's basketball team is going to participate in the rehearsal, all the members of the men's basketball team will naturally follow the boss to participate in the rehearsal for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. Zhang Guan has long wanted to leave the Olympic Village, so he pretended to participate in the rehearsal In name, also followed out.

...

Rehearsal day, at the Olympic Stadium in Athens.

As soon as he got off the car, Zhang Guanyi grabbed the interpreter accompanying the team and said, "My stomach hurts. I have to squat in the bathroom for a while. Please ask me for a leave!"

"Are you okay, go back and let the team doctor show you?" the translator asked.

"It's okay, it's just a little unacceptable." Zhang Guan said.

The translator nodded. It is normal to have diarrhea two days before going abroad due to acclimatization, and Zhang Guan is not alone. He pointed to a sign in the distance, and said, "Don't get lost. We'll gather there after the rehearsal is over. That's the sign. If you can't find us, just wait there. Don't worry about it." Run around."

"No problem, don't worry, you will never lose it." Zhang Guan said while clutching his stomach and rushing into the bathroom not far away.

A few minutes later, seeing the rehearsal teams entering the stadium, Zhang Guanyou slipped out quietly. He took out a tourist map of Athens, looked at it carefully, and then quickly disappeared into the crowd.

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The second chapter is delivered, and the plot of the Olympic Games is about to begin, so make an appointment for tomorrow's recommended tickets. Thanks to book friends gigiliu5277, Xin Weixue, Meizhu Jushi, Baidu 360 Guardian, TK Freedom Kamikaze, hzh0000, Cry Ah Kan, Fengxue Piaolin, Blank Angel for the rewards, thank you for your support.