Go Curlers Go (pic)

Its almost Purim, the Jewish holiday of celebration, frivolity and costumes. Even though I'm going to miss hearing the Megillah on Saturday night, I certainly have had my fill of jubilation and wacky costumes.

As we speak, the Canadians and Swedes are battling for the Gold and Silver medal in Curling. I was lucky enough to see them play in the early rounds, when Canada won. I'm just not sure who to root for. Canada has taken my heart, but I have a connection to Sweden with my dear friend and 'sister' Ingrid.
Either way, then. I win.

Miga and Quatchi Olympic Mascots (pic)

Sitting in the cold Cypress Mountain air (okay, cold is an understatement. It was freezing), there was a lot of time to kibbutz, especially when one skier wiped out and had to be carried off on a stretcher, postponing the next run for 10 minutes.

At that point, I learned about the Olympic mascots. All the adults agreed that we were not initially impressed with them, but that they had grown on us over time. Part of that is seeing how much the children LOVE them, just love them to pieces. Any time there was a mascot at the event, there were also long lines to take pictures.
So, I succombed!
Quatchi is a Sasquatch, and Miga is a whale (huh?). There is another mascot Sumi, a mythical spirit bear, and a sidekick MukMuk, a muscrat. All very Canadian, eh?

Who in the world is YuNa Kim? (video)

If you were watching ANY of the ladies' skating, you should know who Yu Na Kim is by now: t:he extraordinary Gold medal winner (no, I 'm not giving away any information writing this after the fact).
Even though I  was sitting in the stratosphere for the short program, her magnetism reached us in the top rows. A standing ovation well deserved.
My knowledge of her came by chance before I arrived in Vancouver. To be honest, I didn't know much about the skaters this Olympic cycle, not even the US team. Even though I had been avidly watching Universal Sports for the past few months as they tracked the pre Olympic tournaments like the Ice Dancing and Pairs Grand Prix, I must have missed the Nationals in Spokane, because I only vaguely knew about Rachel Flatt, the US champion, while the others were a blur.
By chance, though, as I was searching for footage of Michelle Kwan to post, I happened onto some past video of Yu Na Kiim. I haven't been this mesmerized since I saw Michelle Kwan skate at the US Nationals in 1998. Then I forgot about her, not realizing that there were high  Olympics expectations for her from both the Korean and world community

For the short program, she skated to a medley of James Bond music. Sounded risky, perhaps a bit too kitchy, so what I loved, absolutely loved was how she pulled it off with just the right touch of sass and bravado without letting the music dominate. That had been the problem earlier in the night, when some of the weaker skaters used symphonic music that overpowered their skating, or conversely, lightweight music that didn't drive the skating with any energy. Neither of these can be said of Yu Na Kim. She is totally in the driver's seat in both performance, technique, and choreography.

Too much of the commentary is focused on the jumping, and not enough on the way she uses her whole body in the spins and the footwork.  If you have a chance to find footage of her Olympic programs, look at the spin sequences for some of the most original combinations I have ever seen.

 From 2009-----------
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Ladie's figure skating

When this journey began, I had envisioned seeing only ice skating, but my first round of tickets only included 1 event. It seemed so certain that there wouldn't be any more tickets available, but I learned a lesson from the minute I arrived: this was a scalpers paradise. They were allowed to buy 48 tickets and could stand out and sell them for whatever the market would bear. For buzz events like the Canada US hockey games, tickets went for as much as 1000$ ( I hear that tickets for the men's gold medal hockey games could fetch as much as 5000$) So, even a few weeks before I left Philadelphia I bought another ticket.  I paid some premium for that ticket, but not as much as for the next one. I made a mistake to think I needed to buy it online instead of waiting until I arrived because I saw tickets being sold for less than the face value the night of the performance. oh well


More about skating later. right now I'm back in Seattle waiting, waiting for NBC to show the finals. yawn..

Pictures from Cypress Mountain Ski Cross

This was my most adventurous day with 2 events back to back. Cypress mountain was a taxi ride and charter bus ride away. Even leaving the apt. I could tell that the air was getting colder and more humid. As we approached the mountain, a spectacular view of Vancouver appeared to the right, the only time that it would be clear all day.  After reaching the parking area, we had to walk, of course, to the bottom of the viewing area, but that wasn't the end of it.
In spite of the cold, in spite of the 200 steps to go up and down and up and down again, I had a  blast. The seating areas were situated so that we could see the last turn and jump as the skiers came down the hill.

 The toilets and food are at the bottom of the stairs and the viewing area at the top.  There are always outrageous fans, this one an Aussie. We had some New Zealanders behind us too.                  

Ladies or womens

What's up?

Ladies figure skating
women's speed skating
Ladies ski cross
Women's hockey
Women's alpine skiing

At least they don't call them girls