BEIJING — It should have been a celebration of volleyball. Inside the glistening National Stadium, a raucous sellout crowd cheered wildly, first for their home Chinese women’s team, the defending Olympic champions, and then, medal competition aside, for a United States squad coached by Lang Ping, a former national hero.
Along with replays of the action, JumboTrons at both ends of the arena flashed exhortations such as “Fantastic,” “Wonderful” and “Great,” further firing up fans who made for an electric atmosphere unlike anything ever seen in the sport.
Said Ping, who received thunderous ovations both before and after her team’s match, “It made me want to play again.”
But Ping’s words — and everything else associated with Day One of the Beijing Games – was only a momentary joy on a day of tragedy. After defeating Japan, the American players collapsed in front of their bench; some were in tears, none were celebrating.
Hours earlier, team members had been awakened from their pre-match naps and told that Todd Bachman, the father of 2004 women’s Olympian Elisabeth Bachman McCutcheon, who is married to U.S. men’s head coach Hugh McCutcheon, had been killed by a knife-wielding assailant that afternoon.
Todd Bachman’s wife, Barbara, was seriously injured in the attack and underwent eight hours of surgery in a Beijing hospital for multiple lacerations and stab wounds. She is listed in “critical but stable” condition, according to the United States Olympic Committee. The Bachman’s Chinese tour guide also was injured.
Elizabeth Bachman McCutcheon, who was also present, was not hurt. The assailant, Tang Yongming, 47, took his own life by jumping 130 feet from the second-story balcony of the Drum Tower, a local landmark. The Drum Tower is five miles from the main sites of the Olympic Games.
“They came to everything; they were like little USA nomads,” Olympian Logan Tom, a teammate of Bachman McCutcheon on the 2004 team, said. “They were some of the biggest fans we’ve ever had.”
The U.S. men’s team was scheduled to play its opening match Sunday afternoon (Beijing time) versus Venezuela. McCutcheon was not scheduled to be on the bench.
After the women’s match, a rumor circulated in the arena that the men’s team would not play. Though it appeared the game would go on, it was clear the murder sent shock waves through the U.S. Olympic team.
“It is impossible to describe the depth of our sadness and shock in this tragic hour,” said U.S. Olympic Committee chairman Peter Ueberroth.
USOC officials said the attack appeared random. The Bachmans weren’t wearing anything that would identify them as Americans or Team USA fans.
The day began with the stirring sight of Olympic cyclists buzzing through Tiananmen Square and then around The Great Wall; sellout crowds cheering wildly for the home team; and a buzz that seemed to build after a stunning opening ceremony the night before that even had Chinese volunteers at the main media center cheering and chanting wildly in front of big screen TVs.
By the evening’s end, however, much of Team USA was coping with something much greater than wins and losses.
“I’ve talked to three or four families already — they didn’t voice any concerns to me. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have them,” U.S. men’s swimming coach Eddie Reese said.
Reese added that his team was not given instructions from the USOC, in his words, “where to go and where not to go” in Beijing.
“I don’t want to make light of it,” Reese said, “but I think the Chinese are saying that it’s an isolated incident. And you just have to feel that it’s an isolated incident.”
For the women’s team, however, it will be impossible to differentiate between isolated and everlasting.
“They’ll always be a part of this team,” Tom said.
Staff writer Benjamin Hochman contributed to this report.
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com
