Day 7 - Race Day (finally)

Waking up this morning at 3:30am was hard. The long days are really starting to take their toll on my body. I made it down to the Creekside on time. The bus was jammed to the max with course workers. Up the hill we went and proceeded to our location. This involves side slipping down the side of the track from dispatch at the bottom of the Weasel, approximatly a kilometer. Combining that kind of skiing and the 'step slide' we have been doing all week has my legs burning. We were at out site by 6:30am and the racers started their course inspection at 7:30. At 8:45, the racers all did what is called a 'speed' inspection, from the top of the Coaches corner to the finish. They did this because thier training run was shorted the other day.

Be sure to check the pictures from today. Walter and Eva both were feeding the Whisky Jacks right from their hand.

The race finally begun at 10:30. Eric Guay went 9th and had an awesome run. The other Canadians: Manny, Robbie and Jan did not fair so well. Such is racing. The winner is determined by who makes the least amount of mistakes and today it was the Swiss Dider Defago who skied a perfect run. From our location, we could hear the crowd of 7000+ at the bottom roar as each race came over the final two jumps, the first of which is managed by Willy Basin, our section leader. Our team was unable to see the landings, but the crowd gave us a good indication of how exciting it was. For Robbie Dixon's run, Cory phone his girl firend in Toronto so we could have a live update. He relayed his interval and crash to the team 'live'. Pretty neat.

While the men's race was on, the ladies were doing the first part of their training run. Their finish line was right at our station. We are just above the point that the two tracks merge. So, since the men were running, the ladies course was shortened. They completed the training to the finish after the men's race was done. Having both tracks in view from our spot is really cool. There is always lots of action going on.

Afer the race, we took down a few nets so the 'cats' could get through. On skiers right, directly accross from our location is a 'pick point'. This is where the winch cat's hook their winch to for gromming the steeper parts of the course. We then went to the break tent, only to find there was not food left. This was the busiest day yet as most volunteers were on site working the men's and ladies tracks at the some time.

After a quick trip up the gondola and back down, we were dismissed. Tomorrow is the Super Combined event. This is when the racers run the downhill (again), followed by a run down the slalom track, which starts right above us. We were told to be back to 3:30 sign in, 4:30 load time. A few of us talked to Dave to explain our situation about travel. To get there for this time, I would have to wake up at 1:30am. This is just not going to happen as I am way too tired . I'm just going to have to be late. To make things worse, the food services can't serve us before 5am, so we were not getting breakfast either. Many people were pretty upset, but with more snow forcasted, there will be lots of work to do before the first race.

I just watched the Canadians do their downhill run on CTV. If you look closely on the screen just at the point that Jan Hudek hits Boyd's Bump, you can see me. I'm standing directly in the middle of the 6 Olympic flags that line our station. I stood there purposely when Jan came down, just to see if I would be abe to see myself. Well, it worked. You can't see my face, only my blue jacket, and only for a split second.

I haven't had a day off yet, but should get one Wedensday, when the ladies run the downhill. I plan to watch this from the hill somewhere, that is if my day off is not cancelled as they all have been for everyone up until now.

Go Canada Go