China at the Olympics - 1984 (Team's arrival)

Contrary to what many people think, the contingents representing their countries at the opening ceremonies are usually only a portion of their respective delegations. Because Olympic competition is spread out over two weeks, generally only the teams in the earlier events arrive in time for the opening, while those in the later events get to participate in the closing ceremonies. (In LA, this also helped save on costs, as there was a modest daily fee for each person staying in the Olympic Villages.) Nonetheless, China had one of the largest delegations, so when the first group of athletes arrived, it involved a sizable number of people.

The team's charter flight arrived at LAX and disgorged its passengers without incident at the special terminal area reserved for the Games. There were pro-Taiwan demonstrators waiting for them, but they had no access to the restricted areas and were probably not even noticed by the mainlanders. We dutifully informed the team officials that regular baggage would come off the conveyor belt, but oversize and unusual items would be treated as freight and brought separately to a warehouse where they could be claimed later in the day. Even so, the main logistics person was too nervous to fully understand what this meant. Once most of their personal luggage had been retrieved from the carousel, he anxiously sought me out and declared that we were on the verge of a catastrophe because many important items were lost. The fact that "many" were missing was reassuring -- it's when a single piece cannot be found that one really begins to worry. When I asked him what was lost, he listed all the cases containing the oars of the rowing teams, the guns of the shooting teams and the bows and arrows of the archery teams! He calmed down after I reminded him that these were considered "unsual" items and had been sent to the warehouse. Within a few minutes, however, he came back tenser than ever and announced that the special present they had brought for the IOC to mark the occasion of the PRC's Olympic debut was nowhere to be found. Again, his nervousness had gotten the better of him, and when he described the missing gift to be an 18-foot long tapestry, I managed to suppress a chortle before again assuring him that we could go to the warehouse that very evening and pick it up. Despite the fact that nothing in the warehouse would be needed in the next day or two, and despite how tired he was from the long flight, it came as no surprise that he insisted on going to the warehouse at the earliest possible time. Of course everything was there and in good order, and I suppose that this was the wisest thing to do anyway, since he probably would not have gotten any sleep until he was reunited with all the "missing" baggage.