Chinese national team for 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games wait for the shuttle bus at the Los Angeles International Airport in California, the United States, July 21, 2015. Due to the transportation failure of the Organizing Committee of 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games, a lot of teams arriving at the airport stranded for a long time. Chinese national team got to leave the airport at 23:55 after nealy 4 hours waiting. (Photo: Xinhua/Zhao Qian)
What was waiting for over 1, 000 of 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games (SOWG) athletes of several foreign teams Tuesday after they traveled far from China, Peru and Europe, was waiting several more hours for buses and registration after they landed in Los Angeles airport, California.
It took 9 hours for the Chinese athletes to get to their hotel after getting off the plane at LAX (Los Angeles International Airport.
The team had to wait four hours for buses to transport athletes from LAX to a Welcome Center, which is located at the Gersten Pavilion of Loyola Marymount University, a 15 minutes' drive from the airport. When the registration in the Welcome Center finished, the team was told no bus was available to send athletes to the hotel as bus drivers did not reach agreement with the organizing committee on overtime working.
Finally, it was the host town for Chinese delegation, Long Beach, that helped rent dozens of taxis to send Chinese athletes to hotel.
At 3:40 a.m., there were still a lot of foreign athletes in the Welcome Center at Loyola Marymount University.
Tuesday was the toughest day, as 6,000 athletes, coaches and staffs from 120 foreign teams arrived in Los Angeles, a spokesperson of the organizing committee said.
The athletes showed their calm and patience during the unexpected long-hour waiting, though they had to rest on the floor after more than 10 or even 20 hours of travel.
Chinese team leader Zhao Qian told Xinhua that Chinese athletes were still optimistic and did not complain. They even did not forget to sing a birthday song to a team member as a kind of celebration while they were all sitting on the floor of the Welcome Center.
The 2015 Games will feature competitions in aquatics, gymnastics, track and field, basketball, football and many other summer sports involving 6,500 athletes with intellectual and disabilities from around the world from July 25 to Aug. 2.
