The excitement of the winter games is definitely building. There are more and more athletes arriving from all over the world and spectators are starting to come and watch training. There was a dress rehearsal of the opening ceremonies and I forgot to tell everyone that I had tickets to it but I was working so I could not use them. Apparently everyone got a free bottle of wine with them. Too bad I don’t drink. I spoke to a lady that saw it and she said it was very moving and emotional. I look forward to seeing it on the 12th. There are free concerts in the village and parties and people everywhere.
Today we started testing the ski jumpers. It was very interesting to be with these ski jumpers up close and to watch them jump and land only 30 yds away from me. The media was everywhere interviewing the ski jumpers as they came off and there was a real excitement while they were doing their training jumps. These guys fly so far and you can’t get a real sense of it unless you are right up close to the landing area. As I was waiting for my ski jumper athletes, I was talking to the one of the technicians whos job it is to maintain the ski jump hill. It is the only hill in the world that has its own refrigeration and heating system in the snow track so that it always stays the same regardless of the air temperature so it is fair for every jumper. They have put a lot of money into this hill….
Today we had a visit from the entire 24 members of the IOC medical committee to visit and inspect our doping control station. They were from all over the world and an odd bunch. Dr. Jack Taunton was leading them through and in his presentation, he told the IOC committee that these were the very first Olympic Games (summer or winter) that the doping control officers and the blood collection officers were NOT medical doctors. Even though almost everyone has some type of medical background, there were no physicians conducting any testing. Therefore, we are under the scrutiny of everyone and there is a big push to have error free testing which increases the stress and pressure a lot.
There are absolutely no pictures allowed in the doping control station but I did manage to snap a couple of quick pictures of them leaving. The Portugese IOC member was very odd…
In our briefings, we were told that our doping control station was the only one that was error free in all of the doping control stations!
On a lighter note, today was the first day of real snow we have had. They are using helicopters to fly in snow from Whistler to Cypress because it is so warm.
Some other interesting facts:
-The anti-doping team has the best and highest level access to the athletes… even more than the police. I had to help an RCMP officer get past an 19 year old access monitor to get through a gate. It was pretty funny.
-saw a delegate from Iran watching and taking notes of cross country skiing. I was following him down the hill so I snapped a picture of him.
-all of the winter athletes like their water, powerade and juice at room temperature and not cold
Today we started testing the ski jumpers. It was very interesting to be with these ski jumpers up close and to watch them jump and land only 30 yds away from me. The media was everywhere interviewing the ski jumpers as they came off and there was a real excitement while they were doing their training jumps. These guys fly so far and you can’t get a real sense of it unless you are right up close to the landing area. As I was waiting for my ski jumper athletes, I was talking to the one of the technicians whos job it is to maintain the ski jump hill. It is the only hill in the world that has its own refrigeration and heating system in the snow track so that it always stays the same regardless of the air temperature so it is fair for every jumper. They have put a lot of money into this hill….
Today we had a visit from the entire 24 members of the IOC medical committee to visit and inspect our doping control station. They were from all over the world and an odd bunch. Dr. Jack Taunton was leading them through and in his presentation, he told the IOC committee that these were the very first Olympic Games (summer or winter) that the doping control officers and the blood collection officers were NOT medical doctors. Even though almost everyone has some type of medical background, there were no physicians conducting any testing. Therefore, we are under the scrutiny of everyone and there is a big push to have error free testing which increases the stress and pressure a lot.
There are absolutely no pictures allowed in the doping control station but I did manage to snap a couple of quick pictures of them leaving. The Portugese IOC member was very odd…
In our briefings, we were told that our doping control station was the only one that was error free in all of the doping control stations!
On a lighter note, today was the first day of real snow we have had. They are using helicopters to fly in snow from Whistler to Cypress because it is so warm.
Some other interesting facts:
-The anti-doping team has the best and highest level access to the athletes… even more than the police. I had to help an RCMP officer get past an 19 year old access monitor to get through a gate. It was pretty funny.
-saw a delegate from Iran watching and taking notes of cross country skiing. I was following him down the hill so I snapped a picture of him.
-all of the winter athletes like their water, powerade and juice at room temperature and not cold
hmm...I like my drinks at room temp too, I must be an athlete.
ReplyDeletethanks for posting all of this, it's so interesting to read, and lots of us are following!