First Day on the Ground - A Dad's Diary by Clayton Frech - August 22nd, 2021

This blog post originated from Clayton’s Frech’s personal Facebook page. He is chronicling his journey as a dad with his son that is headed to Tokyo.

(BTW - please follow Angel City Sports on social and sign-up for our emails. We will provide update on Paralympians who have supported us over the years and also on Team USA in general. And of course follow Team Ezra - he's Most active on instagram).

After getting to my room, I was really exhausted but wanted to get things organized. In my effort to only have one checked bag, I had really packed things in… and the room is pretty small so I wanted to go to bed with some peace of mind that I knew where things were. I didn’t know what tomorrow would bring… So I unpacked, got organized, and ultimately went to bed around 2am or 2:30am. I slept surprisingly well and got up at about 6:30am or so. I thought I had slept through the entire day and started to panic. I felt great, but had I that long? I was pretty disoriented at first with the time change and everything. I grabbed my phone and checked – I had only slept 4 hours!

One of the Athlete Towers

Feeling great, I started to do some work and blog writing. I spent a few hours in the morning drinking my black tea and working. Fairly early Ezra texted that he was up. So I get dressed and started to map out my day. LaTi and I needed to go to the athlete village in order to get our credentials. We also needed to figure out how/where to do the daily covid testing that we are required to do. And there is daily reporting required on our health status.

It’s a Small World After All

So I packed up my gear and grab a taxi to head down to the village. Right before getting into our taxi we say hi to a women and it turns out I went to business school with her sister, Dominique Litmaath! Her daughter is a para-equestrain rider whom Dominique has told me about. How amazing is that?

This is, honestly one of the true treasures of the Paralympic Movement right now. It’s relatively small, so everybody is connected. It’s really special… I know we need to grow it (and damn if I am not trying), but I will miss how small, almost quaint it is right now…

The area of the Athlete Village is an old wharf that appears to be converting into residential after the Games. There is water on 3 sides and industrial buildings – sort of unique and interesting to me. We find our way to the credential office and get our stuff sorted out. LaTi doesn’t have village access so she heads back to the hotel. I got a quick tour from one of the USOC staffers. The village is just the coolest place ever. I remember feeling the same way when the late Angela Madsen gave me a tour of the Rio Paralympic Village. It’s so cool to run into athletes across all the sports, all countries of the world. Because it’s still a growing movement, athletes at the elite level are very accessible. Everyone is connected and follows each other on social. It really feels like a community…

USA Quarters

I grab lunch in the dining hall. It's a two story building with more lunch options than you can imagine. Really amazing. I had lunch with another chaperone of a first time Paralympian. I then meet up with Ezra to run down to the Vendor Plaza area to meet with an IPC media coordinator on a couple of projects (more coming) as well as to try and get his blade tightened up at the Ottobock repair center. I will write more about Ottobock, but they provide free repair services to ALL athletes from ALL countries. It is the most amazing service for these athletes, especially those from developing countries that might not have the best access to products, repair service, etc. (Maybe I'll try to arrange a tour and spotlight this in a post).

We head down to the Plaza that has a store, barber shop, photoshop, and more! We run out of time for a prosthetic appointment, but we check it out and no where to go tomorrow.

Afternoon Shakeout

Ez runs back for a fitting for closing ceremonies gear and we meet to take the busy to the training center at 3:30pm. The training center seems far – it’s like a 45 minute drive. The venue is not crowded at all, but it is being used by athletes from all over the world. The US has a dedicated training site in the mornings, but for afternoon workouts they go to the general training track. Ezra does a shake out, sort of a light workout to get acclimated to the weather. LaTi meets us there after her own taxi cab drama. We head out after about 2 hours on the track.

Next stop is the gym for a fairly light workout with a lot of stretching. Near the front there are a bunch of walls that all the athletes sign. It’s not crowded at all. The Italian fencer from Rising Phoenix is working out right next to us. Again, the community is small…

We then grab dinner at a Japanese restaurant next to the gym and call it an early night. We are doing our only morning workout tomorrow at the HPC (High Performance Center).

Should be a fun day tomorrow!