February 11, 2010 Day 11

I have come to realize that my Olympic expereince thus far is not typical to a spectator or someone who is not associated to the Olympics. I have to keep reminding myself that I am so fortunate to be able to experience the Olympics the way I am. For example, I was able to watch the cross country skiers do a training session from the competition track. I took a picture of a Japanese skier as he was coming up a steep hill. What was really thrilling for me today was I was able to get as close as anyone could get to the biathletes practicing their shooting. I was in heaven... It was incredible to see the top biathletes ski and shoot tiny targets 50 yds away with their rifles with great accuracy. In the afternoon, we did some testing with the ski jumpers again and I got to stand right where they came down form the hill only about 30 yards away. From that close you can hear the skis hitting the ground and everythign they say as they ski by...
We (the Anti-doping team) have been so busy at times that I often forget to stop and appreciate what is happening because we get so wrapped up into our work. I have been working 11 days straight and I am still doing ok.
WADA (world anti-doping agency) had a press conference to announce that 30 athletes have "tested positive" and will not be able to compete at the Olympics. Unfortunately, the media always sensationalizes things and what we strongly suspect is the 30 athletes were told that they are unable to compete at the Olympics because of doping infractions prior to Feb., 2010. In any event, 30 athletes is a high number and it proves that the pre-compeition testing works to prevent unclean athletes from competing in the Games. The other thing it does is it really puts the anti-doping under intense scrutiny form the media.
Tomorrow is the opening ceremonies! We plan to go into Whistler village and wacth it live on 4 huge screens in the middle of town. Should be fun. We went into Whistler village again after our shift and in the middle of town, there are Olympic rings where you can get your picture taken. it was really cool. I also found another bobsleigh in thr Olympic merchandise store and I hope to get to the sliding centre soon to get some pictures there of some real bobsleighs. The other picture was of an ice scuplture in Whistler. They are everywhere.
The other picture is of Ragnhild, our Norwegian DCO with our mini snowman while we were waiting for the cross country skiers to come off the practice track...