Olympic Gold

Wow. The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. Way cool.

We headed northwest with our longtime friends Lauren & Scott for a once in a lifetime Olympic experience: Nordic Combined, Speed Skating and Hockey. It was a nice mix of events, and it didn't totally break the bank!

The best of our events by far was the Nordic Combined where the winner is determined by a combined score in two events. First up was ski jumping in the morning, a personal highlight for Jeff. We stood right near the fence to watch em launch off the ramp and fly 100+ meters to the bottom of the hill. Probably the only time we'll ever get to see that in person!
Then in the afternoon, the same competitors faced off in a 10km cross country race. We stood right on the fence about 300m from the finish line. We're certain that we motivated those guys each time they came by us (4 laps) and had sore throats from screaming to prove it! It was cool to be right in the action especially because it turned out to be an incredibly exciting finish. One American was in the front group for most of the race and took the lead on the final lap. He looked headed for victory until the last 20 meters when he was passed by a French guy. (dang french) Still worthy of celebration though as it was the first Olympic medal of any kind for the USA in Nordic Combined. Our heads hurt from cheering so loud and jumping so much!

We were both excited about watching speed skating...Men's 500m long track. Watching it in person gave us a new appreciation for the sport -- it looks so much faster live and that oval is huge! It was also interesting to see the whole scene and not just what is shown on tv. We watched the athletes warm up (they do a lot of springy jumping) and interact with each other (or not as in the case with Shani Davis -- he pretty much kept to himself). The Americans didn't do so well in this event, but we did see the Korean guy win gold on his 21st birthday.

We were somewhat less excited about the hockey game, assuming it's possible to be "less" excited about any Olympic event. We've seen alot of professional hockey games, so big deal, right? And Russia vs Latvia??? Turns out, it was very exciting. We've seen international hockey before (World Cup of Hockey, Toronto, 2004), but had forgotten how different the atmosphere was compared to an NHL game. The Russian team was far and away the better team (the big boys playing the little boys), so the crowd was totally pulling for Latvia. The whole arena was into the game. It was awesome to feel the energy of the fans of both teams with their faces painted and flags waving.

Outside of the ticketed events, our personal events were to (A) meet people from 5 different countries and (B) get a picture with an olympic athlete. Success! We talked to tons of people every day. In fact, that was one of the coolest things about the whole trip. The entire city was filled with Olympic-goers, so every one was pumped up and happy to chat about what they were seeing that day, where they were from, and who they were cheering for. Whether we were walking down the street, riding a bus, riding the train or sitting in a restaurant, we talked with people. We talked with people from the US, Canada, England, Czech Republic, and several groups from Holland (whom you couldn't miss -- they were always decked out from head to toe in orange).


As for getting our picture with an olympian, we can claim a double gold on that one - or at least a silver and gold. First, while taking in the ski jumping at Nordic Combined, we ran into a teenager carrying some really, really long skis. Turns out, she's sort of the face of the effort to get women's ski jumping included in the Olympics as well as being an 2010 olympic torch bearer. Look for Charlotte Mitchell in 2014.

Then, we happened to be sitting a couple rows in front of a group from France at the hockey game. Turns out, one of them was a real live olympian from the Nordic Combined event that we had attended. Pretty neat coincidence.

The Olympic experience wouldn't be complete without seeing THE flame, so we made sure to check out the outdoor cauldron (not the temporary one that malfunctioned during the Opening Ceremony). You can't tell from the picture below, but it was actually very hard to see. There were tons of people in a rather small area and they had put a chain link fence around the flame so you had to either climb on top of someone or push them out of the way to get up to the fence in order to see it. (I think they have since modified the viewing area...)
Besides the limited flame viewing and couple days of rain (oh, and our delayed start due to record-breaking snow in Dallas), it was a great trip and spectacular overall experience! (We were fortunate not to have any of our events postponed or canceled due to weather.) Vancouver did an amazing job preparing the city, public transportation, volunteers and venues to handle thousands and thousands of people. We hardly ever had to wait anywhere and there was always someone around in a turquoise jacket ready and willing to answer our questions.

London 2012 anyone??!?