Day 17: About those downs.....

Today saw many of our athletes gearing up for a fight. Both long and short track skaters were set up for a busy day. Although I did mention so much about trying not to be too negative on my previous post, it is difficult to have a sensation of happiness with Canada's day today.

The Hamelin brothers, Charles and Francois, were ready to pounce on their enemies tonight at the Short track venue. The crowd was noisy and the American Apolo Anton Ohno appeared to have a fair share of countrymen in the stands as well. Both the Hamelins placed to get themselves in the final. 5 racers, 3 medals, 2 Canadians who are feared on the circuit. It did not end well even as the Hamelins took the lead for most of the race. At the end of the 1000 metres it was Korea, Korea and USA. The red and white crowd was silenced but the Americans picked up the cheers. This happened after we saw Tania Vicent fail to make the podium in her final. There is a lot of support for our Canadian athletes but today was not very positive.

The speed skaters at the Richmond Oval were equally set aside by stronger legs as only Denny Morrison broke the top 10.

The evening finished well as our men's curling team came from behind to log in their 6th victory against Great Britain. They are the only undefeated team in their round robin. The women are also undefeated but did not play today.

One item that is gathering attention is the medal count. Everyone has predictions and our progress is scored against a timetable of expected medals. Canada considers itself about minus 4 and possibly worse after this evening's short track performances. The US is about plus 9! They now have 23 medals. This is quickly becoming the US show. They have 9 in alpine skiing events alone. The Koreans are sneaking ahead as they always pick up in the short track events.

Hmmm, there are worries about predictions. Where will we be in 1 week.....nobody knows. Hopes are high for ski cross. At one event last year: the Canadians swept the podium: 1,2 and 3. Will that happen? Watch it Sunday. It's going to be an intense event.

The biggest issue brewing over the last few days will finally take place tomorrow: Canada against USA in men's hockey. It will be a scene likely never experienced. The crowd will be intense for both teams. I'm planning on attending...if I can get in. Let's see what my "infiniti pass" can do for me tomorrow.......

On a lighter note, what would you think athletes do when they have some time off or want to relax between training sessions? We have, in our residence's lobby, 2 regulation nets and a bunch of sticks. It therefore comes naturally to have our freestyle aerials team get in some road hockey in the afternoon.

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.

Day 15: Gold number 3 and hockey stress

Christine Nesbitt won the 1000m long track speed skating event at last year's World Championship. Could she do it again with this amount of pressure? The Oval's crowd was ready to explode and .....it did when the clock showed a time 0.02 seconds faster when her toe crossed the line. She was in first! Krstina Groves, already a bronze medal winner at these games was skating in the last pair and could have put 2 Canadians on the podium. She came in 4th. What a day at he Oval. At the other end of town one of our women snowboarders made it in the final round in the halfpipe. An event, as we saw yesterday, quite dominated by Americans. Mercedes came in 6th place which is great.

It has been quite quiet on the medical front. I have been lucky to be not very busy as a doctor for our Canadian team. The therapists associated with the teams have been working steadily to maintain the functionality of our athletes.They are the workhorses of the health care provision at these Games. Most of the therapists have been associated with their teams (hockey, freestyle skiing, snowboard, speed skate, etc) for quite some time. They know the athletes and have been caring for them already. It makes it an easy transition when they are in this environment where familiarity is key. Physiotherapists, massage therapists and athletic therapists all manage the fine tuning of the athletes. They see them daily. They are at every practice and every game. They see them when they are back at the Village as well. Training at high intensity to perform at this level creates more than a few aches. It is quite interesting to see the dynamics between athlete and therapist. I had a chance to go to 2 periods of Canada's hockey game this evening. I had to leave to return to the Village as I was covering clinic. What was the point as I knew everyone would either be training, competing in their event....or watching the game! It started well and the crowd was amazing. It became quite stressful at the end and Sydney Crosby, with a look of "I have had enough of this!" scored the only goal on the shootout. This was only a round robin game but you would have thought the gold medal or the Stanley Cup had been won. The crown exploded and cars in the street were honking horns. The whole city is red with people walking to the rink. Everyone is wearing Canada jerseys, painting themselves, wearing crazy outfits. There are a lot of children experiencing these Games. It's an awesome sight.

More coming up. Remember: Canada does better with the sports taking place in the second week!

Day 14:Difficult to keep track

There are so many things going on at the same time it is difficult to keep track. We had the men and women curling in a packed venue full of screaming fans, we had the snowboard halfpipe world staring at Shaun White to see one of the most famous athletes perform his unbelievable tricks, we had the speed skaters at the Richmond oval at the same time as the short track skaters were involved in heats and one final.

This was the women's 500 m race. We had 3 strong athletes getting set up for a possible 3 of 4 Canadians on the line in the final. Sadly, Kalyna Roberge did not get to advance as she came in third in her semi final heat. In the final, 2 of 4 skaters are Canadians. Jessica Gregg, who's brother is one of our competing long track skaters, and Marianne St-Gelais. As the gun goes off, the important move is to get to the head of the 4 skaters at the first turn . It is a fast race and doesn't last long. There are not many opportunities to pass someone in such a short time. The thunderous crowd was instantly silenced as our 2 Canadians fell together and took themselves out of the race !!!!!!! At the first turn !!!!!!. Luckily, if such a fall occurs, the referee can call the racers back and re-start. He did. Sigh of relief in the crowd then the volume picked up. It was an exciting event and Marianne came in for a silver medal. The chinese winner is a power house who dominates this event in short track.

By the way, everyone join in to sing Happy Birthday to Marianne who celebrates her 20th birthday today by winning a silver medal at the Winter Olympics.

The curlers were making some noise as well. Both our men and women teams are undefeated after a few days. They are looking good in the tournament but it's a hard event to predict.

The Americans showed their dominance of the events that are part of the Extreme Games. Snowboard halfpipe was a show to watch. When Shaun White came up he did tricks that are simply impressive. You should try and do them on your Wii game as I think there's a Shaun White Snowboard game.

I managed to get our briefly today and got to see Marianne's silver performance. I have watched many hours of television as it is always turned on in our medical clinic. Nothing compares to being there among an energetic crowd of cheering Canadians. Televisions may be HD and big screen but sitting there is is an unmatchable experience.

Tons more sports to happen. Canada is just warming up! Stay tuned.

Day 13: Snowboard Cross anyone??

Snowboard Canada has a new face and what a smile it is. Maelle Ricker of Vancouver, having the run of her life in her backyard. The evening before, what does an athlete think? What are their plans? Maelle said she was "going to have fun". She worked hard, exploded out of the gate and killed that run without ever looking back. When she soared at the last jump, it looked as if she came right out of the Olympic rings on the hill behind her. The day started grey and foggy, delayed some runs but finished bright and sunny. "Golden" sunny. When interviewed she looked right in the camera and thanked the country for being so supportive, keeping the energy of these Games on a sustained high level. She said it made athletes enjoy competing . She said she's having fun! Thanks Maelle for letting us have fun watching you rip that hill apart.

Excellent day at the hill. The second round of freestyle skiers, the aerials, were training today. Should be a great competition and we hope Cypress will keep being generous to the Canadians.

The men's hockey team took to the ice today in what could be described as the wildest, loudest "home game" any of those players have ever experimented. I'm scared to think what that place will be like when the tournament gets closer to the medals rounds. Get some earplugs! I was sitting up in the section where athletes can go and watch. Some of the Canadian women's players were there as well. It's hard not to get excited about the possibility of men and women grabbing some golden hardware in a few weeks.

Hopefully I will get out to the short track speed skating competition tomorrow evening. Three events tomorrow night. The women's 500 m will be a medal event. It will be fast and ruthless. Kalyna Roberge is skating. Let's wish her well.

Day 12: ALexandre's Night!

I realize I'm getting later in my posts....this should have been done last night.

I managed to get the evening "off". All the other doctors were committed to different events during the day: long and short track speed skating, snowboard cross, figure skating, men and women hockey. I hung out in the clinic as we always have one doc available. I don't have to be physically in the clinic but able to get here if an athlete needs to see me. It's better to hang out in the clinic anyways as we have the nice sharp plasma tv always tuned on all events. It's a great place to chat with everyone. In some major Games I have been involved with, the clinic often becomes the central place where many gather to catch up on what's happening. Athletes get treated by their therapists and everyone gets caught up in conversations. Yesterday we had athletes from women bobsleigh, figure skating, snowboard half-pipe and cross and women's hockey all getting fine tuned as we chatted. What is also great is the therapeutic excellence in this place. One could easily say that some of our country's best therapists ( I may have to say "available" therapists as some don't have the luxury of being able to volunteer some of their time here) are here. There is much to learn from their conversations and observing their treatments.

What a tangent I took off on ! What I was saying .....one of my colleagues was able to cover the clinic for the evening so I went to the Victory Ceremony to witness our gold medal presentation. Last night was Alexandre Bilodeau's night. At BC Place, the crowd noisily awaited the first medal presentation which was for men's moguls. A concert warmed everyone up before the ceremonies started. People have to purchase tickets as it's also en evening of entertainment. Nelly Furtado was the show 2 nights ago. It's starts with the raising of the Olympic flag by RCMP officers. Then the athletes march in.......and the crowd goes ballistic. They announced the bronze and sliver medallists and then we heard nothing but a roar as Alexandre was welcomed on top of the podium. I didn't know what to look at : Alexandre's face as he got the medal or turn around and witness euphoria. What was the best was to see tons of small children all painted up with Canada flag tattoos, dressed in Canada gear and jumping and cheering. I'm sure most of you saw it on television but, I'm sorry to say, you had to be there. Hopefully my short scan video ( I know it's shaky) works for you. I had a video on my blog for the sliding centre and some have said it didn't work. It works when I try it. Try and click on the little "play" triangle and not on the black screen.file in file out

Snowboard cross was exciting as well. Every Canadian thought we had the Gold medal already around Mark's neck with that great lead he had. But they say you always expect the unexpected in that event and the American had an impressive finish to catch up. A silver medal. That brings our total up to 4. I don't think we're done yet as there are many events to take place.

Stay tuned. Today: men's hockey starts the tournament.

Day 11: GOLD!

Wonder what I'll talk about...Hmmm.

Well history is made. No more stories about "the only country not to win a Gold medal while hosting the Olympic Games. Montreal:0. Calgary:0. Vancouver : 1...so far.

If you think there was energy at your house, your office, your pub or your restaurant where you enjoyed this event, you should have been here. I did not have the chance to be at Cypress but the Canadians who were in the Village lit the place up. What a thrill Alexandre Bilodeau's performance was. We can't forget his teammates, Pierre-Alexandre, Vincent and Maxime who had us out of our seats as well. We thought they would "own the couch" (see yesterday's blog to know about the couch stuff).

I can't wait to see him tonight or tomorrow. His medal will be presented tomorrow evening at BC place during one of the Medal Ceremonies. You must have been wondering why they only get a flower bouquet at the site of the competition. Medals are presented in a huge ceremony on the following day. It's a party at BC Place. Tonight Jennifer Heil will be getting her medal with a concert by Nelly Furtado. Tomorrow it will be Alexandre's turn. he will be accompanied by Kristina Groves who won a bronze medal in the women's 3000m speed skating event today. She will compete in 4 more during these Games. How many will she be wearing around her neck ?

I didn't manage to get out to venues today, no pictures. I managed to sneak in a run along the seawall in sunny 12 degrees temperatures. These are the Winter Games? The weather is great but bad for the events. Apline is troubled with scheduling and snowboard will is concerned as well.
On the figure skating front, both our pairs qualified today and came ine 6th and 7th. The finals are tomorrow.

BTW, men's hockey is in the Village. Creates an interesting change in the atmosphere. Recognizable faces are among the crowd. Ovechkin. Crosby. There are some serious game faces on.

The schedule is crazy now as we are trying to figure out who's competing where and when. Exciting times. Another event to watch tomorrow: Jeremy Wotherspoon, men's 500 m spped skating. I'm going to try and get myself there.

Have a great day. Just think :Gold !