I never imagined to be so close to the action at these Olympic Winter Games that I would be too close to document it in pictures! Here's how this 22nd of February unfolded...
I woke up to sunny skies yet again! I got ready and headed for my afternoon/evening shift at Cypress. There was no medal event at the mountain today - just qualifications for one of the craziest sports of the Winter Olympics: aerials. When you pause and think about it for a second, there are sports like hockey and curling that take several games in multiple rounds to advance far enough to win a medal. In aerials, you ski down the hill, jump off, perform a series of acrobatics in the air in a span of about 3 seconds, land it, and call it a day! You do that twice to qualify, and then twice again, and you can win a medal within... what... 1 minute? (assuming each jump takes about 15 seconds to complete)? I also admire the judging for this event. There is so much to look out for both in the air, and at landing. I'm just thankful for slow-motion replay :)
We had 24 Olympic hopefuls start in tonight's event. Only half will qualify to the finals. Three Canadians were in the line-up: Warren Shouldice, Steve Omischl, and Kyle Nissen. Anton Kushnir of Belarus was one of the favourites to watch for.
I forgot to mention: my assignment for today was "Free 10," i.e. working the area between the field-of-play, broadcast mix zone, and spectators' standing zone. Pretty much the best place to be, right in the middle of the action. It's also worth mentioning that the 4000 standing-room tickets were not cancelled for this event (unlike for snowboard and ski cross events), so we were expecting significant crowds at Cypress.
We assumed our positions and the competition started on time. The snow crew worked hard all night to prepare the field-of-play with the scare reserves of snow. Despite that challenge, the jump and landing area were up to standards. And the athletes took it to the skies. It's quite breathtaking to witness an aerial ski jump live; to see the athletes fly way up, perform all these tricks, and land safely on two skis. I was so close to the action, that I couldn't actually take any pictures. There were too many professional photographers who paid thousands and thousands of dollars for the privilege of being able to take pictures not far from where we were situated. Not to mention all the television cameras and supervisors roaming around.
All 3 Canadians qualified to the finals. The crowds were ecstatic, especially in our standing-room section, where a group of true fans watched the competition in nothing but boxer shorts, wrapped in Canadian flags with their faces painted in red and white. I took advantage of the action to get my 15 seconds of fame and pose in front of all the TV cameras every chance I had. I think my best shot was during athlete interviews as they were coming off the course. I positioned myself behind each athlete, right in front of the CTV and NBC cameras for the interviews. I hope you saw me! A couple of other volunteers have... :)
Highlight of the evening: Warren Shouldice came out of the Athletes' Lounge after the event and before he could head back onto the bus for the village, the half-naked red-and-white cheering fans lured him to their positions for some autographs. It was my only chance in the day to actually take some pictures so I jumped on the occasion, snapping a few shots with Warren himself. Sweet!
That concluded Day 10. Full of memories and a new appreciation for this spectacular sport, I headed to bed.
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