Monthly Archives: February 2010

The weekend is here! The weekend is here!

And almost too quickly … The weekend is gone! The torch is extinguished. And my Olympic work is done.

I sort of can’t believe I’m saying this … but I can’t believe the Olympics is over, and I’m sad to see it end. I won’t say it flew by, because it certainly did not. It’s been a long, exhausting three weeks. But it’s also been a wonderful, memorable experience and a heck of a lot of fun. I am fortunate to be one of a few hundred American journalists with the awesome privilege of covering the summer and winter Olympics every two years, and I try not to take one moment of it for granted. Including the late nights and early mornings.

Today is Friday, the third-to-last day of the Games. The rain has returned and the visibility/conditions at Whistler and Cypress mountains is terrible. The fact Olympic competition is being held today (tomorrow is supposed to be worse) is unfortunate. There’s been a lot of DQ-ing, DNFs and crashing. Spectators (okay, parents and friends of athletes willing to brave the conditions) are forced to sit in pouring rain and wind and not see the competition through the fog. Hopefully this will be a lesson to the IOC. (However, I highly doubt it will have any affect on future host-city selections.)

Wednesday afternoon, I read a Twitter posting by skier Julia Mancuso. And with that, I learned of the death of freeskier CR Johnson, an amazing skier and even more amazing guy. A few years back, I worked with CR on a story about his recovery from a traumatic brain injury he suffered in 2005. I never got off the phone without laughing and, even though he still had difficulty with his short-term memory, he did everything in his power to return my calls and e-mails promptly. Recently, his phenomenal recovery and return to competitive skiing has provided hope for Kevin Pearce and his family, who are going through a similar situation. He is a wonderful example of how a person with passion and determination can triumph over even extreme adversity.

This blog begins with a story.

Several years ago, my friend Lisa did one of the most special things a friend has ever done for me. At the time, I had never been to Europe, but Lisa was an old pro. We talked for months about taking a trip together, and planned to go in the summer. But then she met (well, re-met) an awesome guy named John who is now her husband. John lived in Switzerland and she wanted to spend some time with him, sans her tagalong friend. I totally understood, but in the days leading up to Lisa’s trip to Europe, she didn’t return my calls.

It’s baaaaack. The rain, that is. I knew it was too good to be true.

Today, I spent the afternoon at an event with US Ski Team cross country athletes Kikkan Randall and Andy Newell for the Century Council, an organization geared at stopping underage drinking. (It was actually way more fun than it sounds, and really cool to see athletes taking time from their busy Olympic schedules to give back.) I wrote a piece for .com, if you want to check it out here.

I also previewed tomorrow’s lineup, and you can check that out here.

My year of enlightenment apparently starts today.

The year began with a three-hour trek to Whistler while toting about 1,000 pounds of luggage. (My bags are like wet Gremlins, multiplying by the day.) Then I settled into my new home for the next week, a condo on Whistler Creekside, grabbed some lunch and got a birthday surprise. My friend Amy arranged for me to have a much-needed birthday massage at the hotel next to the Whistler Press Center. I could not have asked for a better way to spend my afternoon.

IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL DRIVE — WHEN I WASN’T SLEEPING ON THE BUS …

Last night, a group of us went back to Gotham Steakhouse for dinner and, I believe, set the Winter Olympic record for dining. We arrived at 7:45 p.m.; we left at 1 a.m. In between, we ate way too much great food, drank a wonderful bottle of wine and had great conversation. It’s just one of my favorite ways to spend an evening: surrounded by friends, chatting (and chatting, and chatting and …) and listening to live music. Steve the manager and David the owner are definitely on my list of the nicest people I’ve met in Vancouver. If you ever make it up this way, you must have the black-and-blue ahi and an ice cream sundae at Gotham. And tell them I sent you.

Today, I got to write a story I’ve wanted to write since I started working at the magazine. And meet someone I’ve wanted to meet since I was 12 years old.

At 2:30 today (Saturday), between the early and late hockey games, I had sushi and a beer with Jeremy Roenick, the guy who doomed me to a lifetime of misspelled bylines. We met at the Pan Pacific Hotel here in Vancouver and talked about hockey and retirement and the Olympics and our last names. And I think we might be related, because we both love to talk.

This morning, (It’s Friday, by the way. Don’t worry. I had to ask, too.) Lindsay and I decided to take a personal day. After we finished writing our “what to watch tomorrow” stories, we headed to the city with no real schedule and definitely no plan. “We’ll just let it happen,” I said.

After fighting our way through the largest crowds yet, we stopped to have lunch at a random spot on Robson Street (read: the first restaurant without a wait) and watched the men’s Super G on TV. It’s funny. Most of the time I feel like I’m at the Olympics, missing the Olympics. So it was fun to watch an event, even if we were only watching it on TV.

I climbed out of bed around 9:30 this morning. And then I kept climbing.

8 stairs to get out of hotel, 4 to get on the bus (and off again) and 77 to the Sky Train platform. Sure, there was an escalator. But in Canada, people do not “stand on the right, walk on the left.” They stand on the right, talk (and stand) on the left. So I have decided to take the stairs.