My "job" was to encourage participating athletes to think about the environment and to try to make a positive impact in their communities around the world. My main event was a talk hosted by Coca Cola at the Village Green Pin Trading Center in the heart of the Olympic Village.

I gave a multi-media presentation that was attended by over 250 people. I showed photos of my May trip to the geographic North Pole and took questions from those attending. My theme was how they--the extraordinary athletes--are role models and how they have the opportunity to lead and show the world the way toward living a sustainable life.

Coca Cola had invited me and other "Environmental Champions" (including Al Gore and Thomas Friedman) to support the Olympic Movement's commitment to sustainability.



During Q&A I was asked questions about the environment and also about my trips to the poles. "What in the world makes one want to go to the ends of the earth?" And, "Why would someone knowingly inflict such pain on one's being by undergoing such extreme hardships?"

The Journey
I responded that it is the journey, not the destination, that is important to me, and that I love the camaraderie, friendships, and trust one discovers and earns on my expeditions. I believe these results can generate a lifetime of strength, harmony, and knowledge, much as the Olympics often do for many of the participants.

China and Coca Cola
During the last six months, I've actually been criticized for supporting the Olympic Games. For example, I've had friends ask me how I could go to China, a country known for its brutal suppression of Tibet and stubborn support for murderous regimes in Sudan. I've also been stopped by people wondering about my conscience in being an ambassador for Coca Cola, a mega corporation that is tapping into the world's largest underdeveloped consumer market (China).

I don't have the lofty rhetoric in me to talk about the games being non-political or sponsor-free. People can protest the Olympics, China, and TV as they wish. But I can say that everything I do--travel expeditions or sustainability and the environment--comes from my heart. I believe in personal challenges and sacrifice, of reaching down deep and finding what you have inside of you. The Olympics, to me, are emblematic of the human condition, namely, to seek to excel and to better the world in the process. In Beijing I discovered new things about people from watching the athletes compete and meeting people in a different culture. I didn't find any of them much different than us at home.

Looking Back
What I will remember most about the Beijing games is not the 100-meter dash, but the Olympic spirit I constantly discovered on street corners and in the stadiums. And I continue to be wonder-struck and astonished at the level of energy and commitment from everyone who worked to make the games a success. It is not a simple task.

In the end, I make no political judgments nor do I take positions pro and con this and that other than I favor preserving and protecting our planet. In my travels and at home in Truckee, I simply try to educate people.

Thanks for reading my China Olympic journals.       --Story via Robert Frohlich.


Editor's Note: In October of 2008, Doug returns to the Antarctica peninsula for Ski Cruise 2008, an expedition that offers active travelers a thirteen-day adventure diverse in both athletic challenge and cultural experience.