Day 16: Ups and Downs

I knew this title would be used at some point. When you're at these Games you experience the extreme of performance results in a different way then simply by watching it on TV. Don't get me wrong, we watch a lot of television. Especially in the medical clinic. There are televisions everywhere in Team Canada's Mission and Operations offices. There are many times that the clinic has no athletes being treated so we gather around the screen and try to watch everything. Not only do we get the same channels everyone else has (CTV, Sportsnet, TSN and NBC) but we have a few "Olympic Channels" that are dedicated to events. They don't get commentary but we get to have even more sports visible at the same time.

Now about the title. It's not all about emotional highs for winners. It would be great if it was but, let's be realistic, someone has to "not win". Now when it's at a far away World Cup event, it still matters but being not front page news, it may not hurt as much. These are the Olympics. For people in amateur sports, this is the ultimate "tournament". World Cup and World Championships happen every year in all these sports. These Games show up every 4 years. We have seen many Canadians perform very well and stand on many podiums (..or podia, I just learned the plural form can be either) over the last year at World Cup and Championships. For our athletes, these Games are more important as they happen in Canada. In front of a home crowd. Not just their parents who may have spent tons of money to go see them compete in small countries deep in Europe. Everyone is their "family" or support. The difficult thing is that euphoria is sometimes separated from sadness by a mere 0.25 seconds. Melissa Hollingsworth was expected to stand on the podium for skeleton. She was what is considered not only a "medal hopeful" but an expected medal. The color is the only unknown issue. She was second heading in the 4th and final run last night. She had a better start than her competitors, faster sown the already ominously fast track and bumped 2 walls before the last turn.......eventually finished in 5th. Had she not bumped those walls, lightly touched them actually, she would have been on the podium. 0.25 seconds would have given her a bronze and 0.51 seconds a silver. Her interview said it all. She's crushed. This is her home crowd and she feels personally responsible for letting them down. Here in the Vancouver Village, we are physically far from her as half our team is at the Whistler Village. We still felt crushed with her.

That was the "down" . A few hours later, Canada was euphoric, Whistler was absolutely packed with screaming fans as on Montgomery had his skeleton run of his life. The sliding centre erupted when the last competitor came in 0.07 seconds slower than Jon, crowning him Olympic champion.

0.07 seconds = euphoria, walking through Whistler with a mob of fans giving you a pitcher of beer to chug as cops cheer you on, heading to a national live broadcast of an interview with CTV outside in the crowded street of Whistler.

0.25 seconds = sadness, isolation within your emotions and difficulty analyzing 4 years of intense training that ended up with what many will consider "failure".

This is where things get uneasy. How many out there across our country became angry with her performance? How many called it "poor", a "failure", "horrible", a "waste of our tax dollars", " can't believe we spend so much money on sports in this country...."? Should the USA scrap their sports programs? Should they trash all support for amateur sports? They apparently don't have as much availability for healthcare as we do yet we have many Canadians opine that we should not give so much money to sports as we should have more in healthcare.

An American came in 5th in the men's skeleton. Did you know that? Did you know he finished 1.54 seconds slower than Jon? In skeleton terms, that's standstill. That's enough time to have a coffee on the track. In the world of speed sports, that is "slow". We have a lot of people out there calling our athletes "no good" for being the 4th or 5th best IN THE WORLD. Separating them from the elation of being the best: less than half a second. We need to support the athletes during the 3-4 years they train to be here, not just while the Games are on. Many countries here at the Games have serious despair and grief but we don't see them on CTV. Everyone is experiencing ups and downs.

These Games are not just amazing for the pure athleticism and performances but also for the emotional roller coasters we ride every hour. That is probably the best perk of being part of this team and being here. Yes, I watch most of it on television as you do, but we live it in a different manner when we are alongside the athletes during their own roller coasters.

There are details I can't divulge here due to confidentiality but you would be amazed, or shocked, to see what these athletes are going through on these competitive theatres. I have spent time chatting with an athlete who had a serious fall during a training run. The injury sustained would have called for most "normal" humans to run to the hospital's emergency department and likely ask for a month off work for their condition and pain. The athlete got up, was assessed and decided to keep going. The athlete's time for the 2 runs was not fast enough to advance in the finals. One could see the name near the bottom of the list of competitors and, without knowing the details, would be horrified we did "so poorly". These athletes are pretty young but very tough. Sometimes we know details not available to the public and humbles us as we see these athletes clip on their boots, get their helmets on and carry on.

So much stuff to talk about. I managed to get myself up to Cypress mountain yesterday, albeit for only about one hour before I had to get back. Sunny, almost summer weather. I was checking out the snowcross training. In one word: they're crazy. They use the same course as the snowboarders did last week. By the way, the snowboard cross athletes are as wild as the ski cross folks. The course has been modified a little as they are faster. I'm sorry to say but the television cannot do this any justice. I stood beside the track at the last turn before they head down the final jump to finish. That is where we saw Maelle Ricker zoom down for the Gold. That jump is scary in real life. It is incredibly steep and coming at it from a 90 degree turn....maybe 4 skiers at a time. They're crazy! I can't wait to see the competition.

Tons of stuff happening: aerials, Canadian supremacy at the curling rink, bobsleigh and snowcross. What a week ahead.