This is the final installment of Margo Neal’s experience as a volunteer at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Canada. Neal, who is the proofreader for The Malibu Times and Malibu Times Magazine, stayed in Whistler, where many of the skiing events took place.
Today is Monday, the day after the 2010 Winter Olympics. It’s very quiet around Whistler. Crews are very busy taking down temporary structures-the TV studios, the banners, and the parking restriction signs. Most of the big buses are gone; some new parking lots are open. But the few people around are very happy, smiling, remembering all the highs of the past two weeks. Remembering contacts with some of the 2,632 athletes from 84 countries, the 10,800 accredited journalists, the 25,000 volunteers.
This last week in Olympic country has been great. Went to the Nordic Combined, which consists of a ski jump off a large hill (90 meters/295 feet), then a 10 km cross-country race. The athlete who has the longest jump gets to lead off the cross-country part, and the winner of it wins the Nordic Combined. So that means an athlete needs to be a great jumper and an even greater cross-country skier. Going into this event, Austrian athlete Bernhard Gruber had the best jump and got a 34-second start ahead of two American athletes, Bill Demong and Johnny Spillane. But … in the skiing portion, Gruber’s big lead didn’t last very long; Demong and Spillane caught up to him very quickly and took gold and silver-a first for the U.S. Go Team USA!
Watching the athletes soar off that big jump was awesome. But watching the cross-country part was very exciting. Because the skiers go around the 2.5 km track four times, they come into and go out of the stadium four times, and when you can’t see them in person, you can see them on a big TV screen. Oh, the stamina they have! The Europeans are big fans of the Nordic events, and they come dressed in wild costumes. A man in typical Lapland costume. Two men in Viking headdress, complete with horns. A group of men dressed as beavers. Three others were cows. Plenty of hootin’ and hollerin’ and ringing of cow bells-great fun.
Merilea and I finished our volunteer stint on Saturday. We did it; we completed our assignment and received our Olympic Swatch. As a volunteer, if you complete your assignment, you get to keep your uniform and get the Swatch. So-we are glad we did it. Oh, yes. Would we do it again? Don’t ask.
The fun part was walking around the Whistler area-a very happening place. People in costumes, outdoor TV screens everywhere. Medal ceremonies every night in the outdoor plaza followed by a concert. Saturday night’s entertainer was Usher-very, very popular. Those tickets were the most difficult to obtain; I won two in a lottery.
On Sunday the whole country went crazy for the hockey game. I suspect those people who paid $10,000 for one seat felt they got their money’s worth … it was a nail-biter, a heart-stopper. We roamed the streets after the victory-it was wild! Blue Rodeo was the band on the big stage-everyone hootin’ and hollerin’ and dancin’. The Canadian maple leaf flags-big and small-everywhere, and quite a few U.S. flags, too. Party. Party. But there was no joy in the U.S.-“… mighty Casey had struck out.”
Just after Canada won the hockey game, the sun came out-for the first time in several days. What’s the connection? I don’t know, but it was still clear today and we went skiing-another glorious ski day as only Whistler can have. The weather and skiing here remind me of the Little Miss Muffet nursery rhyme- “…when she was good she was very, very good, and when she was bad she was horrid.” Well, today was a very, very good day. We skied Blackcomb today-had a run down 7th Heaven and it was, well, heavenly. Usually after a long run like that one you get to rest in the lift line before you go up again. No rest today-there was no lineup. Another day when there was hardly anyone on the slopes. Heavenly!
A big push and big presence here, and in Vancouver, has been “Reduce. Recycle. Reuse.” There were groups of four recycle bins everywhere (paper, plastic, glass, general trash). I saw them in every building in the Athletes’ Village as well as outside each structure and tent. They are evident everywhere throughout Whistler, and people use them. To read more about the Olympic sustainability program, go to: www.vancouver2010.com/sustainability.
And now it’s time to go home. Time to go back to Malibu, back to LaVern, back to The Malibu Times, and back to normal. It’s been great.