Nancye's Adventures: SPEEDY WINS SILVER!!!!

Today was all about the Men's Aerials. After last night and the mess getting to Women's Aerials my goal was to get there early. We took the bus into town, got lunch and then headed over on the seabus. When we got to Londsdale Quay they said I was too early. But after we picked up some waters we tried again. One guy said we couldn't go until 4:35 which was almost 2 hours away. Another said we could go. We decided we liked him and went for it. They let us on the bus and off we went. When we got to Cypress though we ran into a huge line waiting to get up to the security area. Once again luck was on our side. When we got up close they decided that our bags bordered on the edge of being small enough for the Express line. We made it through quickly. Although once again the detector when off when I walked thru. No clue why since I wasn't wearing any metal. At least this time the second scan went fast.

Once we got in we headed straight for a place to stand. Mom had never been to an aerial event before last night. So she thought we'd be heading for the same area only hopefully closer up. I told her that our spot last night really hadn't been very good, even if we did get closer. This time we were able to get front and center. The only negative was that we were right next to a speaker. Sometimes you have to suffer for the good spots. We were standing next to two women from the Squamish tribe (or is it clan). I traded pins with one of them. Just down from us was a group of American fans with their flags. I'm guessing they got on tv a few times. And if you ever saw a guy with a red painted face and wearing a cow costume, we were on the bus with him. Once we were settled we were 2 hours early. Thank goodness mom is such a trooper. And they were smart enough to put the Canada v USA gold medal game on the big screen to keep us entertained. Too bad the USA couldn't even score. But it kept the Canadian fans around us happy. Turns out that our location was right behind the corral that had all the USA staff in it. Tschana saw me early on and waved. The rest were too focused to notice til later and I wasn't about to try yelling again. I also noticed my boss in another area. But since I'm on vacation I never bothered to wander over that way. Besides, I wouldn't want to lose my prime location!

The first round I wasn't sure if the judges liked our guys. After one jump Speedy was in 5th and Ryan was in 8th. Fortunately on the second jump things were going a bit better. Ryan jumped into first position with his second jump. It was so great to see him react as he landed. You knew that he was happy with it and just had the biggest grin on his face. His position held until Speedy came down. Then we got to watch Speedy throw down the Hurricane which had the highest rate of difficulty of the night. He nailed it! And of course he went into first position. I haven't been that nervous since I played soccer. I didn't want to wish bad things on any of the other jumpers but there were four more. For those of you who think I always hyperventilate in these situations it isn't true. I just stood there with my gloves over my mouth before the scores were announced each time hoping and praying that Speedy would stay in first. We finally reached the point where I realized that no matter what happened he was going to get a medal. Once he got passed for gold I started praying that he would at least get to hang on to the silver. I'm not sure what happened to the last Canadian but the crowd definitely thought he got screwed. He had placed first after the first jump and finished 5th after the second. His loss was Speedy's silver!

The place we had been standing all night turned out to be perfect for the flower ceremony. And while we waited I had the opportunity to say hi to Cheryl (team manager), Emily Cook (athlete) and Ashley Caldwell (athlete) and get some photos. When Cheryl saw me she brought one of the USA pins over for me. Of course when everyone around me saw that they all wanted one. Definitely started something there. I would have waited til we got back to the office. It was so great to see Speedy get his flowers. He was just so happy. Not that you can blame him. You couldn't keep the grin off your face watching him up there celebrating. This was definitely the highlight of events for me. I loved seeing Seth get gold and Lindsey get bronze, but it was special to see Speedy win silver. Mom and I met him in 2005 at some of the ski balls. He is just such a great guy and we were so happy to be there when he won his medal. It was the perfect way to finish our Vancouver adventure! (See pictures below.)

I was thrilled to get back to the condo and find out that Billy Demong had won gold and Johnny Spillane had won silver in Nordic Combined. What a wonderful and historic day for the Nordic Program! Congratulations.

Tomorrow is Women's Slalom and Women's Snowboarding PGS. Good luck to Lindsey, Julia, Sarah Schleper and Hailey Duke. Hailey was in our first rookie group in 2007. So in her honor--- "DARE TO DREAM HAILEY!" And Good luck to Michelle Gorgone in PGS!

Question of the day- After watching aerials I wonder why it is ok for women to compete in aerials (hurling yourself thru the air) but it isn't ok to have women ski jumping? I'd love to see the IOC explain it. I'm also pissed to hear that the IOC is now threatening to take out women's hockey. How hard is it for them to understand that if a sport isn't in the Olympics it won't receive support from countries so it can continue to grow? It would be great if they could use their brains before they speak.

Little easier to take pics tonight.