Le Blogue Olympique II

Welcome to part deux of my Olympic recollections. Trusting that everyone enjoyed my account of the opening ceremonies, I will now proceed with the rest of the Vancouver games in all their hype and glory. The experiences detailed below will be mostly those as told to me by a particular Schatz, who, as you will soon understand, became the envy of many an Olympic fan.

First of all, I just want to say I didn’t expect the city to be that different. So it’s a big sports tournament, so what? Of course I knew they had been preparing for it for years and years, but I thought, oh they just build that stuff for the media. They warned us all about traffic and tourists and things, cordoned off huge sections of the city, but I didn’t pay attention. I figured, oh I’ll be lucky to even see an athlete walking down the street. All the visitors are going to cram into hotels, and I’ll be crammed into my office, and it’s not like I came from Switzerland with money from my Swiss bank account to pay hundreds of dollars for tickets to ski-jumping in Whistler, so I’ll just watch the evening recaps on TV like I always do, and life will go on.



Well. I may have been a little wrong.

As you’ve already read, even without a Swiss Bank account (just a Swiss Olympic executive!) we did manage to score tickets to the spectacle of all spectacles, the Opening Ceremonies, and the very next day the city simply burst at the seams. You would have to have been off your rocker to take a motorized vehicle downtown for the next three weeks. The streets were instantly packed with people from cold and pasty lands around the world, giant TVs were visible on every corner, everyone was dressed in the not-really-intended-for-apparel national colors of one country or another, pavilions, stores and events sprouted lineups several blocks long all around the city, and general chaos ensued.



Chris, having been a devout Olympic fan since he was a wee lad in Germany, finally got to be a real part of it. As previously blogged, he got a lot of goodies and toys, especially this:


Which we got to keep at HOME for a whole month!

Chris was kept pretty busy with his client, chauffeuring him and various other distinguished guests to one Olympic venue or another. Of course, once they got there Chris was often just free to sit and watch the games

Most of the skiing and sliding events were held in Whistler, which is an incredibly beautiful 2-hour drive from Vancouver.


The rings in Whistler.


Downhill skiing…


Also downhill “falling”…


Bobsleigh… also known as “how many linebackers can we fit into a torpedo?”


Cross-country skiing – Is it just me, or does it look as flamboyantly awkward as it feels?


There’s my linebacker!

On the one occasion that Chris had to spend the night up there, he was put in Olympic "staff accommodations", graciously lent to Whistler by the work camps in Fort McMurray.





Chris said there were people actually living in these little cells for the entire games. Some had come from far away countries, just to shovel snow on the mountainside. Chris bunked for one night with someone who thought it fit to leave banana peels sitting on the table. Needless to say, Chris was happy to return to the little bunkhouse run by yours truly.

Back in Vancouver, he enjoyed events at the Richmond Oval - where, you may remember I have also done my share of skating – but nothing like these guys.



All that exciting snowboarding action was happening at Cypress Mountain, just outside the city.


The snowboard cross…


“Whoa dude, the Olympics are so gnarly”
“Dude”


This is the view from Cypress Mountain down onto Vancouver. Do you see that girl in the window of that one office tower, looking like she’d rather be out there skiing? That’s me.

And last but not least, there was skating.


I think we all know who this girl is.


The medals...


Yes, these are real pictures that Chris actually took!


Chris at the little-known "Olympic amateur night": no skates required


Awaiting his score…


After the doubles performance…
P.S. This is not Harmony in case you were wondering, although they do look alike!


Posing for his fans.


P.S. This IS Scott Hamilton, none other than Chris’ Olympic figure skating hero of the 1980s.

I, of course, was watching the figure skating in the kitchen at home :P

I shouldn’t complain too loudly, though. I had a bit of surprise week off, so I managed to get in my share of partying as well. Don’t think my work gave me random time off, however, oh no (it’s not like I work at UBC or anything... ahem). Long story short, I started getting a sharp pain in my right wrist while typing at work. I went to the doctor in mortal fear of carpal tunnel syndrome, but she said, “No carpal tunnel, it’s just sprained due to some awkward movements (and the best part comes next), you should take a week off of work and let it rest. Here’s a note for your boss”.

“Woooo hoooo!" went the little Olympic fan inside my head.

Although I didn’t have any tickets to any of the games, there was plenty to see and do. There were a lot of pavilions set up by the different countries and provinces around the city. I saw some of them, but if you didn’t feel like waiting 3 hours in line for the good stuff, you could really just wander around and take in all the crowds and energy and stare at all the tall blonde Scandinavian men milling about. Haha, just kidding. Mostly.


You see these domes and structures? They're all temporary pavilions hosted by the provinces and countries.


And there's the great, bubbly BC Place.

At the end of it all, I’m sure everyone remembers THE hockey game.

My friend Julian put this graph up on Facebook. I thought it was great.



Also known as “The Toilet Can Wait”

That hockey game was one that even Chris couldn't get into. After watching it at home, though, we did get to head out into the chaos… because we had tickets to the closing ceremonies! So we diligently donned our quasi-Canada gear and headed out in the SUV one last time in the privileged lanes to the privileged parking area, and arrived at BC place just in time to take our privileged seats.


Huzzah Canada!

So I’m sure most of you also watched the gaudy exhibition on TV, so I won’t go into great detail. It was a blast, of course.

We enter to find the three-legged pillar as we left it:


One of the finest moments of the games occurs as the fourth pillar is raised…



… and Catorina LeMay Doan comes back and lights it!


And the crowd goes wild!

Ensue one final medal ceremony, a lot of speeches, music and talk about Russia…



Then.
Michael Buble comes out in a Mountie Uniform which subsequently gets ripped off by a group of leggy Mountie-stripper ladies to reveal a white tuxedo underneath, and the party gets started. I’m not even going to try and comment on these, so please just absorb the next stream of pictures for what they’re worth.













Pure, televised insanity. And we were a part of it!

At some point along the way, all four pillars of the Olympic cauldron descended once again into the depths of BC Place, and after all was said and done, The Cloth in all it’s great clothyness was all that remained.




Perhaps it had to oversee cleanup!

In one final display of his Olympic power, Chris used his access pass to get into the dignitaries booth – you know where Stephen Harper and all the First Nations Chiefs were sitting.


Nice to know they probably got just as much confetti in their hair as the rest of us.

So that’s that and life goes back to normal, I suppose.


That is, after we manage to pump everyone through the airport again.

There were, of course, the Paralympic Games, and the newspapers really tried to keep up the hype, but, you know, you can only buy so many newspapers… The city cleaned itself up pretty fast too. Now I just say bring on the summer.

The day after Chris returned the SUV, he fell into a slight depression and would not be bothered for 24 hours. But I suppose that’s to be expected, though, although he got to keep his snazzy uniform and a whole load of other souvenirs. Soon enough he was off on another adventure to Toronto and Orlando, anyway, but more about that later. My wrist started feeling a lot better, too (in case anyone was wondering) and I’m back at work, scheduled to be assessed with regard to the possibility of being approved to get a new keyboard sometime in the next 6 to 10 months. Hrm.

So adieu, Olympics, it was a blast.
Now, once again: bring on the summer!

Oh. And the Fort McMurray thing was a joke.