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!