This morning's weather provided us with a misleading sliver of hope that we may get a nice day. However, true to the forecaster’s promises, as soon as the skis and time chips were on, the skies opened up and gave us, yes, more rain. Other than the rain, which I suppose we are at least getting used to, today’s race went quite well. We were skiing a 7.5k, three loops, a trial run for Nordic Combined, which is a combination of ski jumping and cross-country skiing. Of course, we were only forerunning the cross-country part, otherwise I think that we would have been short quite a few forerunners in the days to come. The way NC works is, basically, the further you jump, the bigger a head start you get. They started us off randomly, apparently the athlete I was pretending to be was not the greatest of jumpers, as I was starting last. Everything went smoothly, the only small setback is the condition of the trails. It is, essentially, ankle deep slush. There isn’t much the groomers can do, and the more rain and wet snow that falls, the harder their job gets. Apparently the foreign coaches have also been complaining that the trails are somewhat concaved, so I guess Dirk and his crew have their work cut out for them.
We found out today that not only are we going to be forerunning, but also postrunning, which is apparently some kind of tradition, to officially finish the race. Seems a little useless, and personally I would rather see the end of the races... we’re supposed to leave 500m afeter the last person. One thing that does sound awesome is that if it’s snowing, we are supposed to ski behind the last guy, and then jump out of the tracks when the lead pack comes back through (hopefully, without falling in their way) Should be an amazing experience, I can’t wait for the first race to go! Biathlon has their first race tomorrow, we will probably go watch that after training tomorrow, its right next to the cross-country venue and we have a day off of work tomorrow.
On a slightly different note, my heart goes out to the slider who died today. His death put a bit of a damper on the Olympic spirit around here. Just knowing that every athlete here, myself and the other forerunners included, has a love for training, sport and competition that paralleled that of this world-class athlete is more than enough to move and bring together the athletic community. The Olympic Games should be a time for celebration and pride, and I am truly sorry that the team from Georgia, his family and the whole Olympic community had to deal with this.
The Opening Ceremonies just ended, despite the *cough* glitch at the end, they were pretty well done, full of our famous Canadian pride. They leave us more inspired than ever, and open what should be a great and memorable Olympic Games. Go Canada!!
Thats all folks!!
Michelle
Sorry for the lack of pictures... I didnt want to take the camera out on the trails, it was raining pretty hard.
Arianna Follis
Lucas Bauer
The ski jumping venue... yes, that tiny dot on the hill is a man. They are SO big. All the jumpers are these tiny little anorexic people, but they launch themselves so high!
I watched a bit of the qualifiers before work. No one from canada made it through. Apparently we suck at ski jumping.
The security blimp. It surveys the whole area, all day long.
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