So this is Olympia!
After 26 hours it feels like a Spartan adventure.
We had the flight behind us well, after landing it dragged a bit.
It took us almost four hours to leave the airport.
It took that long until all the multi-page customs, quarantine and other declarations were filled out, checked and stamped and various QR codes were loaded onto the cell phones.
And of course we were tested for Corona at the airport.
Peter Hess
Sports editor.
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When we arrived at the Olympic village, we went straight to the booth. In fact, we six German tennis players (Alexander Zverev, Jan-Lennard Struff, Dominik Koepfer, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Kevin Krawietz and I) have an apartment for us! What sounds great at first, turns out to be a challenge at first glance that we take with humor. We consider it a funny experiment to accommodate six people in an estimated 50 square meters. I didn't really want to get that close to my colleagues. And neither do they to me.
We are divided into two double and two single rooms, there are two bathrooms, but no common room. Oh yes, there is still the balcony, but you can't stay on it because it is far too stuffy and too hot in Tokyo. We are adventurous and not spoiled: But a few nails in one wall of the bathroom to hang up the toiletry bag would not have been a luxurious nuisance. The concept of the Japanese interior decorator can be called interesting: shell construction with flooring. Furnishing? Puristic! Beds, tables, sinks, toilets. We already got a couple of posters today to loosen up the consistent white of the bare plasterboard walls.
The apartment doesn't detract from the huge atmosphere among us. We're at the Olympics - super cool, it's fun to live like that. Let's see how it will be when we are there longer. We are still getting used to it. So far we have only taken a short tour of the Olympic Village, got to know the huge cafeteria and trained three times.
They say we can move freely within the village, I don't know yet what that means.
I would love to get to know a lot of other athletes.
In any case, we have already been confirmed that we are not allowed to attend any other competitions than our tennis games, which by the way start on Saturday.
So far it looks like we can't do much and that the organizers want that too.
Our tennis team was told between the daily corona test and 15 fever measurements that we shouldn't be together all the time.
In the case of my old friend Struffi (Jan-Lennard Struff), I can't avoid that - we share a double room.
Peter Heß spoke to Tim Pütz, 33-year-old Frankfurt tennis professional who competes in doubles with Kevin Krawietz in Tokyo.