The view from Whistler

Scott and I are back from two days in Whistler - taking in a couple of events, checking out the scene and catching up with friends. What a great time - Whistler is at it's finest right now.

While both Vancouver and Whistler are both in full party mode right now, they each have a very different feel. Vancouver is a big city pulling out it's hometown colours: the streets are filled with Canadians showing the world how much we're loving this stage.

Whistler doesn't have that same level of Canadian patriotism on display, but instead is a stage for kind of a global village. Despite the crowds and reputation, Whistler is at heart still a small town and the spontaneous connection between athletes, officials, media and fans from around the world is frequent and relaxed. It also means the people-watching is fantastic, and I think I've enjoyed watching the crowds as much as the competition during my time in Whistler.

To start, Scott and I had tickets to Women's Biathlon 4X6, which means four athletes per team, each cross-country skiing 6km pausing twice to shoot off their guns. After watching Nordic Combined and now this, it's clear to see that the Norwegians had too much time and too little daylight when coming up with these sporting combinations.

The Russians were the clear favourite in this race and there were a whole lot of Russians in the crowd: in fact, we were seated smack in the middle of a number of them, with a few Norwegians to help round out the Arctic Circle crowd. While the Russian team finished handily for Gold, it was the French team that made the race exciting, falling behind after a penalty lap from missing a shot and still recovering in time to claim Silver.

After spending much of the day with the Russians their enthusiasm wore off on us and and we expanded our wardrobe to help cheer them on:



I think it's most important to point out that Scott is now wearing Russian socks with pride. (This story may have been different had we lost tonight's hockey game to them.)

Today we checked out the Women's GS (Giant Slalom) race which, with 40 countries competing, had an even broader group of spectators and team uniforms. (I found a Kazakhstan team member with an amazingly fantastic fur hat. If we had thought of it earlier, we would have collected photos of ourselves alongside various country uniforms - there are some snappy ones out there.)

Unfortunately the race was postponed after the first run due to fog (each competitor gets two runs), and it's due to resume tomorrow morning. We'll be catching the second half on screen, which is a pretty good view anyway. After watching a number of events live - both Olympic and World Cup - at almost every 2010 venue, I can tell you the view from the living room is pretty good. What the live view gives is a sense of perspective which isn't always easily conveyed on screen: the energy of the crowd, the speed and remarkable strength of the competitors, the scope of the field of play. If you have the chance, get out to a race near you... you'll be inspired, too.