Morning before the big game!!!

So what do people do in an Olympic town the morning before the big game? I guess in many ways we prepare like any Olympian would.
We get up early, have a nice hot shower and put on our hockey jersery that we have been wearing every day since the games began. We eat a large breakfast cause we know that it might be the only good healthy food we eat all day sober. After we are gave eaten and ready to go we meet up with our friends to head off to our favorite bar to watch the game.
Now this headin off to the bar for some people is going at 9am to try and be the first in line. All around whistler at 9am people are lineing up to be able to get a seat. The bars don't open till 11 and the game is at 12.30!! Nuts!! I hear Vancouver is the same with a friend of mine not getting into a bar at 9am it was already full!!
So..... If you know people and are able to get into a bar before it opens then you are in luck and that's what I'm doing. I'd your a family your best luck is to put your kids in ski school and go get yourself in line!!
It's a huge day in hockey but even bigger for Canadian pride!!! I wish the boys luck and I wish the fans lucky to!! I feel like we are in this together!!!


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A Night In The City!

So yesterday I went to Vancouver for the day to check out all the big city sites. I've been spending so much time in Whistler I wanted to get a sence of the vibe in Vancouver.
So I drove down with my parents to meet up with Charlie, his friend Mark and his girlfriend to take in all the sights. Me and my parents got there a bit early so we decided to check out a few of the "Houses". You see each of Canadian's provinces have different houses where visitors can come in an experience a bit about that province. As well other countries have houses as well where you can go and experience that countries food, drink and excitement. The one thing I have noticed about other countries houses is that they are really just large tents where you can go watch a game and drink! The Irish house and German houses in Vancouver are just that, very large white tents placed in parking lots, that they fill with people drinking...I have heard they are a lot of fun.. and by the looks of the lines to get into these tents they must be.
We skipped the drinking houses and went to the Canada House, to see what our country as showing off. Well... it was a huge tent... with lots of lines.. to have your picture taken with a few Olympic symbols, like the torch, skies, bobsled... there were a few Canadian facts, but to be honest it was a bit of a disappointment. We then went off to the Aboriginal Arts Center where it was kinda set up as a native arts and crafts show. Each few days different artist set up a table to sell their crafts. There were some nice and not so nice things.
We then decided to skip the houses and go for a walk around downtown and just check out the street entertainers and walk up and down the roads that have been cut off to cars.
When I met up with Charlie and friends we deiced to take a bit of a long walk down to the ocean to see the athletes village and the other province's houses. Seeing the athletes village by the ocean was super cool and it was huge!!! The other province's houses were as expected from my morning a bit of a disappointment. But it was nice to just check out the sites and see all the people that were enjoying learning about our beautiful country.
It was then 2:00pm and time to figure out where we were going to watch the hockey game at 4:40pm , that's right you need to find a seat that early or you will be left watching the game int he streets in the rain. All the bars and "houses" had huge line ups already and we were getting worried, when we came across a cute little restaurant and bar that was going to be perfect!
We watched the game with about 60 of our now closes friends, you can imagine how many drinks or in my case bottles of wine you can drink in the time we had to wait for the game to even begin.
Right after the big win we ran out onto the streets with what felt like thousands and thousands of your now closes friends from all over the world!!! The energy was eclectic! everyone cheering, giving each other high 5's, hugs and spreading the Canadian Spirit!! I even saw people from other countries cheering and be happy as well. It was a remarkable experience to be walking around the city with that many excited people all cheering on Canada, it made me a very proud Canadian.
We then had to go see the Olympic rings that are normally green, but when we win gold the rigs light up gold!!! AMAZING!!! as well we had to see the flame, and now that they have lowered the fence you can get a better view.
We hit another bar and had drinks with very happy Canadian fans with everyone still giving each other hugs followed by shots!!!
So we didn't really drink at any of the countries houses, but we did drink in celebration of Canada!!!
The city was amazing... I'm so happy that I got to feel the Olympic energy Vancouver is giving off....

Neat fact!!! We have out partied and out drank the past three Olympics put together.. it shows that Canadians really know how to throw a great party!

Beauty,Passion & Strength

I'm in ahhh today with watching Joanne figure skate. All skating events are my favorite for sure, I can remember in 1988 watching Elizabeth Mannly skate and Brian vs. Brian and falling in love with the competition of skating.
Today was not about skating competition, and could not believe that Joanne skated. If you don't know Joanne's mother died of a heart attack on Saturday while in Vancouver cheering on her daughter. The fact that Joanne was even able to skate tonight was amazing!! I'm guessing guessing she had to dig down deep and find a place where she was able to compete tonight.
I know some girls who can't sleep, eat or even get out of bed when their boyfriend breaks up with them. Joanne just lost her mother and skates the skate of her life at the olympics!!! Holly!!! She is an insperation for sure.
The other amazing thing is that Joanne was not ranked all that high coming into these games, but tonight she skated a flawless program. Watching her skate tonight I was filled with emotion, and found myself in tears along with Joanne at the end of her program. And now going into her long program on thursday she is sitting in 3 and skated a personal best!
I know for me she has won gold in my heart a skate that I will remember forever, and I'm guessing has won the hearts of all canadians and inspired other young skaters.
These are the stories that Olympics are made of and remembered for!!!

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All About The Medles

Now that we have won 4 Gold medals I thought it would be cool to let you know how they were made…

Medalists at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will celebrate with circuit boards hanging from their necks.

That's right. Gold, silver, and bronze medals for the games will contain metal from recycled TVs, computers, and keyboards that might have otherwise ended up as e-waste. In an Olympic first, each medal will be unique, featuring part of an image cropped from two large master artworks by Corrine Hunt, a Canadian designer and artist of Komoyue and Tlingit heritage based in Vancouver, B.C.

For example, each medal will include its own signature elements of the orca and raven artwork, such as the suggestion of the orca's eye, the curve of its dorsal fin or the contours of the raven's wing. Also, the medals are wavy rather than flat, a form inspired by the ocean waves, drifting snow, and mountainous landscapes found in the Games region and throughout Canada.

Guided by tradition

"The orca is a beautiful creature that is strong but also lives within a community. I felt the Olympic Games are a community, too, " said Hunt.

"The athletes may be training but they're always somehow connected to their community, to their teammates, or to their country. The orca is a creature that has wonderful capabilities but can't really survive without its pod," she said.

"My design for the Paralympic medal — a raven on a totem rising — is close to my heart and in honour of my uncle who is a paraplegic. The raven is a creature that is all things and I think Paralympic athletes have that in them," she said.

"They're sometimes given challenges and they rise above them and the raven does the same. I think the creativity of the raven gives us hope — to accept when things don't work out and really rejoice when they do," said Hunt.

The Olympic medals are circular in shape, while the Paralympic medals are a superellipse, or squared circle, drawn from traditional West Coast native designs. At more than 500 grams each, the medals are amongst the heaviest in Olympic and Paralympic history.

The medals by the numbers:

• –20 C was the temperature used to test them.
• 2 designers created them.
• 2.05 kg of Teck's gold were used to make them.
• 6 g of gold plating were used for each gold medal.
• 6.8 metric tonnes of scrap circuit board was diverted from landfills to make them.
• 9 times each medal was struck to shape it into the undulating form.
• 30 steps were used by the Royal Canadian Mint to make them.
• 34 mint engineers, engravers, die technicians, machinists and production experts manufactured them.
• 48 medal design ideas were submitted by artists across Canada and internationally.
• 90 kg is the weight the ribbons can withstand.
• 95 mm is the width of the Paralympic medals.
• 399 Paralympic medals were produced.
• 615 Olympic medals were produced.
• 903 kg of copper were provided by Teck for the bronze medals.
• 1,014 different crops of the two master aboriginal artworks were laser etched into each one-of-a-kind medal.
• 1,950 kg of silver was used for the silver medals.
• 2,817 hours of precision manufacturing was needed to produce them.

"For me, it was really important that in some way every medal would be completely unique from every other medal; and yet be connected to each other and to Corrine's larger artworks in some profound manner. It's a beautiful idea because it means on a conceptual level you need all the medals together to complete the artworks," said Arbel.

On the reverse side, the medals contain the official names of the Games in English and French, the official languages of Canada and the Olympic Movement, as well as Vancouver 2010's emblems and the name of the sport and the event the medal was awarded in.

On the Paralympic medals, Braille is also used and the Games motto, "With Glowing Hearts/Des plus brilliants exploits," is written in white lettering on the medal's blue and green ribbon.

It really is a green Olympics… fingers crossed we win another gold tonight in Ice Dance!

Canada hockey!!!!

On the day of the biggest hockey Olympic rival I have a few thoughts about all the hype around mens Olympic hockey.
Don't get me wrong I'm excited for our mens team to play, hockey is our sport, it's being played in our country, and I believe that it is the one sport that might define us as canadians. But I would rather us focus more of our attention on the canadin athlets that we never hear about and after these games may never hear about again.
I guess I just get a bit frustrated when all we talk about is hockey. CTV announcers disecting every aspect of the game, what players should play on the same line as Crossby, what goaly should play when, who cares!!!! Do we not hear about this for 9 months of the year already??? I know that it is now a selected number of the best canadin players but enought, the pressure is even making me nervious.
I like it when we focus on the athlets that train for the olympics for 4 years, it's become a life long dream, there idols our other olympians like Nacy Green, Barba Anne Scott and many more. The athlets that train for 4 years for a 30 second run, who then miss a gate, fall, flip, or miss the chance, to then have to decide is it worth another 4 years of training to obtain there dream.
after the games are over these hockey player get to continue their dream in the race for the standly cup! Now to quoit my brother " those hockey players Shannon have been playing hockey since they were 4 years old and now have the oppurtuniy to represent their country" and yes my brother us right, however a lot of other athlets have been training for many years with no funding and no money just hoping to win gold for there country!!!
But go Canada go!!! I'm still excited for tonights game, but it might be because I get to drink beer with friends and watch the game in the sunshine!!!

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First event!!!

So yesterday I went to my first Olympic event and I was soooo excited. I won my tickets for being so excited about the olympics at work in whistler so free tickets were even better.
So off Charlie (my lover) and I go to watch the skeleton event!!

We have been told that the line ups are crazy and it's taken people hours to get into the events, but with a bit of a line we got up the mountain greeted my Canadian cheer staff through securty and to the venue in less then an hour. Amazing!!


Once we got inside the venue we were so impressed with everything they have done to Olympicize the place, I really felt like I was experiencing the full olympics! It was awesome to see Vancouver 2010 all over everything and all the people dressed in canadian gear!
We had seats but got super cold fast so decided to walk around. This turned our event into a more tangabul experience, we could get so close the track. These athleats are going 145 miles an hour down 1.5km track in 45 seconds!!!! FAST!!!! And when you are standing by the track you can hear them coming and If your not carefull you will miss them! We walked all the way to the start and being so close was Awesome!!!



We could not think of a better event! We walked the full track drinking beer and wine watching these amazing athleats up close Zoom down the track.
What I learned about this event that's it's about having a good start, staying relaxed while zooming down and stearing only with a slight movement of your shoulders. Nuts!!!
I've got two more events to go to and I'm super excited, but last night was the best!!!










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Olympics not just about sport

The olympics these days are not just about watching sporting events, they have added in the element of the arts to the games. Now I think i'd you were sitting at home watching the olympics on tv you would think I was crazy, the arts at the olympics? But living in a town that us hosting the olympics I have noticed how the arts play a huge roal in the full Olympic experience.
In Vancouver they have a huge amount of arts happening around the games. They are having 65 days of the culturial Olympiad around Vancouver showcasing hundreds of artist from around Canada. Vancouver is an amazing place right now to find canada's best dancers, play writes, actors, painters, aborigional artests and Canadian music. In whistler we don't have as much but we are small and trying.
Tonight I got to experience the free music that is happening every night in whistler when they are giving out the gold medals each night. Each night they represent a different province with a musical guest, tonight it was Ontario night with Fiest playing in whistler and barenaked ladies in Vancouver. There is so much free music happening around town it's hard to keep it all stright.
So as I'm enjoying all the events and sport around town I also live the fact that we are getting to show the world are artsy side!


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