Golden Girl

Ashleigh McIvor won Canada's 6th gold medal of the games, today, in Women's Ski Cross!

And, of course, Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue of London, Ontario, gave us our 5th gold yesterday in Ice Dance.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

While our medal total may not be where Canadian officials had hoped, with 6 gold we are only one behind the USA.  The number of top five finishes we have had is similar to the Americans, but we have not been able to turn as many of those into medal positions (it means we have a lot of 4th and 5th place finishes).

There are many opportunities for Canada to do well over the next few days.  Both of our curling teams finished atop the standings after the round robin draws.  Our women's hockey team will meet the USA in the gold medal game, and our Women's Bobsleigh teams sit in 1st and 4th place after two of four runs.  We have contenders in short and long track skating tomorrow too.

In men's hockey, the Canadian team easily defeated Germany but will have to beat Russia tomorrow in order to make it to the medal games (amazing that either Russia or Canada will be eliminated tomorrow!).

Joannie Rochette sits in 3rd place in Women's Figure Skating after the short program, delivering a beautiful and emotionally charged performance, skating only a couple of days after the sudden death of her mother who suffered a heart attack a day after arriving in Vancouver to watch Joannie skate.

Joannie broke down after the performance leaving everyone with a lump in their throat and tears in their eyes.  Scott Hamilton's voice was breaking as he tried to talk on NBC while waiting for the marks to be displayed. 

I know that the 6-time Canadian champion had been (unfairly) developing a reputation for not being able to deliver, but that changed last year with a more confident approach and a mental toughness that carried her to a silver medal at last year's World Championships.

Still, I don't know where she found the strength and courage to be able to deliver the nearly flawless performance today that has given her a real shot at a medal here on Thursday.  Her mom would be so proud.

Lynn Canyon

On Monday morning, I got up early and took the Sky Train out to meet Barry and we drove over to North Vancouver and up into Lynn Canyon park.  Lynn Canyon has a suspension bridge similar to the famed one at Capilano.

It is 48m long and is 50m above the river in the canyon floor.  By comparison, Capilano is 137m long, and 70m high.  Lynn Canyon has a few advantages however:  it is easy to get to, it is much less crowded, and it is free (whereas it costs $27 to visit Capilano).

In addition, Lynn Canyon was more than long and high enough for me!  As you can see, I was hanging on with both hands...

The sun was out, but it was a fair bit colder than in the city.  With the sun behind us, we were able to create shadows of ourselves on the canyon walls below us...

You can walk all the way down to the canyon floor and along the creek bed.  Very pretty scenery...

Barry and I found a pool area where people jump from rocks into the water in the summer (I bet it is still cold)...

From the bottom, it looks a long way back up to where the bridge is...

There is a fence that runs along the path from top to bottom to prevent idiots from getting too close to the edge and falling or jumping to their deaths...

Here's a video that might give you a better idea of what the view looks like as you cross the bridge...



On the way out we stopped at a nice pub for a salmon burger (good) and some chowder (great!).  It was another great day.  Thanks Barry!

Free Dance Gold!

I am the luckiest guy in the world.  There really aren't any words to describe the feeling of watching Scott and Tessa create magic on ice and win a gold medal for Canada.  Here are the images that tell the story of the night...

(another beautiful day)

(Pacific Coliseum at the PNE)

(Inside the arena)

(UK team #2 - crowd loves them - but well back)

(Paul and Vanessa - with a dedicated fan!)

(loved this start position...)

(Kerr siblings from the UK)

(more Kerrs, got good shots of them)

(here's a twist, she carries him...)

(me and Josee Chouinard!)

(one of the French teams)

(Sinead Kerr of the UK, lots of skaters sat near me!)

(Meryl and Charlie of the USA)

(Scott and Tessa, creating magic...)

(beautiful and emotional...)

(the crowd was insane...)

(Tanith and Ben fall short of bronze...)

(Scott and Tessa make it official)

(the crowd really goes crazy...)

(the medal ceremony...)

(our National Anthem...)

Another very emotionally draining day.  I will be sleeping in tomorrow morning.  I am so grateful to NBC, Dave Mazza, Chris Worth, and John Pastore for making it possible for me to have this experience and lifetime memory.

Original Dance!

Prelude:  I got a lot of great shots today, so I am just going to liberally sprinkle them throughout todays story, so most of them will appear without additional commentary (except for maybe a caption in brackets)...

I had a huge surprise waiting for me when I got to work today at 3pm... there was a ticket for me to the Figure Skating Original Dance competition starting at 4:15pm!!!!

(Paul Poirier and Vanessa Crone of Canada)

NBC had already given me a ticket to the Canada vs. Switzerland hockey game earlier in the week, so I had no expectation of being able to see another event. 

(liked these costumes... Estonia)

However, I had let John Pastore (my boss here) and Chris Worth (the wonderul lady who, among many other things, has the difficult job of determining who gets tickets to what) know that I was interested in Figure Skating.

(USA doing American Country dance)

Well, actually, what I said was that I would do just about anything for a ticket to Ice Dance (because both Vanessa and Paul, and Scott and Tessa, are from Ontario).

(French team with a very entertaining Can Can)

Figure Skating is a high demand ticket, and I knew it was a long shot at best, but I figured that if I didn't let them know that I was interested, I didn't have any chance at all.

(Russians doing "controversial" Aboriginal Dance - yuck - 3rd)

I think that having the US vs. Canada hockey game today might have worked in my favour as I think a lot of the people who might usually get Figure Skating tickets were at the hockey game instead.

(Charlie Davis and Meryl White of the USA - 2nd)

Once I got to  the arena, I could tell that the seat was intended for somebody important because it was right at centre ice and only about 6 rows from ice level!   (It also had a face value of $420!!!)

(love how they made the skates look like cowboy boots!)

Watching the NBC late night show back at the IBC, I could see myself on TV many times.

(Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue of Canada)

I had the pleasure of sitting with Nancy Giordano from AT&T (a vendor to NBC) and Cindy Lau (wife of NBC IT guru Craig Lau).  Nancy and I actually met on the bus over to the venue, and discovered that we were going to be sitting next to each other.

In the Compulsory Dance (two nights ago), all the pairs skate the same dance to the same music (so the judges can evaluate technique on a level playing field).  In the Original Dance, they are given a theme but can choose the music and the choreography.  This year's theme is Folk or Country Dance, so there were lots of interesting interpretations of this.  It was interesting to me that the music had vocals and that they were allowed the use of props (hats, ribbons - one Japanese couple actually held hand fans through the dance).

Of course, the highlight of the night for me was getting to see Scott and Tessa...

They skated a Spanish Flamenco (actually so did Vanessa and Paul!).  Tessa is simply stunning, and they skated with amazing unity.

They ended up in 1st place overall with a 2.6 point lead going in to tomorrow night's Free Dance!

Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto of the USA skated last but could not catch Scott and Tessa...

(Tanith Belbin gets a little "cheeky"...)

I thought the outfits of Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto of the USA were a little over-the-top, but she is so pretty I didn't mind much...

I also bumped into Steven Sugar, who is one of Caitie's Figure Skating coaches.  Mr. Sugar is a member of the Canadian Olympic Committee, and is out here working and enjoying many of the events...

What an amazing night of Ice Dance! 

(I think the judges got it right tonight...)

The best part of all was when I got back to the IBC, John presented me with another amazing gift...

Chris had found me another ticket for tomorrow night's Free Dance!!!  I actually teared up when he gave it to me, and later, I ran down the hall and gave Chris a huge hug.  I am still stunned, and I am so fortunate, NBC has been very, very, good to me.

Inukshuk

So, what is an Inukshuk anyway?    Here's a pretty good video that explains the traditional meanings:



It turns out that what we would normally call an Inukshuk, is actually an Inunnguaq (an InukShuk built in human form).  So how did this end up becoming the symbol of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics? 

"An inunnguaq forms the basis of the logo of the 2010 Winter Olympics designed by Vancouver artist Elena Rivera MacGregor. Its use in this context has been controversial, both among the Inuit and the First Nations of British Columbia. Although the design is under question, it is widely acknowledged that it pays tribute to the inuksuk that stands at Vancouver's English Bay, which was created by artisan Alvin Kanak of Rankin Inlet, Northwest Territories (which is now in the territory of Nunavut that separated from the Northwest Territories in 1999.) It was given as a gift to the city for Expo 86. The land has since been donated to the city and it is now a protected site. Friendship and the welcoming of the world are the meanings of both the English Bay structure and the 2010 Winter Olympics emblem, with Kanak's creation having the additional representation of the strength of his people and the modes of communication and technology before modern Canada." - from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inukshuk

I didn't take the photo above, I just wanted to show you what a difference lighting (and time of day) can make to a photograph!  There are Inuksuit everywhere in Vancouver these days, on T-Shirts, in Jade statues and jewelry, and even in chocolate...

It has become common practice in Canada for cottagers and campers to build Inuksuit as direction markers, waypoints, and symbols of welcome.   Down at the park near BC Place, on the rocky shoreline, people have been building their own Inuksuit...

There are literally hundreds of these all along the shore, making an impressive display of welcome for all Olympic visitors...

I think that's pretty cool!