Editor’s note: Josh George is a junior in communications. He is competing in track and field at the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece. He’s keeping a journal, and he agreed to share it. Although his busy schedule does not allow for regular updates, he will update his journal when possible.

9/21/04

Athens, Greece – I just heard the news, and it is good. I had come across the vast Atlantic and had lived and trained in this Mecca of ancient culture for some time without fulfilling my reason for being here – to race.

What a twister of emotions I have encountered in the past six hours. I came into this journey believing that I would begin racing Sept. 22. All is well and good I suppose. What I had neglected to notice was the fact that the majority of my teammates would have begun racing by then.

As this reality was playing itself out, I quickly grew weary with my days filled with idle cheering.

I wanted to race.

Then today came – the day before the day I was to begin racing. I did everything right in preparation. I woke up early to get to the track to work out; I watched my teammates and got psyched up; I ate properly.

Then I heard the news.

It began as a rumor, “Hey, did you hear that the 400-meter dash (my first race) was postponed?” South African racer Ernst Van Dyke asked me. I did not, and so I began asking everyone around me if that was true.

After asking my teammates, coaches and team leaders and gaining no information in support of the rumor, I went online to check the “official schedule.” Indeed, they had removed my race from the list of the next day’s events.

Utterly pissed off, I stormed around the room complaining to whomever I stumbled across. Then I called my coach again and asked him if the news was absolutely true and final. He still knew nothing.

Slowly I calmed down and began to accept the fact that I would have to wait a day longer before my first race. At dinner my teammate called the team leader again to reconfirm the postponement of our race and our team leader solemnly expressed that it was true.

Resigned to my fate, yet still slipping a few expletives under my breath, I left the dining hall to come and waste away the rest of the evening.

But alas, the gods must be smiling down on me, for the mighty officials in charge of this great meet have changed their mind.

At approximately 9:45 p.m., one of my teammates dashed into my room with the news that the race was back on. Happy day!

I must ready myself to compete…I bid thee adieu.

9/22/04

Athens, Greece – Things have been crazy here, but that does not mean that a hopelessly single young man such as myself can’t take some time out of his schedule to learn a little Greek from the beautiful young lady that works the night shift at Resident Services. I just consider it time to clear my head and think about something other than competition.

But guess what boys and girls, this young man actually got to begin competing today. And if I may say so myself, I wasn’t as nervous and crazy as I thought I was going to be.

First of all, let me explain the procedure one must go through to race in the Paralympics.

It begins like any other meet. You come to the track early and do your warm-up on the designated warm-up track.

No problem.

Then, about 50 minutes before your race is the first call to come to the athlete check-in tent, with last call coming ten minutes later.

This is when the sitting and waiting begins.

For the 40-45 minutes leading up to your race, you do nothing but sit and wait, and shake, and try to stay focused while officials are checking the legality of your equipment and ushering you through a long series of tunnels until you get to the part of the stadium that has been designated for the athlete entrance.

Then you sit and wait some more, and the heats in front of you finish racing before you are finally ushered onto the track, where you get to sit and wait some more.

Yes, once you’re on the track, you wait anywhere from 10-20 minutes as the officials and media ready themselves for another race.

Then, you strain your ears to decipher the Greek commands through the roar of the crowd, and finally you get to push and release all the pent up energy and adrenaline that you have stored up over the past hour.

I went through this procedure for the first time today and I have to admit it was the most exciting and nerve-wracking thing I have ever done.

I did get to begin with one of my favorite events, though, the 400.

Man, I can’t even write about the race now that it has happened. How do I describe it? I can barely recall how it went. All I know is that after getting a crappy lane draw, lane eight, I managed to post the fastest qualifying time for the finals and break the Paralympic record.

Man, I was pumped.

The only thing I remember was seeing the (very nice) Korean guy sneak up on me in the last turn. It was then that I realized that I might lose, so I put my head down to regain the lead, before I cruised through the finish line.

But that’s it; I don’t want to think about it anymore. I should get a good lane – either four or five – for the final, but the final is a new race with hundreds of new possibilities.

Time to put this one behind and focus on the next. Wish me luck – I may need to break the world record to win the race. Hang on to your seats.