Aug. 4, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Former Georgetown student-athletes Michael Altman (class of '97) and Andrew Campbell (F '06) have both landed in Beijing in anticipation of the 2008 Summer Olympics and will be detailing their experience through the Georgetown Athletics web-site, as well as their own personal sites.

Altman, an accomplished rower on the Hilltop, will compete in the lightweight men's straight four at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. A, seven-time senior national team member, Altman is a first-time Olympian after serving as an alternate during the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, Greece.

Campbell, a former All-American at Georgetown, became the first Hoya sailor to ever qualify for the Olympics, winning five races and totaling 44-points in the 16-race Olympic qualifier.

Altman and Campbell both arrived in China within the last few days and took some time to share their first thoughts on the site of the Olympics.

Excerpts from RowAltman.blogspot.com: So a team of Chinese tailors showed up at our hotel in order to sell us suits. Seriously. I couldn't not buy them, they were so cheap. And tailor-made. They took our measurements, and gave us a set of fabrics to choose from. Custom suits from scratch came to about $120 each. Seriously. I bought two, doubling the number of suits that I own. And I got a couple of custom fitted dress shirts to go along with them ($10 each)...

Excerpts from Campbellsailing.com: It's a surreal existence here at the Olympic Sailing Center Qingdao. In reality, its been a surreal existence throughout the last three years sailing full time on the Olympic-class sailing circuit. The boat racing is intense, fast and at times frustrating. The improvement is constant albeit slow-going. Because the US system to this point puts so little emphasis on performance on the international circuit when it comes to attaining the Olympic berth, all the regattas to this point have been part of my training. In my head, I have a stockpile of incidents where I walked away scratching my head and saying, I won't let that happen at the Olympics...

For more information on Altman and Campbell's experiences in Beijing keep checking www.guhoyas.com or visit www.rowaltman.blogspot.com or www.campbellsailing.com for all the latest information.