Feb 28: Pride and Inspiration

I must admit that when the Olympics were approaching, I had mixed feelings about BC/Canada hosting them, given the enormous cost.  I don't know if there's ever an ideal time for a community, province or nation to host a huge event, though, and once the decision has been made, you just have to do the very best job you can of putting it on.  I had seen first hand the positive effects of the Calgary Olympics and of BC Summer and Winter Games in Trail/Rossland/Castlegar, so I was committed to playing my part.

When I attended the torch relay celebration here in Trail in late January, I wondered about some of the words used by the "crowd animators" to pump us up, i.e., "Are you ready to create a better Canada?"  I wondered what was not already great about Canada, and I wondered how we were expected to go about improving it, other than by cheering and dancing.  The relay celebration seemed so strongly tied to the corporate sponsors that I knew this would further fuel anti-Olympic sentiments.  I heard and read comments within our community that suggested the corporate sponsored relay had no real connection with the communities through which it passed, that it was just a big advertising event.  However, I thought about how virtually every cultural or sporting event in our local community does depend on corporate sponsorships, just on a smaller scale.

I also wondered about the "I Believe" TV commercials that were aired in the months leading up to the Games, in particular bits where children said "I believe that Canada will win it all!".  I knew all about our country's "Own the Podium" programs, but still wondered whether this goal was at all realistic.

So, I went off to Whistler to help host these Games, committed as I always am to doing my best, but wondering how I was going to help create a better Canada and how Canada's athletes could live up to the very lofty expectations being placed upon them.

Things didn't start off so well.  There was the tragic death of Nodar Kumaritashvili and the concerns about the safety of the Whistler Sliding Centre.  There was the lack of snow at Cypress and concern about the costs of bringing snow to that venue.  There was the malfunction of the cauldron leg that marred a spectacular opening ceremony.  At my venue, there was concern that warm, soft snow and low visibility might result in cancellation of many or most of the alpine skiing events.

But as the days went by, the weather improved, the volunteers busted their butts and the results for Canadian athletes started to pour in.  Eventually, we began to notice that we were really racking up the victories and we shared the lead in gold medals, and Canadian pride that has always been there began to be released in great displays of flag waving, red wearing and anthem-singing. 

To me, the crowning of the men's ice hockey team as gold medalists today, our country's 14th gold medal, signified that we did indeed "win it all".  USA and Germany surpassed Canada in total medals and their achievements were outstanding, particularly the play of the US men's hockey team.  But winning the most gold medals in the history of the Winter Olympics is to me a solid indication that we owned the uppermost step on the podium. And the Paralympics are still to come!  I am looking forward to celebrating more victories by our paralympians in the next few weeks.

Are we creating a better Canada in the process?  We welcomed the world to the fantastic place we call home and celebrated our success in a way that showed us that it feels good to be proud of who we are and of our accomplishments.   To keep that spirit and pride alive after the Games, we'll need to get back to working on the social, economic and environmental issues we all face together, with the same degree of determination that our athletes, organizers and volunteers put into the Games.  This was a good kick-start to making Canada even better - now let's keep the motor running!

Feb 26: Women's Slalom

Yesterday was my last day on the job here! I had been scheduled to work the final two days, but we have managed to tear down all of our installations as they became unneeded, so there will be little to do on the final clean-up day. And, there are more than enough local area people staying on to do the mens's slalom today (Saturday).

Friday was very wet, with fog, rain and snow. It made the race challenging for workers and competitors, but the two runs were completed and all five of the women's alpine events are now complete! This is an amazing accomplishment, considering the weather/course conditions since Feb 12. It was only possible because the superhuman efforts of hundreds of course workers who toiled on the mountain nearly around the clock!

I did manual back-up timing at the start again yesterday and really enjoyed the vantage point. The technical events such as slalom don't enjoy the same level of fan interest as do the speed events, particularly here in North America, but I love the excitement of the 2-run races and high-paced dance that the racers do on a modern slalom course. It was fantastic to watch the best in the world coming out of the start gate and attacking smoothly on the upper course as they pierced into the fog and huge snowflakes. I saw later that the conditions made for some great super slo-mo imagery. I also saw that Laura and I were very visible in the TV camera shots of the start! What a great day for Canada in the slalom, too - three girls in the top 20!!

What a great day for Canada again overall yesterday! The hockey game was exciting and the short-track medal haul was astounding. Canada is now in first place in the gold medal standings! To think that we had never won Olympic gold on Canadian soil before and now we already have 10!
This morning, I went back into the "secure zone" one last time, to say goodbye to all the good folks I've worked with here - I'll miss them! But now, I'm waiting for my bus pick-up in Whistler looking forward to seeing some of the Edwards family as I pass back through Vancouver today, and to getting home to Sharon, Neil and Lexi.

Feb 23-25: Giant Slalom

On with the technical alpine events!  Although many alpine skiing athletes are competing in both "speed" (downhill and super-G) and "technical" (giant slalom and slalom), there are quite a few who only do one or the other.  This is where we got to see most of the athletes competing for the more unusual countries (i.e. those that had only one athlete in the opening ceremonies parade and which are generally not known for those elements typically thought to foster the development of winter Olypians, such as snow, or mountains. 

The folks at the back of the pack didn't get much (or any?) TV coverage, but they were really interesting.  The age range of competitors in the men's GS was from 16 to 51!  The 16 year old was from Peru and the 51 year old was Prince Hubertus of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.  Hubertus has competed in 5 Olympics since 1984!  They all seemed to really enjoy competing in the Olympics, even the guy who finished 30 seconds behind the leader on the first run!

On Tuesday night, the soggy weather returned and the course workers were again up on the hill dealing with snow in the middle of the night.  Only one run of women's GS could be fit in on Wednesday before the fog got too thick.  I worked on hand timing at the start with 16 year old Laura (pictured), who is an ex-racer from the Whistler Mountain Ski Club.  Laura enjoyed being around the famous names from the World Cup and was really impressed with the lioness roar that Sarah Schleper of the USA lets out in the start gate.

Here's how it looked from the start gate during the fog delay/postponement on Wednesday afternoon.  Today (Thursday the 25th), the women's GS second run was completed, starting at 9:30.

Our tear-down work has been progressing very well, as we've worked to remove our cable installations from the upper portions of the courses following completion of events.  So, I'm going to head home on Saturday morning, rather than Monday.  It will be nice to see Sharon, Neil (and Lexi) after several weeks away, and to have a day at home before going back to work.

Three of my five roommates have already left, so the place is much quieter today.  My remaining roommate has just left for the village, where he's going to try to get into the medal ceremony for Canada's gold and silver medal bobsledders.  I'm going to the Weasel House tonight, right after the gold medal hockey game, to see Canadian alpine skier Kelly Vanderbeek, who will be paying a visit to the course workers.  I bumped into Kelly on the Village Stroll a few weeks ago, but she was hustling off to a TV interview, so it will be nice to catch up with her a bit tonight. Her husband, David, just back from Australia, will be with her, too.

Feb 22: A tear-down day, and victory ceremonies with Devo!

No racing at Whistler Creekside today, which was somewhat unfortunate, given the continued ideal weather conditions and the fact that snow is forecast over the next few days.  So, that meant that our work program today consisted of more "tear-down" work on the upper starts.  On the one hand, it's good to get a jump on the work that must ultimately be completed to close off the Games.  On the other hand, it sort of dampens our Olympic spirit a little prematurely to be involved in ripping stuff out when there is so much more left in terms of competitions and celebrations.

The tear-down work today involved chopping our buried plastic conduit out of the starts and intermediate timing points and extracting the timing cables that were placed in the conduits.  This stuff is now very much iced in place, so we had to hack away at it with pick axes, and we even broke a few in the process.  In some cases, the amount of cable we had put in place to reach out to starts or intermediate timing points exceeded 200 metres, so it also took some effort to get that cable all coiled up and cycle it back to the "Garbo Hut" for storage by the Whistler Mountain Ski Club.  Now that the courses are very hard and slick, it makes carrying multiple pick-axes and shovels, bundles of conduit and polyethylene poles and large coils of cable quite challenging.  It definitely makes hitting the shower and cracking a nice cold beer a priority when we get off the mountain!

This afternoon, my roommate Lou and I went to the village and lined up for standby admission to the Victory Ceremony.  We had not witnessed a victory ceremony from inside the fence yet, and we were also looking forward to seeing the 80's group Devo perform after the medal presentations.  Well, I am so glad we went!  I think this evening will be one of the main enduring memories for me from this whole Olympic experience.  Although no medals were presented to Canadians at Whistler tonight, the ceremony was very entertaining and moving.  I was so proud of the job that Canada has done at hosting these Games and conducting the medal presentations.  I was also feeling very proud that the company I work for (Teck) made the metals for the medals.  When I saw the German, Austrian, Swedish, Russian and Norwegian athletes receiving their medals and proudly clutching them as their flags were raised, it really hit me what a central contribution Teck has made to these Olympics.

I also really enjoyed watching the victorious athletes' fans celebrating with them.  It was so nice to see several instances when they threw their flowers out into the crowd and someone who caught them immediately handed them over to someone waving the athlete's flag.  In one case, I saw a man (probably a Canadian!) catch the flowers tossed out by an Austrian athlete and after passing them along to a woman with an Austrian flag, he offered to also take her photograph with the flag and the flowers.  That, to me, is what this is all about.

Then there was Devo - what a fabulous show!  Those guys rocked hard for an hour without pausing and they sounded fantastic.  They seemed genuinely thrilled to be performing at an Olympiad and everyone in the crowd seemed to enjoy their music thoroughly - everyone from Canadians, Americans, Norwegians wearing viking hats, Swedes, Russians, Germans, 4 year olds, 64 year olds, 20 yr olds and every age in between.  We were all bouncing up and down, shoulder to shoulder, at the best "block party" in the world.  The "smurf blue" Devo plant pot hats that were handed out really completed the night.

Feb 19-21: 3 more glorious sunny days!

Wow!  After starting off the Olympics with warm, wet weather that made it look as if we might never be able fit in the alpine skiing events, we've been blessed by a fantastic stretch of clear, cool nights and sunny days.  The courses have held up well and the spectators have been comfortable and happy.

On the 19th, during the men's Super G, I worked on tear-down of the starts on the upper Women's course.  Once the downhill and super-combined were done, we were able to dig up our cables and put all of our gear away from the top three start locations.  Once again, I was able to watch a portion of the race from the finish area.  It is so exciting to be there with the thousands of cheering spectators, and I was able to see many of the athletes up close as they exited "media row". 

On Saturday the 20th, I did hand timing at the start, which meant that I got to stand just outside the start tent, about 2 metres from the start gate.  I was on TV as every racer started, but unless you knew I was there, you would never notice.  Here's a TV screen shot of Anja Paerson starting, with me in the left side of the frame.  

On the evening of the 20th, we went to the village again, and caught the tail end of the Hedley concert from outside the medal ceremony area, plus some unexpected bonus fireworks at the end of the show. The Village Stroll was the busiest I've seen yet, with people from all over the globe enjoying the atmosphere.  

Today was the men's super-combined race.  I was not assigned to any tasks for the race, so I worked on tear-down of the women's alternate (bad weather) Super G start and set-up wiring of the women's GS start.  I was amazed that Bode Miller won the event today.  He has been a very dominant racer in years past (similar to the dominance that Lindsey Vonn enjoys now), but he could not have been expected by many to do so well during these Olympics.  It was great to see that he hung around the finish for a very long time, conducting interviews and signing autographs.

    Way to go, George Grey of Rossland, and the rest of the Canadian men's cross-country ski team!             Their unprecedented results in the 30km pursuit yesterday did us all proud.

    In a few minutes, I'll be going live with Simi Sara on CKNW AM 980 as she guest hosts the World Today Weekend program!  So, I will close this up now and stand by for her call after the 4:30 news!

Feb 17/18 - Two more races in the bag!

As per my previous post, Wednesday the 17th was ideal for ski racing.  Unfortunately, the women's downhill race was marred by too many crashes!  Four girls crashed after flying off the jump above the finish (Hot Air) and several others crashed higher on the course.  The bump was definitely a safety issue, and it was shaved by a snow cat after the race yesterday.  Fortunately, no one was seriously injured, but a Romanian girl won't be able to compete in the rest of the Games due to an ankle sprain.

Today, the women's super-combined was run under even colder, firmer conditions.  This event is based on combined times from a downhill course and a slalom course, and the conclusion was very exciting!  During the downhill yesterday, and the downhill run this morning, I was operating Intermediate 4/Speed 2 and all went well.  For the slalom run today, I had no assignment and I was able to catch the conclusion of the race from within the finish area. I was especially happy to see Anja Paerson claim the bronze medal after her scary-looking crash off Hot Air yesterday! (Photo shows Anja celebrating on the podium, with winner Maria Riesch and silver medallist Julia Mancuso beside her.  Note the battalion of photogs firing away with their cannons - that's what I'll be in my next life, a sports photographer!)

Last night, I went to the two-man luge competition at the Sliding Centre with some other Alpine Skiing volunteers.  None of us knew anything about luge, particularly very uncomfortable-looking two-man variety, but it was really exciting to see them speeding by and to soak in the atmosphere.  I was amazed at how little time it took to get into the venue, through security screening, how efficient the shuttle buses were, and how easy it was to move about the venue and watch the action from lots of great spots.  They let us get within an arm's length of the track and the sound when the sleds zip by is astonishing!

Snowboard cross golden girl Maelle Ricker's dad, Carl, is on the women's alpine course crew up here, so  we were all really thrilled by her win, and I'm looking forward to seeing Carl to congratulate him!!  Kelsey Serwa, a strong favourite in the ski cross, also has parents working up here - Brad and Terry are also working on the women's alpine races.

I have been meeting many people who have traveled much further than I have to work these Olympics.  There are people on my timing crew from Toronto, Texas and Calgary.  The "dye guy" who paints the red lines across the course at our timing points is from Killington, Vermont.  The TV camera woman working on the tower where I've stood to operate Intermediate 4 is from Zurich and runs cameras for World Cup ski races in Switzerland.  The spectators are from all over the globe, too - many large, boisterous, happy groups of Swiss, Norwegians, Americans, etc.

Feb 17: a fine, fine day for DH racing

Superb conditions! -4 at start, 0 at finish. Course is hard, sky is clear. Portion of track I came down this am was smooth and slick. Go Canadian Speed Queens!!!