Olympics - Best Photos

On the first Saturday of the Olympics, I had gone up to Whistler to see runs 1 and 2 of the luge event. I didn't know what to expect, so I left Seattle at 5:00am to leave myself plenty of time to make it to the 5:00pm event. As it turns out, I got to Whistler by noon, and I had to kill quite a lot of time. I was busy taking photos of one of the Canadian skiers who was posing in his uniform in the pedestrian stroll and attracting quite a crowd when a big entourage burst through the middle of it all and kept walking. I figured they had to be more important, and turns out it was none other than Joe Biden who had been attending the ski jump competiton that morning after having attended the previous evening's opening ceremonies in Vancouver. I followed him through the village and even got to shake his hand.

Track workers check the temperature of the ice on the luge track at the Whistler Sliding Centre before runs 1 and 2 of the men's luge competition on day 2 of the Olympics.

An American athlete pushes off at the start of the luge run. After an unfortunate accident which killed a Georgian luger, the men's start was moved to this location which was originally the women's starting position. The women, in turn, were moved even lower on the course. Despite the lower starting elevation, the final speeds of the athletes ended up being very close to the speeds during training from the original starting position. In the lower right you see a blue coated volunteer worker wearing a red armband. This armband, with the letters "FOP" allows the volunteer access to the Field of Play. Other volunteers without this armband would not be permitted track side.

A swiss luger starts his run.

A German luge athlete works his way around a curve on the track.

I freely admit I had no idea what country this athlete represents, but this photograph illustrates very well the position the lugers are in during their runs. Steering is accomplished primarily by pushing on the "horns" in the front with the ankles.

A luge athlete finishes his run and is braking by lifting the front of the sled. The perspective is deceiving in this photograph -- the luger is actually travelling up hill at this point in the track, which is after the finish line but before the camera- and crowd-laden take out area where the sleds and athletes leave the course.

A Canadian luger celebrates his run.

A Canadian luger celebrates his run.

A luger runs down the track at the Whistler Sliding Centre.

A luger just past the finish line. The speed of the sled at this point is approximately 144km/h, or 88mph. The padded orange and yellow posts at the top of the photograph are part of the series of posts which the Georgian luger hit during his fatal training run.

A Czech luger prepares to slow down after having crossed the finish line.

A Canadian luger on the track.

A Czech luger on the track.

The Canadian women take on the Swiss during a preliminary hockey game.

The Canadian women take on the Swiss during a preliminary hockey game. The final score was 14-1 for Canada, who demonstrated a clear superiority over the Swiss and went on to ultimately win the gold medal during the Olympics.

A Canadian fan waves a combination Olympic/Canadian flag. He is wearing a helmet with a flashing light which he turned on whenever a goal was scored.

The Canadian women take on the Swiss during a preliminary hockey game. When the Swiss scored their single goal, they celebrated in a huge huddle as though they had won the gold medal itself! A worthy celebration against the Canadian team which had just set a world record 18-0 victory against another country the day before.

As it turns out, women's hockey rules forbid body checking.

The crowd in the UBC Thunberbird Arena, including these two mohawk-sporting fans.

The post-game scene is very cordial, with both teams shaking hands.

At the Victory Ceremony in BC Place (the venue for the Opening and Closing ceremonies) on February 15th. Bill and I scored front-row tickets a few hours prior from a ticket booth at the hockey game that afternoon. It was Quebec night, so all of the entertainers were from that province.

Acrobats perform to music at the Victory Ceremony on February 15th. There are two Victory Ceremonies each day -- one in Whistler and one in Vancouver. This one is indoors at BC Place (in Vancouver). The Victory Ceremony starts at 6:30 with a 30 minute opening performance. Then medals are awarded -- in Vancouver for Vancouver-based competitions, and in Whistler for Whistler-based competitions. There is a live TV feed of the other ceremony, so really you get to see all the medals awarded.

More opening performers at the Victory Ceremony.

I was astounded that we got front row tickets, and I kept looking back at the three-mezanine levels worth of crowds behind and above us. There must have easily been tens of thousands of attendees.

The Victory Ceremony on February 15th was particularly special to Canada, thanks to this athlete, Alexandre Bilodeau.

Alexandre Bilodeau won the gold medal for the men's moguls competiton at Cypress Mountain earlier that day. This was a notable gold medal as although Canada had hosted the Olympics twice previously (Calgary Winter '88 and Montreal Summer '76), no Canadian athlete had ever won a gold medal at a Canadian-hosted Olympics. Until Alexandre Bilodeau did on February 15th, 2010. This is what he looked like from the front row of the Victory Ceremony.

The Australian mogul silver medalist is visibile behind the medal and flower tray girls, a fixture of every Olympics. Apparently the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) will be auctioning these very trays after the Olympics.

The Men's Moguls champions pose at the Vancouver Victory Ceremony on February 15, 2010.

The Men's Moguls champions pose at the Vancouver Victory Ceremony on February 15, 2010.

After the mogul medals were awarded, the live stream of the medal awards from Whistler took place. A technical glitch kept the audio off. Afterwards, the big name act took the stage. While some nights featured famous Canadian artists like Usher and Barenaked Ladies, our Victory Ceremony had a Quebecian cover band. Although he wasn't terrible (Bill disagrees), we left after one song as we had to still take the sky train back to the car, then drive back to Seattle, then sleep a little before doing it all over again the next day.

The Olympic Cauldron lit by Wayne Gretzky. The three green loops in the background are the top of the green Olympic Rings which overlooked the water.

The US Women's Hockey team has a very patriotic goalie.

The Russian goalie prepares to block a USA onslaught on February 16, 2010.

The Russian goalie deflects a US shot.

The Zambonis used at the Olympics were actually not Zambonis but rather a different brand of ice-shaping machine which ran entirely on batteries, and were obviously decorated nicely for the Olympics. Although I wasn't there to see it, apparently one of these machines broke down at the Richmond Olympic Oval, delaying the competition and necessitating a brand-name Zamboni be shipped in from Calgary during the course of the games.

After the USA women's hockey team beat Russia 14-0, and took only one shot on goal during the entire thrid period, they did this funky sticks-in-the-air routine.

Along Broadway Ave, a sewing shop arranged spools of colored thread to form a picture of a ski jumper.

The Sky Train system is Vancouver's subway, although it isn't underground except in the downtown area. It's fully automated and there are no drivers on board. I read it's the largest fully automatic system in the world. More importantly, it served as a critical link to getting around Vancouver as I left my car at various park and rides to avoid dealing with traffic.

Curling is very interesting to see in person, if only because the TV broadcast, while superior in some ways, completely leaves out some things, like the fact that after the bagpipe band marches in, a miniature Parade of Nations occurs where each competing team marches in. On TV you always see a single game, but in reality four games are taking place concurrently on adjacent sheets (except in certain situations, like the medal rounds). This makes it hard to concentrate on any single game.

The skip, or team leader, stands at the receiving end of the sheet and indicates with her broom where the thrower should aim. Once the stone is released, she will shout instructions to her sweepers on how hard to sweep. Of the four team members, everyone including the skip has to throw two stones each end (or round). When the skip is throwing, the vice is in charge.

Curling ice is actually a pebbled surface, and the stones are thrown with a rotation to them. Sweeping the ice melts the top layer slightly, decreasing friction and making the stone go faster, further, and straighter. Less sweeping results in less distance but more importantly due to the increased friction, the rotation of the stone causes it to curl slightly (hence the term curling).

The Canadian women's thrower, just after she let go of the stone.

The world's media, dilligently at work.

Curling games consist of ten ends, or rounds. Each end involves sending all 16 stones to the other end of the sheet, or lane. A curling game lasts approximately 3 hours, and each team is allocated 70-some minutes to use as they like.

This photograph, taken from the sky train, is the best view of the athlete's village in Vancouver that I could find. I particularly like all of the flags, and the fact that countries put up their own flags on the balconies. Ironically, despite these being the Vancouver games, the athlete's village in Whistler actually had slightly more athletes.

The Olympic Cauldron during the day. It's nice and crowd-free due to an ugly chain link fence, although during the course of the games it was in turn moved closer to the flame, had a gap cut into it, and had the lower section replaced with clear plexiglass.