A stunning alpine day -- cloudless, warm, barely a breeze, 7cm of new snow dusting the tracks and trails. D'hiller Frank opted for skiing along the women's downhill to see whether Lindsey V's injury was real or a media thrill. He got the answer, and so did all the other women, and some great shots which I will pass along soon. The ancient skate skiier opted for the men's and women's classic sprints.
The Olympic Center, i.e., the sprint course, the sliding center and the jumps, were constructed by VanOC, and they are super -- super fast, supe
r sited, super for fans. And VanOC has set up a Cle$1.5 million for operating support for IntraWest's takeover of the facility. But IntraWest is in bankruptcy (was the auction yesterday?) so no one knows what to expect. But now is the word at the Olympics... NOW.From the stands, awash in a sea of oomlauts and those funny oh's with the backslash through them, I watched 5 heats of qualifications, four quarter finals, two semi and the finals -- twelve races for each of men and women. The sprints are 1.5kms with 95mtrs of altitude gain. They ran it in around 3:40, with the women typically only 8 to 10 seconds slower. It was awesome. I never saw so many Scandanavians in one place before, a sea of Finns, Swedes, and gigantic Norwegians wearing Viking gear, all waving flags and clanging bells. But over their shoulders lurked the Russians -- two golds in the men's in a fantastic finish, way outpacing the bronze Norwegian. Norway d
id take the gold in women's, to everone's delight (except the Swedes and Finns.) But the exhausted Slovene who bronzed stole the attention, for she was in real trouble. Even 7 hours later, she had to have two EMP's helping her to walk and get up on the podium at the award ceremony. Afterward, the organizers got it right; the crowd walked the 3kms to the bus loading zone and were whisked off to Whistler.
id take the gold in women's, to everone's delight (except the Swedes and Finns.) But the exhausted Slovene who bronzed stole the attention, for she was in real trouble. Even 7 hours later, she had to have two EMP's helping her to walk and get up on the podium at the award ceremony. Afterward, the organizers got it right; the crowd walked the 3kms to the bus loading zone and were whisked off to Whistler.We hooked up, had a late afternoon lamb stew, and wandered. There are live performances all about Whistler. Bare Naked Ladies were playing to a tightly massed crowd. Monday, we had seen a First Nations group named George Leech (or maybe Leach) who was so much better a group of musicians -- playing before a so much smaller crowd. What a shame. BNL were really dumb. I blew my way through the crowd to check out tix for the awards ceremony.
The deal is tix are required but cost nothing. Step 2: wait list. Wait list for tix? Well, no...just go stand in what they term a wait list line and usually they let all of you in. So I called Frank and stood in line awhile. He showed up, but we lost one another at the security stations, and just like with TSA, my artificial knees set off alarms. The ceremony was fun;
Lindsey and Mancuso were great. Marte, the Norwegian gold sprinter, was charming. The Bronze Slovene woman proud though clearly suffering. And so off to town on that three lane highway, now with a steady stream of cars heading down off the mountain. And the reversible lanes in the utlimate wisdom of the organizers? Two empty lanes up; one jammed lane down. Oh, and in response to the outcry of protests about fencing off the flame cauldron? They have cut a nine inch slice out of the fence at adult eye level so that one can shoot pictures through the slot. Still can't shoot your kids in front of the flame. No wonder Mother Nature has been dumping on these VanOC goofballs.
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