So, to wrap this thread up a bit, I spent some time with my friend Shawn who was the Olympic coach. He and his wife came to play tennis with me and my wife, so after hitting the ball around for 90 minutes, we found a shady spot in the park nearby and had a picnic lunch. He has been on the road since May, so it was nice that he was able to spend the time to see us.
We talked a lot about the individual performances, but also generally about the Games. He said the Covid protocols were all pretty good, with the main exception being the transportation, which was quite crowded at times, but everyone was masked. Masks were required at all times in the village, except when you were alone in your room, or when you were actually eating.
His overall impression of the Games from his perspective was that it would obviously be a lot better if it was a normal Games. He said that the Olympic village experience was overall pretty isolating. They were not allowed to go to events, so once they were back in the village it was time to eat or work out, and then you were in your room alone. So they had the Olympic feeds on TV's there, but with no commentary he said it was basically him in a room by himself yelling at the TV, cheering people on.
He was nice enough to bring me back this nice bottle of gin:
And he also gave me a part of his team uniform - the hoodie, which was a very nice thing to do...
Wearing a uniform you haven't earned isn't something I would have ever done when I was competing, but since I've been out of the sport now for a very long time, I will wear and enjoy this.
Thanks to all who contributed and followed along.
Cheers, Al
