This is the day lodge which is currently the athletes' lounge right in their compound. We don't get much closer to it than this right now although we did have access at last year's World Cup. It is also base for the First Aid people. Photo by Scott Campbell of Nova Scotia - another member of our team whom we first met when we took our Level III Officials' course in March 2007 at Mont Ste. Anne.
Photo by Scott of Squamish Falls taken from the ship.
Remember the lonely day I had at Position 15? Well...other members of the team obviously had the same problem but used their time well - creating this chair and footstool. Cathie built it, Len sculpted it a little more.Photo by Scott Campbell
Mona Lisa on the smokestack of the Mona Lisa. Photo by Scott Campbell.Things we are hearing about the ship - no alcohol can be brought on board (they are searched) but you can have a Coors Light in a can for $6.50 from their bar. Draft beer in Whistler at the Brewhouse was $5.95 a pint. For security reasons, once on board the residents can only leave when the shuttle comes to take them to town or to the bus hub and you can't board unless you have a special pass so no visitors. They can't even go for a walk.
Kylie, Cathie and Debbie (what's with all of the "ie" names?) on the blue course spectator bridge at the end of one of our first shifts way back when - well OK only a week and a half ago. Photo by Scott Campbell.Oh, friends, it was another glorious day on the weather front (+12C!) but more important our Canadian men had a fabulous day on course. I saw the President of Cross Country Canada afterwards and he was SO pleased. We had the maximum number of skiers permitted (4). Starting numbers were 15 (Ivan),24 (Alex), 31 (Devon) and 41 (George). Our "boys" finished 5th (Ivan), 8th (George), 9th (Alex) and 16th (Devon). Devon was in a photo finish for 15th. I actually had tears in my eyes when I heard that we had 3 in the top 10. ALMOST as good as a medal. Our best result at the Olympics prior to this (for men) was a 15th in 1988 (despite what Brian Williams said on TV tonight). It was so thrilling to see them move up throughout the race. This will give them such confidence and bodes well for the Team Relay. I was on Feed Station duty . It is a requirement that any race over 15 km must have a feed station provided by the organizers. There were 5 of us assigned and since most racers will only feed from their coaches (special mixtures), I moved to where the coaches were providing "feeds" just before the racers returned to the stadium and retrieved the bottles that the racers throw away after drinking. Some end up in the middle of the course. The rest of my group handed out a total of 4 bottles of fluids (water or sport drink). Richard was stationed on the freestyle course so he is now watching a podcast of the race since he wouldn't have seen much of the race and wouldn't have been able to hear the PA either. They skated the upper (red) course for classic and the lower (blue) course for free style (skate) - a total of 8 laps x 3.75 km. We were only due to be on duty from 11 a.m. but on the way home last night we looked at the early morning shift and realized that since training was going to be the same today as yesterday, our team was short some bodies so we contacted our supervisor and were on duty for 9:30. Our shift tomorrow shows us reporting for briefing at 9:30 and then immediately going on a 1-1/2 break (!) so we aren't going to bust our buns to get there for 9:30. Richard let the supervisor know that we'll miss the briefing. I'm scheduled for position 34 which is in the boonies and gets little activity. Because there is no race tomorrow, I don't even get to interact with the spectators. I did alot of that today - we were on station and ready almost an hour before the race so I went up and down one part of the course with a start list so that people could find out the bib numbers for their favourites. The information booth had run out of start lists so people were quite appreciative. I even helped one fellow by providing some 30 sunscreen! I must try to get a photo of the Swiss cowbells - it sounded like a cathedral's bells as a group of Swiss fans walked up to pick their viewing spot. We will also try to get shots of some of the ice sculptures (or I'll see if Scott has some - he's much more interested in photography so is spending quite a bit of time setting up shots - he comes in ahead of his shift so that he can get some shots).
Back to my Olympic Moment from yesterday - my brother has provided a URL of the race (THANKS, David). Thanks also to my cousin (also David) who sent me some NBC photos. Click on Replay, go to time marker 23 minutes, 30 seconds (CTV feed).
Go to www.ccski.com/Olympics/Debbietv.pdf for a collage prepared by my brother. And that will probably be the last about my 10 seconds of 'fame'. Before we left, Richard said if we made it to TV that would be bad but this wasn't so bad except for the skier. i.e. I didn't do anything wrong! I've been told that I sounded very calm and professional on the radio.
By the way, thanks to everyone who has posted comments or sent e-mails to say you are reading (and enjoying) the blog. I sometimes wonder if I'm getting too wordy but if you get bored, you can always exit.
Special message to Bo - I don't think I'll try your suggested Ukrainian. I don't want to create an international incident!
Take care all! More tomorrow if I have a good story or some photos. Since there is no race tomorrow it will likely be a slow day for us.
Although the medal count isn't growing for Canada, I too was proud of the 4 Canadians in the XCS team. They must have skied very good tactical races to go up so far in the standings from their start positions. The curling is very exciting and the skill of the Canadian and British teams is fantastic. We are channel surfing all day and night to catch everything we can. Then, before gong to bed I read your blog and get another perspective. Thanks for the news from your end.
ReplyDeleteYou may not be in the news loop, but there was near disaster here last week. The Class Afloat school that sails out of Lunenburg with high school and college students sank off of Brazil on Wednesday. EVERYONE was able to get to the life boats - it sank in only 15 minutes -- and they were rescued almost 20 hours later. They are flying home tonight and will return to Lunenburg to finish their school term on terra firma in a few weeks.