Report from the Baxters in Taipei

Sunday 6th September

Hi, just reporting in after a week in hot and humid Taipei! The opening
ceremony was last night - what a spectacular affair, with the unexpected bonus of the fireworks in the shape of the Deaflympic logo starting a fire in the stands! No harm done though. We did laugh though at how disorganised the team procession was compared with the Speedo finals - the athletes did parade in (up to 4000 of them), sort of, and do a lap of the stadium, but then the clowns in the shape of the German and Croatian athletes (wouldn't you know it!) disrupted it all by posing for the cameras instead of keeping walking and it descended into utter chaos. Ron would have been doing his pieces - all the athletes were standing in the middle of the stadium texting their parents whilst the show went on! The show itself must have cost millions - they brought Evelyn Glennie, the deaf percussionist, to do a stint as well as a deaf dance troupe from China, who were unbelievable. A sobering fact is that the games are so big here as to warrant some diplomatic posturing manoeuvring – the Chinese team arrived late so as to accidentally miss the opening ceremony – the reality being that Beijing were displeased that Taiwan had allowed the Dalai Lama into Taiwan for a visit to the area recently devastated by the massive typhoon Morakot.
There is quite a bit of media coverage through both TV and newspaper – wonder what they’ll say about the swimming?
There are police all over the place, even one at the lift on every floor at our hotel, and the coaches carrying athletes to and from venues get police escorts with the flashing lights going. Obviously the organisers must be worried about the threat of terrorist activity - scary indeed!
Competition begins in the morning - 50 breaststroke is tomorrow's offering with the possibility of a 4 x 200 m freestyle relay.