It was a Golden Day!

What a day! My brother and I had a great breakfast at a Aboriginal Art Gallery in Vancouver, then a presentation from someone from VANOC (Vancouver Organizing Committee) about Sustainability in the Olympics. Then a nice surprise, we received a pair of tickets to the USA vs. Finland semi-finals. So we left shortly after and headed to the game. At the game there was a large amount of American fans and few Fins... Most Canadians were cheering for the US with hopes that we could get a US vs. Canada final if Canada wins the game against Slovakia. The game started with a bang with a few mistakes from the Fins allowed the US jump to a punishing start 6-0 in the first period. Finland was definitely deflated after a few goals in the first period as well as the entire second period. The crowd died down since the outcome of the game was obvious at this point. Once the Fins started playing better, they scored a goal and the crowd was thrilled that the Fins could save a little embarrassment, but with no other action 6-1 was final score.

After a quick bit to eat we headed to our planned event; Short Track Speed Skating! I've done a little bit of short track so I had a even greater respect for these athletes, as I was thrilled to see the best in the world zipping around the rink! Some popular skaters were the Hamlin brothers from Canada and American Apollo Anton Ohno. 3 events: Men's 500m, Ladies 1000m and Men's 5000m relay! With quarter finals and semi's for the 500m and 1000m, and finals for all.


It was very exciting and the crowds were going insane! Charles Hamlin ended up winning Gold and Francois-Louis Tremblay taking Bronze in the 500m race. It was just amazing!

After all that excitement our Canadian ladies didn't fair so well by missing the podium. Next was the 5000m men's relay. Two teams were in the Men's B Final so it was less hectic than the A final to come. Great Britain and Germany battled with GB having a great finish to win the race. This was a great primer for the final which had five teams on the ice. Four players per team so that meant 20 skaters going around doing relays. It was 45 laps and the pace kept getting faster ever lap. By the time we got down to the 12th lap out of 45 the crowd was insane and Canada was leading!! The excitement in the arena was like nothing I've ever seen before. I'm getting goose bumps just recalling the finish. Charles Hamlin had a close call coming out of one of the corners around lap five but held on. With the crowd getting louder and louder every lap and the race pace getting faster and faster Canada finished first - taking GOLD! It was such an amazing moment, something that I will remember for the rest of my life! Everyone was high five-ing and yelling as loud as they could, it was just an unreal experience and I'm so proud I had the chance to be there!

The Medal ceremonies were great getting to yell Oh Canada twice was just awesome! Canada finished the night with 2 Gold and 1 Bronze! Oh and Canada's Men's hockey team won so they advance to the Gold medal finals! So Amazing! Hopefully the guys can repeat the ladies performance against the US! We'll have to see if the Gold Medal Hockey will be just as amazing as the short track relay, I can't wait! Snowboarding tomorrow up at Cypress!


Some celebrity citings: Vince Vaughn, Stephan Harper, Brett Butt (Corner Gas tv show..), Shawnee Davis (US long tack speed skater).