February 17, 2010 Day 17

Today was a really great day. I was at WOP for the Mens and Ladies Cross country sprint events which is an all out 1.5 km sprint on skis. This is the 100m dash of cross country skiing. it was so good to be around and work with Olympic medalists. They truely are unique and special individuals. It was our busiest day of testing.
Well, on my way home, the bus we take to get back to Whistler creekside stops in Whistler village and then we catch a connector bus back to my hotel. Well, I was walking by the Whistler medals plaza and saw some other ADP (Anti-doping personnel) so I stopped to talk to them and visit with them at the medals plaza. It was just before the start of the medal ceremonies that night and I had the opportunity to see the ceremonies. I was actually trapped up against the fence by a large Slovenian group to see their bronze medalist and couldn't move after a while. There was music and all of the people were so excited. it was very moving and thrilling to see Maelle Ricker receive her gold medal and the crowd was singing the Canadian National Anthem. There was a huge American crowd out to see Lindsey Vonn get her gold medal as well.
I have included a whole bunch of pictures of the medals plaza. It was great.

February 16, 2010 Day 16

Well, today I was in the Athletes Village in Whistler. It is where all of the outdoor winter sport athletes live. It is really difficult to find athletes in the village because it is basically trying to find a needle in a haystack. There are thousands of athletes housed there spread out over a very large area. However, there are 4 male DCO's that I work with (me included) that always gets their man. We were able to find our guys early in the morning in the dining hall /tent because all athletes have to eat eventually...

The dining hall where the athletes eat at is HUGE. It variety and selection of food reminded me of the Bellagio buffet in Las Vegas. You literaly can get any kind of food there. The athletes can eat whatever they want, whenever they want and the worst part of it includes a full MacDonald's restaurant where you can order anything. Talking to a few of the athletes and workers, if they are done competing, they eat at MacDonalds but if they still have to compete, they eat the healthy food.

At the athletes village, there is an Olympic merchandise store. It was big and they had a lot of good stuff in there. Too bad I have already bought all of my gifts. I snapped a quick picture of the dining hall inside.

Just outside the store in the main square, there is native, metal statue. I took a closer look at it and it was very cool to see that it was covered in signatures and messages from the athletes from all over the world. There is also a fireplace in the shape of a globe that everyone hangs out around to warm up their hands.

The bad thing about today was I felt quite ill and dizzy at about lunch time so I got to go home early. I went into the polyclinic and saw the doctor their as well. I realized that I have worked 15 days straight without a day off and 10-12 hour days and this next week will be even busier. I basically, slept from noon until 5 and feel better. I watched Canada beat Norway in hockey 8-0 and Ricker win gold today. Too bad about Patrick Chan but we will see how he does after his long program.

February 15, 2010 Day 15

Today was the Cross Country Skiing 10km Free Final for Men and Women at WOP. It was our busiest day with all of the medalist being tested along with random testing as well. It is an absolute zoo down it the mixed zone where the media is. They are like the paparazzi and will run over anyone to get their picture.

Cross country skiing is a very popular sport for all of the European countries so there were so many people at WOP watching. When we arrived in the morning, there was a girl on one of those lifeguard stands you see at the beach with a megaphone shouting out instructions to herd all of the people in the right direction. I wanted to try and get a pciture that would try and capture how many people were there, watching and cheering the skiers on. The fans were going crazy!

Sorry but I don't have much time today because I am at the Athletes village at 6:00 am and I just got back from WOP tonight at 8:00 pm. I seem to have caught a bit of a cold as well from working so much I think. I am much happier when I am busy and I feel fortunate to be so busy because there are quite a few that have nothing to do...

The athletes village seems to be the slowest venue for testing but i got a call this afternoon asking if i could work at Biathalon instead on the 21st. It will be busy as well!

Looking forward to seeing more Canadian medals!!!

February 14, 2010 Day 14

CANADA WINS GOLD!

What an exciting day. People are so excited everywhere about Alexandre Bilodeau winning Canada's first gold medal at the Olympics and on Canadian soil. He will be getting his gold medal at BC place tomorrow evening.

Well, I worked all day at WOP again for the Nordic Combined event. This is where they do the ski jump in the morning and in the afternoon, they do a 10km cross country race. I almost had to go with the ERV with the gold medalist to his medal ceremony in Whistler. After the event, the gold medalist is always drug tested and we only have a small window if time to complete the testing process before he has to leave for the Whistler Olympic Medal plaza in Whistler Village. It was down to the last 5 mins but everything got done in time. The ERV is a motorhome that is a mobile doping control station. Basically, if the athlete is ready to provide a sample while he is on his way to get his medal, I would process him right there whenever he is ready. The funny thing is I think ERV stands for the "Emergency Relief Vehicle".

I got a first hand look at some of the "commercialism" of the Olympics. All athletes are given sealed and secure, bottled water to drink after they are notified that they have selected for testing however, we were told by the VANOC officials that we had to peel off all of the labels on the Dansani water bottles because the only drink logos that could be on camera was "Coke" even though Dansani is a coke product. The other thing I have learned was the media are ruthless and unreasonable. They were upset that we were taking the Ski jump athletes from yesterday away from the cameras even though it is the athletes choice when they go out and do their press conference and media interviews and pictures. They are like vultures hanging around outside the doping control station and hounding us to hurry up...

Overall, it was a busy day of testing and it will only get busier. After, I took the time to enjoy the mountains and to remind myself where I was.

February 13, 2010 Day 13

Today was the first medal event of the Olympics, the Ski Jumping Individual Normal Hill event. It was raining all day up in Whistler and it made everything quite miserable. The blue smurf suits we have been given are not that waterproof and we were instructed not to use any rain ponchos of any kind for a few reasons: 1. Because it would imply that the jackets that have been given to us are not so good or water proof and 2. The media did not want the TV audience at the ski jump to show that it was not that rainy at the event for TV and 3. The sponsors logos on our jackets would be covered up for TV. So, we had to suck it up and get soaked in the rain for the ski jump medal event.
Since the ski jump event was the first of the Olympics, everyone was quite anxious and nervous. We had our first IOC medical committee member hovering and observing us along with 2 new WADA observers as well. It made it quite a challenge to identify and notify the selected athletes for testing because once they won their medal and entered the mixed zone, they were swamped with media and the fans. The gold medal winner was running around so excited and he was so happy even when we were testing him afterwards.
Because it was so busy today, I didn’t really get a chance to take any pictures. I did get a few pictures of the line ups of the spectators and workforce employees catching the buses. Transportation has been quite a big problem and there were thousands of people at WOP. The line ups were huge and everyone was soaked in the rain waiting for the buses.
Things are really starting to get busy and serious now that Olympic medals are on the line so to speak. Doping control is taken quite serious which takes some of the fun out of everything but I really like working with all of the other DCO’s.
I am convinced that if you could speak Russian, Chinese, French and German, you would have almost all of the countries covered for the Winter Olympics. The Spanish are not very well represented at all, and almost all of the Scandinavian countries speak English. All of the Russian breakaway states all still speak Russian, Ukraine etc. I did test one Japanese ski jumper but his English was pretty good and I could get by with Japanese with him.

I got a text message from Denton Michelson today. He is in Vancouver and he was guarding a sea wall in the pouring rain by the athletes village to watchout for those swimming terrorists I guess. I included the pciture of the HUGE tent that is right outside our hotel. it is to screen every bus and car for bombs and a security check that come by our hotel.
We were watching Jennifer Heil ski the moguls… too bad she didn’t win gold. But we were all so impressed with the interview she gave after.
Emma or Kathryn, if you ever give an interview, that is how you act and represent yourself, win or lose.

February 12, 2010 Day 12

OPENING DAY of the OLYMPICS!

Well today was such an up and down day it is really hard to describe. It started out not so good. I forgot my accreditation on my way up to WOP and I forgot it in my hotel room. This showed me how important my accreditation really was. I couldn’t do anything without it. I didn’t realize I didn’t have it until I got to the first police checkpoint and they made me get out of the car and I wasn’t allowed to go any further. SO, I basically stood out on the side of the highway and waited for Elizabeth in another ADP vehicle to bring up my accreditation pass. It wasn’t too bad but it made me about 40 mins. late. The police were really good about the whole thing but there is no way you could sneak into this area without your accreditation. After that check point you drove into a huge tent and they had mirrors to check under your vehicle for bombs and searched the car. Security is pretty tight at the games and it is really tight now the games have begun.
BUT…this morning was really good because this was the first day of competition at the ski jumping venue. It was the qualifiers for the ski jumping and it was really exciting. The ski jump hill was packed with people and media and cameras were everywhere. I took some pictures of the crowd and again, I got right up to the ski jumpers to get some great shots. It is so great to get to go where no one else is… I think it is going to my head, ha, ha. I was talking to some spectators and they spent $90.00 for just a place to stand to watch for an hour. The stadium seats were $120.00 to $150.00 each. Our station has been really busy but it felt good to start the games for real.
But then…. We had 2 WADA (world anti-doping agency) observers come to our station on a surprise visit since we were the first doping control station to do tests. They are independent observers that stand right in the room to observe and watch us work. It is extremely nerve racking and made me quite nervous. Nicole was form the U.K. (London, England) and Ali was from Kuwait. They were nice but they were all business during the testing and their presence made evveryone really uptight and nervous. We had to lend Ali some Sorel winter boots because he wasn’t used to snow. I was given the task of giving the tour around that facility and have Nicole observe me do a test on a Japanese ski jumper.
Then…. There was the tragic accident of the Georgian luge athlete. It was terrible. The sliding centre is just across the highway from where I am staying. In talking with some of the Lugers and the other DCO’s working at that station, this track is the fastest in the world and he was going about 130 km / hr when he hit the metal support beam. He died of head trauma. Just a terrible accident.
Then… so exciting again for the opening ceremonies. Everyone in Whistler was so excited. Everyone was so happy and were showing all of their Canadian colours. All of the DCO’s and BCO’s all watched it in the lounge at the Nita Lake Lodge. It was great. It was such a thrilling moment for me when Wayne Gretzky lit the outdoor cauldron and people were cheering so loudly.
It was just one of those days where it was a rollercoaster of emotions.
I have a full day tomorrow of testing again. This will be 12 straight days of work… but it has been great thus far.

By the way, Alisa just sent me this link: http://www.uleth.ca/unews/content/policing-games

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...