Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010: You shoulda been here

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Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010

We arrived back in Vancouver just in time for the winter Olympics to start. It had always been the end point of our travels, and we hoped it would live up to expectation.

It did!

It was the biggest party the city has ever known. Although it got off to a difficult start with the tragic death of the Georgian luger and the lack of snow at certain venues, it gradually built momentum as Canada picked up more and more medals culminating in the incredible men's hockey gold on the last Sunday.

Here is a quick snapshot of the event for us:

Events attended:

• Luge
  
• Moguls
  
• Short track speed skating
  
• Skeleton
  
• Curling
  
• Aerials
  
• Bobsleigh
  

Let's start our story of the games from the arrival of the Olympic torch into the city.

Torch relay and the opening ceremony

First up we headed out to watch the torch relay come into downtown Vancouver over the Burrard bridge. We strolled up with Sarah and Simon, the atmosphere was fantastic, despite it being quite damp, as there were hundreds of people watching. It was a great feeling to actually see the torch come into view, it really felt like the Olympics had started at that point for us.

That gave us a taste and we decided to get up at an unseemly hour the follow morning to go for a run and follow the torch on its relay route through Stanley park and into downtown. Surely noone else would be stupid enough to be out running around stanley park at 6.30am. Wrong! We got into the park promptly at 6.30 and the pavements were packed with onlookers; several on bikes and roller blades, and several, like us, deciding to take their early morning exercise by following the flame. The atmosphere was electric, which I guess is funny considering it was a gas torch!

We actually followed the torch go past lost lagoon and the edges of Burrard inlet to the totem poles. At the totem poles the area around the Brockton Point lighthouse was so jammed with people we decided to cut the corner off and catch up with the flame further round. Word on the street that the mass of people was because Arnie was waiting to take it; we weren't that fussed about spotting him, so didn't bother to try and join the throng. It was actually nice as our little short-cut got us to the point where the Squamish nation took the flag, and they wore interesting cultural outfits and performed a couple of dances. Then, lo and behold guess who was the next person coming round the corner carrying the flame, with very few people surrounding him? Seb Coe! We were far more excited by this than that possibility missed of seeing Arnie. Celeb spotting is such fun. Once all of the main bustle had died down and we were about to leave, we had a great bit of fortune as a car drove up, and that man Arnie was in it! He even gave us the thumbs up. Awesome, just wished I'd asked him if he planned on coming back!!!!!!

From that high point we followed the torch back though English Bay where there was an amazing number of spectators at the Inukshak, which is the stone sculpture of one of the main emblems of the games.

Later the same day whilst queuing up to get our event tickets, again in the rain, we had a real nice slice of Olympic magic. Not quite sure why but one of the Canadian gold medal hockey team from 1952 was waiting in line. Eventually he got promoted to the front of the queue (quite rightly), but best of all he had his gold medal on him and he even showed it to us. Just wish I'd been brave enough to ask to hold it; the medal of course!!!

That same evening saw the opening ceremony. Naturally we hadn't wanted to shell out the best part of a grand on tickets, so decided to watch it in a sports bar. One of our shabby old haunts called Malones. It was good fun watching it, although to be honest we were all a bit drunk to fully appreciate its cultural subtlety, indeed didn't even notice that part of the cauldron didn't even work. Fun evening though, I think!

Whistler sliding centre: Men's luge

Our first event was a visit to Whistler to see the men's luge qualifying rounds. The bus transit was reasonably chaotic but we managed to get there in plenty of time. At this point it has to be said things were not looking too great for the games; there were issues with the weather (in particular the lack of snow at Cypress), and worse still the tragic death of the Georgian luger on the day before the games started. Naturally by visiting the luge we weren't quite sure what the atmosphere would be following the tragedy, and also weren't really sure what the viewing would be like.

As it turned out it was great. There was a moving minute's silence to the guy who sadly died, and then after that the atmosphere was great and the views were brilliant. You could get right up and close to the track, and as you walked up the slope they were going slower and slower so views were better and better. The slope was also a godsend for keeping warm, as it was snowing heavily throughout.

The speed the bloody idiots went round the track at the end was ridiculous, they are all absolutely crazy! It was a truly ridiculous event to attend, let alone take part in. We had a blast even though the Team GB guys didn't quite do as well as they'd hoped, but the Canadian guys were close to the top of the leaderboard at the half way point so the crowd were in jubilant spirits.

Cypress Mountiain: Men's Moguls

Event number two for us was at Cypress mountain to see the men's moguls with Sarah and Simon; this included both the qualifying and final runs. This was perhaps the event that we were most interested in seeing, as we are both keen skiers, and this seems to be the hardest skiing event going. The evening started very well for Lynda even before anyone got on the slopes as she got a chance to get up and close to some of the cuddly mascots.

The event then certainly lived up to our high expectations. It looks even harder in reality, the steepness of the slope and size of the bumps, allied with the crazy somersaults. Absolutely amazing. The floodlights gave it a magical atmosphere. If that was not all, a Canadian only went and won gold! Canada's first gold medal, and the first ever on Canadian home soil. Well done Alex Bilodeau, as you can imagine the crowd went nuts. What an electrifying start to the games.

Pacific Coluseum: Short-track speed skating

An evening at the speed-skating, not something one would normally aspire to, but hey this was the Olympics, so why not give it a go? The stadium was packed, a rather different atmosphere to when the Vancouver Giants play or the masters football is hosted, and we were in full anticipation of what was to come.

The session was a mixture of some male and female events, and a men's relay qualifier. The track is tight, the skaters go amazingly fast and low, and there is plenty of argy-bargy. It is a real thrill ride where the slightest mistake is met with immediate disaster, which really met with our thirst for watching crashes. We weren't disappointed; in the very first race at the very first corner the girls crashed a couple of times (Canada vs GBR). All in all the evening was great entertainment, it went like a flash. Great sport. The most amusing and chaotic event of all was the relay, which seemed to involve hundreds of skaters swarming all over the ice, every so often giving team mates a good shove on the bottom. Quite how anyone knew what was going on we couldn't quite fathom; we didn't really care it though it was just interesting to watch.

Our luck also continued as Canada won a silver medal in the last race of the evening (women's 500m). The girl who got it was clearly a little surprised and her celebrations were unrestrained, and the atmosphere in the arena was fantastic. Another excellent event.

Whistler sliding centre: skeleton qualifying rounds (woman's and men's)

Back in Whistler we were at the sliding centre again for the skeleton. Now this is like the luge but the athletes lie facing downhill, if anything it seemed to be even more terrifying than the luge. The competitors had to be a few sandwiches short of a picnic. Perhaps the most exciting part of this event for us was that Team GB are actually really good at it, and had some medal chances, especially in the woman's event, and as a result there were an awful lot of Union Jacks everywhere, and a few guys dressed as St George. Canada were also extremely good, so the atmosphere was great yet again (I am getting boring saying this every time).

It was only the first two qualifying rounds but the great things about this event was that every run counts the same, so the athletes are full tilt doing the best that they can. It was nice having scoped out the circuit at the luge previously so we knew where to get the best views and merrily wandered up and down taking in the spectacle and continuously being amazed by the sheer lunacy of the competitors. As it turned out the Team GB guys did ok, but Amy Williams had conjured up a significant lead in the woman's events. We were very excited by the prospect of a medal and glad that we had seen her in the flesh, her Union Jack flag helmet was our favourite too!

As time would tell Amy actually went on to win the gold which was exciting to see eventually on TV, knowing that we had at least seen some of it. Wicked.

Olympic centre: woman's Curling

Friday evening at the curling, again not something you would do too often in 'normal' life, but this is the Olympics! It's not the most action packed of sports, instead a real strategic battle. The only real shame was that none of us really had a clue about the strategy!

It was nice to be able to watch Team GB, even though they did get heavily beaten by Japan. Canada were also playing in the same session which meant that the atmosphere was again good. We had fun waving our British flags and Jon giving the cow bell a good outing.

Victory ceremony and Saturday night on the town Olympic style

Most of the medals were being presented during medal ceremonies at BC place (the large stadium in the city) which gave fans and the athletes a chance for a big celebration, but we actually were a little disappointed that the medals weren't presented immediately after the events. We would have preferred to have seen the medals presented for events that we saw live.

That being said we did get a group together to go to one of the medal ceremonies to see what they would be like, and in particular to see the stereophonics who were performing at that event. Unfortunately the evening we picked there were actually no medals being presented in the stadium; they were doing a live feed from Whistler to see Amy Williams pick up her gold medal, but due to bad organisation we managed to arrive too late for that. Not the end of the world but would have been nice to have seen it.

The seats we had got were without doubt the worst in the stadium which was a little disappointing. Luckily though clearly none of the Canadian attendees had either the slightest inkling of who the stereophonics were, and left in droves just as they came on stage. We were therefore all able to sneak down and grab some great seats to watch the somewhat abbreviated concert. Good fun though and a lively atmosphere: basically lots of Union Jacks waving and a good smattering of Welsh people around too.

The night continued with a few more drinks in town, proudly showing our colours, still basking in the gold secured the day before. A few drinks turned to a few more and it seemed like a great idea to have a wander around the Olympic cauldron at 1am. This was a great opportunity to make some new friends, and we were all very successful at this. Lynda especially good, and managed to fulfill a dream by getting to wear one of the volunteers blue jackets. It was only in the morning that the photos really showed up just how friendly we had been! Who were all those people?

The cauldron had also been nice to see at night; everyone was still bemused at the organisers putting up the large chain link fence in front, but hey still good to see it.

Cypress Mountain: Men's aerials

We had been really looking forward to our next trip up to Cypress mountain to watch the qualifying for the men's aerials. This is one of those events that oozes the 'wow' factor; crazy fools getting unbelievable height and doing all of those twists and flips.

Watching the first couple down was truly unbelievable, they must be totally mad. However, all of us agreed (Jon and Jane too) that after the initial wow factor it became a little less interesting. We simply couldn't really tell the difference between the different jumps, there were no where near as many wipeouts as we had hoped for, and it became almost normal. It was still entertaining, but of all the events we attended this one perhaps fell slightly short of the high expectations we had had.

Vancouver: exploring the Olympic city

Throughout the city there were a huge number of events being organised, designed to try and keep the thousands of visitors amused,and not to mention keep the money rolling in. The most popular events seemed to be (1) queuing to get into the Bay (department store) to buy Olympic merchandise; (2) queuing for up to 7 hours to get into the Canadian mint exhibition to see the medals; (3) queuing outside every bar in the city to watch a Canada hockey game; (4) queuing to get into the Irish house for 3+ hours in order to get drunk. You get my drift queuing was the order of the day; quite amazing!

Where possible we tried to dodge the crowds and visited a few of the quieter exhibitions. We took a look in the Canada North house which was an interesting look at the North West Territories of Canada, and the Canada house enabled us to hold on of the Olympic torches and sit in a bobsleigh, Manitoba house was very underwhelming, as was one of the German houses. After the main games has finished we also managed to get into BC house which again was a reasonably interesting insight into this province, although we were both glad we hadn't queued for umpteen hours to get in! Matt also managed a night out at the Holland Heineken house, the self-proclaimed party venue of the games. There was plenty of Heineken, orange clothes and strange dutch music. Our Dutch friends were in their element. Good fun.

Whistler sliding centre: Men's four-man Bobsleigh

The final event that we had tickets for was the four-man bobsleigh back in Whistler. As we'd been there twice before (luge and skeleton) we knew what to expect, but bobsleigh is such an iconic part of the Olympics we were pleased to be going along. The four-man was also the fastest event at the venue, so that was cool too. As it turned out it was great fun, once again lots of amazement at the athletes, and best of all loads of crashes which added an extra level of adrenaline to procedures.

As before it was nice to be able to cheer on Team GB; unfortunately after a good first run they were one of the casualties on the second time down. Great thrills and spills all round, and plenty of colourful spectators throughout the event, perhaps best of all was watching Team USA flip and fly round upside down. Bad people I know!

Whistler: skiing and Olympic evening

Our event watching was done, so together with Jon and Jane decided to have some activity of our own and spend a couple of days skiing at Whistler, as most of the mountain was still open for recreational skiing. No snow eh! Rubbish, we had a couple of great powder days on the slopes; it was great to be out there in the middle of the Olympics.

Also being in Whistler village enabled us to soak up some of the village atmosphere too, and that was a great experience. As it was towards the end of the games there were a few athletes around showing off their medals; we even managed to get our photo taken with a US lady whom had got a bronze medal in the bobsleigh. There was also time for some clambering on the Olympic rings, sitting in a bobsleigh and other general messing around.

Vancouver: Hockey gold medal game and the closing ceremony

The final day of the games had culminated in the gold medal hockey game between Canada and the USA. This had the opportunity to make or break the games; for most Canadians the 13 gold medals before would happily have been given up for this one. If the US had won, it would have been unthinkable, and there were plenty of police around to cope with potential riots in such a situation (it had happened before to some extent).

Naturally we wanted to watch it in a pub to get some of the atmosphere, so we were prepared for a 'queue-fest'. Jon was outside 2 hours before the place opened and we managed to sneak one of the last few tables..we were in. The atmosphere was great throughout, especially because Canada were winning for so long. It all went very quiet when the US equalised with 30 seconds remaining, they couldn't throw it away could they? Overtime was very nerve wracking (even for us, who to be perfectly honest still don't quite have the passion), and then for the fairytale finish. The overtime win, and Sidney Crosby getting the winner; noone over in Canada would have dared to predict such things (for the non-Canadians whom the only ice hockey player you have ever heard of is Wayne Gretzky, Crosby is the next name that you will, he's been famous since a kid is even nicknamed 'the next one').

The party that ensued was something to remember forever. The whole town erupted into one big street party, all of the main streets were completely packed with revelers (Robson St, Granville St and all around were a sea of people), and we thoroughly enjoyed being a part of it for a couple of hours.

Having had our fill of the party outside (and needing a comfort break!) we settled down to watch the closing ceremony on TV. A fun event, largely taking the mick out of the Canadians. The day had been an unbelievable finale to a great event; 2 weeks that Vancouver will never see the like of again. An incredible atmosphere throughout, and almost floorlessly organised.

Well done Vancouver!

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