LH Ski Jump

Another early start and a long bus ride up to Whistler. Kind of getting use to it now, it's not that bad, although the buses are so uncomfortable. Today was the Large Hill ski jump, one of the most iconic winter Olympic sports in my opinion. It's unique and probably the only time you'd ever see it on TV is during the Olympics.

When we arrived it was still early, maybe 8am-ish. Temperatures were below freezing, the coldest so far. I was really hoping it wasn't going to stay that cold. We wondered up to the venue, about 10-15 min walk. There were lots of people already, and we still had 3 hours before the event start! We pulled up along the fence to one of the few openings left. Perfect. Or so we thought.

As the sun came over the mountains the temperature started to climb. It was the best day so far. Sunny skies and I was now in my T-shirt! Must have been 13 C out. Now the bad part. A bunch of spectators from a certain country (I will not say which), pushed into the fence just next to us. Now this wouldn't have been a problem except they decided that they were going to stick flags in their hats and wave them, which would normally be fine, except they were completely covering our faces and view! Seriously!? Chloe got pretty pissed and pushed away one of the flags that was literally in her face. They still didn't get the drift. Had to tell them a few times that they were blocking our view. They didn't really speak english, but come on! Now to only make matters worse, after all that they didn't even watch much of the event nor cheer on their country. They were more concerned with talking to each other. Ugh.

So anyway, they started the training jumps in which it was clear that some people outclassed the entire field of athletes. Mostly just the Swiss jumper. It wasn't even fair really. Because he was so much better he had to move his start gate down about 4 steps lower and still out jumped everyone. As a result, when competition started, the start gate was set to the low position as everyone has to jump from the same spot.

The first jump for everyone was average at best, most only making between 110-125 m, well below the K point. The best of the best were barley able to make that K point. I think there were only 3 or 4 of 51 that did! The crazy thing was that the Swiss jumper, who is just amazing, jumped past the HS mark to 144m! It's amazing to see someone that good. Unbelievable. I mean the competition was over for the gold on the first jump.

Now into the second jumps the annoying people next to us moved on. The second jumps were again just average for most, but the lower speeds because of the lower jump start was the issue for them all, except one. Again, the Swiss jumper destroyed the best jumps of everyone else, again passing the HS mark at 140m. Just awesome.

We stayed to watch the flower ceremony, and the Swiss guy had a fun approach to the podium, a low hands up flying type of thing. Pretty fun. But you could also tell he was a bit cocky, but hell, when you are that good you can be. He had also won the Normal Hill a few days earlier.

After an awesome day at the jumps, in super warm sun, we were back to Vancouver where we just chilled and watched the other events on TV for the night. Tomorrow, Victoria to visit some friends.