Transporting athletes, volunteers and gear to Beijing no easy task during pandemic

As a Canadian athlete at the 2012 London Olympics, Marie-Andree Lessard would stretch out her weary legs in the Canadian team lounge at the athletes village at the end of the day.

She and her Canadian teammates would watch the Olympic action on Canada's big-screen TV in the lounge, or play cards or board games shipped from home to break up the monotony. She'd nibble on her favourite cheese that a Canadian staffer had happily made a London grocery run to purchase.

Lessard had no idea how much work had gone into making Canada's athletes feel at home at the Games.

She knows now.

Lessard, who competed in beach volleyball in London, is now the Canadian Olympic Committee's Director of Games, and so orchestrated the complicated transport of athletes, equipment and gear to the Beijing Games, and the elaborate setup once on the ground in China.

"I went to Sochi [2014 Winter Olympics] as an athlete service officer, I was a volunteer, and I built out the Ping-Pong table. And when athletes were playing on my Ping-Pong table, I was thinking 'You have no idea how many hours I spent building that Ping-Pong table,"' Lessard said with a laugh.

"I think you only realize the full extent of the work that goes into it when you're on the other side, [because] when you get there, it's an empty building. But when you walk in as an athlete, you think that's been there always, because it feels so homey."

WATCH | Canadian athletes arrive at Beijing airport:

The global COVID-19 pandemic has thrown numerous wrenches into carefully laid plans. For example, the last site visit for the Canadian Olympic Committee was back in 2019, and so Lessard and her crew have had to rely on individuals on the ground to send photos and video of Canada's space there.