Not all eyes were on swimmer Michael Phelps during the Beijing Olympics.
Almost all, but with the exception of a few Kentuckians who were there to closely watch every aspect of the equestrian events in Hong Kong.
U.S. Equestrian Federation C.E.O. John Long flew to China along with several other Alltech F.E.I. 2010 World Equestrian Games organizers, to see just what they could learn from Hong Kong. "We were on alert really from the time that we got on the airplane" said Long.
At the airport, the group recognized one of the most important lessons from their trip to China. "We got off the airplane in Hong Kong and there was not one question that needed to be asked" Long said it was a great lesson for not only Lexington and BlueGrass Airport but for the entire country. Since only about a fourth of the 600,000 spectators expected for the event will be flying into Lexington, Long said forming welcome centers at airports across the country would be a great way to bring uniformity to the event.
Because of the location of some of the equestrian events, busses were required to transport spectators and athletes, very similar to what spectators will have to do in Lexington as they are transported from their hotels all across central Kentucky. "They did that perfectly and it's a great lesson for us here. These busses were loaded, filled and left every 3 ½ minutes" Long said the end result was no one had to wait for a bus.
There were some things during their visit that John Long says the Alltech F.E.I. 2010 World Equestrian Games could do better. "There was not a lot of food service options" Long said. "You could get a hot dog and some other concession type of food but there was really no place to sit down and kick your feet back and watch like what we'll do here". Another place Long hopes to see done better here in Kentucky: "There was really no apparel to be purchased, I wanted to bring home a lot of stuff to give to my friends, kids and grandkids and we couldn't find anything to buy" Long said.
While Kentucky probably could never top the opening ceremonies to the Beijing Olympics, there are a lot of expectations for the W.E.G. opening ceremony since this is the first time the even is coming to the U.S. Long says a firm has been hired which worked on the Salt Lake opening ceremonies and is doing work for Vancouver's games. At the end of the day though, Long said the a simple "thank you" and "goodbye" is what was the icing on the cake. "Every night when all of the traffic came out, when all of the people left the venue, the volunteers all said thank you and goodbye, I felt like I was in Disneyland" Long said.
September 25th marks the two year countdown to the Alltech F.E.I. World Equestrian Games. It is said that by October 1st of this year, equestrian enthusiast will start turning their attention to Kentucky.
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed