NOoooo....it's over: we're all in Olympic 'withdrawal'...

I find my self wearing a piece of my smurf outfit ever day... not all at the same time...cause this I had to do for four weeks straight. But just one piece at a time... my hat for my spring ski out in the Gatineau Park, my vest when sitting at my desk and yes my lovely blue rainjacket with the Olympic rings registered on the back walking to the grocery store...cause I'm so proud to have been a Volunteer at the Olympics !

And you would be amazed how many people notice and say hey, 'what was your volunteer job ?' and... 'I too was there' - or ' You guys worked so hard' - or ' I was glued to the TV set for two weeks straight and am now in Olympic withdrawls'... and I say "me too!"

I can't believe it's over.

The Paralympics were my Olympic addiction slow return to normal life...my daily chats with Dirk who was still out-west grooming helped immensely. Now he too is coming home after a very long two months of continuous work. Dirk just called me from one of Vancouver2010's legacy's...the 'Sky-train'. He took it from Richmond after having returned his VANOC truck and was heading to the airport for the red-eye flight home. Tomorrow will be our first time together as a family in two months...Katrina is also home from down-under where she was training for her whitewater kayak sport. Stefani held the fort here on First Av - and I must say did a fine job that of course included 'watering' my plants, snow removal, garbage out on the curb on Tuesdays and with the recyling tossed many items I never had the heart to 'throw-out' - cause she could !

Skiing in the Gatineau Park last weekend, I met up with fellow Banana Ski teammate of my youth - aka southern Ontario skiing nickname of the time... Dan Mallet, whom I had heard had a key role with Olympic medals. He too was in major Olympic withdrawals. And after hearing his story, now I know why. Dan headed up the mint's medal creation team for the past 2 years, and was physically at the end of the 7 hour line-up in downtown Vancouver where the public was not only able to see the medals upfront, but have their photo taken wearing one...and able to ask Dan and his team how they were made, designed and the inspiration behind these beautiful pieces of hardware. Dan told me that he personally spoke to over 40,000 people. He also mentioned that the mint made 690 medals for the Olympics and 300 for the Paralympics. Wow ! The Mint here in Ottawa still has these beauties emblazoned on it's outer walls with line-ups heading in this past weekend...I hope I too get to see a copy in weeks to come. Perhaps a personal tour from Dan, to help him get over his post-Olympic-blues ! That is...if he reads my blog :)

This just arrived in my inbox from Susan Denny ...our energetic leader from Comox Valley aka Mt Washington, BC ski terrain - fast and female Marshal 1 :

WHAT a TEAM !

I believe I have thanked most of our team members personally on your great efforts “on course” but as I missed a few of the gatherings at the end of the Paralympics I would like to take the time to share some thoughts and thank everyone once again .

I have c.c.’d the chiefs and others as the Olympics and Paralympics as we know becomes a huge team effort .

Our course marshal teams certainly appreciated the good spirits and help from the other areas.

I think Mike Edwards, had a few smiles on some days when he saw how well his 5 areas ( transportation, forerunners, course marshals , course marking and grooming ) came “in sink” and worked as “a course team” . Maybe some days we interpreted some commands upside down and backwards but in the end we pulled off what we needed to J Thank you from our whole team to Course 1 and Course 2’s ( Mike, Jonas and Shawn)

A Big thank you to Nicola, John and Audra.

A Big Thank you to Christine , Lo , Claudia and Harriet ( Marshal #2 ‘s) – for starting our teams off on the early days and finishing with spunk , enthusiasm and energy to the end.

For the rest of you , wow; you were all great !

Everyone’s journey to these events and during was different ; some learned lots ; some of you contributed a great deal to the team . What a legacy we have created for B.C. and Canada.

The best was arriving each morning a seeing smiles at 7:00 am raring to go out onto the FOP to create a safe environment for the amazing and inspiring athletes.

Continue to share your stories and photos everyone.

All the best,

Susan Denny

Course Marshal #1

We had quite a group from the Ottawa Region working at Cross Country... too busy to get us all together, but we did manage one photo of the Nakkertok contingent at our final Feb 28th celebration.

I'll close today with a shot that really summarizes my amazing job: front row seats - TRACKSIDE2010 !

Hope you too continue to wear you're prized red mittens - something that will keep us all remembering this incredible event put on by Canadians in Canada !

IF keen to learn more and relive the Paralympics, here is a superb U-tube site: http://player27.narrowstep.tv/nsp.aspx?player=ParalympicSportTV#ns_dummy_link

Final Weekend at WOP

Saturday was Relay Day for Cross Country - Women did 3 x 2.5kms and the Men 1 4km + 2 x 5km course. Russia dominated the Gold, Ukraine the Silver and Norway hit bronze in the Men, with Belarus in the Women.

The final night of grooming started at 1am. That was because it was supposed to snow. Snow never came - instead rain all night and all day...making for a dreary long last day at WOP. And of course the courses needed loads of salting this morning to harden the tracks for the final day - Sprint races. Sit skiers skied an 800m course. Standing skiers skied the 1.2km course (the Women's Sprint course from 2009). The turn-around corner was a bit sketchy, so Dirk and a second machine worked for over 2 hours to build up a 2m high wall to severely bank the corner.

Lo Lanning - head marshal # 2 has been great in keeping us up-to-date on marshal TRACKSIDE for the Paralympics. Here's her story from today: "The Russians owned the podium, that's for sure. The Mckeever fellas were rather spectacular as well.....doubled poled the whole thing practically and rumour has it he wore skate skis!...passed his brother early on right after leaving the stadium and charged right through ahead of Robin to the finish. They had 30 seconds to make up on the first starter, and made quick work of that, in the lead before the turn around, I believe! Our marshal team ran like clockwork today...smooth as butta! eventhough the weather could have been betta...it was a long day....Start at 10 quarterfinals lasted right til noon,...then semis ...then finals and THEN MEDAL ceremony...ao...ao...ao....ao....ao....times 6....Finally got to wrap up at 3pm! Phew! And did I mention rain ! "

And medal, the Canadian brother team did. The Vancouver Sun reported the following:

McKeever made a calculated gamble in the final of the sprint event. Racing in rain and sticky snow conditions, they decided not to wax their skis and instead used pure strength to power their way to victory.

"The tracks were slowing down because they were getting wet," Brian McKeever said. "That was part of what made the decision. "We had a good strategy. We had to make the decision and believe in it 100 per cent."

McKeever came into the Paralympics with an objective to win three gold.

Mission accomplished.

"That was the goal coming in," said the 30-year-old. "It was not one we wanted to put out to people. You can never predict what the other competitors would do. "We had to put down our best races to do it. We tried to play to our strengths."

McKeever's victory Sunday at Whistler Olympic park, which he secured alongside his guide, brother Robin, marks Canada's 10th gold medal of the 2010 Games and is McKeever's ninth career Paralympic medal.

Great conditions for Paraolympics

Minus 6 at night and plus temperatures during the day have the groomers starting at 4pm - the transition time - when the sun leaves the tracks and start to freeze up.

Different game plan each day, Dirk meets with the Jury and TD's right after the day's races to initiate the next days course planning. Normally 6 pages of notes are recorded during their ski around the race course. These notes are then transferred to his grooming team - often first discussed in Trailer 2 as to the best way to execute the plan. His team is a diverse group with un believable expertise. Mt Washington on the island groomers Mark Lister and Tom Kennedy have the most experience with para-nordic track setting...and similar snow conditions, thus their input is highly valued. Groomed with the large Pisten Bully 400 machines, then reviewed by skiing the entire race course with fine scrutiny. Tracks for standing visually impaired skiers need to be continuous, no breaks - which means manual grooming in erratic corners. Sit ski tracks need to be level - which means quite a bit of raking and then adding in a manually created track...a track pan pulled by hand.
And of course salting will come to play in the plus degree conditions still facing the skiers at Whistler Olympic Park.


While in Toronto not having the opportunity to tune in to athletics...cause I was hamming it up in front of CP24(the new 24 hour news channel) in a raft at the Sportsman Show as well as doing the brochure distribution rounds for our summer businesses... decorated Paralympian Colette Bourgonje added a second medal to her 2010 collection on Thursday, earning bronze in the women's 5km sitting cross-country ski race. The 48 year old athlete is an inspiration to women world-wide, sending the message that age is not a barrier - passion and hard work can achieve goals that are realistic not only for able bodied athletes...but for those that have unique challenges. It takes creativity, will power and support to reach goals. The benefit is not only an individual gain, but shared by all that surround you. Congrats Colette and thank you for paving a path - one that opens up opportunities, closes barriers that traditionally may have halted us. You have shown us that this can be a temporary speed bump, a derailment...or change of tracks.... one that brings new joy into a sport for life ! Thank you !

Brian McKeever is becoming a successful gold miner...adding to his collection a second first place podium finish on Thursday in the 10km classic competition with brother Robin as his guide. To finish 1 and a half minutes ahead of the field must be a very rewarding feeling to "Own the Podium".

Whistler Olympic Park from a different perspective

McKeever wins Gold !

Brian McKeever finished over 44 seconds ahead of his rival from Russia, Nikoly Polukhin to clinche the GOLD medal - Canada's first of these Paraolympic Games and the first ever on Canadian soil.

"That was a lot of fun. It meant a lot. That was the one we were waiting to win and that's the one we really wanted," Brian McKeever said today after finishing the four laps of the red 5km course for a total of 20kms.

Not a large crowd, but a loud crowd overwhelmed Brian so much so, he couldn't hear brother Robin's directions in the final 100m's. They were here to witness history as the duo crossed the finish line in the top time of the day. The weather was gorgeous - sunny - enough to need those trade-mark shades over long side-burns: "McKeever look"... started off at zero, rising to +5 at the end of the race.

Men's 20 km Free, Visually Impaired

Cross-Country Skiing Medallists

Rank	Start Order	Country	Name	Time
1 0019007	7	Canada	McKEEVER Brian	51:14.7
2 0029011	11	Russian Federation	POLUKHIN Nikolay	51:55.6
3 0039014	14	Belarus	SHAPTSIABOI Vasili	52:22.5

Canada had two entries in the Men's Visually Impaired category with Ottawa's Alexei Novikov finishing in 13th place just over 17 minutes behind McKeever. Jody Barber came in 6th in the Standing category, Robbi Weldon in 5th and Margarita Gorbounova 7th in the Women's Visually Impaired races.

A rest day at WOP tomorrow...no wonder Dirk said he was heading up the mountain. It is meant to rain tomorrow, but this won't be the case above 1000m's - beautiful fresh powder skiing. Dirk mentioned to me that the Village was quite busy, even busier than during the Olympics. March Break is on in Ontario, thus most likely across North America and ski fans are finally flying west to see for them selves what all the excitement is about.

March 17th will see Biathlon long distance racing at WOP. In long-distance biathlon, competitors ski the loop five times and stop four times at the shooting range. Missing a target plate can be costly: for every miss, a competitor receives a one minute time penalty that is added to their overall skiing time.

I'm off to Toronto for the annual Sportsman Show, so won't be able to update my blog until I return Friday...cheers, Claudia

Canada's first Paralympic medal at Cross Country !

Canadian Colette Bourgonje won the silver medal in today's women's sitting 10km cross country ski race, the first medal for Canada at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Games, in a time of 31 minutes, 49.8 seconds.
Catch it live on CTV: http://www.ctvolympics.ca/paralympics/sports/cross-country-skiing/newsid=55284.html#bourgonje+wins+canadas+first+paralympic+medal

Brian McKeever's moment comes tomorrow !

Monday is the long-distance cross country event for the 2010 Paralympics. And it'll be Brian McKeever's time to shine. Guided by his brother Robin, who himself competed at the '98 Olympics in Nagano can still lay down some top ten Canadian results - important as not to slow his brother down in reaching a podium result:

"Guiding my brother Brian for the past seven years has led to some great times, some great races and some hilarious stories, but it has never been easy. " exclaims Robin.

The role of a guide seems rather simple — get the athlete to the finish line as fast as possible! Simple enough, however, this is dependent on the level of vision of the athlete you are guiding, which presents very different challenges. For a B1 classified skier (that is, totally blind), the guide — through verbal direction and without touching the athlete — has to keep the athlete on an undulating race course and away from competitors, trees, people, fences and television cameras along the course. Greatness is only achieved through an amazing bond of confidence between guide and athlete.

"Thankfully, trust is not an obstacle for me and Brian, who is a B3 classified skier and has around 8 per cent vision on a reading chart. It doesn’t seem like he has much vision, but he can make his way around a course without a guide pretty darn fast, and at times he has left me begging for mercy and dry heaving. He has asked me to go faster than my body would physically allow. Ah yes, my guiding challenge is simple!"

Standing Paralympics will be competing on the same red course as the Olympics. Grooming will start at midnight, as the snow continues to fall in Whistler. The 5km red course will be groomed for Free Technique with one classic track for the entire 5kms... the track is crucial for the Polish male skier who will double pole the entire 5km lap - four times for the 20km mens competition. He needs the track for support as both his legs are prosthetic. When I asked Dirk how he is able to double pole up the first steep incline out of the stadium he said "very well, and fast...his upper body is extremely strong, while his lower limbs are so light he doesn't have the same weight to push". Amazing - I plan to watch this event live at 10am for the Men and 12:25pm for the Women's 15km - 3 laps of the 5km red course.

Temperatures are dropping to -2 degrees C overnight bringing dry snow...but as Dirk said it isn't the same snow we are used to in the east...it's still 'heavy'...tons of humidity. "You can still make a good snowball."

Cross Country long distance starts with Sit Ski's

Cross Country long distance events are divided over two days: Sunday for Sit Skiers, Monday for Standing Paralympians. Interval starts every 30 seconds, will see the Women race 10km - the 3.3km course 3 times, and the Men 15kms - 3.75kms x 4 laps.

The courses have changed significantly since the Olympics, in that the sit-ski course leaves the north end of the stadium (where the spectator area was) and connects in the blue course heading down to Way Out, then up until the bottom of Downhillers Dream, where it crosses over to the Biathlon area, reconnects into the cross country terrain through the Biathlon Warm-up loop and back through the Cross Country stadium. Less vertical making the course work well for the sit skiers.

Canadians competing tomorrow are:

Colette Bourgonje; As an able-bodied athlete, Colette Bourgonje of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, rose to the national level in cross-country running. She became an athlete with a disability in 1980 after an accident. She then took up wheelchair racing and later cross-country skiing in the sit-ski class. This elementary physical education teacher has competed in five Paralympic Winter Games: Tignes-Albertville 1992, Lillehammer 1994, Nagano 1998, Salt Lake City 2002 and Torino 2006. She has also competed in three Paralympic Summer Games, including Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000. A member of the Saskatoon Sports Hall of Fame, she has a career total of eight medals — four from the Summer Games and four from the Winter Games.As an able-bodied athlete, Colette Bourgonje of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, rose to the national level in cross-country running. She became an athlete with a disability in 1980 after an accident. She then took up wheelchair racing and later cross-country skiing in the sit-ski class. This elementary physical education teacher has competed in five Paralympic Winter Games: Tignes-Albertville 1992, Lillehammer 1994, Nagano 1998, Salt Lake City 2002 and Torino 2006. She has also competed in three Paralympic Summer Games, including Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000. A member of the Saskatoon Sports Hall of Fame, she has a career total of eight medals — four from the Summer Games and four from the Winter Games.

Men Sit-Ski:
Sebastien Fortier
Lou Gibson

When Dirk called this afternoon, he had just finished another 15 hour shift, and it was still snowing. No problem for Cross Country skiing - but alpine visibility had events postponed until the heavy fog lifts. The beauty of the mountains - continuous surprise weather !

Grooming for the Para Olympics is actually quite a bit trickier than regular demands, in that the tracks must be on even ground for the sit-skiers at all times - which means a lot of raking and hand grooming for perfection.

Para Olympics start with Biathlon tomorrow !

IPC begins tomorrow !

It's snowing a lot in Whistler....so much that official practice was closed yesterday as 40cms came down - groomers working around the clock !
Dirk just called me from the cross country stadium, where all Para Olympic events will be running out of - NO Ski Jumping in these Olympics, and Biathlon has amalgamated into the Cross Country Venue - saying it was still snowing with 20-25cms predicted before it'll end by midnight.

Good thing, as the competitions begin tomorrow morning: Biathlon Pursuit:

March 13, 2010
10:00 - Biathlon - Men's 2.4km Pursuit Qualification, Sitting
10:11 - Biathlon - Women's 2.4km Pursuit Qualification, Sitting
10:30 - Biathlon - Men's 3km Pursuit Qualification, Standing
10:42 - Biathlon - Women's 3km Pursuit Qualification, Standing
11:15 - Biathlon - Men's 3km Pursuit Qualification, Visually Impaired
11:22 - Biathlon - Women's 3km Pursuit Qualification, Visually Impaired
Finals start at 12:20pm Canadian Mark Arendz, is a strong contender in the Mens Standing How It Works Biathlon combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting similar to the Olympic biathlon competitions. Paralympic athletes, however, always shoot in a prone position. In the short distance biathlon, skiers race a 2.5-kilometre loop three times stopping twice at the shooting range where they take five shots at a metal target 10 metres away. Each target has five plates, fixed in a straight row, which the athlete must hit the middle (bull’s eye) of. The bull’s eye is 15 mm in diameter and if a competitor misses a plate, they must ski a 150 m penalty loop for each missed shot. Visually impaired skiers use an acoustic system for shooting that uses differing tones as the rifle is aimed toward the bull’s eye. Biathlon races comprise an interval start format with skiers starting every 30 seconds. The International Paralympic Committee utilizes a Nordic Percentage System in order to equalize the disability time handicap for skiers within each category. The percentage is applied to each skier’s final time and the skier with the lowest calculated time is the winner.

TEAM CANADA !

My favourite shot at XC....athletes in suits, support crew in red !

What a team !

Men's 50km - finale at Whistler Olympic Park

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My emotions got the better of me up on the red course where I was marshaling today... when coach Eric De Nys ran past me on his way down from the red to the blue final 5km lap of this 50km - he said "we're sitting in fourth" . I knew he meant Devon Kershaw !

Watching the four Canadians ski by me and zoom down the icy 'elevator-straight' five times, I was very aware how the 50km race was unfolding. Did you know that the 50km classic race climbs 1750m, which is more than the height of Whistler/Blackcomb mountain. All four Canucks stuck with the huge lead pack for 3 of 5 laps. Then wax and an intense pace seemed to hinder both Alex and Ivan on lap 3. Next time around the lead pack had shrunk by half, with Devon and George hanging on to the end of it. You could see how hard they were working to close this gap and bingo, they did on lap # 5 - Devon near the front, with George at the end of the 20some skiers. Devon especially looked relaxed, focused and flaw-less as he skied by the feed zone on the top of the blue entering his final 5km.
Alex must have changed skis as he was kicking stronger with his trade mark classic technique that seems to perfect the weight shift. Skiers are allowed for the first time in the Olympics - to change their skis three times in the stadium. This was explained to me by the Swedish wax tech "Lasse", that three top skis per athlete will be chosen by their wax tech. The skier starts with the top pair, and exchanges to second-best on lap 2 or 3, as the glide wax slows down and grip diminishes. Then ideally the top pair gets re-waxed and returned to the skier on lap 3/4. Depending on the changing conditions, a 3rd pair can be used or not.

Ivan's perseverance was heartbreaking to watch as he gave everything he had in him...the determination in his whole body was evident in the power exerted on every kick, and the exhaustion on his face. He managed to move up positions, catching Alex and they skied into a foto-finish for a 32/33 result.

After all the skiers passed my position I too ran down to just catch a glimpse of the lead pack cross the top blue/red above the stadium. Devon was in the lead pack of six. The crowds roared and flags were waving down below in the pit...or stadium as the skiers were caught gliding across the top. Never in Canadian ski history have we managed to be in a medal contention after skiing full out for more than 2 hours in this grueling 50km race. Devon Kershaw changed this today - giving it all, entering the stadium the gap did not increase as the six-strong skiers rounded the final corner. All six skiers wanted the podium as much as Devon. Sprinting too early is Dario Cologna's explanation for the tangle with Johan Olsson, which had Dario fall at the end of the stadium finish corner. This left five skiers sprinting for the medals. Norwegian, Petter Northug was able to change the final order, gliding past Germany's Axel Teichmann for a foto-finish Gold, with bronze being split by a micro second. Sweden's Johan Olsson's attack got the bronze, and a foto-finish fourth to Tobias Angerer and fifth place going to Canada's Devon Kershaw.

You have all seen Devon's heaving body as he bent over in tears at the finish line and his post-race interview where he couldn't hold back the emotion of being so close - only .6 of a second - to a medal...for himself and a first for Canada. Yet in our hearts he is the CHAMPION !

As are all four Canadian skiers who worked so hard to put our country on top of the world in men's cross country skiing. Pierre Harvey pointed this out at the end of the day when he spoke with Dirk, "As a group, Canada has one of the world's strongest men's teams ! "

CBC online summarized Canada's xc skiing performance at these Games best:
http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/crosscountryskiing/story/2010/02/28/sp-xc-ski-rdp.html

Here is CTV's summary and interview with Devon: http://www.ctvolympics.ca/cross-country-skiing/results-and-schedules/event=ccm750000/phase=ccm750101/highlights.html

Waxing was not easy during these Olympic Games. The salting of the tracks added a layer of complication. With the tracks harder, a more elasticized klister is needed - one that doesn't slide off the back of the grip zone. Sometimes more than one brand is used, mixed to create the 'perfect' combination. In the Team Canada trailer, wax guru - Ives Bilodeau had it dialed. Here an exhausted man, he shares the success at the end of the day.

Forerunner, Stefan Lloyd shows off his bib covered in names he has collected from the greats....which includes many Canadians. Inspired, Stefan is part of the future Canadian xc skiers that brings home memories that will be the fuel of summer training sessions.

Father Wil Kershaw is proud of the whole team, and feels for his son whom he said " knocked on the world's door to cross country skiing...this door will open wide for Canada !".

The Grooming team celebrated at Nita Lake Lodge, in the late hours of Saturday night after grooming for the 50km red/blue combined course. Only three hours later back to work to salt the snow.

Dirk gets two days off...before the second shift - the Para-Olympics, that start next week here in Whistler. And evening with the Jury and chiefs of Cross Country allows Dirk and I a chance at a Bente Skari photo op. Not only grace on skis, this celebrated xc skier from Norway exudes passion, professionalism and positive action for the future of nordic sports. She will be the chief of competition at the next World championships in Oslo, Norway.

Cheers to a great journey.
Dirk and I are skiing back up to Callaghan Backcountry Lodge for a much needed recharging of batteries with wonderful moments to share together.

Thank you for reading our journey and I hope it has helped you connect to xc skiing during these games in Canada !

Claudia and Dirk