[gwunta]

Hi Guys, here is an excerpt from my Facebook group page about my experiences at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics. Its long but at least it gives you an idea of what I have been up to over here. AJ, I know you were keen to know about the sport so its primarily for you haha

Here goes

August 14 - Game 3 vs Great Britain

It was just antoher day at the office today as we followed are daily routine of up at around 9 ish and having breakfast by 10:20 for our daily push at 10:30. An air of excitement filled the team today as or confidence levels were through the roof after last night's game against the Kiwis. The day passed sooo quickly today. I dropped my opening ceremony unifrom off at the drycleaners in the village, got a massage from the team physio and before I knew it, I was having lunch with the boys getting amped about the game. I got changed, donned the dunlop volleys and made my way into our team meeting. Not much was said aside from the usual. However there was a reading from our team captain in regard to our Attention All Ladies notice. It was an update entitled "Attention All Ladies, only 2 Days to Go". It cracked us all up and really got me relaxed about the game. Iacked the last of my things for the game into my backpack and headed out the front of our villa. We pushed off as a group to get the bus and were cheered and clapped on by other Aussie Paralympic Team Members.

We took the court against Great Britain with all guns blazing. We generated a few early turnovers but kept letting them back in the game. However this time, with constant pressure every quarter the Brits finally started to crack in the final quarter. In the end we breezed home with a 6 goal win 43-37!!! It means we now face Canada in the semi final to see who goes through to the gold medal playoff. I am confient we can take these guys down. Then it WILL be show time, an absolute all out WAR between us and the USA for gold and Paralympic Glory. Watch this space....



August 13 - Game 2 vs New Zealand

Today I woke up with butterflies and I havge had them ALL day. I woke up at about 9:15 after being put iinto isolation as my room mate had a case of the runs yesterday morning. He and I couldnt even eat with the team, they wanted us totally isolated. Fortunately neither of us showed any further symptoms so we have been cleared to join the team. Tonight's game is a big deal because winning means we are through to the semi finals no matter what happens tommorrow night. A loss means tomorrow night is a must win for us. The other big thing that happens if we win tonight's game is New Zealand, the gold medallists from Athens 2004 will be out of the medal hunt and the best they could possibly finish is 5th.

I went and had breakfast withthe boys and joined in the morning push. After missing yesterday's push it felt so good to be out with the team again. its a great way to just muck around and joke togther. We take a miniature volleyball out with us and throw it around while we push around the village. Its funny being the dark horses of the tournament. Everyone had heard so much about the team and our recent performances that some teams are starting to copy what we do. One of the guys saw the USA rugby team doing a team push through the village yesterday. Feels good to be innovators haha.

Well I had lunch at about 1pm and jumped on the bus at 4pm after our mandatory player's and team meeting. The mood was actually quite relaxed and we had some Gangajang and Cold Chisel playing on the trip to the stadium.

The game started great for us, we were up 6-2 at the start of the game before a we squandered the lead and finished the quarter a point up. The next two quarters saw us neck and neck and by the middle of the fourth quarter we were down by a point.

Then all hell broke loose. Ryley Batt, one of the most freakish players in the game stripped a ball off one of the Kiwis and made them inbound. The inbound was intercepted and we scored! Scores now level. The kiwis inbounded the ball and Ryley again stripped one of the players and the ball came off their chair. 4.5 seconds left. We inbounded the ball to Ryley and somehow he managed to penetrate their key defence and score with 0.2 seconds left in the game!! The Kiwis were totally devastated and could do nothing to salvage the game. We had defeated the Paralympic Champions and were just over the moon. The whole team burst out onto the court in the realisation of what we had just achieved. Im sure most of you would have seen it on TV by now, we were clearly stoked!!

Now I dont know how I am going to sleep but I have to prepare for the game against Great Britain tomorrow night. A win leaves us top of our pool and in a great position to play the second placed team from the other pool, probably Canada. A loss means we would have to play the USA who we were hoping to meet in the gold medal match.

August 12 - Game 1 vs Germany

Finally the day has arrived to play Germany. Im sooo amped to finally play and I feel I am playing the best rugby I have played in years. My speed and ball handling skills feel very good and all the boys are ready. My mum and dad have arrived and Im really looking forward to seeing them in the crowd. We have had the mandatory team push this morning and have lunch cheduled for about 1pm before we don the newly adorned dunlop volleys, then attend a player's meeting then a team meeting, then board the bus at 4pm...

Well I have great news...We won our first game by 9 points. We were favourites to win but its still good to get the first one out of the way on a good note. We all played really well, I was very happy with my performance tonight, with the exception of a foul near the end of the game where I thought the opposition player was going to throw the ball. The idea was to block the pass but he pulled out of the pass and I accidently swiped the top of his head haha. Anyway the test comes tomorrow when we play New Zealand. When we last faced NZ we lost by about 5 goals and finished 5th in the tournament after a 3 way tie didnt go our way. Kinda complicatd but that was the only game we lost the whole tournament and we finished 5th so we certainly dont want a repeat of that at the Paralympics.

Great Britain beat the Kiwis tonight so if we beat the Kiwis tommorrow that's the end of the road for Paralmypic Champions. Bring it on!!!

August 10 - Finally some banging

After over a week of training our coach had organised a practice match against China. We asked a number of higher ranked countries to play us but they all refused...PUSSIES!! All the media crews turned up for the match as we are ranked 2 in the world and it was a great opportunity to showcase the sport in the leadup to the games. I played quite a lot of the match and we ended up winning by around 32 goals, which was probably quite embarrassing for the Chinese but was a good hitout for us.

Meanwhile, back at the village I was in the business centre, where we get internet access, and found a copy of the Village newspaper. Its only a five page paper but on the fron page I find four of my team mates holding up their dunlop volleys with some chinese guy!! I read throught the article to find out that he paints kites and was int he village for an arts and carft exhibition. Well the guys had talked him into hand painting they volleys! Talk about outsourcing! The move sparked outrage between the rest of the guys who had drawn their own shoes up themselves. Apprently this guy took over 6 hours to do 4 shoes and in return the boys gave him an Australian Team t-shirt and a cap! Anyway, today was the deadline for having the shoes done anyway so I guess you cant blame them. Slackers!!

August 9 - Attention all Ladies

I think the time waiting to play is gettign the better of us. Today a group of us got together and decided to be smart asses and write a notice for a bit of a laugh and to boost the spirits of the Aussie camp. So we developed a notice that goes something like this:

ATTENTION ALL LADIES

In the interests of elite performance, the Australian Steelers wish to advise all females that members of the Australian Steelers will not be participating in pleasure sessions from Friday September 12 until the evening of Tuesday Septembr 16.

Of course we understand that many, many women will be severely inconvenienced by this and the AUstralian Steelers deeply apologise for inconveniences caused bythis sabbatical. However, please understand that upon our return from this absence, members of the Australian Steelers will be returning to full service with the vigour and enthusiasm you are all accustomed to.

Please be aware that post sabbatical appointments are of course limited and that these pleasure sessions can be booked in advance by contacting the team Manager on the usual number.

Again, the Australian Steelers apologize for any inconvenieces cause by our absence and will endeavour to make it up to those inconvenienced. Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding regarding this matter.



We then photocopied the notice, and put it up in most of the Aussie buildings in the village. The reaction was one of complete laughter, it even got pride of place in the administration building hahahaahahaha.





August 7 - A day off

After all the glitz and glamolur of the opening ceremony we were given a day off off from training and team committments. We had heard about the Silk Street Markets and decided to go there to find out just what all the hype was about. We headeed off inj a convoy of taxis, the trip lasting about 25 minutes for a taxi fare of just AU$8. We hopped out of the taxis and into the main entrance of the markets. Its not like markets back home, rather like a small shopping centre with about 6 floors. I can tell you it was one experience I wont forget. I entered the first floor and were swarmed with Chinese girls, mostly, going "heyyy Australia!!, you want shoes?" or ''you want bag'' or shoes or watch or just about anything you can imagine. As I wheeled past each small stall, someone would put something on my lap trying to sell it to me. They insisted that everything was genuine and try to sting you for a fairly steep price to back up their claims but in the end everything was very fake but the workmanship wasnt too bad. I bought some Deisel shoes for 80 Yuen (about $15 Aussie), an awesome mercedes spinner belt for about $5 aussie and some toher bits and pieces. It was just crazy. To give you an idea, the shoes started at 680 yuen and I bargained down to 80. Its a funny procedure, you bargain down to your price and then they tell you to offer a little more, then you leave the stall, then they chse you down and say ok ok what is your final offer. You tell them the same price then they say its not enough so you leave again, they chase you down again and tell you that the deal is done, at your price. Its was truly an eye opening experience.

August 6 - Opening Ceremony!!

After getting some well needed sleep, me and the rugby boys headed out for our morning push, got some lunch and got to work on out DUNLOP VOLLEYS!!! That's right, the good old volleys make their debut paralympics appearance. We got Dunlop to sponsor us some so that we could each decorate them with what the paralympics and Australia mean to us. Of course there wre certain stipulations. We could not "outsource" more than 10% of our decorative activites and the shoes had to incluyde our team name - the STEELERS and our player number. It took some guys the whole day to even come up with their designs rather than even finish their shoes. I decided on turning my shoes into Austrlian flags with AUS on the back, the STEELERS name on the back corner on the outside of each shoe and my surname on the inside. They looked pretty cool but art was never my forte. I also know its only a matter of time before they get fluid on them which, as you volley experts know, spells the end of any intricate artwork!! I got a little sleep in the afternoon then ironed my walk out uniform - a Herringbone suit, had a shower and got into the suit. At a sweltering 30 degrees and 90% humidity we could have worn something a little more suitable but the suit was required by the APC.

We had some dinner then the entire Australian team rolled out towards the buses. You have never seen anything on this scale in your life. Around 400 buses all lined up taking waves of athletes and staff - 7000 in all - to the bird's nest. We boarded our bus bang on 7:30 (the chinese run everything to the second) and got to the bird's nest about 15 minutes later. Then, as the case was with our travel, it was a case of hurry up and wait. We waited for around 2 hours before being assembled to begin the final journey to the stadium. A 15 minute walk followed and every metre of the way was lined with chinese around 20 deep. Then we headed down the race and into the stadium. We heard "AUSTRALIA" over the PA system in the stadium and came out to be greeted by the amazing sight I have ever experienced. Aroiund 90 000 people cheering us on as we entered. The organisers had put boards donw on the floor making it quite difficult to wheel across as there were uneven joins between the wooden boards.

Then all of a sudden the stadium just erupted as China came out behind us. I have never heard anything like it. A much bigger response than what had been recieved in Athens and a much bigger stadium too. For the second Paralympics in a row I was in the front row too!! We were then guided to our seating bay and watched some spectacular performances and an incredible torch lighting ceremony. By the way, the guy who pulled himself up in the wheelchair to the cauldron was assisted greatly by cables and winches, but damn it still looked pretty bloody good!!! At the conclusion of the ceremony it was every athlete for themselves trying to get on a bus and get back to the village as soon as possible. A group of us decided to push the 5 odd km back and it acutally left me feeling really good. I went to bed pumped to WIN!!!

August 5 - Flag Raising Ceremony

Finally the day arrived to officially start our Paralympics push. I started the day by heading up with the team for breakfast and then we went out for our regular morning stroll through the village at 10:30. The day was quite warm and by the time the flag raising ceremony came round at 12 I was sweltering. I have posted some videos of the flag raising ceremony. To give you all a little more infor about the flag raising ceremony, it is an official ceremony that takes place inside the paralympic village with the mayor of the village and various dignitories in attendance. The federal minister for sport and recreation was in attendance and it felt great to be at the event after the last few days of pretty much doing nothing.

August 2, 2008


Hi guys just thought I would write with a quick update on Beijing. I arrived last night at about 7pm and the airport was absolutely immaculate, the largest in the world and not a blemish on it. It seemed a little surreal with glare coming off the floors that you could probably eat off through to cleaners waiting eagerly at the entrance to toilet blocks, waiting for you to finish having a **** before going in and cleaning up after you. One of the wierdest things about first arriving was the absolute lack of traffic. I think we saw about 20 to 30 cars on major roadways, looking from the plane on the way in, and that was 7pm!!. Anyway the village is pretty swish, the buildings are much larger but the accommodation is less that ideal. The rooms are a bit pokey for two chairs and the common rooms are very small by comparison to what we had in Athens, but the fitout is soooo much better.

Hope you are all well

Grant