On with my adventures at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics…
Tuesday, February 16th was a day I will not soon forget. First we took the Sky Train and Sea Bus, but we’ve already discussed my love for public transport enough. The shuttles getting up to Cypress Mountain for the day were very fast and I was very impressed with how well things were organized with for transporting of thousands of people and athletes.
However, once we got up the mountain the weather took a turn for the worst and of course it started to rain. Complete downpour. And thousands of people had no where to hide from the rain – the only available coverage for spectators were two tents, each probably the size of your kitchen. After the rain though, the Women’s Snowboard Cross event did not disappoint and neither did Canadian snowboarder Maelle Ricker!
The atmosphere was absolutely crazy once the semi-finals started. Even before the gun would go off to signal the start of the race, everyone in the stands would be standing up, jumping around and screaming so loud! (My voice kept cracking a lot.) There were even those cheesy moments that you think only happen on television where you high five the random person sitting next to you because you are both just so excited. Maelle Ricker took an early lead during the Big Final and I have never witnessed so much excitement as our Canadian girl took the gold. It was absolutely crazy! I was able to snap a photo of her coming to the finish, but it’s a little blurry from all the jumping.
Because of the rain, the snowboard cross event had been delayed so we had to rush back to GM Place to see the Victory Ceremony! We were lucky enough to watch Canadian, Mike Robertson accept his silver medal for Men’s Snowboard Cross. The crowd went absolutely nuts when they announced his name and he hopped up onto the podium and it made me even more excited for the following nights ceremony where Maelle Ricker would receive her Gold medal.
After all the winners had received their medals that night we were treated to a performance by The Barenaked Ladies who made several jokes on how the Opening Ceremony wasn’t THAT bad and the fact that Wayne Gretzky was there should have just made up for any technical glitches.
I hope everyone is feeling all this excitement at home too! GO CANADA GO!
