February 8, 2010 Day 8

Well today I expected to be a slow and boring day but it wasn't at all. Today was the "security sweep day" at Whistler Olympic park where they had everyone out by 2:00 pm and they secured the entire site. So, the morning was busy and a bit hectic with all of the police and security and all of the athletes were trying to get in a morning training session. Most of the athletes began arriving today and it so there were alot more bodies on the course and it was harder to figure out who was where and to try and notify the right athletes in a very short time period in the morning.

When the athletes are skiing on the cross country course, we all thought that there was only 1 entry and 1 exit but we found out that there were actually 2 exits where athletes could get off the course and sneak past us without us seeing them. So as I was standing at the other exit for my athlete I had to locate and test, I saw some course snowmobiliers down below on the course so I went down to talk to them. It turns out these were the camera men that operate the snowmobile cameras and each snowmobile with this super, high tech camera was $500,000.00 EACH. All three of them were just sitting there getting ready to go out so there was $1.5 million dollars worth of snowmobiles and equipment just sitting there. So I took a picture of them. They were really nice guys and they were the same guys that operate the snow cats that groom the runs.

So I ended up running after another athlete today to catch them. I had a targetted test which means I have to find and locate a particular athlete. I was standing at one exit and he skied past to go to the other and all I had were my big Sorel boots on so I had to run in the snow down a hill and then back up another to catch up to him. He wasn't trying to run from me but he was just way faster on skis.

As I was wandering around to locate athletes, I got to go into the media "trench" where they all stand to photograph athletes as they approach the finish line. it is a great vantage point so I took a picture of where the skiers would come down to the finish line.

After we finished work for the morning, we all went for lunch in the workforce tent and I have never seen so many police officers all in one place in life. I felt pretty safe in there actually.

Alan McMurray (the DCO from Northrn Ireland) and I were waiting around so I went to the edge of this hill and I jumped off while he snapped a picture. Funny part was the snow was so deep on the other side that I got stuck and couldn't get out.

Well, we left early and were back to the Nita lake lodge by 2:00 pm so a bunch of us went into Whistler Village because I wanted to mail a few things and buy some things for my family. I stopped in the official Olympic merchandise store in Whistler village and they had some huge stuffed animals of the mascots for the games. We stopped for lunch at the Keg and Ragnhill (our Norwegian DCO) and Alan (form Northern Ireland) were both so surprised at the portion sizes of eveything in Canada. They are 2 to 3 times bigger here in Canada than in Europe and they thought this was really wierd. That is why Ragnhill is laughing at her plate of nachos.

There was a real bobsleigh in the town square so we couldn't resist in jumping in a getting a picture.

I am so glad we have our own ADP (anti-doping personelle) vehicle and we have infinity access to anywhere. That is why I took a picture of Brian in our Acadia. He drives us in everyday and we are so glad he does because we would have to take the bus.

The last picture is of Michel, our French DCO. He is a gourmet French chef from Quebec and he is quite the character with his broken English. It is so fascinating that we all can communicate at all with all of our different dialects of English.

Finally, I actually took some time to appreciate where I am... in the mountains. it is very beautiful in Whistler, just like Banff or Waterton.