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Published: February 17th 2018
I'm sorry I haven't posted a blog in awhile. I've been really busy.
Wednesday, Feb. 14 - Happy Valentine's Day What an awesome day. I went back to work at the USOC office. There's actually not alot of work to do right now - just little things like shopping and other errands. So we site around and watch 3 events all at once. The USOC office is great because we have 3 TV's. Other Team offices don't have TV's and the volunteers are bored to death. We watched Shaun White get his gold medal. I decided I wanted to see the Medals Ceremony that evening. Hmmm - that meant I had to figure out the transportation. There are lots of buses: TW (Transport Workforce - that's us the workers), TS (Spectators), TC (Competition Venues), and TA (Athletes). With my Accreditation Card I can take any of these buses, unless the TA is full with athletes because they have priority. Wednesday evening I also wanted to see the Luge event. Whenever I can't figure something out I just ask alot of questions (there are no dumb questions). The answer: Take the TC2.
So I took the TC2 to PyeongChang
Olympic Park. This was the first time I had been there so I needed to get oriented and find the Medals Ceremony. Luckily Shaun White's medal was the last one presented so I had plenty of time. I loved seeing it and I was not too far back from the stage. I posted a video I took of him getting his medal and the International Olympic Committee found the video on FB and blocked it because it contained music that is copyrighted. Huh? Unfortunately this blog doesn't upload videos. They suggest I put in YouTube and put a link. I'm not ready to do that so I'm sorry there aren't videos.
Then back on the TC2 to get to the Media Center bus stop and a 20 minute walk up 2 huge hills to get to the Luge event. I missed the first run but saw the entire 2nd run. I stood at turn 14 and the luge goes flying by at about 75 kmh (I'll let you do the math and change it to mph). I went to 3 different locations to see where I could get the best video. Once again, I'm sorry I can't upload the
Look at Japanese guy
The Japanese guy got silver and was not happy about it. Look at the way he is looking at Shaun's gold medal.video. This event is the doubles which has 2 people, one laying on top of the other. In the doubles the guy on the bottom has contact with the luge & can feel what's happening on the ice, but is going blind. The guy on top can see where they are going and can signal the guy on the bottom with movements of his head (I actually talked to the US doubles team and they explained this to me). BTW, the Germans got gold.
Back on TC2 to go back to the village, arriving at 23:00 and now I have to wait till 23:40 for my bus back to where I live. Oh the joys of riding the buses. But it is free!
Thursday, Feb. 15 Back to work and not much happening at work today. We watched men's snowboard cross and woman's giant slalom. It was so sad because 2 Americans were on the final run for the men's snowboard cross and both fell, resulting in 4th and 5th place. Mikaela Shiffin got gold in the woman's giant slalom.
Friday, Feb. 16 - Lunar New Year
Back to work again (I know -
this is getting redundant). Today I spent time in the Athlete's Resource Center. One of us needs to be there to answer questions and help athletes get event tickets and miscellaneous stuff. Now, I only know what a few of the athlete's look like, so when they walk in the ARC, I'm kinda clueless to who they are and what sport they do. Some of them talk to me, and most of them just ignore me. A bunch of the cross country ski women were there watching events on TV. I was able to talk to a luge guy that explained technique of the ski aerials we were watching. He was pretty funny because they went out partying after the luge on Thursday eve. He was kinda drunk, took a cab home, and the cab let him off at the back exit to the village. He said he was so disoriented that he couldn't figure out where he was (at 4 a.m.) and then he finally saw a familiar building in the village. Later he came to the office to say that after he paid the cab driver he thinks he dropped his wallet in the cab. We had to
figure out who to call on that one. I'm still not sure if he found his wallet.
The Korean guy, Yun Sungbin, won the Skeleton. His nickname is "Iron Man" because of his helmet. I was able to watch 3 events on 2 TV's in the ARC.
That evening my roommate and I went to the Sweden vs. Germany men's hockey game. We were able to sit in the 3rd row. Hockey games are so exciting to watch. Sweden scored early and Germany just couldn't score, even when they pulled the goaltender at the end. I was cheering for Sweden because Germany has alot of medals. We can walk to this arena (5-10 minute walk). On the way home I took photos of illuminated objects on the path.
This day is also Lunar New Year for Koreans. It's a really big deal and they actually celebrate for 3 days. They visit their families and traditional things happen. Due to this the traffic has been horrible.
Saturday, Feb. 17 Yup, you guessed it - back to work. But this day I switched to the morning shift. I normally work the 11:30 to 19:00 shift, but I
want to go to the Short Track event tonight. On the day shift I get off at 17:00, but since the bus comes at 17:40, I eat in the village then will take theTW155 bus to GVL (the other village) and transfer to the TC5 to get to the Gangneung Olympic Park (GOP) where the short track is (buses, buses, buses). More on this later.
I got an assignment today: watch the housekeeping staff & make sure they are doing everything they should. The athlete's have been complaining that some things are not done when their rooms are cleaned. So, I basically sat there and made sure they took out all the trash, changed towels, cleaned the floors, cleaned the bathrooms, and changed sheets. Unfortunately due to Lunar New Year they have fewer staff for housekeeping and it took alot longer than usual. Also, the athlete's rooms are packed full of clothes, equipment, food, cosmetics, etc. Some of the living rooms had TV's so I could watch events, and some didn't. I did get to talk to lots of athletes today so that made it fun.
My roommates had the day off and saw the men's figure skating.
I saw some of it on TV. It looks like the Japanese guy,
Yuzuru Hanyu, was fabulous and lots of Winnie-the-Poohs were thrown on the ice after his routine. I sure hope he donates them.
Now the buses. Our 17:40 bus was 75 minutes late due to the Holiday traffic. Then getting to Gangneung took forever. If I transfered buses and went to GOP, I would have arrived at the Short Track event about 21:00 and the event was over at 21:45. I decided to go home instead. There are two more Short Track events so I will try to make one of those.
Yeah - I'm caught up. Next week will be a busy one also, so I'll do the best I can with blog entries.
Till next time.
Sue Pease
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Pat Collins
non-member comment
So Fun!
Glad you are feeling better and seeing all of the events (that you can make your way to). We are enjoying watching everything on TV - especially the figure skating. I felt bad for our American skater who only got one stuffed animal thrown after his performance. Thanks for keeping us up to date!