David Hearn’s
2000 Olympic Journal
Bringing
the family down under
Perhaps this just might be therapeutic for me, writing about this first
hectic week on the ground "Down Under". There have been precious few
spare moments between the demands of training on the Penrith Whitewater Course
twice a day, keeping my body healthy, caring for my one and a half year old
son, Jesse, outfitting the empty house that my wife Jennifer and I rented near
the Olympic Whitewater Slalom course, eating, sleeping, and gradually settling
my body clock 17 hours ahead.
The 14-hour flight went fine, but I was anxious to unwrap my twin
thirteen-foot boats pronto in hopes that they were not damaged on the trip.
They came through without any dings, dents or breaks, a good omen. We were all
experiencing some major jet lag. I knew we wanted to take in as much daylight
as possible and keep busy until nightfall. Jennifer pushed Jesse around in the stroller
checking out all the new fancy tents at the venue while I paddled around for an
hour on the warm up lake to get the kinks out. Then we were hit with a shock:
Just as we were leaving to go open up our house and get to sleep we were told
that we could not bring Jesse back into the venue. New rule, no children allowed.
Jesse had spent every day at the course with Jennifer on our two previous
month-long trips to practice and compete here, but with the Olympic Games there
are many new rules and surprises. Ouch, we thought we would at least have a few
days to arrange childcare for Jesse. At 18 months, he had always been looked
after by us or our immediate family. Jennifer had to stay out with Jesse while
I practiced on the course. We asked our Aussie friends for references to
quality daycare so that Jennifer could return to the course ASAP to help coach
the US at our training sessions. I felt there was a big piece missing from my
practices that first week, both from Jennifer's absence and the lack of Jesse's
chortling cries of joy from the riverbank. We had a sense of deja vu from the
'96 Olympics, where Jennifer was not credentialed as a coach and had to spend
all three weeks of practice before the Games in the parking lot.
Through the kindness of old friends and newly met neighbors things have
worked out for the best. We sorted out which of the 10 keys supplied actually
opened the door to our new house. We had hot & cold water, and we knocked
on our new neighbors' door, introduced ourselves and asked to use their
telephone to get the power and phone turned on. They are very nice people and
extremely friendly and helpful. Lily gave Jesse some milk and cookies and Dino
brought over their Eskie (cooler) to use for our food until we could get a
fridge.
We took a quick trip over to our Australian paddling buddy Lachie's house,
and borrowed a foam mattress from the assortment of beds leaning against the
wall, all waiting for the arrival of many visiting friends during the Olympic
Games. Lachie also threw in a couple of much needed rugs (blankets), as our
house, like many in the Sydney area, is not heated. Back at the homestead I
inflated Jesse's Thermarest and created a makeshift bed on the floor next to
ours. We unloaded the car and filled the front room with all of our bags and
promptly fell asleep. Jesse cried briefly in the middle of the night, but we
were able to get him back to sleep with juice soothing talk. If it were only
that easy for us!
We have gradually been able to delay sleep later each night and wake up
later each morning, and Jesse has slept more soundly every night. We found an
excellent childcare center only a few blocks away and enrolled Jesse
Mondays-Thursdays for the next few weeks. Practices have been better each day,
and there is still plenty of time to gain more confidence and speed on the
course. Our house is feeling cozy now that we have a washer, fridge, a few
pieces of used furniture and a couple of space heaters to take off the chill
nights and mornings. Jennifer and I felt a piece of our hearts missing the
first day we dropped off Jesse at the child care center, but he had a great day
and painted with a brush for the first time and we put the painting on the
kitchen wall.
Yesterday we had a day off from practice while the venue was under lockdown
for security sweep, and we went to Homebush to get our Olympic credentials.
Jennifer was very happy to finally have the real thing in her hand, an
assistant coach credential for the USA. We all felt closer to our dream of
being Olympians. Morale is high. Very therapeutic.
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