At the Alpine venue with students from Head of the Lake school in Skatin. Earlier this winter I brought a fleet of sports chairs to the school and spent a few afternoons overseeing some pretty intense games of British Bulldog.
More great weather. The sun has been shining happily for a few days now, which made for a great time watching the downhill events at Creekside yesterday. The downhill was originally scheduled for last Saturday, but foggy conditions forced the schedulers to push it back. Apparently good visibility is important when you’re skiing at 100 km/h. Yes, for the visually impaired skiers as well. Guides can’t guide if they can’t see.
So I’d never seen a downhill race. Crazy. I don’t know what else to call it. Especially the mono-skiers (ie. the ones sitting down). I’ve been mono-skiing a few times, and based on that experience, I can watch slalom or giant slalom and at least picture myself out there racing. And by racing I mean slowly and safely carving my way down the hill and coming in last place. Downhill? No way. You’re on a knife’s edge the entire way down, one enormous risk from top to bottom. Frightening and fascinating to watch.
Later in the evening, I had the honour of presenting flowers to the medal winners in the men’s standing downhill category, this time at the Medal’s Plaza. All three were fellow amps, so we did the secret handshake and all that. The green room backstage was packed, as there were 12 sets of medals to give out, 6 from Alpine, and 6 from Nordic. The busiest day of the Games.
Almost as frightening and fascinating to watch as downhill was the sledge hockey semi. I caught the third period on TV. Our guys played hard, but speaking of being on edge, they seemed tight. I found myself shouting at the TV for them to just hang onto the puck a split second longer and read the ice. Easy to say from the bleachers. But I know both from experience and from sport pysch 101 that when the pressure mounts, your focus narrows, which is a good thing so long as it doesn’t narrow too much. It’s happened to me countless times. I’ve had the ball in crunch time and completely missed the most basic reads. Lost my ability to see the floor. Few guys have innate poise in those situations. (Not me). Some acquire it through reps. But it’s a lot to ask of athletes to throw them into a truly pressure packed situation once every four years and expect them to exhibit the poise of professional athletes (NHLers, curlers) who get those pressure reps more frequently. Then again, look at how tight the Team Canada appeared in the third period of the Olympic final. Even pros feel the pressure. (Rick Nash excluded).
But that’s the Olympics and Paralympics for you. It’s part of what makes the Games interesting.
On the big screen, presenting flowers to Paralympic legend Gerd Schonfelder.
With Ben, a young painter from Ontario who dropped by the Canada Paralympic House in Whistler to present some of his artwork as a gift to Canadian Paralympians.
