Emotional Rollercoaster

Today was the big day, Men's Snowboard Cross! We had tickets to go see Graham Watanabe, Nick Baumgartner, Nate Holland and Seth Wescott (defending Olympic gold medalist) compete up at Cypress Mountain. (I have met all of them except Nick. I got to see Graham and Nate around the building training and I met Seth at the NYC Ski ball in 2005. All of them are amazing athletes.)

Chelsea, Jayson Hale, Graham Watanabe, Me

Pat Holland, Me, Nate Holland, Chelsea

To be safe we got up early and took a taxi to the Waterfront station to get the Seabus to Longdon Quay and from there a shuttle up to the mountain. Unfortunately when we arrived at Longdon Quay we were greeted with very bad news. Anyone holding a ticket for the general admission/standing section were not allowed to go. VANOC had canceled our tickets. They said that the rain the night before had made things unstable and they could not allow us to stand there. They are going to reimburse us for our bus tickets and our event tickets. And the poor volunteer breaking the news to us was trying to help anyone interested find other events to attend today. If you had a seated ticket you were fine to go to the event.

This news was devastating to me. I had been looking forward to Men's SBX since Torino after missing seeing Graham compete. (I had met Graham in the Fall of 2005 at the California Ski Balls but he had gone to Torino as an alternate. After an injury to a teammate he ended up competing.) A reporter from a local radio station asked if she could interview us about the situation. I almost started crying on her. While we stood there trying to decide what to do I called home and did start crying to mom about the situation. That probably sounds silly, but I have been putting this trip together for 2 years and really had been excited for this particular event. Todd though was not about to give up. He had come up specifically for the purpose of going to the two SBX events (women's tomorrow). They told us there were no scalpers but it turns out Todd knows what he is doing and found some. We tried a couple of guys before finding one with a price that Todd was willing to pay. After going to the cash machine we had our tickets to the Men's SBX event.

It is a bit of a hike into the event site once you get off the bus. But that was nothing compared to the stairs that go straight up! I'm used to living at 7000 feet but this winded me and we are barely above sea level here. We had good seats near the top of the stands to one side. Right in front of us was an American family with two boys. It turned out to be the youngest son's birthday. I gave him some pins, including a U.S. Snowboarding pin. And smart kid that he is, he traded it later for something even better! In front of them were a couple of different groups that turned out to be from Indiana. The first couple and I chatted while the husband and I traded some pins. Then later on I talked to the other couple. Turns out Stephanie works for IU. I'm supposed to email her if I get a chance to come home for the IU v TU football game in September. And then to make things even more fun we had a group of Nate Holland fans down a couple rows. They had hockey style jerseys that had the U.S. Snowboarding logo on the front and Holland 1 on the back.

This is the first time I have gotten to see a SBX event live. Turns out (at least at the Olympics) that they send all the athletes down individually to get times. Each athlete can have two runs to get their best time. They started with 35 and cut it to 32 for the finals. Then in the afternoon after cutting 3 guys they send them down in heats of 4. All four of our athletes made it through the first cut from 32 to 16. Unfortunately, Nick and Graham didn't make it to the final rounds. Graham's last heat was an amazing race. It came down to the finish line but the other athlete edged him out. Nate and Seth were there to represent the USA in the finals though. They kept ending up in the same heat which is just difficult to watch. It means you have to stress for two guys at once since only the top two in each heat make it on to the next round. Fortunately they both made it all the way to the final four! The chairlift the athletes used to get up to the start was not too far off where we were sitting. Todd has a voice that carries when he yells. So whenever we saw the guys going up on the chair he would yell and the rest of us would wave flags and bells (I had to invest in one today). Usually Nate and Seth would wave back or pump their fist toward us as they rode by. The final was Nate, Seth, one Canadian and one Frenchman. One minute it looks good for Nate but not Seth. Then they both look good and then suddenly Nate is gone but Seth is going for the win. Who knew you could have that much emotion and excitement in 0.7 miles! It was even better when it was Seth that crossed the line in first. Sadly, Nate finished in fourth. Such an awesome experience to be there to see Seth repeat as the Olympic Gold Medalist in SBX.

Seth & Nate in one of the rounds. (At least I hope I picked the right picture)

Seth during the flower ceremony celebrating his 2nd Gold Medal!

Me & Tschana (Coworker taking a break between rounds. I also saw Brownie from our Marketing Dept.)

I am so glad that it worked out to be there today for the Men's SBX. Unfortunately, we will not be there tomorrow for the women's event. And it is questionable if Jen and I will be able to attend the Men's Ski Cross event on Sunday. I think we'll need some snow or some quick thinking on the parts of the organizers otherwise I'll be sleeping in that morning. Everyone in Vancouver has been wonderful and friendly. But would it kill the IOC to consider weather patterns before awarding the WINTER Olympics to places that have snow issues?

Congratulations to Bode Miller on his Bronze medal in Downhill! It turns out to be the first DH medal since Tommy Moe won in Lillehammer in 1994. Tomorrow the men compete in the Combined. I can't wait to see if Bode and Ted can medal! And maybe one of these days the women will finally get to have some alpine races. Fingers crossed! Keep an eye on Lindsey Jacobellis competing in Women's SBX too. Hopefully she will come away with the gold medal.

So far in the medals; Snowboarding - 1 Gold, Freestyle - 1 Gold, 2 Bronze, Nordic Combined - 1 Silver, Alpine - 1 Bronze.

GO USA! Enjoy!