Saturday 13 February
Five press conferences and the media smell blood.....let the Games
begin!
In their cars they started coming up the hill to Whistler from three
in the morning expecting to see the Blue Ribbon event. Yet someone
forgot to tell mother nature! At 0345 the TD and his cohorts decided
that the slush and the soft snow even at that time would not be
conducive to racing and so the days festivities would not happen, we
would be restricted to watching the slush bumps and searching for
more stories as well as watching five press conferences on the
tragic events of yesterday. Many of the multi sport journalists
proceeded to pore over quotes, maps and articles like blood hounds
(or lawyers depending on your stance...). Me? Thanks fully I was
able to get on with watching the Ireland and France game on I-Player
on a friends computer....and then saw the Scotland result. Not a
good start.
It must have been fate that I decided to get off the bus at
Creekside and walk up to the Downhill finish. Luckily I was stopped
at the first Helpful Blue Coat and then made my way to Whistler.
It was here that I found the Mail on Sunday had been up 30 hours
researching and writing for his blood thirst driven article.... I
have better things to do. The fact that the Organising Body of the
Luge Federation had lost one of their own is not nice, yet I kept
thinking back to the advice given by Gunther Hujara after
interviewing him at Kitzbuehel: "Maybe we should put a sign above
the door into the start hut saying 'Going through this start gate
may damage your health!'" in reference to the fact that the racers
doing the Hahnenkamm could injure themselves....! Very pertinent!
So what do you do when the racing gets called off? For some of the
British contingent, you go back to bed as you have been up all night
stamping the course to try in vain and get it ready. This was what
Paul Hothersall did. As the leader of one of the groups that spent
all night stamping and stamping some more to try and compact the
snow, this was his role in getting the 2010 Olympics ready.
Hothersall, from the Pendle club in the north west of England, now
works for the Whistler Ski School and is helping out as one of the
team leaders on the slip crews.
For the mere mortals in the press room, this was a chance to go and
look at some of the sights and sounds of Whistler. One problem: It
was pouring with rain! Still off I went and was amazed at the number
of different nationalities all partying together. Most buildings in
town have an allegiance one way or another to the major skiing
nations and yet the crowds all mingle together. This is a great
sight to see.
While the memory of yesterday will not fade quickly, the world keeps
going. More athletes will die in the future but still we all carry
on competing and looking for our fix of adrenaline; we watch as the
heroes of today battle for immortality in taking risks - not a lot
has really changed I imagine from the days of the Romans and the
Collauseum!
Ellie Koyander has been the first GB Snowsport athlete in action,
due to the cancellation of the Men's Downhill. With between 10 and
60cm being forecast over night, it could be another night of tense
waiting to see if we have a training run for the girls tomorrow.
The Americans have their first Gold from the bumps..... but do not
even get me started as to whether a qualitative event should even be
in the Games! Longest, furthest, highest....or who looks the best!
Yes great athletes but sort out the rules....
Interviews done and news articles ready for the morning.....bed
calls, 14 days to go I think!
