Sprint Relay

What a day for XC Skiing and for Canadians.

Have you ever seen a full spread in the Globe & Mail on X-C Skiing ??? Not I ! But, it sure is time. The hard work, talent and expertise of our countries xc skiers started a long time ago. The Firth Sisters gave us hope. Pierre Harvey showed it was possible. And Becky Scott broke the barrier for all Canadians to actually believe 'we can perform equal to the World ', as long as the World is clean. That part I don't know very much about, but little has been whispered about doping here at the Olympics - which I take as a good sign.

Today (or yesterday - as I was too exhausted to sit down and write my blog yesterday) was an amazing day to be at a Cross Country ski race. So far, I had only witnessed Sprint Relays on TV. Pretty captivating there. But to actually see these powerful athletes ski by you, and hear them breathe as well as the crowds cheer is second to none.

I was able to capture a few great moments on the final laps on my simple camera. What I missed though were the wipe outs in the first and second heats amongst the Women at the Red corner. It became obvious that those that slid the initial portion of the turn, then skated had great control. Those that skied hard into the turn, lost control. Light must have been an issue, as they all wiped out leaving the shade and entering the softer snow in the sun. Evi Stachenbacher of Germany twice nearly did a full 360 - skiers around her were a bit more nimble to ski past her, but she almost didn't qualify her country. This changed drastically in the Finals, where the German ladies had no trouble on the same corner (softer snow ) and won GOLD.

Daria Gaiazova and Sara Renner were paired for 3 laps each of the 1.4km Sprint course. The placed 4th in their heat. Top 3 finishers automatically move up to the Final. Then four fastest timed heat finishers including Canada, also moved to the Finals for a total of 10 countries.

Dasha was the first leg. Skied super strong and stayed with the pack. Her downhill corners were no issue. Sara Renner brought Canada tighter to the front. At one point they were in medal contention...but this was a tough field. In sixth for most of the laps, Sara Renner was still in the lead up the final uphill, but it seemed to me that Kikkan Randall's skis were slightly faster...and she just nicked by Sara for 6th. Canada place 7th !

The men were even stronger. Devon lead off. Easily staying with the pack, both Alex and Devon seemed to coast with the group until the final lap. Most impressive was their inside choice on the return uphill, staying away from the congestion. In his third lap, Devon gave'r. Here's a video of his amazing lead over Axel Teichmann of Germany. Alex took over for the final lap in 2nd place. He held it half-way up the first incline, then couldn't keep the Russian and Norwegian skier back. An impressive ski, you can see from this video how he's held the fourth position. What is amazing is how far ahead the German skier was, to eventually be passed by Petter Northug in the reach for the finish. The crowd went wild not only to for this incredible feat of Norway, but to see Canadians ski ahead of the Finn's, the Swed's, the Italien's and most of the rest of the world :)

congrats!


We all knew this was to be the final day of gorgeous sunshine. Can you believe primroses survive in Whistler in February...

Tom McCarthy's out here making sure the photog's get prime spots along the course. Media rules at the Olympic Games, and we love making sure they get loads of great shots. Looks like I need to put on more sunscreen - yikes.

The forerunner teams have now changed up. A new crop of talented Canadians are here. See if you can recognize an athlete from your club.

Fun to chat with spectators. On the bus up to WOP this morning the gentle man behind me asked some questions with a very strong Austrian accent. After a couple of words we both realized we had best friends from Lienz in common (Kurti Pock and Veit Krosslhuber, MKC kayak instructors) and had to take the group shot of red & white.