Daniel McCormick is representing the USA as a Judo Olympian in Beijing, China. Daniel is a former student of Jim Irvine. (Jim is an instructor at the club who recently came to us from Texas). The head instructor for Daniel during his 10 years in Dallas was “Ace” Sukigara assisted by Judy Choquette)

Ni Hao...I'm becoming quite fluent in Mandarin.

I have been very busy since I fought. I've been going to alot of events. I watched China vs. Germany and USA vs. Spain in basketball. Next I we went to the Bird's Nest to watch track and field. Then I watched the quarterfinals of men's boxing. I've seen 2 days of wrestling, the middle weights and the heavyweights. And yesterday I went to sycronized swimming finals and the indoor volleyball finals. On top of this I have done all the touristy things I could find. Luckily for me I have a friend here from Boston who is the head of the New England Patriots (and incase you didn't know went 18-1 last year but lost the only game that really counts) promotions in China. He speaks Chinese (or atleast he claims, we have been trying to find a way to check him, we think he may be bluffing) and he has been helping me get around the city and see the sights.

The first tourist sight I saw was the Forbidden City. I'm not sure why it is named that, but I know its where the Emporer lived. I was told it was still in use up until a little over a 100 years ago. It was huge. It consists of a few building surrounded by 4 huge walls about 200 yards apart. Everytime you pass through one you think your done, but another couple hundred yards up theres another wall just as big. After we hurdled those walls, we saw the living quarters. Outside the living quarters was a courtyard that looks very familiar to scenes I've seen in old Kungfu movies. I was told by my buddy that it is a very popular sight for filming movies. On the other side of the Forbidden City there was a temple of some kind on top of a huge hill overlooking the Forbidden City and Beijing. Now the most interesting experience of the day was the greenbean popcicle. I've never heard of a vegetable popcicle, and I'm hoping they don't become popular in the states. The other guys with me will agree that it took atleast 2 hours to get the greenbean taste out of our mouths.

That night we went to the basketball games. I have heard that some of my dad's coworkers saw me at the USA vs. Spain basketball game behind Yao Ming. I was sitting behind Yao Ming during the first half of the 2nd game and he did not appreciate the "down in front" comments, but other then that he was a really nice guy. He spoke very good english and as it turns out he is a Houston Texans fan. We were also sitting behind Li Jianlian, the 6th overall pick of the Milwaukie Bucks in 2007. The first game was China vs. Germany. The Chinese are die hard fans for China (what are the odds?). They constantly scream "jai yo," which is a cheer for China. Me being the woderful linguist I am decided to yell "du go jai yo" which is the same cheer but for Germany. Sadly Dallas Maverick Dirk Nowitski and Team Germany did not win the game, but it was a good, close game. The next game was USA vs. Spain. And it was a good game. Team USA looks great, very dominant. We were 7 rows up from the court and could hear all the talking. They were the best seats I have ever had to a basketball game. USA is in the finals today and I plan on watching, but I don't think my room will be as good as those seats.

The night after that we made our way to the Bird's Nest and after a slight tickets issue (someone can't read dates very well) we made it in. It is by far the nicest stadium I have ever been in. They did not short on anything. That night we got to watch the mens hammer throw (I have to try this one day), steeple chase final, women's triple jump final, women's 100 meter final, men's 1500 semis, high jump preliminaries, and women's 400 meter hurdles preliminaries. It was a great experience. The seats were not as good as the basketball the night before, but it was fun to see all the different events going on at once. The next day we went to boxing. There were no Americans fighting, but the fights were good. The arena is great, and the crowd was really getting into the fights.

The following day we went to this big wall thats right in the middle of the mountains. I forget what its called but its this Great Wall about 30 minutes outside of Beijing. After our driver, Mr. Fong, told us to cut in line, we rode up a ski lift to the top of the mountain and walked around. We rode down a bobsled thing and fed some bears. We took pictures on top of the wall, fighting through thousands of people. After awhile of walking around we realized all we did was walk down. We looked up and realized it was gunna be a hard walk back. It looked like it was about thousand feet up. So after some planning and 6 popcicles (not greenbean), we decided to walk around the mountain instead of up and over. We luckily found Mr. Fong with no problems. Mr. Fong's next stop for us was the Summer Palace. Which was covered in buildings painted all over inside and out. It was another hike uphill, and through some tunnels, but on top we had a great view of Beijing.

The next morning 2 mornings we went to wrestling. Those 2 days were alot of fun. Wrestling is very similar to Judo. Judo is a type of wrestling, but we wear gis, have submissions, and our throws are usually more dynamic. It is inteesting to watch and pick out similarities in the two. The first day was the middleweights and the next was the heavyweights.That night we went to a Jiu Jitsu practice at Chet Quints school. He is from Miami but has spent time in Brazil. So I haven't been completely inactive since I fought.

Yesterday we went to the Watercube which is where all the swimming races, diving, and sycronized swimming events were held. We were there to see the sycronized swimming finals. We watched in amazement trying to figure out how these ladies were able to stay afloat for so long with so much of their body out of the water. Honestly, I was a little skeptical about sycronized swimming at first, but I was interested in seeing it in person. When I saw it I was in aw of the ability of these ladies. It was very impressive. Last night we went to the Women's Indoor Volleyball finals, USA vs. Brazil. The crowd was great, cheering constantly for both sides, loud, doing the wave. It is close to the end of the Olympics and many events have already finished. This allowed a ton of the athletes from both countries to be there and support their teams. Sadly, USA lost, but it was a good match.

I still haven't forgotten about the day I fought. I am less sore now, but its still weighing pretty heavily on me. I'm looking forward to getting back stateside and starting to prepare for my upcoming tournaments and eventually London in 2012.

I have to go now and get ready for the Closing Ceremonies. We are meeting downstairs in just a few hours. The uniforms will be different. No suits this time, we get to wear shorts and polos which is good. During Opening Ceremonies everyone was about to melt. I'm not sure if the Closing Ceremonies will be televised. But if they are I hope everyone watches to see Team USA march out together behind Old Glory for the final time of this Olympiad.

I have attached photos of the Forbidden City, Yao Ming and myself (I promise hes not annoyed, hes just not smiling), the inside of the Bird's Nest, the Great Wall and myself on top of the Great Wall, and the inside of the Watercube.

Hope all is well.

Daniel