Joannie

Joannie

With tears in our eyes we watched Joannie Rochette climb to the bronze medal spot on the podium at the 2010 Olympic Games in her home country. The classy young woman from Ile Dupas, Quebec had skated two gutsy, emotional performances and people worldwide fell in love with her.....what an honour to her Mom!

No need to say more...

Day Off...

Day off....
Well, almost anyway! After a few hours of work in the morning a few of us that work at the figure skating venue were off to the International Broadcast Center, the home away from home to the broadcasters from around the world. It houses the sets for CTV, TSN and Sportsnet where close to 750 people work to bring viewers the daily shows on all three networks. With feeds from all the venues, commentators, hosts, features on the Olympians, interviews with the athletes, parents and coaches the logistics of putting these shows together seems almost overwhelming!


The International Broadcast Center (IBC) which can only be accessed by accredited members of the media also has the best access to both the Olympic Flame and Olympic rings out in the Vancouver harbour. Photo ops galore!


Our next stop was Canada Olympic House to watch the Canada/Russia hockey game. Canada Olympic House is open to our athletes, former Olympians and their families. It is a great place to reconnect with old friends and come together to cheer on Canada’s athletes. The medal winners occasionally drop by and on this day we were there for a drop in visit by gold medalist, Ashleigh McIvor, winner of Ladies ski cross. More photo ops!!!!!

It is great to wander around in downtown Vancouver. The streets are flooded with people wearing red and white. Vancouver has been a wonderful host for these games and I am so proud to say to our visitors from afar that I am Canadian!

A Magical Evening

The science of sport must be a fascinating study. Olympic athletes train for years for their chance at winning a gold medal. Special attention is paid to every aspect of the athlete’s physical and mental wellbeing. Many sacrifices are made along the way as an athlete focuses on their dream to represent their country at the Olympic Games. But why do some athletes perform beyond even their most vivid dreams while others falter?

The spectators at the Pacific Coliseum for both the Mens and Pairs events witnessed some pretty good skating. The Olympic Pairs Champions , Xue Chen and Hongbo Zhao , skated well but their performance was marred with small errors. The Men’s event had some personal best scores but many of the favoured skaters put in lackluster performances opening the door for Evan Lysacek to seize the moment and win Olympic gold. But there had yet to be a performance that electrified the audience...the kind of performance that the spectators jump to their feet. There had not been that magical moment.

Until last night....


They stood alone at center ice. Millions of people worldwide and Canadians from coast to coast hoped for a flawless performance. Many athletes would allow the pressures and expectation to cripple them but Scott and Tessa embraced those hopes and allowed that energy to lift them to a magical skating place and their spot on top of the Olympic podium.

What a thrill it was to be in the rink for the medal presentation and the singing of the Canadian National anthem...Now I know how you felt, Adam and Jess!

A Truly Remarkable Olympic Experience....

Some time in early January former Canadian Olympians were invited to participate in the dress rehearsal for the Opening Ceremonies as “stand-ins” for the athletes. And, we were allowed to bring a guest! My daughter, Jessica, is a student at the University of Western Ontario and I thought it would be a wonderful experience for the two of us to see the Opening Ceremonies and from the athletes perspective it was even better! She, of course, jumped at the opportunity and we marched in as Team Norway. What fun we had meeting former Olympians who represented Canada from as far back as the 1956 Games in Helsinki, Finland!

There are sometimes certain perks to being a former Olympic athlete and after arriving here in Vancouver I was given tickets to a few events. Wow...what luck! Jess was here for 10 days so the tickets were a welcomed surprise. And what great tickets they were! My stepson Adam escorted his sister as I was busy working at the figure skating venue. Their first event was Men’s Moguls at Cypress Mountain and yes, they saw Canada’s first ever gold medal win on home soil! Alexandre Bilodeau thrilled Canadians coast to coast with his incredible win and they were there to witness it! Their next adventure took them back up to Cypress for the Ladies Snowboard Cross and to once again witness another gold medal performance by a Canadian, Maelle Ricker. What do you think the odds of that happening were? Two events and two Canadian Olympic Gold medals.....How lucky for Adam and Jess to witness what will be a big part of Canadian sporting history!

My turn to watch a Canadian win is tonight as I am leaving shortly to go to the rink for final portion of the Ice Dance competition, the Freedance. Canadians Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue are in the lead after skating a brilliant Original Dance last evening. Jess and Adam....I hope you will at least be watching!

Along the walk to the figure skating venue at the Vancouver Winter (???) Olympics!

Hello from Vancouver and the 2010 Winter (???) Olympics!

When originally asked to “blog” from Vancouver I enthusiastically accepted, forgetting entirely that I hate to write. What was I thinking? But, in the spirit of the Olympic Games I will give blogging my best shot!

These are my fourth Olympic Games. I competed in the 1976 Winter Games held in Innsbruck, Austria in ladies figure skating. It was a smaller and more intimate Olympics. We had a total of 1128 athletes (only 228 women!) and here in Vancouver over 2600 athletes will compete. We didn’t feel pressured to win medals and few Canadians did! I believe Canada won only two medals in those Games....Kathy Kreiner in skiing and Toller Cranston in figure skating. One can only imagine the pressure our athletes feel here in Vancouver and the thrill of competing on home turf!

Vancouver is my third Olympics working in television production. The first was Calgary in 1988 and then Lillehamer, Norway in 1994. I work with the director, Michael Lansbury and our goal is to provide the best pictures possible from the figure skating venue to be fed to all the rights holders around the world. My sister, Brenda, tapes the practices and we review the tapes to pre-plan the camera angles for every skater’s performance. It is a long process but are happy with the results....If you watch figure skating, I hope you’re enjoying it!

Before I sign off for today I want to say how truly saddened we were to hear of the passing of figure skater, Joannie Rochette’s mother. My thoughts and prayers are with her so she is able to find the strength to continue on her Olympic path under such painful circumstances.