Taylor Phinney’s 14-year-old sister Kelsey is providing regular updates on events surrounding her big brother’s Olympic debut in Beijing. Here’s her first installment, written the day after she, her dad Davis and Taylor’s girlfriend Sophie Allen landed in China.

Yesterday, Sophie, my dad and I arrived in Beijing at around 4:30 p.m. and after getting lost several times in our taxi, we made it to the Marriott Hotel where we got to see Taylor, my mom, Neal Henderson and some of the other track cyclists. Sophie gave Taylor a big kiss and I gave him a big hug. It was so good to see him. He was wearing his brand new white USA polo, shorts and Nike shoes. He looked refreshed and happy to be in Beijing.

We talked to Taylor briefly, but he had to go back to the athlete’s village. So without showering, Sophie and I headed over to the cube to see swimming preliminaries. We haven’t had much contact with Taylor, but he did attend the Women’s Gymnastics this morning and hopefully he will get to go to Table Tennis tomorrow. For now, he is eating, resting and watching one event per day until his first race (qualifications) on Friday!

Sophie and I have been going on adventures around Beijing, walking in the humidity and intense heat and trying to find cabs and get to events on time. All in all, the Olympics here are more than we could have ever imagined.