Saturday 20 February
Gold rush...
Came up on the chairlift with one of Julia Mancuso's school buddies
this morning and we both swapped stories about how happy we were
that Jules had been collecting medals. Mancuso is so often left in
the darkness in terms of media coverage by the US that it is great
to see her making her own headlines now. It seems that not everyone
is a big Vonn fan and that the PR stories regarding injuries etc
with Vonn are not to everyone's taste.
After having seen Chemmy face hard conditions in the Super G,
chatted to her about the darkness and how it affects the early
racers, I headed back into the Sub Media Centre, listened to the
press conferences, even asked a few questions and then headed out.
Had arranged to do so chat on the new toy with Bet Garner from the
Ski Club who is out here so we did one on the chair going down
(sorry IOC...) and then did another interview to camera outside of
the Berlin Wall. From there it was off back to the WPC, no not Woman
Police Constable but the Whistler Press Centre.
Having missed the moment of magic when Amy Williams won her Gold, I
was going to go and witness the moment it was placed around her
neck! Belting out Gold Save the Queen with the friends of the two
Germans (who got silver and bronze) in front of my must have been
painful for the Germans! Oh dear - bothered? Definitely not! I
will get the video up later on here but excuse the tardiness of
this, this will be explained shortly. I had walked down to the
Medals Plaza with two old friends from Austria who were going to see
Andrea Fischbacher receive her medal so we were all in a great mood.
I was not expecting the huge crowds and security to get into the
medals plaza. Looking back it is obvious that this was to be
expected and it was not something that I had expected before. In the
queue in saw the still distraught Canadian Melissa Hollingsworth,
who was obviously going to support her fellow Canadian who had won
the Gold in the men's race. Having been in second before her run, it
must have been hard for her to see others winning the medal that she
thought was going to be hers! In the Skeleton, medals are awarded
after four runs, not three!
I was all for going back to the centre after having seen Fischbacher
get her medal but it was off to the mixed zone for a wee chat and
then we headed off to the Austria House. It was a see of who's
who from the world of ski racing. Fischbacher and the ski jumper who
had got bronze were being honoured and all in the building
were having drinks and food on the OSV...marvellous! Sorry make that
free food and booze..... The hardships of this job.
The memory gets a little hazy after this but do remember seeing
Marco Buechel in there (that well known Liechtenstein racer who had
raced his last Olympic race in the Super G the day before) as well
as a host of ex racers, personalities (Hubertus von Hohenlohe) and
other assorted friends and fans and media groupies....
I lost touch with the two guys I had arrived with and then thought I
had better get back and type up ... Well I did get back but was too
tired so 24 hours later this gets posted!
Day 5 of the latest batch of races tomorrow and then a day off, a
chance to go skiing....
