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!!!

Feb 14-16: One out of three

One good day for racing/training out of three.  Sunday was a warm/wet day and alpine events were postponed again.  Our highlight for Sunday was of course watching Alex Bilodeau win Canada's first gold on home snow!  That looked like a very exciting venue to be at!

Monday was a good day at last - the temperature at Creekside (the bottom of the courses) had dropped below freezing overnight and in the morning, visibility was good and the courses were solid.  The men's downhill ran well, but there was some deterioration in the lower course as the race progressed.  I didn't get to see any of the men's downhill until about racer 42, because I was working on the women's course.  I was doing finish hand timing on a shortened course, so that the women could run training at the same time that the men were racing.

It was good to finally get all of the women through a training run!  However, the course was very rough due to the way condition it was in before it froze up, and a number of the athletes expressed concern about that.

Last night, we went to the village, hoping to get into the medal ceremony, but all the tickets were spoken for.  So, we watched the ceremony, including a broadcast of the BC Place medal ceremony featuring Alexandre Bilodeau, on a big screen in a village square.

Today, the men's super-combined and women's training have been cancelled due to heavy, wet snowfall.  So, we might have some work programs to conduct, but I'm expecting to be able to watch the first men's hockey game and do some cooking.

It must be very frustrating for the athletes and for the spectators who have tickets for these postponed events, but this certainly isn't the first time this has happened at the winter Olympics.  I remember that Sarajevo was hit with huge snowfalls at the start of their Olympics in 1984 and didn't get any alpine skiing events done for quite a few days at the start of the Games, but they did eventually get them all in.  They had fewer events, though - no Super-G and no Super-Combined.  There are still more than enough reserve days available to get all the events in here - we just have to hope for some more clear weather!

Feb 13: Games On, but sorrow for Georgia

Yesterday was the final training day prior to the opening of the games and I was on the women's downhill course when I learned of the tragic death of Nodar Kumaritashvili at the sliding centre.  I was in disbelief that this could happen.  I know very little about the sport of luge, but I had thought that the tracks and associated safety measures were designed to effectively prevent such terrible crashes.  I hope that the sport officials are correct in their assessment that the track is safe and that this sort of crash won't be repeated.

I was very glad that this young man was remembered at the opening ceremonies and to me, it appeared that John Furlong was deeply upset.  I hope Kumaritashvili's Georgian teammates will be able to carry on and have success at the games in his honour. 

I had a day off today, given the postponement of the men's downhill and the women's training runs, so I went skiing with one of my roommates.  Lou had never skied Whistler or Blackcomb before, so I did my best to show him around.  We skied the Whistler Peak area for a few hours, then had lunch in the Roundhouse before catching a ride to Blackcomb on the Peak-to-Peak cable car.  That ride is impressive!   The cars have comfortable seating, but the ride is so smooth,  I think you could stand and drink a cup of tea during 11 minute journey.  We then skied the 7th Heaven area of Blackcomb for a while, before skiing out to Whistler Village.  Conditions ranged from knee-deep powder at the summits to knee-deep slush at the Village level.

Whistler is really buzzing now that the Games have started.  Up on the mountains, it seemed like an ordinary day on the runs, except for the course closures in Whistler Creekside.  But down in the Village, the streets were packed with people from all over the world. Athletes, coaches, spectators, media.  TV and still cameras every 30 metres or so along the Village Stroll.  We made our way through the throngs in our ski boots, with skis on our shoulders, and caught the bus back to Creekside.

I don't think any training or races are scheduled for Sunday, given the poor weather forecast.  I'm encouraged by the latest forecast - hopefully, over the next week, we can get some clear nights to firm up the courses and some good visibility in the daytime so we can get caught up!

Feb 12 - quick shot from inside the timing room

Here's small corner of the timing room, taken on my Blackberry

Day 7: Feb 11 - Timed Training - Men: 87, Women: 1

Well, today we were out the door at 5:40 am to pick up our timing gear packs from Omega at 6:30 and head to our stations to prepare for simultaneous downhill training runs on the men's and women's courses.  Since the two courses share the same finish, the men ran from the DH start to Intermediate timing point 4, just above the jump called "Boyd's Chin" (if you're at all familiar with former Canadian World Cup winner Rob Boyd, you understand the name).  The women were to run the entire downhill course.

We all skied with our big Swiss Timing packs to our stations, aided by headlamps, and got set for training runs to start at 9:30.  The courses were nice and clear at the beginning, then the fog rolled in.  On the men's side, all 87 racers managed to complete a training run on the slightly shortened course.  Things didn't go as well on the women's course.  Because the fog was concentrated near the finish, the women could not run much of the time.  And, racer number 2 (Stacey Cook, USA) took a bad fall and was helicoptered to medical aid.  That took some time to accomplish, and when the course was clear, it wasn't clear!  Now, it was not only foggy, but snowing heavily, with 5-8 cm of snow accumulating on the track in short order.  We were glad to hear later that Stacey Cook is going to be okay.

I was stationed at Intermediate 4/Speed Trap 2 for the women's forerunners and the one racer who finished.  The job involves setting up the photocells, plugging everything in, and pushing a button when a racer is coming through, so that the signals from the photocells can be registered in the timing room.  The Omega folks come along prior to the race to align the photocells and make sure everything is functioning correctly.  I had a view of the Frondola pitch, but it was quite obscured by the 4 layers of netting I was standing behind.



After the day's work, several of us rode the bus to the Village and walked around before going to the big supermarket for groceries.  We saw lots of athletes again - the only one I recoginized today was Swedish skier Anja Paerson - a winner of multiple Olympic medals and a former world champion.

Tomorrow, we again have men's and women's downhill training, but we don't have to report to the mountain until 8:00.  The biggest concern now is the visibility and the possibility of significant snowfall on Friday/Saturday.

Then, of course, we'll be enjoying the opening ceremonies on TV, like everyone else!

Day 6: Men's DH Timed Training

Today was the first day of scheduled timed training run's for the men's downhill.  In order to run a downhill race, all competitors must have completed at least one training run on the course.  Things started off well, with good visibility, and the training progress just fine up to racer 42 of 87.  Then the cloud/fog moved in and, after keeping everyone around waiting from about noon until 3:00 pm, they called off the rest of the training runs.  So, we still have to get at least one complete training run done prior to holding the downhill race.  The photo on the left shows the scene behind the start hut, as the racers await their turn to shoot out of the gate onto the Dave Murray Downhill.  Our Canadian Cowboys did well, with Robbie Dixon placing 2nd, Manny Osborne-Paradis 6th and Erik Guay 14th.

I was working on three final set-up tasks on the women's course today, so my partner, Brett and I got those done and came off the mountain early again.  I previously posted some photos of our work to prepare starts, so here are a few showing the Super-Combined slalom start as it looks when nearly ready for competition - start hut in place and timing wire terminal boxes set in place.

Clearing security took no time at all this morning, now that our checkpoint is open 24 hours.  Many of the men's course workers went through at 4:00 am, so when we got there at 6:30, the coast was clear.


Some of the folks on our crew had a very long day of standing around waiting for the decision on whether the race could resume.  The had their bag lunches, but were not able to leave their positions at all, in case the fog cleared.  But, that's what has to be done to try to get a full training day in.

Day 5: Feb 9th - last day before timed training

Today was our last day to complete our set-up of starts, intermediates, speed traps and finishes before serious timed training begins. The day began with a very long wait for the security checkpoint to open. Prior to today, we had been able to enter the "field of play" simply by showing our accreditation at check-in. Today, we had to start going through an airport-style security checkpoint, complete with x-ray machines for scanning our backpacks. Once up the mountain, our crew split into smaller groups and tackled the remaining set-up tasks by about 1:30 pm. The courses are looking ready to race, too. (as shown in this photo of the Dave Murray men's downhill course.

It's getting more exciting as the opening of the Olympics draws so near and we are seeing everything come together.  The alpine skiing finish/spectator area looks so impressive, with the giant grandstand and flag-draped office trailers for timing, results and media.  Several of us took the bus into the village this afternoon and the Games atmosphere was electric.  While meandering along the Village Stroll, we saw Maria Riesch (German skier currently in 2nd place in overall World Cup standings), Brian Stemmle (former Canadian skier and now broadcaster) and Michael Landsberg and Jennifer Hedger of TSN/CTV.  There were athletes and officials from many countries wandering around, and Olympic tourists talking with them and having their photos taken.  We saw some Italian athletes posing in the Omega bobsled and we scored some Omega ball caps when we told the Omega rep that we providing support to Omega as volunteers.


We also went to the Weasel House tonight - a giant tent on a tennis court, where the Whistler Weasel Workers race volunteers host the Olympic alpine skiing volunteers and give us a chance to mix and mingle over a few beers.  I managed to find the Canadian flag that Red Mountain Racers had signed and sent for display at Weasel House and caught up with quite a few people with whom I've worked before at a number of ski races. 

One fellow volunteer I was pleased to see again is Mai Kudo, a young woman from Japan who is making ski race volunteering a significant part of her life.  She routinely works on the course crew at the Lake Louise World Cups, but usually returns to Japan after a few weeks.  This season, she has stayed for the Olympcs and Paralympics and has also worked some other races in between.  Mai also worked at some races in New Zealand last summer and told me that in the past year, she has been away from her home country for 200 days.

Tomorrow, we"ll rise early and try to get up the hill quickly.  Security screening should not be such a bottleneck tomorrow, because the checkpoint is now staying open 24 hours per day.  Eighty-seven men are scheduled to take a timed training run on the Dave Murray downhill tomorrow starting at 10:30.  If you go to www.fis-ski.com, you can watch the results on Live Timing.  My role tomorrow is to be a standby timing support tech, ready to zip down to any location on the course if any issues were to arise.  The plan is for me to be like the "lonely Maytag repair man" - at the ready, but never pressed into action!

Everything is looking good - we just have to hope for more clear, cool weather on training and racing mornings.

Days 3 & 4: Feb 7/8 - set-up nearly complete

More of our crew have joined us during the past two days and we are nearly ready to go.  Today, we met with Omega and talked about their expectations from our crew, and the roles we'll be playing during the races.  We have set up nearly all of the starts and timing points, and have one day left to finish it off before the timed training starts on Wednesday.

This photo shows Mike and Kelly installing a cable to the start posts for the Super-Combined Slalom start - the lowest course start on the mountain. When this start is in use, it will have a tent over it, with a fancy 2010 facade on the downhill-facing side. 

I think that the TV coverage of these races will be better than anything seen before.  The number of camera towers along the courses is unbelievable and the lengths that the Olympic Broadcast Service has gone to in order to put those cameras in the best locations is impressive.  The TV folks are having considerable influence over where the intermediate timing points and speed traps are located, too.

The finish area will be super exciting, with a huge grandstand, colossal TV screens and some big jumps on both the men's and women's downhill courses, just above the Timing Flats finish area.  Tonight, we're all headed out on the buses to the home of our crew chief, Al Whitney, on the north side of Whistler. 

Day 2: More cable installations, courses getting firmer

On Saturday, we continued our work on timing cable installations.  There are 13 start locations, 12 intermediate timing points, 4 speed traps and the finish to set up.  The permanent wiring is already in place, of course, but we have to install the "drop" cables that run from the main "backbone" cable out to all of these 30 locations.  It takes some time to get the cables in position, connected and tested, and we have to work around restrictions on when we can move to various positions on the courses.  We got lots done today and are moving along on schedule.  Meanwhile, the course workers continue to put up the "b" netting safety protection and hand-groom sections of the courses.

The tracks also firmed up quite a bit more today, which is quite a relief.  There's plenty of snow coverage on the courses, but with the warm weather, the conditions have been very soft on the lower portion of the mountain. Well-timed grooming by snowcats and cool weather overnight is helping to firm up the snow, which is much needed in order to be able to run the races starting next weekend.

This photo shows me standing between the start posts at the top of the Dave Murray men's down nohill course.  I've skied this course before, but today, when I stood atop "Fallaway" and imagined what it would be like to come into that very steep pitch at high speed and fight the strong pull of gravity to make a strong left-hand turn onto an abrupt flat, in order to carry speed entering "the Sewer", I was really awestruck.

One of the people working with our crew over these past two days is a young lad from Scotland named Roger.  He is actually assigned to Print Distribution, but has been loaned to our crew to help with our workload.  He originally came to Whistler several years ago to check out the mountain biking and has spent time here in both winter and summer seasons since falling in love with the area.  He still resides in Scotland, but is here as a volunteer for the month.

Day one: cable trenching, torch relay reaches Whistler

Friday was scheduled as my Venue Specific Training morning and I wasn't scheduled to work, but there is lots to do, so as soon as training was finished, I was put to work.

We have 13 starts to set up, when you include all the alternate, bad-weather start locations. So, lots of cable trenching and laying of conduit to protect the cables.

After shift, I rode the bus to the village with one of my roommates and we got right into the liddle of the giant torch celebrations. There were thousands of people from all over, and lots of excitement in the air. It was fantastic to be able to see this again, having had the torch through Trail and Rossland on Jan 24.

Getting there: buses, trains and automobiles

Everything about the trip to Whistler went well - the drive to Port Moody in my little Toyota, the morning ride downtown on the West Coast Express commuter train from Port Moody with all my gear,and the bus ride to Whistler. On the bus ride, I chatted a bit with David Anderson, former federal cabinet minister (Environment, Transport, Revenue, Fisheries and Oceans) and 1960 Olympic silver medalist in rowing eights (Rome). This is the first Olympics that he has been to since competing 50 years ago!

Arrival in Whistler also went smoothly - very little line-up at check-in and accreditation and fantastic service by the volunteers in those areas. My roommates and lodging are great.

I haven't sorted out how I'll access the internet to post most of my updates - have used my Blackberry to e-mail to the blog so far. Eventually, I'll get on with my laptop so I can post more photos!

On the road to 2014 or 2018?

Last night, on my journey to the 2010 Olympics, I was lucky enough to stay at the home of two-time national ice dance champion Madeleine Edwards! Unless you know Maddy or her family, or you're a very serious skating fan, you probably haven't heard of this national champion. That's because Madeleine (13) and her partner Zhao Kai Pang (14), are the current pre-novice ice dance champions.
When Madeleine's father Mark moved from Teck's Trail Operations to the head office in Vancouver, Maddy got the opportunity that her coaches from Rossland had hoped would come for her. She started training with Burnaby 8 rinks club and got matched up with her partner and quickly rose to the national level. Last season, they won the pre-novice level in Calgary and last month, they took the gold medal at nationals in London, ON.
Despite working year round and 7 days a week on her sport, and achieving such high recognition, Maddy still comes across as a sweet, typical early teen girl. It won't be long at all before you have an opportunity to see her on TV, and I heard that her dad would really love to take a trip to Russia 4 years from now!

How does ski race timing work? (part 2)

Part one covered the fine precision required for ski racing timing, and the start gate.  Now that we have a racer on course and the clock is running, let's follow him down the course to the finish.  While the racer is on course, the running time you see on the TV is very, very close to the actual time on course, but it's often not official, because it's based on a computer clock, not the actual timing chronometer.  In some cases, the timing chronometer has an integrated computer processor that runs the race software, so the displayed running time does reflect the official chronometer.  Once the racer passes through the first intermediate timing point and breaks an infrared photocell beam, the timing chronometer stamps the time of that impulse and the computer immediately calculates the time elapsed since he left the start gate and "freezes" this time for the TV display.  The computer software also calculates the difference between the time for the racer on course and that for the leader, usually showing a new leader with a green differential number.

The photocells at the intermediate timing points are set up outside the safety netting, so on a wide "speed" course (downhill or super-G), they might have to "shoot" up to 75 metres.  In between racers, there can be quite a bit of traffic on the course, such as course slippers and course repair workers.  So, the intermediate photocells require an operator, who tells the chief timer when a racer is passing through, and pushes a button to close the circuit and allow the photocell impulse to be registered and attributed to the racer.

At "speed traps", the racer's speed is measured using either a radar "gun" or two sets of photocells set a measured distance apart along a straight section of the course.

The finish uses two pairs of photocells that are vertically stacked.  The snow between the photocells is marked with red dye so that the racers can see exactly where the finish line is.  The finish controller tells the chief timer when a racer crosses the finish and keeps an eye out to warn any non-racers approaching the finish to use a side exit, rather than crossing the finish.

The start and finish are obviously the important timing points, so there are multiple back-up timing systems in place at these locations.  First, there are two or more back-up electric timing systems connected to the start gate and photocells.  Secondly, there is manual timing, which involves hand timers pushing a button when the start gate opens and the finish line is crossed, and writing those times down.  Finally, the very high end races now also use finish line cameras as an additional back-up.  These cameras can scan the finish line at a rate of 1000 line scans per second to build an image record of the finish.

The governing body of ski racing sets strict requirements for timing equipment to be authorized for use in race timing and also requires that chief timer complete timing audit report, which is reviewed by the senior race official at the event.  With all the attention to equipment, procedures and back-up systems, we can ensure accurate and reliable race results.

That's it - all you didn't really need to know about ski race timing. The bottom line is that it really is extremely precise and there are multiple back-ups in case something goes wrong.  Of course the expectation of the timing crew is always that each of the systems will work flawlessly throughout an event!

The photos and text here provide examples and a general description and are not reflective of the systems  in use at the Games at Whistler.

How does ski race timing work? (Part 1)

You've seen displays of ski race timing when watching World Cup or Olympic races on TV.  The running time in the corner of the screen that freezes at the "splits" and shows how the racer on course is doing against the best time posted so far.  The leaderboard that shows that the times of top 5 racers are jammed within a period of 12/100ths of a second.  You may have wondered, "How does this information get  from the race course to my TV screen?"  and "How can the timing be so precise that a winner can be reliably determined by a margin of as little as one hundredth of a second?"

Try starting and stopping a stopwatch as quickly as you can.  Chances are, the watch will show that this action takes you 2 to 3 tenths of a second.  Now consider a time period of 1/100th of a second.  If two racers were to cross the finish line at a speed of 90 km/h (a realistic speed into the finish of a downhill course) and one crossed the line 1/100th of a second before the other, the separation between them would be 25 cm, or a little less than one ski boot length.  That is why you see racers reaching out to break the finish line with their hand.  If done correctly, that can shave one or two 100ths of a second off their time.

So, obviously the timing needs to be very precise throughout a race.  All racers must be timed from exactly the same start point to exactly the same finish point throughout a race, using chronometers that have negligible "drift" over the time period taken for the whole field to complete the course.

Let's start at the top of the course.  The start gate consists of a block with two or more switches in it, and a wand.  The start gate is mounted on a solid post set into the hard snow, so that the wand is below the racers' knees.  When the racers' lower legs push the wand open enough to trip the switches, the switch closures are detected by the electronic chronometers that are connected to the gate via wires.  These wires run out of the start gate and all the way down the mountain to the timing building, where two synchronized timers with precision quartz oscillators receive the signal to indicate that the racer has started.  The chronometers send the time-stamped start data to the race timing software, where the start is attributed to a particular racer that was confirmed to be entering the course.  The race software then starts tracking elapsed time on course and generates the graphics for displaying this running time "downstream" on TV.

In Part 2: moving on down the course to the intermediate timing points, and the "speed trap".