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
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
posted by Jim Wilson at 4:22 PM
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