I was assigned as a referee for an international cycling race at the Olympic velodrome in Beijing, China, during the weekend of January 17-19, 2009. And, although the trip was quite abbreviated, it was my first time inside China, so I wanted to try to get a look at it as best as I could.
Glimpse of the entry to the Forbidden City
One word I could use to describe Beijing is “big”. It took a long time to get from the airport to our hotel, which was not very far from the Olympic Velodrome. On the way, we passed directly through the north edge of Tiananmen Square and in front of the famous picture of Chairman Mao Tse Tung that hangs in front of the entry to the Forbidden City. I just had to take a photo as we passed by.
Another word I could use to describe Beijing is “congested”, because the roads were quite busy with traffic. Although I heard that the roads are often quite busy in town, it’s likely that the roads were unusually burdened because of the approaching Chinese New Year’s: everyone wanted to get home to spend time with their family over the holiday. Still, it seemed to me that the best plan for getting around town would be to use the subway, which cost a mere RMB 2 to board (at the time of writing, equivalent to USD 0.29). Sure, at peak times they shove people onto trains, but at off-peak times the ride is plenty comfortable.
About the Cycling
The race to which I was assigned as a referee was the third in a series of four races, called the 2008-2009 World Cup Track Cycling Classics. This was the first international race held at the Olympic velodrome since its use during the 2008 Olympic Games, and we were lucky enough to have live television coverage for the evening sessions’ race finals.
As Race Secretary, my job was to set up all of the seedings, rounds and repechages for the race meet, to record all of the results, and to homologate any World Records that might be broken during the meet (alas, none was broken). By the time the event had ended, we’d generated 150 separate reports on the various races that had taken place [see full results for details].
Though the crowds were not huge, the Chinese fans were definitely motivated. Whenever any of the home country players were on the track, you could be guaranteed of a really good cheer from the backstraight, where this group of supporters was seated (see photo, left). Moreover, they were really good sports about cheering the winning team, even in the face of a Chinese loss. In fact, what impressed me most was that nearly all of the spectators would stand and actually pay attention during the playing of a foreign national anthem at the awards ceremonies. That isn’t the case in many parts of the world.
As to the audience, while there were supporters in the evenings on the back side of the track at evening sessions, the number of spectators on the home straight was, unfortunately, not overwhelming—around 20 or so. The velodrome area is huge both in terms of area and (think ceiling height) in terms of volume. That means it is likely expensive to run, both for power and for temperature control. I hope that it remains an important center for cycling and that it doesn’t become a white elephant that falls into disuse. If it is an integral part of cycling in Beijing, and if events are held there regularly, then it stands a good chance of developing supporters and others who will fill the seats at events both big and small.
Due to some last-minute reshuffling, our team of International Commissaires was smaller than usual, consisting of Wayne POMARIO, the jury president; ZHAO Jinshan, the Starter; Walter Ka Lok YUE, the Judge-Referee; and myself, the Race Secretary. We were assisted by 22 National Commissaires from the Chinese Cycling Association, who took care of numerous tasks such as equipment checks and assisting in the track refereeing. The race organization itself was quite large, including logistics, technical support, facilities management and transportation.
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