4 days competition

So, the big day had come of the opening of the Tibetan Olympics. It was to start with Archery and Air gun shooting, but the weather greeted us this morning with a very thick fog. An interesting curiosity about Tibetan calender by the way: Every year it is decided by the Tibetan oracles and astronomers, the days are predicted for the coming year and if a day is considered unlucky, it's simply taken away! So a Tibetan date could be: 23,24,26 etc. When it's all decided for the year, the calendar is distributed to society. So the fog was a seemed to be a very unfortunate event, you couldn't see more then a few meter, never less the targets 30m away! Inside the fog, masses of press and media people was lurking about. There was easily more press then participants, and for paying spectators, there was hardly none... A spontaneous Tibetan folk lore dance and song by the athletes was made and everybody were happy. Soon after the performance, the fog started to go away and the contest began. The weather turned really good and it turned out to be a enjoyable, but long event. Many hours after, until the archery competition was over, most people had left and the shooting competition was made short, with finally just a few people and press to celebrate the winner. Shortly after the event was finished and we stepped into the cars, it started to pour down rain.

After a late lunch, we had to wait a while for the rain to stop and then it was time for the awaited Olympic torch relay run. It started from Dalai Lamas temple and went around McLeod ganj central parts twice. It was very emotional and a big success. Lot's of people came out to watch and cheer on the athletes, but of course it turned out to be cheering more on a political agenda then a sportive avent. The press was delighted as they kept running backwards, constantly flashing the torch bearers and surroundings with humongous photographic equipment, making the Athletes feel like seahorses do in Richelieu Rock. Next day was the long distance run, won by Lobsang, one of the two that due to high blood pressure were advised not to run the race. The day after was swimming, a nice event made in a not too big pool, with self made lanes of lines and balloons.

The finals was a very nice day, lot's of excitement, big crowds and good preparations. A Tibetan youth band came and opened the finals with drums and trumpets. 4 miss Tibet's carried the big flag infront of the band, got allot of cheers and mimicked the official song rather poorly. But who cared, the miss Tibet's were very popular with the mainly sub 18 audience! Games went on their way in different disciplines and the whole atmosphere was really nice, festive and relaxed. Dogs ran around chasing each other over the tracks at times, a cow strolled by the stance and poor performances by the athleats at times, were taken with a hearty laugh by the audience. The last event was 400 mixed relay for fun, where 4 of the athletes were a team, against 4 other youth teams from tibetan schools around and a Media team consistent of random photographers picked out at the moment. One dude from Greece, one Tibetan, one Japanese and moi. I took the first leg and I tell you I felt it was a looong time since I ran a 100 meters! Needless to say, our average age 40 team, running in pants and hiking boots, got our asses whooped badly!

In the evening there was a concluding concert with different musicians playing. A Tibetan band, playing some nice mixed traditional stuff, Phil, a really good guitarist from Woodstock and a popular Estonian punk band went last. And a good thing soo, when they started, most people started making their way out! Most Tibetans that stayed, were left with big eyes and their mouths open, as a steady stream of NOISE forced it's way into their ears! Some random westerners started dancing like mad men, but that wasn't pretty.

All in all, this time had flown by and all organizers, volunteers and athlets were sad that it ended. It had been a lifetime experience with alot of good memories and new friends.