Olympic sized day

This morning started at 3am - yes, 3am - when I awoke to get up and ready to visit the set of NBC's Today Show, which temporarily located it's live broadcast to Vancouver for the past two weeks. The challenge with a live broadcast is that it's live, which means a 6 - 10am broadcast for the US east coast begins at 3am on the west coast. We arrived at a leisurely 4am, but still in plenty of time to see todays guests, many of whom were US Olympic medalists.

It was fun to see these athletes, often because many I recognized from earlier visits to the MPC for a press conference: seeing them both before and after their competitions was fun. This morning's highlights were American Julie Mancuso, who won two surprise silver medals in alpine skiing, and Canadian Joannie Rochette, whose story of loss has riveted not only our country but much of the international audience as well.


Twelve hours later, I was seated at Vancouver Olympic Centre to take in the Women's Gold Curling match with my mom. We were delighted that the Canadian team made it to the final and we were there to cheer them on.

I don't think I've ever watched a more exciting sporting match - I was riveted to my seat for the whole game. Basically, it went like this: first we were ahead, then we were behind. Then we were ahead, then we were TIED - - hold your breath - - and then we lost in the 11th (extra) end. Whew! Here's a picture of the Swedish team debating a particularly gnarly moment somewhere in the 7th end: it didn't look very good for them at that moment but they came through.


As I said to Mom, we may have lost the game but we sure got our money's worth: it was an amazing game to watch. And a silver medal is nothing to sneeze at! Plus, at the end of the game I still had another small victory to celebrate: I won/bought a signed framed photo of alpine skier Manuel Osborne-Paradis in a silent auction being held in the venue concourse. Yay Canada!