The First Day at the Olympics

It’s here. The first day of the Olympics has begun. After awaking at 4:00 and saying goodbye to Rod, I basically stayed awake and thought about all I had to do. Being afraid of getting cold, I grabbed my down comforter and down pillows and brown shaggy blanket that looks like a slain grizzly bear. Also, I had heard that the drive up from Vancouver could take up to 12-14 hours, so I packed a days worth of clothing to prepare for being on the road for long periods of time. In my head, I was thinking about the time that 3 of us women racers drove to a ski racing camp at Sun Peaks a few years ago. What ordinarily would have taken about 6 hours, took 24 hours. Luckily we had packed food and clothing for the trip and survived on Luna bars and crackers. So, thinking back on that experience, I packed the car and headed south….to work.

Driving to work, I talked to Rod on the phone. He was near the Canadian border and ready to go across. He has his Nexus pass, but Rich doesn’t. It was unknown whether they would get through very quickly.

I get to work, and start the process of preparing my day. As I go through my patient lists, my mind drifts off to Rod. I haven’t heard from him, and he said he would call me when he got over the border. I finish things up, and call up to him.

“Rod, how’s it going up there. Did you get through the border okay with the trailer?”

“Well, no, we are at customs right now and they are rifling through the trailer.”:

“Oh my gosh…” I have visions of what it would look like after customs officials rifle through all of your belongings that are at this point, very organized. I’m thinking it’s probably okay that they are going through things because we planned very well, and went through it to make sure there wasn’t anything in there that would be considered illegal. But, what a mess!!

“Yeah, when we got to the border, the customs agents questioned us and saw your volunteer clothing, and said it didn’t fit the story, so they are going through it now”.

“Oh, no” I’m saying….”I really should have taken my volunteer uniform with with me in my car” I'm thinking of all the ways we could have avoided this. We spent so much time making sure we didn't have anything we shouldn't in the trailer.

“Actually, we are in North Vancouver and can see the lights of Cyprus Bowl”

I hear laughing and snickering in the background. Rod starts laughing….They totally had me

“You are SOOOO bad” I tell Rod and start laughing. As it turns out, nobody is at US Canadian border at 5:30 in the morning, even on the opening day of the Olympics.

Work was actually quite busy, and every time I thought I might be able to get away, another phone call would come in with a patient situation that needed to be managed. But eventually, and by about 2:00, things calmed down, and I was able to sign off to my colleague Linda, change my phone and email messaged and hop the shuttle to my car.

During the day, I received a phone call from Kathy, one of our social workers, who stated that one of the lugers Nodar Kumaritashvili from the Soviet Republic of Georgia had just died up at the Sliding Centre where I will be working. I pulled up the website and looked. At the time, the report was that it was a Romanian who was 21 years old. I felt such a profound sadness. Through the rest of the day, I heard from others at work and via email who relayed this sad information.

It was time to leave work, and time to transition from my passion for work, towards the lifetime passion of sports and the Olympic journey. I have done this transition many times in my life....from working and slowly changing my thoughts and ideas from those at work towards a sporting event primarily Ski Racing. We've traveled from Seattle to Snoqualmie and at an extreme, from Seattle to Sunday River, Maine. It is a relatively short drive to Vancouver, but a monumental one for me. I get in the car and slowly unwind and prepare for the unknown events ahead.

Driving up I-5 was simple, as I-5 goes. Arriving up to the border was completely uneventful. I got to the border at about 4:30. No one was there…..I found this to be incredibly unusual. I was predicting long waits, and I drove through the Nexus line with absolutely no one in front of me. I went through slowly, and was waved through the border. Simple.

I had been just driving along, mindlessly, as I drove up highway 534 towards highway 1, the Sea to Sky. I looked over to my right and saw a woman in a little red AMC Gremlin, you know, one of those 1970s style cars with what looks like a sawed off back end. When I was younger, I wanted a Gremlin, and my brothers thought I was nuts. I just thought they were cute. But as I looked over at this little red faded, dented remains of a Gremlin, I wondered what I had ever seen in that car. The woman driving had beautifully styled blond hair and black glasses and looked quite intelligent, if you can tell by looking. It was just one of those random thoughts you have when you realize you've completely transitioned out of work mode, and are just cruising along...

Out of the corner of my eye, I see it. It’s a large yellow bus that has Vancouver 2010 emblazoned on it’s side. This is the first sign that the I am really going to the Olympics. It is the first tangible sign that it is really here and really happening. There has been much preparation and planning, and it is finally here!! But, there is still more driving ahead.

Getting through Vancouver was a bit more challenging, but not unlike our Friday night commutes in Seattle. I was pleasantly surprised.

While driving I turned the radio to a station where the discussion centered around the protests going on outside BC Place where the Opening Ceremonies were to begin in an hour or so. Primarily, the protesters were having concerns about the amount of money being spent on the games. However, on another station there was a discussion among Canadians that they had not spent enough on the games. Go figure….

Another reason for protesting was that the games were being held on Native land, and there were Primary Natives who were protesting the use of this land. During the opening ceremonies, there were Primary Natives, as many of you likely saw who were celebrating the games. So, as usual, there are two sides to any argument, and I am going to take the neutral ground on all and be respectful of the time and energy that the athletes have spent on such a monumental task of making the Olympics, and go with it.

Really the entire drive was much easier than expected, and I arrived at Whistler at 7:00. It had been exactly 5 hours, which is relatively decent time.

I arrived up at Whistler, called Rod, dropped my things at the trailer that he and Rich had already set up, and walked into the village to meet them. The first thing we saw when walking into the village was the Olympic rings with a candlelight vigil to Nodar Kumantasvili who died today. There were television cameras and a group of athletes gathered around with one of the athletes looking very distraught as you might well imagine. It is quite sobering to be in the village with such a disparity of emotion. There is a joy of starting the games, but with such a heavy heart. Having visited Whistler on a number of times, there is generally noise and high energy and excitement when walking around. But, it was different this time. Walking around the Olympic rings with the vigil brought a respectful quiet that pervaded all of the languages spoken quietly there.

We slowly made our way into the Brewhouse behind the rings. I had not had dinner yet, and so we shared a pizza and watched the opening ceremonies. Sitting around us were volunteers, two men with Reuters coats on, a table of older men in red coats in a language I couldn’t understand who looked very “coach like”. We became immersed in the moment of it. We were watching the opening ceremonies for the Olympics, in Whistler, with Olympic people all around us. Surreal, eh?

As we watched Wayne Gretzsky carry the torch, it occurred to me that people all over the world make sacrifices to be an Olympian. The young luger died today making the ultimate sacrifice. It would be disrespectful to his memory to not continue on and play out the games to the best of everyone’s ability. Let the games begin!