Today I was supposed to go down to the Silk Market, or at least do something cultural since I was taking the morning off from the epee competition.  (The US did not qualify a team.)  I’ll still cover the medal rounds.

I had some time today, so I got up a little late (the next two days will be early) and headed over to the venue to drop my gear off. Met up with Amy and Serge Timacheff (from fencingphotos.com) and we decided not to do the silk market - just too nuts. Since Amy didn’t want to go, I was okay with trying to get over to USA House to pick up a couple of more things for people on my shopping list.

We headed on down by taxi to a neat district in Beijing. Many more little shops and restaurants then near my apartment up next to the Olympic Green.

USA House is in this hotel where they have brought in American staff to make this a nice retreat for the US athletes and their families.

Here’s the entrance:

We went in and got our day passes from the registration desk and then checked out the place. Went over to the USA Store with a ton of Nike Olympic themed gear. Some of it will be available in retail stores, so I went looking at the stuff that’s exclusive to here. Got a few shirts for the family and then headed over to the main house area for lunch.

They really set the place up right. It’s pretty much an all day reception for the athletes and families with very good food. We grabbed a bite and just enjoyed the scenery for a bit. The architect did have something for red glass, which makes a really cool photo as you can see here.

After lunch, we then headed out to find the Adidas store that is rumored to be down this way. If you remember my previous post - there are no fencing shirts at either the fencing venue or at the main Olympic “superstore” on the Olympic green. The clerks at the “superstore” told me of the main Adidas store that should have everything.

After a little scouting to find the way, we headed off for a 5 minute walk and found ourselves outside the Adidas store.

Once inside, we started to look around.

Of course, as luck would have it, they had SOLD OUT of the fencing shirts! No more, so sorry. (Here’s a hint to any future Olympic travelers: If you want a sport specific item, find it and buy it before the host country wins a gold medal in it!)

The thing is, these shirts would have been ideal for some sort of print on demand technology. All of the “blanks” are the same. They are cotton shirts with the Adidas stripes embroidered along the arm, but one is bronze, one silver, and one gold. (Do you get the theme?) All you need is to print the appropriate logo graphic on each shirt.

Hoping against hope, I went upstairs to the kids section. I won’t be able to sport a Beijing 2008 Olympic Fencing shirt, but maybe one of the kids could. My spirits were raised when I saw this display:

Alas, the Adidas Marketing Gods were out to tease me today. I did manage to find 1 (one!) kids fencing t-shirt. It was white, black Adidas stripes down the shoulder, and the green fencing “fuwa” on the upper left chest. It was a few sizes too big for any of the boys, however, and they had no more.

Oh well, I guess I should just become a Team Handball fan.