A Story of a Skier: Day 6: Rest and Relaxation

Today was an off day, so we took the chance to get a bit of training in on our own terms, without some course official or tv crew telling us what to do. We got a chance to check out some more ski jumping, it helps that the jumps are about 10 steps from the wax room. Getting out and actually skiing was a bit of a production, as most people, myself included, kept changing their minds about what worked better with the snow conditions, hairies or klister. Really, both were bad, and the whole team, with the exception of rebecca, who could be skiing on sheer ice and still be convinced that her hairies will work, was experiencing a bit of a grass is always greener phenomena, whatever we had, we wanted something else, grasping at any small chance that we wouldn't get stuck skiing our shoulders to death for 2 hours. Anyways, the point is, all this set us behind schedual, except rebecca, who was on hairies which were, we eventually agreed on, the skis to go with. Note to self: Do what Rebecca does, always. Check. Because of this, we didnt have time to fit in all our training and make it to the women's biathlon, which was happeningjust down the road. Its kinda sad that people from all over the world made it to this race and I couldn't pull it together to walk 300m and get there in time.
We did catch a bunch of it on the tv in the athletes lounge, which was pretty cool. All the different countries xc skiers were, obviously, cheering for their biathlon counterparts, and it made for some interesting spectating. The cheers and curses in what seemed like a million languages somewhat made up for the lack of being there.

One plus for today... the groomers worked their magic overnight and the trails are a million times better than yesterday. I dont know where all the slush went, but we spent the morning gliding over smooth, hard, fast and clean trails, a 150% improvement sine yesterday.

After biathlon, we headed out to whistler to shop and soak up the olympic spirit, which we are a bit isolated from in our hotel. It is so pretty at night! All the trees are lit p with tiny LED lights, reminders of the opening ceremonies.

As for other sports, we got to see Jenn Heil put on another great performance in Moguls. I know that she, and perhaps other canadians are a little disapointed that she won't be bringing home our first gold, but really, the olympics are just another race. I think the public is a bit too side blinded by these events, and fail to see and acknowledge the countless (well, you could probably count them, but still) world cup medals, many of which were gold, she picked up during her season. These races host the exact same people, and it isn't right that people be disapointed in her after she has so well represented our country all through this winter, and many before that. And so, bravo Jenn, way to bring in canada's first bling!

Tomorrow is the first real forerunning we'll be doing, leading out and finishing up the nordic combined 10k. Should be great, and I'll try and do my homework and figure out who is who before tomorrow.

Thats all folks!!

Michelle :)

The ski jump stadium. PACKED. Joe Bieden was there, so mucho police.

More ski testing. They NEVER STOP.

Yes, another set-up-for-silly-tourists-so-that-they-will-come-in-to-take-a-picture-and-end-up-spending-money-in-our-store picture. Sorry. BUT,I didnt end up buying anything. SO, i guess I got a free bobsleigh ride. HAH.

The Cana-duh guys. They were pretty good at hockey for guys on stilts. And their, duh, "post-game interviews" duh, were pretty, duh, funny. For about 10 seconds. Then they started sounding like legit hocky players talking about "giving 110%" and "gettin it all together", so we made a break for it.

Whistler Live Stage. We're going to see Bedouin Soundclash here tomorrow, free tickets!!

A monument set up in memory of the Georgian Slider. Apparently his country is building a luge run in his hometown in his memory meant to encourage more little kids to take up the sport. Something seems a bit off here...