Tuesday, February 11th-
Today was the day that I had repeatedly said, if there is only one event I can see in Sochi, I want to see Women's Ski Jumping. Somehow I had to find a way to make sure that I made it to the event. When I was a kid, soccer was my sport. I remember saying that someday I wanted to play in the Olympics. My dad told me that I could not do that since it was not in the Olympics. In 1996 we were at the stadium when the USA won the first Olympic gold medal in women's soccer. Maybe I will not play soccer in the Olympics, but I was there to witness the first time a team of women were given the chance to realize their dream of winning the gold. When I moved to Park City I learned that Women's Ski Jumping was not an Olympic sport. Over time I started volunteering with Women's Ski Jumping USA. A lot of my friends and family have been pulled into supporting the cause as I requested their time, money or donations for auctions. I appreciate all the times they said yes. Sochi was finally the Olympics that was going to include Women's Ski Jumping. After watching the efforts by our USA women and their counterparts around the world, I could not miss this event. I just had to figure out how to do my job and be a fan. I had been telling my boss for a year that I would do whatever he needed me to do, but I really wanted to be at this event.
Every parent that I heard from leading up to today received the same message, I will stay at the hotel until mid afternoon. I will then go to the Olympic Park Train station and hang out there from 3:30-5pm near the Texas Chicken. At that point I will deal with any medal ceremony tickets and if all goes well I can be on the train to ski jumping soon after. I also posted this information on our facebook page. Going from 7:30am-3pm was actually a long time sitting in the lobby. Fortunately, we had slopestyle skiing that day for the women. The funniest thing a couple days before was that the hotel owner put downhill on the TV so I put slopestyle snowboard on my laptop. Just as Steven Nyman was going to take his first run the owner changed the channel to slopestyle. We all let out a yell. By the time I could switch my online viewing I had missed his run. So now I try to have a window with each event open just in case I need to switch faster. I was having some issues with the live streaming freezing up on me all morning. It was made even more frustrating because I could hear the USOC staff 2 floors above me shouting, cheering or groaning and I was not always sure why. There were a lot of crashes and yard sales in slopestyle. The warm conditions were making things soft and causing all kinds of carnage. In the end, Devin Logan was able to put together a run good enough to earn silver. This was Freeski's first medal but Kate rose to the challenge and had the list of people for medal and Ikkos ceremony invites quickly enough for me to move things along and still have hope I would make it to jumping. The USOC transportation crew said they would provide me with a ride over to the train station. As we were leaving I was getting text messages from Nick Goepper's uncle about spectator pass issues and tickets. The driver speaks Russian and I speak English. But apparently groaning is universal and he understood the finger signal questioning whether we could turn around. He ran me back to the hotel so I could grab their tickets. I ended up getting dropped off across from the spectator entrances and was able to hand the tickets off to Nick's dad Chris. He did not want to come all the way out and I did not want to go all the way in. Somehow we convinced security to let him come close enough so I could hand over the envelope.
From there I headed over to the Train station to hang out near Texas Chicken. While I was there a couple members of Julia Mancuso's family came by for NET's to get into the Park. It turns out that even the group that got their tickets from me at 8:45pm made it to the ceremony on time the previous night. I was so happy to hear that. During my time at the station I was working with Amanda to figure out medal ceremony tickets. We finally figured out a way to meet up to make the hand off around the schedule I had posted for the parents. The best news was that I could give the whole bunch to Justine who is working with Devin and she would take care of everything. I met up with her and Nancy Logan outside the gates a little after 5pm and gave them what they needed. It was nice to meet Nancy since we had traded emails but Lauren had her event tickets so I missed her on the front end of the trip. From there it was time to run for the train. I actually made the 5:38pm train and found a seat despite the crowds heading for snowboard halfpipe.
I listened with half an ear to the family across the aisle from me while trying to doze. I think it was a family and a couple of friends. I was wondering if they were Americans living abroad but never really figured it out. The two boys were very excited about going to McDonald's on the way to the event. When we reached my stop which was the first one going up the mountain the group across from me prepared to get off the train. I leaned over and asked if they were going to jumping or snowboarding. They confirmed they were headed to halfpipe so I told them to stay put until the next stop. This might be my first trip up, but I have learned a few things working with our parents.
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| Ski jumping venue |
When I got off the train the station was really busy. Before I left the station I stopped to pull my fleece lined pants on over the leggings I had been wearing throughout the afternoon. I am not really made for that look, but did not want to be too hot on the train ride up. From the station you wind your way around to the "line" for the gondola. You learn quickly that there are no lines in Russia, there are mobs. If you want to get anywhere you better be ready to push your way along or you will be left behind. Everything moved along and I found myself at the top of the gondola in no time. When I was walking in and figuring out where my ticket might place me I ran into some of the parents and aunts. It turns out if we stood where our tickets said we would not be able to see the jump very well. So they said to follow them and we went to a different section with a better view. No one even checked our tickets. Eventually we had a large group of American fans surrounding us. It was entertaining to see the fans from other countries come over to have pictures taken with anyone that was decked out in USA gear or had an American flag. It was great having some of our athletes from the men's jumping team, moguls, bobsled, skeleton and nordic combined with us.
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Hanging out with Heather McPhie from Moguls.
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Bobsled and Skeleton represented by Lolo Jones and Blair Tomten.
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Nancy and Nancye
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| Nick representing Nordic combined and oh yeah, his little sister Sarah is jumping. |
And then it was time for the event. One of the coolest things was that the first jumper to come down for the first official jump of the first event held in the Olympics for women was Sarah Hendrickson of the USA. The fact that Sarah was there to jump was amazing. She won World Championships in 2013 at the age of 18. This past August she jumped so far that she out jumped the hill and landed flat which destroyed her knee. She had surgery at the beginning of September and was able to rehab in 5.5 months so that she could be on the Olympic team. The next one up for the Americans was Lindsey Van. There are so many things to say about Lindsey. She probably spent more of her career fighting to get her sport into the Olympics than actually doing the part she loved, jumping. I am so impressed that she never gave up, kept fighting and won the battle. And now I was watching her do what she loves best at the Olympics. Our last jumper for the USA was Jessica Jerome. Like Lindsey, she has spent most of her career fighting for the sport. Her dad is the one who went out and figured out how to start Women's Ski Jumping USA to help support the girls and fight for Olympic inclusion. It would have been great to have their teammates Alissa and Abby here too, but these three were a great representation of our team. I must admit, I went into the event knowing that it would be a battle to get a medal, but hoping for that happy ending for one of our girls. It turned out that none of our girls got a medal, but all of them can say they are Olympians. And looking forward, they can focus on their jumping and not the fight for inclusion. That is a pretty big deal. I hope they are proud of their accomplishment. I am so proud of them for never giving up.
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| Sarah Hendrickson |
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| Lindsey Van |
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| Jessica Jerome |
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| Emotional gold medalist |
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| Flower ceremony |
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The first medalists in Women's Ski Jumping
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It was hard to leave at the end of the event. I honestly wanted it to keep going despite the fact that it was after 11pm when it ended. I knew the direct train to Olympic park left at 11:44pm or else I would have to wait until 12:44am. I got into the mob heading to the gondola and pushed my way along. About part way through the maze I got caught up in a group of people and just let them carry me along. I managed during the event to avoid having my photo taken with international fans, but in the line a couple decided to take a photo with me. All I had was the USA hat from Women's Ski Jumping and one of their stickers on my cheek. Definitely not their best option but the only one who was close by. There was a point when I was being carried along that I could not tell how far or close I was to the gondola. I did not know if we were going to have to go around another curve or if we were almost there. And then suddenly things opened up and I was pushing my way into a gondola. Sadly, I watched the train I needed depart as I came down the mountain. I swear it left early so I did not realize right off that was my train. When I got up to the platform I pointed at the train sitting there and just said, "Olympic Park?" The woman started rattling off a whole string of things in Russian. I think I must look like a deer caught in the headlights when that happens to me. I was so frustrated with my inability to learn languages and the fact that I was starting to realize I missed my train. The woman was nice enough to find another worker who spoke English. It turns out he could speak enough to give me directions on taking the next train to Adler and switching to one that would go to the Park. But he did not actually understand English if I asked him a question. It was interesting. Fortunately, his directions got me on a train headed in the right direction. I was able to get down to Adler, switch to another for Olympic Park and reach that point about 10 minutes after I would have left the mountains if I had waited on the direct train. Considering it was 1am, I am glad I was already almost back to my hotel. Just had to walk the 20 minutes. I doubt my mother is going to be thrilled to know that I walked back by myself at 1am. But in my defense, there is a policeman almost every 50 feet, even at that hour of the night. Anyway, I made it safely and was happy that I was there for the first Olympic Women's Ski Jumping event.
PS- Over the weekend one of the parents was looking for tickets to Men's Ski jumping. I was told that there were none available unless they wanted to go to the box office and check. I was running around all afternoon and had a medal ceremony to coordinate tickets for. By the time I got back to the hotel to check what had come down from the mountains for me it was 8:30pm. Inside the envelope was 1 ticket to men's ski jumping for the people I had told we did not have any tickets. I was trying to figure out what to do since the event was going to start soon. Shortly after I made the discovery I got a text from Brian who was wondering if I knew of any options that were less than $200. He had gone up to the event and was trying to get in. I admitted that I had a ticket in my possession but was not sure how to get it to him. If we did not figure out something soon I would miss the next train to get it up to him. He told me to send a photo but I had real doubts that anyone would accept a photo. I did send it to him though. Then I went down the hall to see if the USOC transportation crew could get me to the train station in time to make the next direct train up. The driver got me close and I begged him to let me out so I could run for it. I somehow managed to get through security and on the right train in time. Brian was giving me updates as I went. Just before we got to Olympic Village he told me he was in. I asked him to confirm that he was all set so I could hop off. Turns out the photo actually worked and he got into the event. I got off at the Village and took the next train back to the Park station so I could walk home. Craziest thing I have heard.
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