Paralympian Jessica Heims enjoying Olympic Village

Editor’s note: Jessica Heims is a former Cedar Rapids Prairie and UNI athlete from Swisher, competing in her second Paralympic Games. This is the third of her reports from Tokyo.

TOKYO — This morning I woke up in my cardboard bed.

Yes, that cardboard bed. I have been sleeping in the sustainable Japanese bed design that sent the world into an Olympic frenzy this summer.

As of last week, almost 5,000 Paralympic athletes, myself included, have been officially living in the infamous athlete village.

After five long years, the Paralympic Games are finally back, and no one is more excited for the Games craze than us athletes.

After spending a few days adjusting to the time changes, we have found our temporary home within the Tokyo skyline. Competitions have been underway since the conclusion of the opening ceremonies on Aug. 24, so our days now consist of routines designed to help us reach success in our own upcoming competitions.

An average day the Paralympic village is a wild ride. After waking up around 6 a.m., my roommates and I take our daily COVID-19 tests. These samples are taken via saliva tubes and are deposited to the village offices for testing. Soon after the drop off, we open up a Games-approved app on our phone and submit our forehead temperatures, symptoms and close contact list. These are monitored every day to ensure that any possible viral exposure is caught right away.

Once our tests are taken and forms are submitted, we can finally head to the village dining hall for breakfast. The two-level building houses a multitude of buffet lines for all types of worldly meals. Our popular choices include orange peel French toast, watermelon and cinnamon oatmeal.

The chefs at the dining hall feed thousands of athletes and team staff at each meal, yet they still manage to provide a quick and socially distant flow. In addition to spaced out buffet lines, each table holds plastic dividers between seats to ensure athletes can take off their masks to eat safely.

After our breakfast is finished and digested we make our way to the transportation zone to load up for training. Team USA has practiced at many venues over our two-and-a-half weeks here, and as of this week we are finally able to use the competition venue. The venue, known to the public as the Olympic Stadium, has the official competition track as well as a full practice track next door that is used for warm ups and preparation.

As a discus thrower I practice in-field at the warm-up track and use the ring to improve my technique. The mornings are hot and humid, so by the time practice is over we are all ready to go back to the village and find some air conditioning.

Lunch runs similarly to breakfast, except this time there is a higher buzz in the air from the morning competition results and excitement for the finals later in the night. We all finish our meals and head back to our rooms to get some rest before the day continues.

We are allowed to move freely around the village, which includes hot spots such as a shopping plaza and fitness entertainment center. Among other shops, the plaza has places to buy souvenirs, pick up complementary shoes and get your hair and nails done.

We love to travel here with our friends and make an afternoon of exploring. On the way we try to trade sports pins with other countries’ athletes and see who can gather the widest collection.

At night we finish our last meal of the day and set up camp to livestream competitions. The sun sets early in Japan so we get to watch the stadium shift into a completely different energy under the lights. The tower which houses Team USA includes recovery rooms, snack rooms and lounges which allow us to gather (masked up, of course) to cheer on our friends through the TV.

Athletes can only visit venues in which they compete, so we rely on flipping channels in order to catch a glimpse of other sports like swimming, goalball or wheelchair basketball.

Once the competitions end for the night we all say goodbye and wait excitedly for our teammates to come back to the village. We are proud of them, regardless of their time, distance or place. Team USA is a family and we will celebrate with one another as one.

My friends and I part ways for bed around 10 p.m. as we wish the city of Tokyo a wonderful night.

How lucky we are to be in such a wonderful place as this.