Me with the Olympic cauldron

Flames lighting the crowd at one of Robson Square's nightly fireworks celebrations Fast forward to February 2010. I spent the first weekend of the Games camped out on the couch, watching the Opening Ceremonies and waiting for Canada to win its first gold. I watched speed skating and ski jumping and checked out pictures from friends in Vancouver on Facebook. It looked fantastic. And then Monday evening I had the spontaneous thought: “well, I could just go”. The Olympic countdown clock, counting up The genie was out of the bottle. I looked up flights and checked the availability of event tickets. An hour later (when the Eastern timezone was awake) I ran the idea past a couple friends and my parents to see if I was crazy. Another half hour later, my flights were booked, event tickets purchased, and accommodations arranged. It was hard to sleep that night as I was so excited. The clock was ticking.

Me with the crowds on Granville Street Over the last two weeks, I’ve written about my time in Whistler and the various events I attended. It’s fitting to close with a little bit about what Vancouver was like.

During the first week of the Games, I heard and read a lot about how Vancouverites were embracing the Games, and how everyone was enjoying themselves so much. When you encounter a story in the news, it’s hard to know whether it’s something that reporters are blowing out of proportion — something that the average person on the street wouldn’t even notice — or whether it truly is like that on the ground.

Flames lighting the crowd at one of Robson Square's nightly fireworks celebrations Let me tell you, downtown Vancouver was crazy during the Olympics. The centre of the insanity was the intersection of Granville and Robson streets. Both of those streets were closed to traffic throughout the Olympics, and Robson Square, one block north of that intersection, was a major outdoor gathering point. Each night during the Games, there were fireworks at Robson Square, and I met up with fellow Waterloo alum Ian to see the show one night.

Crowds celebrating the last night of the Olympics on Granville Street I ended up downtown a few nights, including the night that Canada defeated Russia in hockey and the last night of the Games after the Closing Ceremony, the day that Canada was gold in men’s hockey. As you can see the streets were packed! Filled with a lot of young people dressed in Canadian hockey jerseys or Team Canada clothes, wanting to do nothing more than high five everyone in sight. Hockey fans on Granville Street The last night I was downtown there were a few spontaneous rounds of O Canada to be heard while walking up and down the street. The only experience I can even remotely compare it to is being in Ottawa for Canada Day, except this was every night for two weeks in February. It was truly incredible and one of my favourite memories from the Games.

Was it the patriotic expression of a newly confident Canada emerging on the world stage as the newspapers were debating? During my life, I think Canadians have always been great fans of the Olympics and the Canadian team — the prevalence of maple-leaf-covered Roots and now Hudson’s Bay clothing being just one example — and this was just the next step. From what I read about at Dundas Square in Toronto and the constant interest from friends across Canada on Facebook, it seems the excitement stretched far beyond Vancouver, across the entire country.

The last big Olympic experience I had was flying out of Vancouver airport on the day after the Closing Ceremony, the busiest day in the history of Vancouver airport, with 39,000 people departing. While I wasn’t expecting chaos — they made a big deal out of being prepared for this — I was at least expecting a bit of a crowd. But I guess my flight, at 11:45pm, was too late for much excitement. When I arrived (4.5 hours early, as recommended), there was no line up for check-in, no line up at the Olympic souvenir shop, no line up at security; it was a run-of-the-mill quiet Monday evening at a medium-sized airport. How disappointing!

Me with Dutch gold medallist speed skater Sven Kramer at Vancouver airport As it turns out, I had forgotten to bring the card that gave me access to one of the lounges at the airport, so once I got through security I wandered the terminal a bit to see what was going on. There were still some athletes there waiting for flights, including a few folks from Great Britain and a sea of orange jackets from the Netherlands. As I went over to Tim Horton’s to get my last Tim’s hot chocolate for some time, I recognized one of the Dutch athletes (who was the only one not in orange): Sven Kramer, presently the best long track speed skater and gold medallist in the men’s 5000m. I watched him (on TV) win gold during the first day of the Games. He kindly indulged my request to take a picture with him. It was a great way to end my trip to Vancouver.

I’m so glad I went to Vancouver and Whistler for the Olympics. It was one of the best experiences of my life!

Getting to Sochi in 2014 may be a bit more difficult than Vancouver, though. But London’s conveniently accessible from anywhere on the planet, isn’t it?

Me at the end of the Closing Ceremony

Watching the Canada vs. USA hockey game before the Closing Ceremony When I arrived in the stadium, the first order of business was to catch up on the Canada versus USA hockey game, which was playing on the big screen. What an exciting game that was! I don’t follow hockey much but even I could tell — without commentary, as we got the raw feed in the stadium — that it was a really well-played game. A sea of red leaving the hockey game next door Not knowing the rules of Olympic hockey, I didn’t realize that it was sudden-death overtime; while I was excited at Crosby’s overtime goal, it took another minute for me to realize that the game was over. I was thrilled for many reasons: for the success of the men’s hockey team, for Canada winning 14 gold medals, and for that being a great note on which to start the Closing Ceremony.

My seat for the Closing Ceremony After the game finished, I started wandering around the stadium to take some pictures and see what was going on. One of the best pictures I took before the show started was this panorama. On the left side of the picture, you can see: my seat in the bottom left corner (as noted on the detailed image at right), the podium where speeches were given, flag poles; in the centre: the VIP seating and the three-legged cauldron, and closest to the camera the beginning of the athletes’ seating; and at the right, the Olympic rings and another stage. (If you’re reading this on Facebook, click “View Original Post” at the bottom of the post to see more detail.)

BC Place before the Closing Ceremony began panorama

Me with my moose antlers at the Closing Ceremony At 4:30, the audience participation rehearsal started. At our seats was a custom kit with a number of items to use during the ceremony, including elegant foam moose antlers, as you can see, to wear during the spectacular Canadian stereotypes segment. Audience members in their white and light blue ponchos We also had ponchos — white or light blue (mine was light blue) — to wear during the ceremony so that we looked better on television when they projected lights onto the crowd.

Clown mechanic repairing the cauldron And then, at 5:30, the ceremony began, with what ended up being my favourite part of the whole ceremony. When I arrived in the stadium, I noticed that the cauldron in the centre only had three legs. I figured that they had just decided to go with that after the fourth leg hadn’t come up during the Opening Ceremony. When the clown mechanic appeared at the start and started “repairing” the fourth leg, everyone in the stadium roared and jumped to their feet. That and Catriona Le May Doan lighting the cauldron made for a perfect start to the ceremony. Although the heat coming off the cauldron didn’t reach me, it did cause the curtain screens hanging in the centre of the stadium to billow a lot.

Joannie Rochette carrying in the Canadian flag Team Canada in the stands Next was the Parade of the Athletes. Joannie Rochette carried the Canadian flag in through the entrance just next to where I was sitting. The athletes made their way in and to their seats, also near where I was sitting. Since I was sitting right on a pathway, I was able to get up and take a picture of Team Canada in the stands.

Presentation of Sochi 2014 Michael J. Fox's speech during the I Am Canadian segment As the ceremony progressed, we had the beautiful presentation from Sochi 2014, followed by speeches by Canadian actors William Shatner, Catherine O’Hara, and Michael J. Fox.

A spectacle of Canadian stereotypes Next was the peculiar but amusing spectacle of Canadian stereotypes and Michael Bublé. The ceremony concluded with a concert by some of the biggest names in present-day Canadian music. I was looking forward to hearing Alanis Morissette for the first time in person, but didn’t much care for the song she played. Bouncy balls at the end of the Closing Ceremony Simple Plan put on a good show, as did Hedley. The concert ended with a bunch of huge glowing bouncy balls being released for the athletes to play with and then eventually send into the crowd. The bouncy balls reminded me of the beautiful Sony BRAVIA bouncy balls commercial.

Crowds leaving the Closing Ceremony After the ceremony I joined the crowds and headed towards downtown Vancouver to see the chaos on Granville Street. I’ll write more about what Vancouver’s been like during my time here, but the crowds on Sunday night were bigger and happier than any of the previous nights, and why shouldn’t they be: Canada just won gold medal hockey against the United States, had its best Winter Olympics ever, and showed the world a great time! Thanks, Vancouver!

See the rest of my pictures from the Closing Ceremony in my Vancouver gallery.

Me at the Pacific Coliseum for short track speed skating races

The start of the men's 500m final There were three finals being held that night: men’s 500m, women’s 1000m, and men’s 5000m relay. For the shorter distance races, they first worked through quarterfinals and semifinals of each, before having the B and A final races.

Short track races are crazy and exciting. It’s such a small rink to be racing so fast on — just a normal hockey rink, I believe — and the racers stay so close. A single slip up by one of the racers can cause a crash that takes out another racer and ends their chance at gold, so it’s a really nail-biting event when you’re there in person.

Charles Hamelin and Francois-Louis Tremblay celebrating their gold and bronze medal-winning races All of the events had Canadians racing. Two Canadian men made it to the final of the 500m race: Charles Hamelin and Francois-Louis Tremblay. Hamelin spent most of the race in the lead but on the second last lap was overtaken by Si-Bak Sung of South Korea. Coming out of the last turn, Hamelin regained the lead, and then suddenly there was chaos: the South Korean fell, bounced off the pads, taking out Canadian Francois-Louis Tremblay; an unstable Charles Hamelin crossed the finish line on one foot just before spinning around on his skates off balance, with Apolo Ohno right behind him. The crowd erupted having seen that Hamelin crossed first, but then uncertainty set in as the referees consulted. After a tense minute with an entire coliseum holding its breath, the results came in: gold for Hamelin, silver for South Korea, bronze for Tremblay, and Apolo Ohno disqualified for interference. Crazy! If you haven’t seen the race, I highly recommend watching it. On CTV Olympics’ video player, scroll down to “Golden Moments”, hit the arrow to go to page 2, and select “Men’s 500m Final: Hamelin wins gold”.

Next up was the women’s 1000m final. Unfortunately, Canadians Kalyna Roberge and Jessica Gregg didn’t qualify from the semifinals, so they skated in the B final, which Roberge won. The gold medal was won by Wang Meng of China who had dominated her quarter and semifinal races.

Transitions during the men's 5000m relay The last race of the evening — and indeed the last short track speed skating race of these Games — was the men’s 5000m relay final. The qualifying races had taken place more than a week earlier, with 5 teams of 4 making the final race: 20 skaters on the ice, which is pretty chaotic, so chaotic in fact that they scared the on-ice cameraman off the ice! In the relay race, one member from each team races on the outer part of the track while the remaining members of the team circle on the inside of the track waiting to take over. They switch about every lap and a half, and the race is about 45 laps long in total.

China took an early lead, but about half way through Canada managed to squeeze in front. Canada opened up quit a gap with about 10 laps to go by changing their relay timing — continuing skating while all the other teams passed off — but the other teams managed to make up the distance. The last few laps were pretty tense, as the Koreans and Chinese stayed in close. The Canadians maintained their lead all the way to the finish line, but in the last turn, the Chinese skater slipped a bit, leaving the Koreans with the silver and the Americans with the bronze.

Flags being raised during O Canada for the men's 500m short track medal ceremony We were very lucky that they decided to do the medal ceremony at the venue right after the race. For most of the events during the Vancouver Olympics, medals have been presented at victory ceremonies — at either BC Place in Vancouver or Whistler Medals Plaza in Whistler Village. However, for a few events, such as figure skating, they have been doing them right at the event venue. They did the short track medals at the venue as well, probably because they needed to start preparing BC Place for the Closing Ceremony two days later. Team Canada on the podium with Korea in silver and USA in bronze Regardless, it was a bonus for us: we got to see three Canadian medals presented in one place — more than at any other medals ceremony at these Games — and got to sing O Canada twice that night. During one of the singings of O Canada, I gave my friend Katie a call on my cell phone so that she could join in.

Although I’ve enjoyed all the events I’ve attended at the Olympics, short track speed skating was my favourite. Overall, it’s just a fantastic, exciting sport to watch. And two O Canada’s in one night made it all the more rewarding!

Take a look at the rest of my pictures from short track speed skating.

Me at the aerials venue at Cypress Mountain

Canadian aerialist in a training jump Twelve athletes had qualified from the earlier rounds — 3 Canadians, 2 Americans, 3 Chinese, 3 Belorussians, and a Swiss athlete. When I arrived two hours before the event started, they were doing their training runs. During training, they start with easy jumps and work up to the harder jumps. In fact, in training they must achieve the same difficulty level as their hardest jump in the competition or they cannot do that jump in the actual event. The attention of the crowd was split during training, however, as the video screens showed the women’s gold medal hockey match while the aerialists trained.

Preparing the jump for training It was interesting to see the ongoing maintenance of the hill during the evening. After every other jump, the Smurf Shovel Brigade (the venue maintenance volunteers in blue jackets) fixed up the landing area, filling in where jumpers landed hard, corrugating the landing area by walking down the hill sideways with their skis, and tossing out pine boughs to give jumpers depth perception.

Aerialists fly up to 60 feet in the air In the finals, each athlete gets two jumps. Canadian Kyle Nissen had a fantastic jump with a really solid landing in the first round, taking the lead by 7 points. Unfortunately, the other two Canadians both had slapbacks, “a poor landing in which the skier hits the snow on his/her skis and back”.

Chinese aerialist in the air With a Canadian in the lead, the crowd was really excited going into the second round of jumps. Because the best athletes go last in the second round, we had to wait until the very end to see whether Nissen would hold on to first. He had a good jump but not as good a landing, and a lower degree of difficulty, which pushed him back in to 5th place. The gold went to Alexei Grishin of Belarus.

Flower ceremony for the men's aerials This was my first event in Vancouver and a bit different from the events in Whistler. Getting to the event took a while, just because getting around Vancouver takes a long time — but I never had to wait longer than 5 minutes. Leaving the event, there were really long lineups for the buses down Cypress Mountain; they had to fit some 9,000 people onto buses back to Vancouver, so that took a while. All in all, though, it was a well-run event, made even better by fantastic weather the whole time.

Take a look at the rest of my pictures from the event.

Cecilia and I at biathlon

Canadian skiier practice shooting In the biathlon relay, there are 19 teams, each composed of four people. Each person does a 6km relay leg: 2km skiing, a shooting round lying prone on the ground, 2km skiing, a shooting round standing up, another 2km skiing, and then a transition to the next skier. In the shooting round, they have 5 bullets and have to hit 5 targets. The carnage in the transition area They also have an additional 3 bullets in case they miss some of the targets, but they have to reload those bullets manually. Finally, if they still haven’t hit all the targets, they have to do a penalty loop.

Russian fans cheering on their winning team As with the ski jumping event I attended the day before, the Canadians and Americans were the lowest ranked teams heading into the competition. At the top of the field were the Russians, Germans, and French. The German and Russian fans were out in full force, wildly waving their flags. Our team did decently, considering we’re not a northern European powerhouse: the Canadian women improved from their rank, finishing in 15, three spots above their rank, and two spots ahead of the Americans.

Canadian and American skiiers embracing after a tough ski The Russians won the race (and their fans were happy about that, let me tell you!). The French had been in the lead but then had a bad shooting round and had to take two penalty laps. Remarkably, the French fought their way back from ninth place back up to second in an amazing recovery from their penalty laps.

Today I leave Whistler and head down to Vancouver to enjoy a few more events and the closing ceremonies.

Me representing Canada at the ski jumping hill

Me with the Cotton women at the Olympic rings in Whistler I arrived on Sunday and came up to Whistler. Fortunately for me, my friend Cecilia and her family were also coming to Whistler for the games this week and graciously are letting me spend a few days in their condo.

Ski jumping at Whistler Olympic Park Today I attended my first event of the games: men’s team ski jumping. I wanted to see them fly, and I wasn’t disappointed. As with many sports, seeing it live is very different from seeing it on TV. On TV, you have the sensation that ski jumping involves, well, jumping. In the real world, looking up the hill, it’s much more evident that ski jumping is really controlled falling down a hill.

Thomas Morgenstern jumping In team ski jump, there are two rounds. In each round, each of 4 members of the team jumps once, and their scores are added together. The top 8 teams jump again. The Canadian men were ranked 12th going into the event, and came out in 12th, so they didn’t make it to the final. The Austrian team dominated the event and were amazing to watch. Austria wins gold! Their final jumper, Gregor Schlierenzauer, had the longest jump of the entire 2010 games, 146.5m. I had a blast and am looking forward to the rest of my events this week.

Take a look at the rest of the pictures from today in Whistler.

Whistler
February, 2010

Stefan Read, Canadian ski jumper Update 2010/02/23 22:00 PST: I learned after the event that there was a bit of a competition going on between the North American teams. The Canadians and Americans were ranked second last and last respectively, and they had a friendly wager riding on the result: each member of the losing team had to drink a bottle of maple syrup. Those poor Canadian guys…

Fog-covered mountains on the way to Milford Sound

Kayaks on the island where we stopped for lunch Besides seeing it differently because I was kayaking, Milford is quite different from Doubtful. If you take a look back at my pictures from Doubtful Sound, it’s wide open with fairly gently sloping mountains. Milford, on the other hand, is much more closed in, narrower, with steeper mountains that dive straight into the water.

Sunlit mountains lining Milford Sound I think what amazed me most about both Doubtful Sound and Milford Sound — indeed, of all that I saw in Fjordland — was mountains with water all around. Clouds hiding Milford Sound It was quite a departure the mountains that I’m used to as a Canadian (and that I’m seeing on the television a lot right now).

Earlier this month, Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer issued a pre-budget reporting predicting the Federal government would have an $18.9 billion structural deficit in 2013-14. Government ministers say the number’s not right, though the PBO has been good at predictions in the past. Regardless, there’s going to be a big deficit.

What bugs me is not that there’s going to be a big deficit. Rather, I’m annoyed at the idea that we can eliminate such a deficit by tightening our belts a little bit. Getting rid of an $18.9 billion deficit will be very difficult. Neither the Conservatives nor the Liberals is willing to mention tax increases (and understandably, as voters don’t like the idea of paying more). But it’s something that should at least be in the discussion as we choose from a variety of unpalatable options.

$18.9 billion is a lot of money. With the large numbers thrown around over the last couple of years in stimulus spending in Canada, the USA, and around the world, it’s easy to lose sight of how much a $18.9 billion deficit really is. Remember, that’s $18.9 billion in the hole, every year.

I did a little bit of research and found some examples of how much $18.9 billion is. I’m not promoting any one of these options — many of them are ridiculous on purpose — I’m just using them to exemplify how big that number is.

Click on the graphic below for a high quality PDF version.

If you find an error in my calculations or better data, please let me know and I’ll be happy to correct it.