As he endured the 17-hour flight from Norfolk to Beijing, China for the Games of the 29^th Olympiad, Maurice Pierce had just one concern. It wasn’t security, always an issue on such a global stage as the Olympics; nor was it pollution, for which the Chinese capital had been criticized in the weeks and months leading up to the Games.

 

No, Pierce was worried about the food.

 

“I didn’t know if my stomach could handle some of the more exotic stuff,” he said. “You know – things like fried scorpion on sticks, dog meat – I had two eggs and toast and juice every morning for breakfast, and I had lunch at the Nike center because they had American chefs.

 

“And late at night, there was a McDonald’s that was open until, I think, two in the morning. When all else fails, look for the Golden Arches.”

 

Pierce, the head women’s track & field and cross country coach at Hampton University, made the trip to Beijing to coach David Payne, who competed for the United States in the 110-meter hurdles. It was the third time Pierce, considered one of the top hurdle coaches in the world, coached a hurdler.

 

Payne took home the silver medal in the 110-meter hurdles, running a time of 13.17 in the final, becoming the first athlete Pierce has coached in the Olympics to win a medal.

 

Cuba’s Dayron Robles won the gold in 12.93.

 

“I just told him to run his race,” Pierce said. “He was exhausted, and not 100 percent physical. It had been a rough few months for him medically, but I just told him … avoid mistakes and concentrate on getting a medal.”

 

Payne had several setbacks in the past year, including an appendectomy, which sapped much of his strength. During the final, his feet clipped almost every hurdle, though he never lost his momentum and was able to hold off Howard graduate and USA teammate David Oliver for the silver medal.

 

Without those setbacks, Pierce said, Payne could’ve challenged Robles for gold.

 

 

Beyond the competition itself, Pierce was amazed by the scope and scale of the whole experience. He called the National Stadium, nicknamed the Bird’s Nest, “one of the most beautiful stadiums I’ve ever seen,” and marveled at the size of not just the Olympics, but the city itself.

 

“I don’t think TV did it justice,” Pierce said. “Beijing is just huge – probably bigger than Manhattan. Think about it, you’ve got about 1.5 million people in that city alone. And the history is just magnificent.”

 

Pierce didn’t get to sight-see during his trip, too busy concentrating on Payne’s run to visit the Great Wall of China or see everything else Beijing had to offer, but the magnitude of the Olympics more than made up for that.

 

“The infrastructure in that city in unreal,” he said. “There wasn’t really any smog, either. I don’t know what they did before, but there really wasn’t any.

 

“It was really hot, though.”

 

Pierce might’ve been busy helping Payne capture the silver, but he did take the time to enjoy his surroundings. As one of the Summer Games’ most popular – and orginial – events, track & field captured the world’s imagination in the second week. While swimmer Michael Phelps took the Games and made them his own for the first week, the Bird’s Nest took center stage in week two.

 

All thanks to a Jamaican named Usain Bolt.

 

“That boy was unreal,” Pierce said of the man who won three gold medals and set three world records. “Watching him race will leave you speechless.”

 

Bolt set world records in the 100- and 200-meter dash, becoming the first man ever to do so in the Olympics. He also helped Jamaica set a world record in winning the 4x100-meter relay.

 

Even when Bolt wasn’t running, the track & field events felt important, Pierce said, because of the atmosphere created inside the Bird’s Nest. “Think about it,” he said, “you’ve got 91,000 people in there, all rooting for their country. Even after (Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang) pulled out with an injury, everyone still packed that place.”

 

Before Payne’s run for silver, excitement kicked up a notch as LaShawn Merritt, a Suffolk native, won the gold medal in the 400-meter dash, upsetting defending champion Jeremy Wariner as the United States swept the medals in that event.

 

“That was special,” Pierce said. “LaShawn’s a good friend of mine, and it was great to see him pull that off. Everything was so electric after he won, and our race was up next, so I was trying to get David calmed down and focused on his race.”

 

There would be time to soak in the moment after crossing the finish line.

 

 

Though Payne was the third athlete Pierce coached to perform at the Olympic level, and Beijing marked the fourth consecutive Games in which a Pierce-coached athlete competed, this was the first time Pierce himself made the trip. Some athletes who compete have money built into their contracts for their coaches to attend, and neither James Carter nor Rachelle Thomas had the money for Pierce to go.

 

But the wait was more than worth it.

 

“The Olympics are unlike anything else out there,” Pierce said. “It’s the absolute pinnacle of sport – the Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA Finals … all of it. The Olympics trump all of them.”

 

Carter, a former Pirate, competed in the 400-meter hurdles in both Athens (2004) and Sydney (2000), under the tutilege of Pierce. Carter advanced to the finals in both Games, but finished fourth each time to fall just short of the podium.

 

Pierce also coached Thomas, who was part of the 4x100-meter and 4x400-meter relay squads in the 1996 Games in Atlanta, Ga.

 

A  1996 graduate of Norfolk State, Pierce also coached Carter and Payne to World Championships – Carter in 2001 and 2003 and Payne in 2007 – so he was familiar with the athletes he was coaching in track & field’s largest stage. That success goes in line with what Pierce has accomplished at Hampton, where he has guided the Lady Pirates to two MEAC cross country titles (2004, 2006), six straight indoor crowns – including a share of last season’s title with Maryland-Eastern Shore – and five outdoor championships.

 

“There is no comparison,” Pierce said of his Olympic experience versus his success at Hampton. “To be able to coach a national at the Olympic level – hardly anything else measures up to that.”

 

 

Hampton’s cross country season begins Sept. 6, when the Pirates and Lady Pirates travel to Princess Anne, Md. for the Maryland-Eastern Shore Lid-Lifter Cross Country Open. The Lady Pirates placed second in the event last season, with sophomore Jahlisa Smith (Plainfield, N.J.) finishing second overall with a 19:03.43.

 

The Lady Pirates finished the 2007 cross country season in second behind Maryland-Eastern Shore, while the Pirates finished sixth in the MEAC.

 

“I’m expecting great stuff this year,” Pierce said. “We’re obviously going to be among the top two or three in cross country, but I feel with some of the girls we have coming back, we can win it like we’ve been doing on the track the past couple years.”

 

Beyond this year, though, Pierce is looking forward to London, site of the Summer Games in 2012. Pierce had served as technical advisor for the Liberian national team in the past, but after Liberia didn’t bring a full contingent of athletes to Beijing, Pierce said he wanted to explore a deeper role with U.S. Track & Field.

 

A role that would include bringing more athletes to London. After Beijing, Pierce said there was no way he was going to miss the 2012 Games.

 

“We’ve got a few athletes here who could make the (Olympic) team,” Pierce said. “Francena (McCorory), Racquel (Vassell) … we’ll have to get the fianances figured out.

 

“But I’m not missing the next one. I had too much fun in Beijing to pass up on London.”