Women's Bobsled

This morning our first stop was the Sochi House since we had been too late when Jen and I tried it. We got in line at 10am. Then we found out it didn't actually open until 12pm. I was ready to give it up but mom was willing to stand there so that I could see the Sochi preview. We ended up talking to some really nice people from Vancouver. We had a good time and the time went by pretty quickly. They have a clock outside the building that shows you how long we have until the Sochi Winter Olympics begin in 2014. The building they are using is on the water and it is usually the Science World Museum. I was already having doubts as to whether I still wanted to go in four years. After seeing the preview today I'm really doubtful. The fact that it is on the sea again makes me question whether I want to spend that much time and money to get there and then face weather related cancellations. Plus the mountain events look to be as far away from Sochi as the Whistler venues are from Vancouver. That makes for difficult planning. I'll probably wait until the summer of 2012 before I decide.

Sochi countdown

Sochi House

Fun tree trunk carving outside Sochi House.

After all that waiting we headed toward the waterfront so we could take the seabus and the shuttle up to Whistler for bobsled. I attended luge in 2002 and men's bobsled in 2006. I tried to get skeleton tickets so I could be done with sled events this year. It didn't work out but I did get Women's bobsled. This is (hopefully) my last sled event. They are just too difficult to watch in person. But since Shauna Rohback was a former soccer player I wanted to see her race. I had also been interested to find out that Elana Meyers had played softball in college before becoming a bobsledder two years ago. We debated where to stand and decided to stand in the lower section by the last couple of curves so we could also see the screens. I looked up when they showed the announcers and realized that one was Carl who was my downstairs neighbor in Park City when I lived in an apartment. Katie had told me he was coming up here to announce at the sled events but it had slipped my mind til I saw him.

Carl on the far right with the mustache

We started right up against the track. But I knew I wouldn't get a picture when they went by after seeing the forerunners. So when it was time for Shauna's run I moved over to the middle where you could see the lower track. When I heard the sled coming behind me I started continual shoot until after the sled went by. That turned out to be the best way. And since I have digital now I can delete the empty photos. (Much better than 2002 when I wasted a roll of film at luge and only got 1 picture of an athlete.) We had been standing with some nice people from Seattle that no matter what they tried couldn't get a picture with a sled in it. Finally the one gave up and used her phone to take videos. After two runs the Americans were all in good positions.

I think this is USA 3

Me and Mom at the Bobsled

I had been trying all afternoon to find someone who knew the Nordic Combined Team event results. On the shuttle to the parking lot to get the Vancouver bus I heard some people discussing hockey scores. I asked if any of them knew the NC results. Finally, one guy knew the answer. I was so excited to hear that our USA team had won silver!!! Congratulations to Billy, Johnny, Todd and Brett. It couldn't have happened for a better group of guys. Good luck to them on Thursday in the long hill event! It was not a medal day for alpine in the GS but I'm still happy that Tommy and Jake finished 26th and 31st respectively. This is only Tommy's first Olympics. He was one of our rookies in 2007. Good luck to our alpine girls skiing GS tomorrow. I hope that Lindsey, Julia, Meghan McJames and Sarah Schleper have a great day! You have to love a mom who is out there kicking butt on the World Cup and Olympic circuit. Go SARAH!

Odds & Ends:

Yesterday when I was driving to Seattle I was listening to the ESPN radio station. They interviewed Julia Mancuso and asked her if she was frightened going down an icy hill at 90 mph. She said you couldn't be scared and that really she finds going downhill at 90 mph kind of peaceful. I am now convinced that these athletes are certifiable. But I guess you would have to be to do what they do. They were also talking a lot about Scotty Lago and the photo that supposedly got him sent home. I will admit I have not seen the picture. I have only heard about it from a friend and on the radio. I feel bad that something like that could end an athlete's Olympic trip. But in this day and age it seems like you have to be careful of every little thing or it gets blown out of proportion. I'm sure this isn't going to hurt him very much in the snowboarding world. Congrats to Scotty on his bronze medal.

Wednesday night will find us at Women's Aerial finals cheering on Emily, Lacy and Ashley. GO USA!