Olympic Blog III: The Olympics have begun!

It's 6:57 pm, and I'm on a Greyhound bus awaiting a 7pm departure for Squamish where I'll sleep before my 7am shift at Whistler tomorrow.

40 minutes ago, however, was a very different story. 40 minutes ago I was standing outside at Canada House, watching the finals of the men's moguls competition on the big screen, with about 200 other fans. The energy and excitement was palpable. I'm not sure if every Canadian there knew who Alexandre Bilodeau was, but when he made his final run and clinched Canada's first gold medal of the games (and first ever on Canadian soil), the emotion and pride for what this athlete had just brought to Canada was sensational. If there ever was a event to unify this nation as one, it could be these Olympics. Without a doubt, I thought, Canada's Games are here.

I haven't blogged recently as i've had a few days off from Whistler, though a lot has happened in the last few days. I won't say too much about the tragedy that happened the morning of the Opening Ceremonies, except to say that it is a horrific tragedy, and my heart goes out to the family and friends of the young man whose life was cut way too short.

I've been staying with my parents in South Surrey the last few days, and it's been great being home. On Wednesday, my parents, cousin and I attended the dress rehearsal for the opening games. All Olympic volunteers (and their +1s) had been invited to the rehearsal. The energy in the stadium was incredible and it was great to share the experience with the other 25,000 Games volunteers. In that way, I think it made the experience unique for us volunteers. The show was the same as the one broadcast on Friday, though we did get to rehearse the pre-show with Ben Mulroney and Tamara Taggart. The audience on Friday were all given a drum and a few lights and were coached on how they'd be used in the show. From an artistic perspective, I really liked the decision to make the audience a part of the artistic "canvas". I'm not sure if it had been done before, but I liked it.

We also heard from Stephen Harper, and were very entertained by the volunteer "stand-ins" for IOC president Jacques Rogge and VANOC head John Furlong, who had to talk for 4.5 minutes about nothing in particular in rehearsing the opening speeches.

I won't go on too much about the show itself except to say that I thought it was pretty well done. In particular, I was a big fan of Nicki Yanofsky (though I know many disliked the rendition of O Canada), and I was blown away by k.d. lang's "Hallelujah". I know it's not everyone's cup of tea (a text was received: "Hallelujah, it's over!"), but I thought she sang wonderfully and really owned the world stage, if only for a few minutes.

As well as I thought the show went, I am sure many others winced along with me at the near-gong-show ending to the ceremony. The technical issues of the cauldron-lighting aside (I understand sometimes these things just happen no matter how much preparation), I just couldn't believe how disorganized Gretzky's run to the torch appeared. For all the security of the games and years and years of preparation, we were given a very uncertain-looking Gretzky desperately trying to make his way through crowds of people en route to the torch. It was as if they just hadn't planned it out. I mean, I've been surrounded by hundreds of police officers all week in Whistler. Thank goodness it all worked out, but I won't soon forget the image of Gretzky on the back of a truck, looking nervous in the rain, flanked by teens at the side of the truck with no apparent security presence present. Alas, I digress. All in all, I loved the ceremonies.

Tomorrow I'll be back at Whistler Olympic Park and will have my first taste of the Olympics in full swing, with spectators. We're anticipating upwards of 12,000 spectators, so getting them in through 16 (ish) bus spots might prove to be a challenge. However, there are some very good people up there, so I'll see tomorrow how it all runs.

I guess that's it for now. I know I promised pictures, but it will have to wait a few days until I return from Whistler.

My cousin Alison had the honour to be at the Olympic Village today greeting the men's hockey team, and I'm very excited for what I figure will be the most-publicized event at the Olympics. I should say though that I'm genuinely interested in every Olympic sport, and looking forward to Canadian success across the board.

The Games have begun. We're on the board, and the energy is right here, right now. Go Canada Go!!!

Cheers,
Jim

Olympic Blog II: Life at Whistler Olympic Park

Another day is done, and I'm off the 45-minute shuttle from Whistler. I'm so grateful to be staying here in Brackendale (Squamish); it'd be 2-3 hours one way from Vancouver and even longer from my parents' place in Surrey.

Today I manned the internal shuttle that takes staff, athletes, media and any other accredited people (basically everyone but spectators) from the park entrance to the 3 competition grounds. There were 9 buses there today, and 4 of them broke down! There's a "no-idling" rule in place (part of the Olympic eco-push) and apparently it wreaks havoc on the starters of the busses. Glad to have these issues come up before the competition starts this Friday!

As a result, there was a fair amount of down-time and I spent some time chatting with the drivers as they waiting for their busses to fill up. They're contracted by a separate company and are mostly from the US - Utah in particular. Not what I was expecting! A lot of the drivers are Olympic roadies, so to speak, and have done the last few Olympics in Atlanta, Salt Lake City and elsewhere.

I had a training session today about how things will be when we're open to the general public. They are expecting upwards of 12,000 spectators a day, all arriving by bus. At the end of the day spectators will be "herded" to waiting areas where they will be sent to their respective busses, about 400 people at a time. Our goal is to load those 400 people onto their busses within 7 minutes, though 15 minutes is probably much more realistic. Repeat until exausted.

I had a chance to walk up the spectator path today. All spectators have to walk up the mountain to their venue unless they're disabled or unwilling. The path up the mountain is beautiful, though I'm just not sure how the general public feels about a hike of either 800m, 1.1km or 1.3km! There will be places to stop along the way with some live music (I believe), and a carver will be carving a totem pole at one of the break spots during the Olympics. At one point, the path runs right along the cross country course, which I thought was an amazing way to feel "close to the action".

There's still some construction being done on the path, and while I can see how very far they've come, I'm a little worried! I should say though, even overnight there was a marked difference in the appearance of certain spots at the venue.

I worked the later shift today and got to see how the venue winds down after a day. There are less and less people on the busses and the evening security presence becomes felt. It's so quiet in the evenings and it really feels like a sleepy mountain spot, a far cry from the packed noise-a-thon I know it's about to become. I only have one more late shift and I'm sure I'll miss the tranquility. All well though, all well.

I have a day off tomorrow and I'll be with my parents and cousin at the dress rehearsal for the opening ceremonies. I'm bummed we can't bring cameras in but still totally excited to be there. Should be interesting to see the changes and catch the Olympic buzz in Vancouver.

Until then!

Jim

Olympic Blog I: Day One in the Books!

Today marked my first shift (of nine) as a volunteer at the Whistler Olympic Park. I had been assigned to "transportation", but I wasn't really sure what that entailed.

I grabbed the 6:50am shuttle from Brackendale towards Whistler. I'm staying with my cousin Dania, who is working at the coffee shop where the shuttle picks up Olympic Volunteers. They've decided to open at 4am (!!) for the games, so Dania was already working when I stumbled in at 6:30 for some well-needed caffeine.

I hopped on the bus, which was already loaded with blue-clad volunteers from Squamish. A lot of volunteers are staying on the "Mona Lisa", a cruise ship docked in Squamish for volunteers and other support staff. Apparently they have no on/off access for security reasons, so they're basically confined to the ship until they take the shuttle to their venue (that would frustrate me!)

Anyways, off we went to Whistler Olympic Park, home of ski jumping, cross country skiing, biathalon and Nordic combined events. Today was the day they basically fully integrated security to the venue before the actual competitions began. I went through security (I had picked up my accreditation and uniform on the weekend) and got some water for the day.

I met up with Jordan, who offered me a comprehensive tour of the entire park. With transportation, my job is to basically assist in the arrival of spectators, media, delegates and athletes to the event. All the spectators will be walking to the events, except for those with accessibility issues, and those who refuse to walk (should be interesting to see).

First stop was the ski jump, which looks just awesome! The twin jumps are cut into the mountainside; you'd have to be nuts to participate! We then took a shuttle up to the cross-country venue - apparently the course has a greater altitude difference than the grand slam downhill! Pretty impressive to see these guys hauling arse up the mountainside. I didn't get to see much of the biathlon course, but I did get some great shots of skiiers on a part of the course that is soon-to-be very off-limits.

After the tour, I got settled into my station for the day. I was working the athletes/coaching staff/VIP entrance/exit to the cross country course. I heard that the King of Norway is coming at some time! The job itself is pretty simple, though it's interesting seeing all the athletes from different countries hang out together. Coming off the bus (from the Olympic Village), they are all solomn-faced and quiet. After all, they are confined to the same space with their competition. Most of them are quite nice, but some of them are certainly high-maintenance, complaining about having to wait (up to 30 mins if they just missed a bus), and yelling in their native languages. One of the volunteers I worked with spoke Russian and was able to placate athletes from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, and Estonia.

Although I'm relatively knowledgeable about the Canadian Olympians, I have to admit I don't really know a lot about the foreign competitors in these events. I realize some of these athletes might be quite famous in their homelands. It's probably best if I don't know who's who! No sense getting star-struck.

I had a really nice lunch at the food tent, which was so nice. There's coffee/tea/hot chocolate/cookies available 24/7, and they provide you with a handy travel mug, so I was totally set! I got pretty chilled today, so hot drinks are a must. Oh, and I ate lunch with about 120 police officers from around the country. I never felt so safe in my life!

Around 2pm, they began shutting the venues down for the massive security sweep that had been planned. I hopped a shuttle home (Brackendale for now), and here I am.

So there you go, an exciting first day. Almost everyone is quite nice and genuinely happy to be there. Should be a blast!

More to come!

Cheers,
Jim