An Olympic Weekend

Sadly there is no mountain biking in the winter games – but I love them all the same. 

My first live Olympic experience, apart from the torch relay, is a new one for the games; the paid admission medal ceremony.  The medals presented are from events from the day before and each evening has a headlining musical guest.  On our night the Barenaked Ladies were the headliner.

  The torch relay comes to the North Shore.

But first we had to get in.  Famous people like Jay Leno, Kurt Russell and Catriona Lemay Doan dictated the pre-recorded messages.  Stuff like empty your pockets, don’t carry explosives – the usual.  At one point I was poking fun at the message when some borderline celeb told us, “when you have finished security screening, pick up your belongings and proceed into the venue.”  ‘Thank god they told us that’ I mocked. 

  Now that’s Olympic spirit.

I sometimes get an irrational guilty feeling going through security and as I was getting patted down I may have been a little preoccupied.  Once buddy had touched me all over I began to walk away…without my wallet, money and cell phone.

  And I guess this is too?

I heart the Olympics.  Ever since I was a kid I’ve loved getting wrapped up in Olympic-sized drama.  And I’ll admit to never having a dry eye when a Canadian stands atop the podium and the fanfare of Oh Canada begins. As much as it’s politically correct and perhaps even logical to be cynical about this shadowy private events company that gets people and governments to work for free, to the tune of billions of dollars – I just can’t. When I see a dewy-faced French cross country skier bursting with joy and uncontainable delight upon receiving her medal, I find it too sweet and poignant to resist.

  Express lane?  I’m not sure that word means what they think it means.

Once inside, the usually dingy B.C. Place was almost unrecognizeable and the energy was amazing. BNL played most songs as if the whole crowd was on death’s door.  They played well – especially the opening rap about the day’s events – and they were very funny, but it would have been better for sitting by the fire than celebrating.  I guess you need to play to the median audience.

  The Barenaked Ladies were funny and slick – but much of their set was aimed at the ‘adult comtemporary’ market.

I’ve never lived in a host city before this and that puts an entirely different spin on the LOLympics.  The security bill, funding issues with the village, the muzzling of artists; there’s much that one could grumpus about.  At the same time I realize the games are going forward no matter what my attitude is, so I’m going to enjoy them as much as possible – and this past weekend my experience at the five ring circus likely reached its peak.

  Everywhere in Whistler is a festival right now – and everyone was feeling festive at the Men’s Super G.

Friday began with a sunny, stress-free drive to Squamish – the midway point between North Van and Whistler.  Once we arrived we parked at Cory Leclerc’s compound and jumped on a northbound bus.  As we boarded I was struck by what an apple pie experience the Winter Games are.  All the fresh-faced, conservatively dressed white people made it seem like we’d been transported to Utah.  I’m sure the experience for the events on Cypress was different, but on the way to Whistler I kept looking around for Ned Flanders.

  She may have had the best seat in the house.

We were feeling lucky to have scored a new double decker – until we hit the first hill.  A yellow school bus passed us, kids sticking their tongues out, as well as virtually everyone else heading to Whistler.  Eventually we did arrive at Creekside, the site of the Men’s Super G.

  Our spot wasn’t quite as good for the finish area – but we saw lots of action.

As a kid I used to love watching downhill events but that was before Super G existed – so I was unaware of one critical difference between this event and its faster cousin.  In downhill you get training runs before your race run.  In Super G you are allowed to inspect the course for a maximum of ninety minutes (or is it an hour?) – but you can’t ski it at race speed.  Apparently Herrmann Maier, the legendary Austrian racer, used every one of those minutes, while others gloss over the course and hope for the best.  The seeding is based on pervious results, with the top racers able to choose their start order at some point within the first 30 racers.

  Gunning for the finish.

So call it a blind downhill with one run for the medals.  We were in the general admission zone and we could see the last ten seconds of the course, which included a couple of good turns and some air. Unfortunately the slope we stood on made it impossible for us to see the racers after the finish but we could see them come across the line. The tension began to build as the forerunners and camera skiers came down and then it was game on.  The viewing experience, aside from that last 10 seconds, was similar to what you’d experience at home because of the large monitor all eyes were glued to – but it turns out it’s the atmosphere you pay for.

  The energy peaked every time a racer crested the ridge on the left.

There’s something amazing about being in a large crowd for such an intense shared experience.  I love the collective gasps and cheers that accompany rubbing shoulders with other fans.  There were a couple of crashes including one nasty one by Patrik Jaerbyn who was taken off the course in a toboggan.  He apparently suffered a mild concussion but it looked much worse as he went down.  Sadly two Canadians also lost their edges and failed to finish; North Vancouver’s Manny Osborne-Paradis and Robbie Dixon.  Erik Guay was the top Canadian matching his fifth in the downhill.  Aksel Lund Svindal took the gold ahead of Americans Bode Miller in silver and Andrew Weibrecht for bronze.

  The crowd at the sliding centre had more of an edge – but everyone was in a great mood.

Like obedient sheep we were lead to waiting buses for our journey on to Whistler Village to see the Skeleton – but first beer and food.  The village was packed but using some rusty bar skills I managed to snag a table upstairs at Black’s pub – right by the sunny open window.

  Blinking is not advised if you want to see anything at the sliding centre.

And then it was time for Skeleton. Again we started in the general admission zone where we could see the last turns – all 270 degrees of them – and of course a huge monitor.  With $35 tickets this was more like the Whistler I was used to.  Everyone was jovial and many were a little drunk and rowdy.

  And the scariest helmet award goes to…

‘Watching’ skeleton isn’t exactly accurate.  You hear it and see an athlete flash by – but it’s a bit like watching a tennis game and seeing the ball go over the net once – albeit a two hundred pound ball travelling at 140 kms an hour.  Here too it’s about the atmosphere and there was plenty to be had.  We saw the third and fourth runs of the women and then the men.  Sadly Mellissa Hollingsworth slipped from second after the first run to fifth after the final slide – and out of contention.

    There was no shortage of intensity at the top of the skeleton course.

For the men’s fourth run we started at the top of the course, having gained access to the seating area with some smooth talking, watched for awhile and began walking down.  The start area was all intensity and a flash of lycra-clad legs.  We walked all the way down the course as racers jetted past us – and then it was time for Jon Montgomery.  Jon is a friend of a friend so I had even more motivation to root for him.  He turned in a course record time for his final run but there was one slider yet to come – Martins Dukurs of Latvia held the lead going into the fourth run.  

    This is Canadian Jeff Pain.  I was too worked up to point my camera at Jon Montgomery.

It was agonizing watching him come down.  At the first split he was 28 hundredths of a second ahead.  At the second his lead had slid to 23 hundredths and at the final split it was less than a tenth of a second.  When he crossed the Dukurs was .25 seconds behind on the final run; Jon had won by 7 one hundredths of second and the celebration began.  Yahoo!

  Jon Montgomery stands atop the podium.  Photo ~ Todd Hellinga

It was a great moment to be a Canadian.

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