February 28, 2010 Day 28

The last month has been a blur. So many memories and events, too many to describe.

I can honestly say, it has been a priviledge to be part of the games. To experience it from a different perspective. The feedback that we received directly from the IOC is that our Anti-Doping program has been the best of all of the previous 19 Olympics. There has not been 1 formal complaint from not a single athlete about the anti-doping control process or program at the Winter games and it has beem without any major doping scandal. It has been so satisfying to know that our efforts in the anti-doping program has been effective and has made a difference. The 30 athletes that had anti-doping program violations and were "sent home" were as a result of the pre-competition testing program to detect doping prior to the Olympics. The word on the street that most of the 30 athletes were Russian athletes and that was one of the reasons they did not do so well because they had their "B" team so to speak.

As of today, of all of the ~1,500 tests done at the Olympics, there has not been 1 positive test (that we know of). I really hope there will not be any Olympic medalists stripped of their medals because of positive doping control tests but we shall see over the next month.

I guess the best way to summarize my Olympic experience, i will leave everyone with my top 10 list and memories of the Vancouver Winter Olympics...

10. How great leadership (and poor leadership) on a world stage can be so good and so bad...

9. Thinking that a blue smurf outfit was cool to wear in public after wearing it 28 days out of the last 30...

8. All you can eat cookies, hot chocolate, juice and pop!

7. A new appreciation for Norway from Ragnhild Mjoen. Getting to work with unbelievable elite athletes and more importantly, great people such as Marit Bjoergen (3 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze in cross-country skiing) and Petter Northug (2 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze in cross country skiing).

6. A new appreciation for Ski Jumping. Meeting and talking with Simon Amman who's record jump in ski flying is 250m! He had won 2 gold medals in Ski jumping. 1 Gold on the Normal hill and 1 Gold on the Large Hill for Switzerland.

5. Going for a run with an Olympic athlete on a busy road and getting in trouble for it but the athlete really appreciating it and then remembering me for it. (I would do it again).

4. The medals plaza. I went to watch the medals ceremony for the Russian cross country skier that I went for a run with and got to know quite well. He was really happy about winning a medal. I also wanted to go see Petra Majcic (see #1)

3. The great people I have had to work with and I have met from all over the world. (Except the media. They are all parasites). The picture I posted are all of the vehicles, reporters and photographers waiting just outside our doping control station for the medal winners to interview them. They wait like vultures...

2. Sidney Crosby and Team Canada Hockey! I've never felt so proud and excited to be Canadian. Our testing finished at WOP at about 2:00 pm and the only people left were all of the police officers (about 100 of them) and just the workforce workers (another 100 or so) so they put the game up on the huge jumbotron screens for everyone to watch the game. When Sidney scored, everyone went crazy. It was great because I wasn't watching at a bar or in a hotel room.

1. Petra Majdic. An unbelievable example of determination and will. She won the gold medal after fracturing her ribs and puncturing her lung. She could barely move after her Bronze medal win and she never gave up to win the first skiing medal for Slovenia. What is amazing is she did 2 races after crash to qualify and win the womens sprint. A really nice woman.

I know I missed some things like Jennifer Heils interview and some other golden moments but this has been a great experience.

GO CANADA GO!

Thanks for your interest and support. I am looking forward to being home.

Tim

February 27, 2010 Day 27

Today was my second day off and it was really good. I decided that I would start winding things down instead of getting too caught up in all of the parties and celebrations in Whistler. It is absolute craziness bordering on chaos everywhere, especially in Vancouver but also in Whistler. At the medals plaza, they present all of the medals and then they have rock concerts where thousands of people pack into the square in Whistler. A lot of people tonight are going to see Usher but I decided to stay in tonight.

I got up early today, went for a jog around Nita lake and then headed into Squamish to visit and old friend, Seth Adler and his family. I have a few pictures of Seth, Haven, Beau and Nicole. I have never seen him happier... It is really wierd to see him fully domesticated with teletubbies or whatever kids music he has on in his car.

I have to say that the bus system has been great. It has been so easy to get around everywhere and I have not had a problem at all getting around Whistler.

The buzz everywhere is the Gold medal hockey game between Canada and the U.S. tomorrow. The terrible part is I will be stuck working doing drug testing while the game is on.

Well, it is down to the last day of the Olympics tomorrow where I will post my final blog.

February 26, 2010 Day 26

I hope the Grade 5 Lakeview classes are done reading my blog...
Today was my second day off and I stayed in for the first time in a month to just rest, do some work and catch up on my e-mails. It was raining all day so I didn't feel like going out in the rain. Leanne Vicen who is the station manager at Alpine skiing, (creekside) had said I could come by to help out and see some skiing but I decided against it because of the weather and I could catch up on some sleep. So, I basicaly rested up for the parties tonight and I just got home from them. It started with watching the hockey game against Slovakia. The atmosphere was so fun. The lounge downstairs at our hotel was packed with people and all of the DCO's from England, Norway and Australia didn't understand why we were all so excited and cheering so loudly for a hockey game. Everyone hung on every shot and save by Luongo and were chanting Looooo evertime he made a save. After the game there were parties all over because everyone was in the celebrating mood because alot of people were leaving the next day. I am going to Squamish tomorrow and I will be working Sunday at cross country for the Mens 50 km race.
Sorry so short today with no pictures... More tomorrow as I get ready for my last few days here.

February 25, 2010 Day 25

Today was the most amazing day in the Olympics for Canada! Rochette, Canadian Women's hockey GOLD, ladies short track speed skating....

The energy and excitment is something I have never experienced at such an intensity. I had some people tell me that downtown Vancouver and Whistler village is absolute pandemonium. Like, Mardi Gras times 10 in intensity.

Some examples of this are in the Athletes village, there was a spontaneous snowball fight that started just like on the commercial however, it ended up in a fist fight between some Russian and Canadian athletes! It is these stories you don't hear about in the newspaper...

Today I was at WOP working the Nordic combined and women's cross country skiing again. It was a rainy day and this causes huge problems for the skier and the wax technicians for all the countries. They were running around back and forth trying out different skis. It amde me realize why most of the athletes will bring 40-50 pairs of skis each for different snow conditions...

I wanted to get a picture with one of the language interpreters we work with everyday. They have done a great job for us. Every morning we call the language center and we get a grocery list of language interpreters available that day. We use Russian the most and this is a picture of Samirra who has been working the most with us with the Russian athletes.

Couple of other interesting things I have learned. I have become good friends with Alan McMurray who is from Drumore, Ireland. Harry Potter is from his hometown and he knows his family in Drumore. I took a picture of a medallion that they gave us for working at WOP. It is really nice and much appreciated gift for working so much.

I also took a picture of my workforce card. You get a sticker every shift you work and the Anti-doping team has worked the most. My card is almost completely full already with only 3 days left in the games.

I couldn't resist the urge to get my picture taken at the photobooth at the ski jump...

The coolest thing about the Olympics I have realized today was it is really amazing to see these Olympic gold medalists on TV and I know some of them quite well as people and not as celebrities. They are people just like you and I but have accomplished some incredible athletic feats. It is too bad that we are not allowed at all to take any pictures of them but almost all of them are such nice people.

February 24, 2010 Day 24

Canadian Hockey! What a great game against Russia! The excitement in Whistler is infectious. Everyone is talking about the game and every TV, restaurant and pub is filled to capacity with people watching the game. It was funny, as soon as the hockey game was over, I went straight to the gym to lift weights and I was the only one there. It was absolutely deserted.

There is so much Canadian patriotism and pride everywhere. Canadian flags and hockey jerseys everywhere you look.

Today was the Men's cross country team relay 4 x 10 km race. The Europeans dominate this event. Canada came in 9th or so I think but they were way back of the winners, the Swedish team. Drug testing is almost second nature to all of us now. We have done so many that it really has become routine now. I am used to seeing WADA officials and IOC medical committee members and I am not nervous at all when they are bascially standing right over top of me observing the test procedures. It can be quite intimidating but I have got used to them and we have got to know them quite well. There really is a huge emphasis on no errors on our paperwork. It is quite important that our paperwork is absolutely error free and perfect. The consequence of an error on our testing paperwork is that if an athlete does test positive and there is an error, that athlete will "get off" on a technicality or paperwork error so there is a lot of pressure on us. The media continues to swarm outside the doping control station and wait for the athletes. They are like vultures.

I am getting really sick of coke, sprite, apple juice, orange juice and blue poweraid. These are all coke products and we literally have an unlimited suppy to all of these all day and at every meal. I thought I would take a picture of the coke machine in our doping control station. it is full all the time now...

I took a picture of Ian, a DCO from Edinburgh, Scotland. He is a great guy and I really enjoy working with him. The other picture is of Kellie who is Blood collection officer from Victoria. She built a snowman to watch our door for us. We have constant staffing of access monitors / security to the doping control station. They control access to the station and they have been doing a great job. No one without a pass gets in.

One funny observation is I have noticed that the RCMP do not associate with the other municipal police officers from different cities. At lunch and dinner, the RCMP don't sit with other police men or with others on the bus.

I had some great news today. I got a call from the FCC (Function command centre) and I was told I have this Saturday off as well! So I may go into Squamish and try and visit Seth and his family or maybe even try and get down into Vancouver if I can...

GO CANADA.

February 23, 2010 Day 23

It is down to less than 1 week left in the Winter Olympics. It has gone so fast and I can't believe it will almost be over.

Today at WOP was the Team Nordic Combined. This event has ski jumping in the morning and cross country skiing in the afternoon. I had to do double duty today and do some chaparoning of the medalists and then do some processing after. I was able to get right down into the mixed zone with the athletes and the reporters. It was chaos. One of my pictures is a where Waldo where in the scrum, you have to keep an eye on your athlete while they are being swarmed by the media. it was pretty cool to be right down in front where the medalists are during their flower ceremony.

Because of the high profile nature of Cross country skiing and Biathalon, we had the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) observers with us and we have got to know them quite well. They are really nice guys and I got a picture with Rune Andersen from Norway and Scott Burns from the U.S. They are both directors at WADA but it also shows how tall they are as well.

Some interesting statistics thus far: we have completed over 1,500 doping control tests compared to 1,200 conducted in Torino. There has been no publically reported positive tests at the Winter Olympics as of today but I am sure there will be a few before the Olympics are done...

The events of today and the past 3 weeks has made me realize that no matter how much bad press of what the media says about the Olympics, the games are about people and the spirit of competition. It is not about the money, the facilities or the venues or the records. That is why I have also included a picture of "Otim". He is the corsing guard at WOP just outside our doping control station. His job was to stop traffic and to make sure it was safe to cross the road where the big trucks and media vehicles were going. He did his job everyday with a smile, took his job very seriously even though he was basically a crossing guard and did it the best he could. He never took a lunch break and would eat while he worked all day. I will remember people like Otim just as much as the cool things I have seen at the Olympics...

February 22, 2010 Day 22

Virtue and Moir!

Well today was a day of ups and downs again. We were at WOP and this was our busiest day of testing of the entire Olympics. 32 tests all in 1 day for Ski Jumping and cross country. We were all happy with our work and we did it in a very professional and efficient manner. However, we heard that the German delegation had went to the media and complained about the Anti-doping program and how they were being treated. What bothered us the most was their claims were false and the media had put their spin and took the Germans compliants out of context. What was nice was at the end of today, we were told that the German delegation had made a formal and public apology to the anti-doping team about their remarks and that they were taken out of context. This incident also made me realize how much influence the media can have on things whether they are true or not. I saw first hand how they absolutley swarm the Olympic medalists with cameras and questions. It is quite intrusive and aggressive the way the media works.

Well, after our shift, we all decided to go out and celebrate and we met the Liechenstein Bobsleigh team at a local restaurant / pub called Rolands. They were telling us that the entire team consists of 7 members and we met and had dinner with 4 of them. They were really nice guys and before we left, they wanted a picture with Heather and Carolyn so the bobsleigh team hoisted them on their shoulders. It was pretty funny. The Olympics has been so good because you are able to meet so many different and interesting people.

Finally, to top off the day, I got a call from my mom who told me that my grandma in Japan passed away last night. She was 85 yrs old and lived a healthy and long life. Things like this really puts life into perspective...

I have my second day off in 27 this Friday. I hope to maybe visit Seth in Squamish or try and make it down into Vancouver if I can.

I have posted a picture of Illya. I hope I spelled his name right. He is a DCO that lives and works in Australia. Great guy and alot of fun.