shift #4 - Killarney training session, short track speed skating

New venue today, Killarney Centre. This is the training venue for short track speed skating, and probably my most eventful and exciting shift yet!

I saw lots of teams today as I was posted at the athlete entry and in the rink beside the athletes as they warmed up, trained and cooled down. First up was Australia in green and gold suits like skeletons, Tatiana Borodilina and Lachlan Hay. They trained along side Japan, ~8 athletes, in black and gold suits; and Russia. ~5 athletes, through relays. The Australia girl used to compete for Russia and they all probably know each other through world cup competitions anyways. Lachlan is tall and fast!

Women apparently go ~ 40km/h, so imagine the guys! I saw much more speed later in the day. The rink is bigger than the normal hockey rink and tons of thick padding all the way around. They use small cones on the turns and change the placement of these cones to skate on fresh ice, so that there's almost 3 rings to skate around. They replace each other in the relay by having a skating following on the inner track and change after ~ 1.5 - 2 laps, by pushing each other. It's fascinating how coordinated this is.

Next up was Great Britain and Netherlands, 7 athletes each. Great Britain in navy blue with the Union Jack and Netherlands in black and orange. The Dutch team was fun to watch, they seem to really like to practice relay throughout the entire hour that they were on the ice. Good looking ladies on the Dutch team.

Next up CANADA! Yay! I was so happy to be able to see them. They had the rink almost to themselves, with the exception of a lone Czech Republic girl, Katarine Novotna. Canada has 10 skaters, the only one I can remember seeing is Olivier Jean, because of his hair. Black and red suits. Most of the team is from Quebec and I heard this is because they have a really good short track speed skating program there. Apparently the sport really took off when one of our athletes won a bunch of medals in Calgary. Cool! Only 2 athletes are from BC.

Then, Team USA. 10 athletes again. Apparently Apolo Ohno was the one to watch. He is fast, but mostly known for his win on Dancing with the Stars! They're all the same to me. This was the only team to use all their ice time, that they had to be kicked off the ice for the next set. I always found that USA teams have so much drive, and I could really feel the intensity in the rink. Coaches were pushing their athletes hard and they were training hard, every minute. The pace was fast and really intense.

A bit of press for Canada and USA showed up. The Olympic News Service is a bunch of journalists who provide interviews or facts for to help out other media services. I met a fellow, John Crumlish, who has been to 3 Olympics. He says he doesn't always get credit, but his coverage may spark a good interview or be used in actual press.

Last set was France and Germany. There was a young guy who I really liked. He was training on his own, warming up, getting sprints in, spoke good English, really polite and really good looking :). I noticed that he seemed to be the lone wolf of the team, either dedicated or just focused. Tyson Heung, I'll hope to see him compete for real. Tons of relays for the German team, fascinating to watch.

On the French team, one woman I remember is Veronique Pierron. Funny, there's so many of them, they're all so young and once they put their suits and helmets on, they all kinda look the same. Amazing how they can get to this level of competition by their 20s. If only my parents got me into volleyball! Too bad for me.

I saw the Olympic torch relay go by. I was at my post and couldn't really see it, but there were vehicles with music, security escorts, runners and the community. Pretty cool. It was supposed to go by my work and actually stop, so I'll have to ask my colleagues tomorrow. It was supposed to be at the RCMP Memorial with musical ride horses and the whole shebang.

For the 9 hour shift, I was really cold most of the time, but had a fun time. I met some Montreal Police, some RCMP from across the country and a diplomat protection detail lady, Andrea, from the US. Love to see what people do for work and why they've come.

On a final note, I got the opportunity to see the final dress rehearsal for the Opening Ceremonies at BC Place last night. I didn't have many expectations until a coworker mentioned that he went to the rehearsal 2 days ago and it blew him away. I was a bit disappointed, but there were certainly some highlights. Mum's the word, as I won't be the leak, but I'm hoping to watch the TV coverage of the live ceremonies and compare.

Until next shift...