Horton: Blogging in Beijing

Aug. 7, 2008

NORMAN, Okla. -- Throughout the 2008 Summer Olympics, SoonerSports.com will keep fans up to date with blogs from former Sooner Jonathan Horton and head men's gymnastics coach Mark Williams from Beijing.

Today's account comes from Horton as he recaps the first week in Beijing and talks about everything from food and landscaping to his training in preparation for Saturday's first day of competition.

Stay tuned next week to hear more from Coach Williams and Horton as they head into the first full week of competition.

Horton - Bound for Beijing Central | Coach Williams' Blog #1

BEIJING, China (Wednesday, Aug. 6)

Hey Sooner fans, this is Jonathan Horton and I just wanted to give you guys a little glimpse of what my journey to the Olympics has been like this past week.

So far everything here has been incredible. I arrived this past Tuesday and I have been having a blast from the moment I stepped off of the airplane.

The first step after arriving was to go through processing where we pick up all of our gear for the month. It was incredible! I got so many cool clothes from Ralph Lauren and Nike that I actually had to ship some of it back home.

The village that we are staying in here in China is unbelievable. It is way more than I expected and I am just blown away with the amount of time that has been put into making it look like a small dream land. There are small streams and rivers, bridges, bamboo trees, the grass perfectly green and kept cut, flower gardens, and awesome Beijing 2008 signs all over the place.

The food has been really good too. The cafeteria is like the size of a football field and there are lines all over the place for different types of food for every nation. So far the village has been really comfortable to live in and I have had a lot of fun walking around and meeting tons of different Olympians from different countries.

Now, that I have been here for about a week I have also gotten a chance to check out a little more of the area. WOW. The arenas and different competitive buildings that were designed for this are amazing. I can't even begin to think about the amount of planning that has gone into designing all of the crazy stuff around here and decorating all of Beijing with 2008 Olympic banners.

So besides being completely blown away by the area, I have also done a lot of training the past few days. The gyms have been really nicely put together and the competition arena for gymnastics is gorgeous. Training is going really well. I had podium training on Tuesday night (U.S. time) which is the only day I get to be on the actual equipment for the meet. I did really well and I am getting anxious about the next few days.

I am really excited about the preliminary competition on Saturday and I think it's pretty cool that a billion people will be watching.

Hopefully I will have a really awesome blog to write after the team wins a fat shiny medal. Well, this is Jonathan Horton signing off. I will see you guys soon.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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