Fun and Games in Vancouver
By NANCY WHITAKER
Progress Staff Writer
Part 2 of 2
PAULDING – Visiting along with 250,000 other people in a city of two million for six days with the entire world watching was a trip of a lifetime. Melinda Krick left for Vancouver, Canada, on Feb. 14 for the Winter Olympic Games. She her friends, Kevin and Cheri Dix of Seattle, took the two-hour drive into Canada on Feb. 17.
Last week, we told of the three friends being on site for the skeleton event at Whistler Mountain. They found a place along the track to watch the event, which turned out to be where the luge competitor was fatally injured before the Games opened.
“If you are going to make a trip to go see the Olympics,” said Krick, “make sure you take warm clothing and be prepared to do a lot of walking and standing in line.”
The skeleton event lasted approximately four hours and spectators were on their feet for the whole event. In the skeleton, competitors go down on a sled on their stomach, head first. Going up to speeds of 95 mph, there were 21 female competitors and 28 males.
“These were the preliminary runs. You would not believe how fast these people go around the track. It sounds like thunder when they go by. They also had a big screen TV to watch the event on,” noted Krick.
“My toes and fingers got so cold. They felt as if they were frostbit,” continued Melinda. “We stayed at the event and watched the ladies compete and one run of the men’s competition. It was almost 9:30 p.m. and we had been on our feet since about 3 p.m. We then caught the charter bus for the two-hour drive back to our car. On the way through Whistler to the bus, we saw the fireworks at the end of a medals ceremony.
“By the time we got back to the hotel, it was almost 1 a.m. We knew we weren’t going to catch too much sleep because we had to get up Friday morning by 6 a.m. to go to the curling event at the Vancouver Olympic Centre.”
If anyone is not familiar with curling, it is a team sport where team members slide stones across carefully prepared ice towards a target area, called a house. The game is similar to shuffleboard, with each alley being 150 feet long. There are four members on a team who alternate the throwing and sweeping duties.
On that day there were three matches being held simultaneously. It was a women’s competition and was a round robin tournament. China defeated Denmark (11-1), USA defeated Russian Federation (6-4) and Great Britain beat Germany (7-4).
Following the curling competition, they went to one of the LiveCity sites. There were several of these sites throughout the city. It was a place where you could go watch live coverage of the games on a big screen and visit corporate and provincial buildings.
Food and beverages were next on the agenda. There were a lot of various ethnic food choices to choose from. Krick said, “In some of the LiveCity venues, a beer was $10, a brat was $7 and a bottle of pop was $4.
“It was so nice that day, some people were wearing tank tops. The sky was clear and beautiful.”
Then it was time to head downtown and check out some of the activities. Melinda said, “One thing I noticed was wherever we were, either standing in line, on public transportation or in restaurants, we heard all kinds of languages. Slovak, Russian, Thai, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, French, German, Australian and British accents, Norwegian, Swedish, you name it.”
The next day, Feb. 20, Melinda, Cheri and Kevin had tickets to a men’s ice hockey game between Switzerland and Norway. The event was downtown at the Canada Hockey Place. “It was pretty noisy and exciting because both teams had huge cheering sections,” said Melinda.
Following the hockey game, the trio of travelers were able to get tickets for the medals ceremony the next day. Then walked over a bridge near the entrance to Vancouver Olympic Village. Olympic Village is where the athletes reside during the games, so it is a restricted area.
“We then took a streetcar to Granville Island,” noted Krick. “It’s a popular attraction that has a huge public market, art galleries, artisans, shops and restaurants.”
On Feb. 21, they had been scheduled to return to Whistler for the men’s Super G alpine skiing event. However, due to some weather conditions, this event was postponed until the next Tuesday. No refunds are given on tickets. “So we lost the ticket price, $85. Like Cheri said, it’s an expensive souvenir.”
So, this gave them a free day to look around. They headed back downtown and took another look at the caldron, did some pin trading, and hobnobbed with the rest of the Olympic travelers in the festival atmosphere.
They went to another LiveCity and saw hockey’s Stanley Cup. It was guarded by Mounties as people swarmed to take photos.
“On our way over to the medals ceremony,” said Krick, “we found another LiveCity. This one had the Moulson Hockey House.”
At the same time, the Canadians were playing the USA in men’s hockey in a game that the USA won 5-3. Excitement was running high as everyone was cheering for their hockey team, crowding around the LiveCity big screens and every television in every bar and restaurant.
Krick said, “One of the things most people ask about my trip is about the most memorable moment. I have to say it was the medals ceremony we attended in Vancouver. We saw two Americans receive medals – Apolo Ohno, who won a bronze in short track speed skating, and Shani Davis, who won a silver in speed skating. A team of Mounties raised the flags of the gold, silver and bronze medal winners just a few feet behind us. We could have touched the flags, they were so close.”
The Whistler medals ceremony was going on simultaneously. “We were able to watch their awards in between the ones in our stadium. Bode Miller received his gold medal for men’s super combined skiing. We stood up to sing the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ when the American flag was raised. It still gives me goosebumps just remembering it,” she said.
“Maybe more than the medals ceremony was the whole experience of being there, being part of the event and sharing experiences with people from every corner of the world. When you see highlights on TV or hear someone talk about one of the events, you can think ‘I was there.’
“Television can’t convey what it’s like in person. You miss the energy of the crowds, you miss many of the athletes’ performances, you miss being in the middle of a historic event.
“I get upset when people dwell so much on the medals count. It really doesn’t matter who wins the most gold, or who brings home the most medals overall. These athletes train for years; they and their families often sacrifice everything to make an Olympic dream come true. It’s a privilege and honor to compete at the Olympic Games.
“You see how people can win and lose with grace. No one likes to see a sore loser, as if winning a silver medal makes you a loser. We saw some athletes disappointed to get silver and some that were ecstatic to win fourth, or even to finish their event at all. That’s what it should be about – the joy of being able to compete and to do your best.
“We saw people compete with broken bones, with terrible weather conditions, with distracting personal problems. Almost nothing could stop them from competing and going for the gold. Their examples are something we should look to.”
Melinda left Vancouver on Monday, Feb. 22 and arrived back in Paulding early Feb. 24. She said, “In four years, the Winter Games will be held in Sochi, Russia.”
Is she thinking about going to her third Olympics? “Not then, but perhaps in eight or 12 years. It depends on where it is.”