First taste of the Olympic experience - as a spectator

After a long travel day to get here we finally made it Saturday afternoon. After a quick dinner and talking with our host, minus Megan who is an Olympic Volunteer, we were off to bed for a 4am start the next day.

We awoke with the sound of pouring rain. I was hoping this wasn't what the day was going to turn out like. By 4:45am we were at our departure location for Whistler Olympic Park. Still raining hard. We hoped on the first bus of the morning along with 46 others ready for some excitement at the Nordic Combined.

It was a 2 hour bus ride, with a few wrong turns by our American driver, but we did end up at the right place, eventually. The good thing was that by the time we got there the rain had stopped. It was just above freezing and cloudy, but that we could deal with.

There were blue coat volunteers everywhere... and I mean everywhere! The organization was great and security tight, but seemed to be going smooth. With lots of police, xray machines and metal dectors it was like being at airport security.

After eating all our food (since you were suppose to not be allowed to bring any in) we went through security and headed up the 1km hike to the ski jump area. Wow, these jumps are massive! We walked around a bit to check out the venu, but then settled into our spectator location right against the fence as close to the hill as we could get. Now we wait.

It was a long wait, but worth it. This was it, our first olympic event, ever. There were 45 competitors, one Canadian. They started with each getting one trial/practice jump before the competition jump. Let me tell you, those guys are crazy. Launching at 90 km/h and going nearly 100m is just insane. However, live is much different than watching it on TV. You don't get the same perspective on TV. They don't actually launch as high off the gound as you would think or are lead to believe watching it on TV.

The atmosphere was something all it's own, with thousands of people from all over the world. We were stating with an Aussie couple who came just to watch. Long way!

After 2 hours of jumping and a field that was already starting to spread out, it was break time and a few hours before the x-country ski portion. We headed off to the next venu which was just around the bend, but about 1km walk.

Just as we approached the venu the rain started again, and hard, which then turned to heavy snow. We grabed our $7 hot dogs for lunch and headed to the warming tent to eat. It was pretty damn crowded. Everyone was trying to get out of the rain. It was going to be 2.5hr wait. It was too much for me so we headed out into the rain and snow to pick our spectator spot.

The best spot seemed to be along the back of the arena area. We could run up the hill to see the skiers then back down to seem them going through the stadium. We decided to take up a spot near the downhill entrance to the arena. There we sat for until the start of the race.

The racers start with time gaps, depending on their standings from the ski jump. This means that whoever crosses the line first wins. Period. The first guy out had 40 seconds on the next guy, but that's nothing in this kind of race. It's nearly impossible to ski at a fast pace on your own. A group will always catch you. It didn't help that on the first lap as he entered the area he crashed right in front of me on the downhill. But of coarse I didn't have the camera on and got nothing.

It was a fantastic race and very competative. The leaders bunched into a small group and it was on! In the end France took the lead in the last few hundred meters defeating the American who looked like he was going to take it.

After everyone crossed that was it. Competition over and our first Olympic event, and medal event was done. FANTASTIC! Off to the bus back to Vancouver.

But wait, another American bus driver decided to head to Whistler Village and not Vancouver! LOL. Quick U-turn and we were heading in the right direction.

It was a very long day, but well worth it!

Today is a day off from sporting events, but we're going to go check out the fun going on in Vancouver.

Pictures to follow shortly.