The Chance of a Lifetime

My husband recently gave me the best Valentine's present ever. He bought us tickets to attend an Olympic event. One of my lifelong dreams has always been to attend the Olympics...some Olympics, some time, some where. Shortly before I moved to Vancouver, they were awarded the 2010 Winter Olympic games. This was big news, and many of the people that live here were pretty excited. I guess I was excited too, but at the time I was more worried about settling in, getting my new job figured out, making friends, and wondering if I would make it up here. Here we are, seven years later, and the Olympics are here.

As a child, I always watched the Olympics. I remember sitting with my sisters watching figure skating and cheering on Kristi Yamaguchi when she won gold. I will never forget the magnificent performance of the US Women's gymnastics team at the Atlanta Games and Kerri Strug's amazing, gritty performance on a bum leg. My mind is full of so many Olympic memories, and I always tear up when I hear the Banner played and see the pride in the face of the athlete that won the gold medal to promote that song.

Since I moved to Canada, I have experienced a bit of a shift. I DO cheer for Canadian athletes, but even up until the last Olympics in Beijing I still found myself cheering mostly for Americans, especially if there was an American and a Canadian competing. I guess my red, white and blue blood still runs through my veins a bit!

When we found the Olympics coming closer and closer, we knew we wanted to attend an event, but to be honest they aren't easy to go to unless you have a lot of money! Tickets are hard to come by, and those that you do come by are pretty pricey, but my hubby came through!

He was able to purchase tickets for the Women's Moguls event on Craigslist. He found a man that had won tickets through Rona-a local hardware Home Depot type store-and he wasn't interested. He sold them to us, and it ended up being an amazing deal! We got with the deal our bus trip up Cypress Mountain-you can only get there on chartered buses, no private vehicles, we got snacks and drinks on the trip up and back, rain ponchos and seat cushions, and AMAZING seats right in the middle of the grandstands, just a few rows up! We were so excited!

The event started at 4:30 p.m. with the qualifying round, but our day started earlier. Our bus left Rona in Vancouver at 2 p.m. We loaded on with the other winners, snacked and listened as our guide informed us what the day would be like. It was already raining at Cypress, and didn't promise to be the best day weatherwise, but the events were supposed to go on. We rode to bus to the base of the mountain, where we were then transferred to one of the Cypress shuttles. As we waited for the shuttle, we stood outside and it was COLD! Or so we thought! It was only going to become colder and wetter!
Once our shuttle wound its way to the top of the mountain we still had a 1 km hike up to the moguls hill. The excitement in the air was electric, and excitement abounded. See, Canada had history to make. Canada has held the Olympics in its boundaries three times. First, 1976 in Montreal, 1988 in Calgary and now 2010 in Vancouver. In the first two times a Canadian was never able to win a gold medal on Canadian soil. The hope was that it would happen in this games, and many people thought that Women's Moguls would be the place! Canada has a famous moguls skier, Jennifer Heil. She had won the gold in Torino in 2006 and many thought she would win gold at Cypress on this day. History could be made!

We went through the security checks and we were there! We first bought Kevin a 2010 toque to keep his head warm in style, then made our way to our seats. Once there we were thrilled with them! The view was amazing and we were right in the middle! We lucked out in our group and got the lowest row of all of the Rona seats, dead center. We watched the warm ups and then it was on!

Qualification rounds began. I never realized how exciting it would be in real life! The jumps are amazing and the speed of those women hurtling down the mountain, it takes your breath away! Our crowd was a great one, cheering for all of the competitors, but the spirit for the Canadian skiers was amazing! There were a lot of other countries there as well, and the US representation was strong! I had my little American flag and I waved it proudly every time a US skier performed.We knew that it was likely for an American or Canadian to medal. The top five skiers in women's moguls in the world were either American or Canadian. We were right! All of the Americans and Canadians qualified, with several of them ending up as the final competitors in the final event. It was looking to be a good finals! Jen Heil was one of the favorites, with a few Americans, Hannah Kearney and Heather McPhee in there as well.

After qualification, there was a two hour break. Unfortunately, the rain and wind were picking up at this time, and it was also the moment that EVERYONE decided to go to the warming tent OR to eat! There was one basic concession stand and lineups were more than an hour long so Kev and I decided to check out the warming tent. We made our way there, but once we wanted to leave we had to make our way through the THRONG of people! It was like what a salmon must feel like swimming upstream! We were going the wrong way in the midst of thousands of people! Check out the crowd we were trying to get through!We spent about an hour just exploring around...it was so neat to be in the midst of all of this. We even saw some athletes that were there just to watch! In the midst of Olympic greatness, wow!

Finally it was time for the final event. The wind was HOWLING and the rains were pelting down. Our little rain ponchos were doing their best to keep us dry, but by that point our mittens were soaking wet and our pants weren't doing too much better. The amazing thing was that we didn't even care! We were so excited to see the finals that it didn't matter!
The finals were intense! There were some great runs and some not so great runs. There were some shocking moments when Americans Michelle Roark and Heather McPhee and Canadian Kristi Richards fell. Heather McPhee had been a possible medal favorite and Richards was a hometown favorite, hailing from Penticton, BC. Shannon Bahrke, and American girl, found herself sitting pretty with assurance of a medal with just two skiers left, Jennifer Heil-the Canadian favorite, and Hannah Kearney-a strong American that had been the gold medal favorite in Torino in 2006.

Heil stood at the top, ready for greatness. We had just seen American Heather McPhee fall, and we were all on pins and needles. Heil was off, and she was amazing! Her first jump was flawless, she was speeding down the hill. She stuck her second jump and plowed to a stop, thrilled with her run as the Canadian crowd went insane! It was wild! Arms in the air, screaming, cowbells ringing...I have never experienced anything like it. Secretly, a little part of me wanted her to win. I wanted to experience that history...I was surrounded by excited Canadians! We waited with breath held and then there were the results! She was in the gold medal position! One skier stood between her and her gold medal on home turf. One skier stood between Heil and history. Hannah Kearney.
Kearney stood at the top of the hill. We could barely see her through the pounding rain...but the determination on her face was clearly evident on the screen. She was off. She nailed her first jump and seemed to be flying down the hill, barely touching the snow. Her second jump was flawless and she whipped to a stop at the bottom of the hill, her teammate, Shannon, running over to cheer her on and hug her. We all wondered, would it be enough? Would she oust the hometown favorite?

We waited, and waited. It seemed to take forever...then, there it was. Kearney was the winner! She had won gold! I listened back, on the tv it sounds like the crowd started cheering, but it was actually a HUGE groan! The crowd was devastated, they had lost their historical gold. Heil had won a silver. I felt bad, I felt like I couldn't even cheer. I felt the pain of the Canadians around me.

As we cleared out of the stands and made our way back to the bus, I thought "I just saw an AMERICAN win a gold medal!" Not only was it a gold medal, but it was the FIRST American gold medal of the 2010 games! That is amazing! I will never have that opportunity again. I stopped, started waving my flag, and made my hubby take a picture. I stopped to soak it all in...the opportunity of a lifetime.
We went to an Olympic event, it was intense! It was a dream come true! I will never forget that day, even if I was cold!

Highlights:

• Spending an entire afternoon and evening one on one with my hubby! Not easy to come by these days. (Thanks for babysitting Mom and Dad S!)
• Experiencing the excitement of the Canadians around me, the anticipation of what could be.
• The amazing runs down the hill, so much talent, so many great jumps!
• Being part of a crowd totally committed to the event, despite cold, rain, and wind.
• Who am I kidding, just about everything!

Lowlights:

• The cold, wet, windy walk back to the bus. That's it...that's the only thing!

What an amazing experience! I am so excited to be part of an Olympic city! Thanks for an amazing afternoon, honey!