Vancouver 2010 - 500m Speed Skating

We are looking forward to speed skating today, but the highlight of the event is the signature building of the games, the Richmond Olympic Oval. This is one of the few entirely new venues for the Olympics and it is by far the most architecturally significant. The Oval sits on the banks of the Fraser River in Richmond, a Southern suburb of Vancouver and home to Vancouver International Airport, YVR. The low-slung building features one of the longest clear spans in North America, the "Wood Wave" roof constructed of one million board feet of native wood from trees downed by pine beetles.

This is the Men's 500m Long Track Speed Skating Finals. It is a short distance race on a long distance track, 1.25 laps on an oval measuring 400m. Competitors skate in pairs from two lanes, and cross-over mid-race. The distance skating from the inner and outer lane is the same, but the advantage is not. This is a sprint with speed building through the race. The skater in the inside lane for the final turn has the advantage. To correct for this, each competitor skates twice, once from each lane. The times from each race are combined to determine the final standings. 39 skaters will race twice in pairs, so we will see 40 races, with a pause after each ten races to resurface the ice. This is an exciting sport. It lacks the crowded ice and spectacular crashes of short track speed skating, but long track skaters reach speeds of 60km per hour. It is the fastest human-powered sport.

We lined up on the dyke overlooking the river as we waited for the doors to open two hours ahead of race time. This building has been designed as a multi-purpose community venue post-games, and much of the infrastructure for the Olympics is temporary. We entered through tents and walked under scaffolding on the way to lunch at the concession stands. Decent standard hot dog, bun steamed soft, and pretty good chili, more Stagg than Nalley. The house was full, the crowds favoring Canada, Finland, and the Netherlands. We had great seats in Row 17 above turn four and the staring line. The starter sounded like a drunken Quebeccer with a speech impediment, like former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien after a moderate stroke. As each race was about to begin, he would call the athletes to the starting line, "Go to the start." The skaters glided forward, the tip of the front skate just on the line, the back skate biting into the ice for maximum leverage. The starter called, "Ready..." and the skaters lowered into a crouch. As the starting gun popped, the racers exploded from the line, accelerating down the straightaway with powerful alternating thrusts. Just incredible!!!

The first ten races went off without a hitch, but at the first intermission, the ice resurfacers failed for the second day in a row. We were delayed for more than an hour as they tried to address the problem. Zamboni is the eponymous brand in ice resurfacing, but this Olympic ice was trusted to Olympia resurfacers. Not good, but we were not without entertainment.

Brass band Kleintje Pils tours with the racers on the World Cup entertaining speed skating crowds all over Europe. They made the trip to the Olympics and kept us warm singing along to the classics. When the ice settled and the racing concluded, just 22 hundredths of a second separated gold medal winner Mo Tae-Bum of Korea from the Japanese skaters that took silver and bronze. The winning time was a combined 69.82 seconds over two 500m races.

After our speed skating marathon, we stopped at Rob Feenie's Cactus Club Cafe for dinner. Rob Feenie WAS the celebrity chef extraordinaire of Vancouver. Lumiere was among the very best fine dining destinations in Canada. The casual Feenies next door delivered the same quality food in less-fussy preparations, featuring an outstanding smoked cheese dog, Feenies Weanie, and a killer duck shepherd's pie. The chef was the Emeril of the Canadian Food Network. Then he lost it all. Investors forced him out of his restaurants and brought in international uber-chef and restaurateur, Daniel Boulud. More about that in a later post. Adrift, a chef without a kitchen, Rob Feenie landed at Cactus Club Cafe, a Canadian chain of mid-range steak and cosmo houses with an ethnic twist, as executive chef. I love Rob Feenie's food and this was my first experience with his new gig. This location in suburban Vancouver near the border is very slick with dark wood, slate, and glass. It is the answer to the question, "Where do you go when you're too old to hang out at the frat house anymore?" The menu is fine, but not particularly inspired. The chef's specialties are noted with an "RF." There is a tuna tataki and a beef carpaccio. We started with a very pedestrian smoked cheddar chicken and spinach dip followed by very good short rib sandwiches, luscious shards of fatty juicy short rib and caramelized onions on sourdough toasted with emmental cheese, beef jus on the side for dipping. Dinner was satisfying, but oh how the mighty have fallen.

When we are not at the games, we are watching them live on Canadian television. CTV is available at Semiahmoo and it's a welcome change from the tape delays and rampant American nationalism of NBC's much-maligned coverage.

Next Event: Men's Super-Combined Downhill

TG

Vancouver 2010 - Ski Jumping

Our home base for the Olympics is the Semiahmoo resort in Blaine, WA, on the opposite side of Drayton Harbor from the Peace Arch border crossing. We are about fifteen minutes from the border, 45 minutes from Vancouver, and three hours from Whistler. Traffic is heavily restricted in the city and on the Sea to Sky highway leading to Whistler, so we will rely on the Sky Train for Vancouver events and buses to Whistler.

We left Semiahmoo at 4:00 this morning to catch a bus from the British Columbia Institute of Technology for the ride to Whistler.

Our first event of the Olympics, the first medal event of the games, is Men's Normal Hill Ski Jumping from Whistler Olympic Park.

We got to the top of the mountain and climbed off the bus at 7:00 just as the sun was starting to rise over the trees. I have skied here before in a former life and it is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Snow capped mountains frame the view in every direction. The morning was crisp and clear as we set out for the jumping hill.

We trudged through the snow and ice, my new Yaktrax providing outstanding traction. Our first stop was the concession stand for some hot cocoa, but I was distracted by the full menu and the promise of pork schnitzel. When bacon is not available, any pork will do. We had assigned seating in the grandstands for this event so we headed to our seats. There is not a bad seat in the house and we had a great view, but these are not box seats. The benches were cold, hard, and wet. Our asses suffered greatly.

There are two hills at Whistler Olympic Park. The taller hill on the left is called the "Large Hill," while the shorter hill on the right is the "Normal Hill." There is reader board on the left and a video board on the right.

Ski jumping is scored using two components, distance and style. Judges award style points based on the skier's tuck riding down the hill, the "V" position of their skis and the forward position of the shoulders in the air, and the telemark form of the landing. Style and distance tend to be positively correlated; jumpers with the most perfect style will usually carry the greatest distance. Forerunners take multiple jumps before the competitors to help marshals set the course. The bar from which the jumpers take off can be adjusted up or down the hill depending on conditions. Optimal conditions allow for take-off speeds of between 86 and 87 kilometers per hour. This ensures that most skiers land between the red lines on the hill. If the best jumpers go much beyond that zone, the hill flattens out and the force of impact increases exponentially. Wind is also closely monitored. Counter intuitively, headwinds favor the competitor, tailwinds are a disadvantage. Wind at the back of the skier creates a vacum as they jump, while wind in their face creates lift and carries them further. Fellow SSBD blogger James J. claims that ski jumpers are never more than ten feet off the ground. I can't confirm or deny this claim, but it seems about right.

There are 51 jumpers. Each will get a practice jump and one competition jump, then the top 30 jump in the final round.

How was it??? Well, repetitive and boring. 130 jumps looked almost identical. 20 meters separated the shortest from the longest and not a single jumper fell. Not that I was rooting for injuries, but there was not a lot of excitement to keep us warm. Nor were our loyalties rewarded. Not a single Canadian qualified and the Americans were not competitive. In the end, there was little suspense. The favorite coming in to the competition had the longest jump of the first round at 105 meters, the longest jump of the second round at 108 meters, and the best style scores. Swiss jumper Simon Ammann took the first gold medal of the games.

Next Event: Men's 500m Speed Skating

TG

Vancouver 2010 - Opening Day

Welcome to Cascadia, the Pacific Northwest, and the Lower Mainland!!! Welcome to Canada, British Columbia, Vancouver, and Whistler!!! Welcome to the 2010 winter Olympics!!!

This is my home, and I am proud!!! I grew up in the Northern suburbs of Seattle and went to college at Western Washington University in Bellingham, just South of the Canadian border. I now live in the heart of Downtown Seattle. Vancouver has always been to me both as wondrous as the exotic other and as familiar as the brother I never had. We are, as is engraved on the Peace Arch that marks the border, "Children of a Common Mother." Vancouver is my favorite city in the world, the perfect marriage of urban and natural, glass and green. Canada was the first stamp in my passport. I came here for family vacations and soccer exchanges as a kid. I took my first legal drink here on my 19th birthday, and saw strippers for the first time. I have smoked BC bud and Cuban cigars looking across Coal Harbor from Stanley Park. I have walked the Sea Wall and cruised under the Lion's Gate Bridge. I have attended the Sumo Canada Basho at the PNE, Molson Indy at Concord Pacific Place, and the Symphony of Fire over English Bay. And now the Olympics. I was there at GM Place on July 2, 2003 when Vancouver was awarded the 2010 Winter Olympics, and I will be at the games attending more than 20 events over the next two weeks.

Are the Olympics still cool? I am not the arbiter of cool, but I still believe. Even in Vancouver, public sentiment is mixed and protests have followed the torch relay. In a city of great wealth and opportunity, there is also great despair and poverty. Critics are right in claiming that the billions devoted to the games could be better spent helping the people, especially in the Downtown Eastside, the most drug-affected neighborhood in North America. It is also true that the Olympics have been taken over by commercial enterprise. They are a multi-billion dollar proposition with winners and losers. NBC is expected to lose $250 million on the Games, having submitted their bid at the height of the economy while selling ad time at an historical low. Co-Sport has exclusive rights to sell tickets in the US and several European countries. They are expected to make more on the games than any other entity. Corporate sponsorships and hospitality tents will be ubiquitous. Even some of the athletes will cash in. Snowboarder Shaun White makes $10 million a year. Short track speed skater Apolo Ohno is a celebrity and danced with the stars. Ski racer Lindsey Vonn will become the star of the Olympics if she can overcome a bruised shin and live up to the hype. But most of these Olympians are un-sung heroes. They have devoted their lives, given up the easy freedom of youth, and toiled in anonymity for a shot at victory and glory in their most pure forms. They seek challenge and progress and competition, while embracing the international Olympic spirit. They are athletes and ambassadors, and I am rooting for them.

Opening ceremonies are like musicals, spectacular and emotional at their best, silly and boring at their worst. Also like musicals, they have very little to do with real life. This will be no exception. I don't like musicals. Just the same, I hate to miss a spectacle. So, without tickets, we decided to make a run at it. We crossed the border to Surrey and rode the Sky Train into the city. We got off at Stadium station and joined the throngs headed for the ceremonies. The crowd was jovial, if not jubilant, dressed for the winter that never came and draped in the flags of world. Tickets for Opening Ceremonies in the US market were priced $600, $900, and $1,300. We could never pull the trigger for that kind of money, but we had cash in hand if there was a deal to be had. There was not. As we wandered among the crowds, many people were looking to buy, but very few were selling. I monitored Craig's list from my Blackberry, but every lead was a dead end. We checked the box office at the stadium. We could get in for $1,100. Not worth it. With the rain starting to fall and the public viewing plaza in Yaletown filling up, we went home to watch the ceremonies on TV.

If you were interested, you joined the three billion people worldwide who watched it live. For my money, I am glad I didn't spend it. The evening was dominated by First Nations mythology that has never interested me. The music, virtually all of it lip-synched and performed at half-tempo, failed to inspire. Even "O Canada," the most beautiful national anthem in the world, was flat. Some of the imagery was beautiful, and the projection technology impressive. The dancing images of light magically turned the floor of the stadium into the surface of the Earth. This effect was at its loveliest as a young man ran through, and floated above, amber waves of grain, set to the Joni Mitchell classic, "Both Sides Now." The lighting of the cauldron, however, the highlight of any opening ceremony, was ill conceived and poorly executed. The plan to have four greats light the cauldron together was very Canadian, but lame and uninspired. Having both an outdoor and an indoor cauldron was an awkward solution to holding the ceremonies in a covered stadium. The technical difficulties raising the fourth ramp of fire ended the ceremonies with a thud, echoing the sound of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili hitting the pillar of death in Whistler.

Opening Day left me non-plussed, but the excitement begins tomorrow.

Next Event: Men's Normal Hill Ski Jumping

Watch us go for the gold!

SSBD Travel is happy to welcome Tres G. as our newest contributor.  Tres has sailed five of the Seven Seas and toured six of the Seven Continents. He has cruised Down Under and flown Up Over. He has been around the world, and is as round as the world. He will go anywhere and do anything, as long as there is first-class transport and five-star accommodations. He doesn't own a backpack and has never stayed in a hostel. He has a filthy mouth and a refined palette, both of which crave bacon above all else. His guilty pleasures include lapel pins and the worst of American pop music. He is the Everyman, yet one of a kind; he speaks for his generation and writes for no one but himself. Tres is our correspondent to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. Look for his nightly updates après-ski and post-skate.