Late Night Saturday February 27 2010
On the second to last day of these amazing Winter Olympic Games the host nation won 4 more medals of which 3 were Gold. With the 3 Gold Medals won today by Canadian athletes it brings the Gold Medal total up to 13. This ties Canada with the most Gold Medals won in a Winter Olympics and is the most for a host nation in any Winter Games. The first Gold Medal was by the mens long track speed skating group in the mens team pursuit. They raced the American team in the gold medal round and after some reports of trash talk between the 2 teams the 3 guys laid down an amazing race to win. Barely even 15 minutes later Jasey Jay Anderson put down an amazing final run on the mens snowboard parallel giant slalom in horrendous conditions of rain and fog at Cypress Mountain. With his family watching on, the 4 time Olympic veteran rode the ride of his life at the end of his career and captured the only title that had eluded him. The next medal was a bronze from the mens 4 man bobsled team up in Whistler with a great final run. The final medal came from Kevin Martin, also known as KMart or the Old Bear, and the mens curling team. Playing Norway in a pressure packed game at the Olympic curling rink there were some great double and triple take outs by the team before Norway committed too many errors to come back. It completed a day that has pushed Canada comfortably into 3rd place in the medal rankings and number 1 in Gold Medals won.

It didn't seem like it was possible to add more pressure to the Canada vs USA mens ice hockey final tomorrow. However, if Team Canada can beat the USA they will set a new record for Gold Medals won at a Winter Olympic Games! The games have been a massive success for this city, province and country. There will be huge emotions tomorrow regardless of the result of the ice hockey game, but there can be no question right now that the host nations athletes  and supporters lived up to the huge expectations. The amazing spectators and armies of volunteers that made these games possible are a testament to the importance of the Olympic Games to this country. As these games wind down its sad to see them end but we can safely say they have been some of the best weeks of our lives. The sport, the patriotism, the excitement and the massive party have made these games a lasting legacy.

COME ON CANADA YOU CAN DO IT!!!!

Saturday February 27 2010
Yesterday was a gold medal rush for Canada and Travelling Backflip was front and centre for 3 of the medals won by athletes at the short track speed skating event. To close out our amazing live Olympic Winter Games experience we had tickets to the mens 500 meter final, the womens 1000 meter final and the mens 5000 meter relay final. The crowd at the Pacific Coliseum, where the short track speeds kating events were hosted, was the loudest we have experienced this entire Olympics. The majority of the crowd were Canadians but as usual the Americans had a loud contingent of supporters with Korea also filling out a few big blocks of seats. Short track speed skating viewing is all about being very quiet for the start then exploding into cheers the moment the start gun goes off, by the last few laps most people are standing and screaming at the top of their lungs. The noise becomes deafening and was particularly out of control in the 5000 meter relay final during the 45 laps race.

The first final was the mens 500 meter where heavy favourite Charles Hamelin was eager to avenge his poor performances in the previous 1000 and 1500 meter races. Charles jumped to his customary lead position right off the start and led for most of the race before being passed by a Korean on the last lap. On the final corner of the last lap legendary American short track speedster Apolo Ohno bumped the Korean competitor in 2nd place and caused the Canadian skater Francois-Louis Tremblay to crash. The korean skater in second Si Bak Sung crashed and slid across the line in third and leader Charles Hamelin was spun around backwards but still crossed in first. After the judges reviewed the incident Apolo Ohno was disqualified and Canada secured gold and bronze in the race. The arena went absolutely mental when it flashed up that we had won 2 of the 3 medals on offer and that level of euphoria did not let up for the rest of the night.

The ladies 1000 meter final did not feature any Canadian women but did have 2 Chinese athletes a Korean and the enthusiastic American Katherine Reutter. The dominant woman speed skater of these Olympics Games has been Meng Wang of China, she was looking to add to her medal tally which already included 2 gold medals. Wang led from the start and dominated over the rest of the field, as she has done throughout these games, winning gold with Katherine Reutter from America winning the silver and Seung Hi Park winning the bronze. With these 2 individual events completed the crowd started getting pumped for the big event of the speed skating competition, the Mens 5000 meter Relay Final.

The qualification round for this event happened early in the first week of the games and due to a disqualification of Italy in that round France was advanced to the final. Due to this the final had 5 teams of 5 guys rather than 4 teams so the ice was packed. The relay race has 45 laps and typically each skater does 1.5 laps then transfers over to the next skater who they push to continue momentum. With 25 guys ripping around the ice at top speed and transitions to other skaters happening at random intervals its a huge surprise there weren't any crashes. Tremblay from Canada was the anchor leg for this race and as the final 4 laps of the race came on the arena exploded into screams, cheers, clapping and fist pumping that was deafening. Every single person in the house was standing and yelling as loud as possible in support as Tremblay crossed the line comfortably in first place and the victory celebrations began. I personally have never been swept up in the emotion and elation of victory for Canada like what happened last night. When the races were over the only people that left the arena were from Korea and China, even the Americans sitting around us stayed for the medal ceremonies, the crowd continued to cheer and clap for awhile after the race.

The medal ceremony for the 3 finals that were raced was a special moment of the games as Canadians in the arena heard the national anthem twice and witnessed 3 medals handed out, 2 golds and a bronze. The level of euphoric patriotism and national pride as everyone filed out of the arena into the Vancouver rain was something that cannot be put into words. When it became known that Canada was now the top nation at the Olympics for Gold Medal wins a cheer erupted and no one seemed to be complaining about standing in the massive line waiting for the buses to leave the venue. A great day for Canada and a great day for these Winter Olympics in Vancouver Canada.

Travelling Backflip is now savouring these last days of the games and a full report on our experiences and judgements of the games will happen sometime next week. We can confidently say now that these Olympic Winter Games have been exceptionally well organized and the level of sport and competition has been phenomenal. There have been some problems but most have been minor, the level of patriotism and sheer enjoyment for the fantastic sport witnessed by those of us here for the 2 weeks has been huge. Canadians should be proud of what was accomplished here and if what I here from many other nationalities out of the streets is any indication these games will have a lasting legacy for a very long time.

Thursday February 25 2010
Travelling Backflip personally experienced some host nation Olympic heartbreak today up at the Mens Freestyle Aerials Finals up at Cypress Mountain. After the first round of jumps in the aerials finals, Kyle Nissen of Canada, had completed a double full, full, full to lead the competition going into the final round with a 6 point lead. As the last jumper to go Kyle under rotated his jump and had to tuck in the last flip killing his chances for a medal. The loss was surprising for the home crowd even though the commentators knew the jump would not cut it and the boo birds came out as the result was read out. Rough go. The finals did feature some unbelievable jumps by the other competitors with a much greater variety of difficult jumps. The most impressive jump was completed in jump 2 by American Jeret "Speedy" Peterson when he threw down a full, triple full, full! A 5 twist 3 flip move invented by him called the Hurricane, a move he tried on his final jump at the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics, he fell losing his medal position. This time he landed the move and secured the silver medal with Alexei Grishin from Belarus winning the gold.

Friday February 26 is our final day of live events where we will see 3 short track speed skating medal events. Mens 500 meter, Womens 1000 meter and the Mens 5000 meter relay. It should be a great event, the only downfall is that it happens right as the Canadian mens ice hockey team plays Slovakia in the semi final. Hopefully updates will be flashed throughout.

Once our first game ended our immediate priority was to get to the nearest pub for the upcoming Canada game at 430pm. Our experience thus far these games when watching the Canadian mens ice hockey team is that you need to get to a pub at least 3 hours before puck drop, preferably 4 hours. As we got out of the arena we only had an hour and half so it was panic time to even get into a pub. We were fortunate enough to get into a pub and even have standing room with a view of a TV, no easy task as it was pissing rain outside so the outside screens that have been getting big viewing crowds were not getting the same attention. I won't get into the analysis of the Canada game other than we beat Germany easily as expected and the team got another game to build some chemistry. Russia now awaits the Canadians today for a chance at the semi finals. The team could not have made it more difficult for themselves in this tournament but the pressure is certainly no less and if the other games are any indication about three quarters of the people in this country will be watching the game live.

On a non hockey related note it was a great experience being on the streets in the rain with hundreds of other people when they announced Ashleigh McIvor of Canada had just won the gold medal in the inaugural womens ski cross event. Watching the run on TV a few minutes later in the pub was awesome, snow was dumping down up at Cypress Mountain and she absolutely smashed the other competitors in the final.

After leaving the pub we had time to grab a couple of burgers at McDonalds, chug some water then get back in line for security screening at Canada Hockey Place for our second live game of the day. Slovakia was taking on Norway in the number 7 versus number 10 teams of this tournament. From the get go you could tell that although Norway were the underdogs in this game they had way more supporters in the arena who made themselves heard throughout the game. This was a very physical game throughout and although the Norwegians were noticeably smaller than their Slovak opponents they put up a spirited fight. After being down 3-1 after the first period Norway turned it on and scored 2 unanswered goals to pull even with Slovakia going into the third period. The third period was awesome with some huge hits and a couple of heated skirmishes when play stopped. Slovakia deservedly netted their 4th goal with a few minutes left and were able to hold on for the win to move on to face Sweden.

With the game ending at 1130pm the task of making our way through the pouring rain to the skytrain station was on and as usual it was a battle to squeeze onto the train to get out of town. The day ended with the 3 of us dehydrated, soaking wet, hungry for real food and pumped to have been a part of this Olympic Mens Ice Hockey tournament. An epic day to be sure and no question the best of this Olympics for Travelling Backflip. Tomorrow we have the Mens Freestyle Aerials Final and Friday we have the Mens Short Track Speedskating Relay Final.

Monday February 22 2010
Today was our first live Olympic event that wasn't Ice Hockey. We watched the fantastic Mens Freestyle Aerials Qualifications up at Cypress Mountain this evening. First off, it must be said that Cypress Mountain was an exceptionally efficient and well organized venue. Buses shuttled people from 3 parking locations in North Vancouver up to the Cypress Mountain Resort parking lot very quickly. Emptying the venue at the end of competition was handled masterfully with barely any waits and buses lined up to load people off the mountain surprisingly fast.

We arrived two and a half hours early and enjoyed the full warm up process of the aerial athletes. Due to the snow conditions there was an army of volunteers repairing the run after every jump during competition and they did a very good job. There were 25 competitors who had 2 jumps each in the qualification round this evening. The top 12 athletes procede to the final. There were some awesome jumps by athletes from 8 countries including Canada, Belarus and China. After our first watch of a live aerials competition we learned that 30% of the score is judged by the landing, 20% of the score is on the take off and the remaining points are from style and level of difficulty. All the top guys laid down a Double Full, Full, Full jump and landed it expertly. A 3 flip move with 2 twists on the first flip and a single twist on the remaining 2 rotations. Canada had our 3 athletes qualify in the top 12 and there is a possibility of a medal during the finals. We will be at the finals on Cypress Mountain on Thursday Feb 25. Check us on twitter, @Travelbackflip, for live updates during the competition with report to follow.

Tomorrow the events continue with 2 playoff mens ice hockey games. Our first game starts at noon and features Slovakia vs Norway. We will then run to the nearest pub we can get into to catch the Canada vs Germany game before we have to make it back to Canada Hockey Place for our 9pm game, Belarus vs Switzerland. It will be a long day dominated by ice hockey and an event that we have been looking forward to for 8 months. These Olympics have been unbelievable and we are thoroughly enjoying ourselves. The weather, the sports and the city of Vancouver have been rocking this Olympic Winter Games event.

Report to follow from our Super Tuesday Ice Hockey extravaganza.

The build up to yesterdays game was intense. The city was at its busiest with all the buses and skytrains into town rammed to capacity. To get into a bar and get a seat for the 440pm puck drop you had to post up at noon or earlier! The bar we were at locked the door at noon and started turning people away because they knew no one inside was leaving and they simply did not have the staff to keep up. As the 5 hours until puck drop ticked away the bar broke into the usual spontaneous national anthem singing and loud cheers to any Canadian athletes that were on the screens. With about an hour to go Canada won a silver medal in the 1500 meter long track speed skating event for women. The bar went wild and the scenes of jubilation with a medal win and in anticipation of the upcoming game were infectious. Its great to see how full of pride and excitement most people are for all our athletes in these games. Hopefully we can continue to be successful.

Today is the start of our heavy run of live events. We see the mens Freestyle Aerials Qualifications round today up at Cypress Mountain. With the weather for the last 6 days being warm during the day and cold at night with clear skies it will be interesting to see how this affects the Aerials venue. This event at Cypress kicks off 4 of the next 5 days of live Olympic Events for Travelling Backflip. We will be sending updates on Twitter and Facebook live from the events this week. Reports to follow.

Saturday February 20 2010
Vancouver was absolutely packed to capacity today. Everyone from the surrounding provinces, states and local cities used this middle weekend during the Olympics to get a taste of the Games. From the get go the streets were rammed and if you didn't get into a pub or country house before 1pm it was a lengthy wait.

We started the day early and were able to make it downtown by 930am thinking this would be plenty of time to get into the Bay Shopping Centre to buy an Olympic T shirt. WRONG, the line at 930am this morning was the worst I have seen it with an hour wait minimum most likely longer. With this kind of wait just to buy a T shirt we grabbed a quick breakfast and legged it down to the German House, also known as the German Beer tent. Once we got in with relative ease we stayed there for 4 hours drinking beer, eating bratwurst and watching the large hill Ski Jumping final. At one point the TV flashed up the Mens Skeleton Final that was won by Canadian Jon Montgomery last night. The whole German tent erupted in cheers and the loudest noise maker I have ever heard was whipped into action for a stretch. What a scene.

Friday February 19 2010
Another perfect day in Vancouver today. Blue skies, warm temperatures and crowds of people filled the downtown area to take in the sites on a spring like day.

We started the day by checking out the 'new' and apparently 'better' views of the Olympic Cauldron. After the uproar and outrage by every person who went to view it in the first few days, the Olympic Committee moved the fence forward about 20 meters and cut a small eye height gap in the fence for picture taking. They also graciously opened a one story building next to it so you can now wait an hour or more in line to get on this viewing platform. Frankly the situation has barely improved from earlier with people jostling for position near the fence and everyone who is further back still has a nasty fence in their pictures. The security of the flame is of the highest importance so this is the best its going to get.

The competition continued across a bunch of Olympic events today with the Swedes and Czechs winning their games in ice hockey, ski jumping on the large hill completing their qualifiers and mens and womens skeleton finals wrapping up in the evening to name a few.

Tomorrow the plan is to go early and to wait in line until we get inside the German House that has often had 2 hours waits. Once inside beverages, bratwurst and Olympic Sport will be on offer so the daily update could suffer from this combination. We also hope to beat the gong show that is at the Bay shopping centre in downtown to buy some Olympic Clothing. The waits to just get in a buy a shirt have been ridiculous to say the least and going early is a must.

Thursday February 18 2010
The weather in Vancouver is unbelievable right now. Amazing blue skies with the towering mountains overlooking the city have replaced the rain clouds as the cities backdrop. The city is absolutely bumping now with every activity for spectators having wait times and mass throngs of people throughout the streets. Even with the crowds most people seem pretty good natured and just happy to be enjoying the scene. Some of the best moments have been when medal wins by Canada have been announced on loudspeakers in the streets and the crowds goes wild. There have also been at least 2 occasions where people have started singing the full national anthem on the skytrain.

Today was a big walking day that went throughout the False Creek area and on to Granville Island. Granville Island is one of the highlights of the city of Vancouver. There is a renowned brewery, a great fish and chip take out, a huge public market with fresh fish, produce and much more. The Swiss House is located in one of the Pubs on the island and has great views of the yahts and surrounding harbour. Instead of trekking back over the big Granville Street bridge to get back to the city we took a water taxi up False Creek to the site of Live City Yaletown (where big screens are set up and concerts played in the evening). It was getting close to 230pm when we jumped off the boat and you need to post up in a pub for the Team Canada mens ice hockey games at least 2 hours prior to puck drop, so the drinking began.

The game brought Canadians back down to earth on how hard it is going to be to win this hockey tournament. The Swiss team played very well and their goalie Jonas Hiller almost stole the game stopping 45 of 47 shots to force a shootout. After an initial round of saves by each goalie Sidney Crosby netted the winner with Canadian goalie Martin Brodeur saving all 4 shots in the shootout. Canada more than doubled Switzerland in shots and ran the majority of the play but there were stretches of intense pressure by the Swiss and they deserved their point. The media will be analyzing and criticizing this most recent performance and I'm sure most people will know that if we don't beat the USA in the final group game the team could be in real trouble.

Tomorrow will be another big round of walking and checking out all the Olympics has to offer in Vancouver. Starting today is a personal favourite of our team, the Skeleton event where crazy competitors ride the luge/bobsled track on sleds head first reaching speeds of more than 140 km/hour. The Large Hill qualifications for Ski Jumping is also on tap tomorrow so juggling outdoor activities with TV time will be crucial.

Its a tough life cruising around this cool city and watching sports all day.

Wednesday February 17 2010
Yesterday on Tuesday was the best day of the Olympics Games so far. No surprise it coincided with our first Olympic Event and a solid beat down performance by the Canadian Mens Ice Hockey team on Norway.

Mens Ice Hockey opened yesterday with games starting at 1200 noon and finishing just before midnight. USA, Russia and Canada all won their first game. Even though there are many fantastic sporting events happening at this Olympic Games if you asked most Canadians what mattered most to them they would immediately respond with Ice Hockey. The enormous build up that has gone on for the last year or more on 'who would be chosen for the team' and 'which players would play together' no longer mattered as the puck dropped at 430pm on Tuesday. The team looked a little rough around the edges as they seemed to play more as individuals for the first period. The Norweigan goalie played a pretty impressive first period to hold the Canadians scoreless. I can report that from the bar just down the street from the arena, in the arena itself and likely across this country Canadians were on the edge of their seat and a little nervous as the second period started. The scoring broke out big style after that and Canada strolled to an impressive 8-0 win with Jarome Iginla, who had started on the 4th line and finished the game on the first line, scoring a hat trick. It is important to note that Norway is not exceptionally strong opposition like the USA, Russia or Sweden but a win is a win and we will take it.

After the craziness of the Canada hockey game we spilled out onto the street where people were cheering, blowing horns, giving strangers high 5's and spontaneously chatting about the game.

Finally the time had come for our first live event. We had tickets to watch the Russia vs Latvia Hockey game that started at 9pm. After a couple more beers at a local pub we ran the security gauntlet of metal detectors, pat downs and pocket checks at the arena. Inside, usually known as GM Place and renamed Canada Hockey Place for the Olympics, we checked out our seats to see we had scored some of the best seats in the house! The next important step was grabbing a beer and this is where the Olympic Committee has punished the spectator. Beers are terrible stadium draft beer (no surprise) but the cups only hold an appalling 250 ml and they are charging $8.00 per glass! I have never felt so ripped off at a sporting venue in my life, I actually chose to drink Coke instead. At a hockey game in Canada that is plain wrong.

With the exception of the beer situation the game was pretty decent with Russia dominating the course of play for most of the game and ultimately winning 7-2. Russia's top player Alexander Ovechkin put on quite a performance scoring 2 goals and looking dangerous every time he touched the puck. There was a great mix of Latvian and Russian fans throughout the arena and they made their voices heard throughout the game. Even though Russia was heavily favoured to win this game the loudest cheers were certainly when Latvia scored their 2 goals. The underdogs played better than expected and looked like they could compete on an even level for a stretch in the 2nd period before Russia took over.

Canada also made some headway in the medal tally with a stunning gold medal performance by Maelle Ricker in the Womens Snowboard Cross event just before the Canadian hockey team hit the ice. It was a great moment when people stopped talking in the bar when they realized a medal was on the line. The cheers and scenes of elation after her performance, in a sport most people never watch, was great. You can see these games are really making people in this country proud and keen to cheer on our athletes.

There is a great vibe in the city right now and with some spectacular weather yesterday, today and for the next few days, people are really going to get a good taste of how amazing Vancouver can really be. Now we just need the weather to stay cold and cooperate. It has been so warm that I have seen some trees in the area starting to bloom. It really has not felt very wintery at all.

Snowboard Halfpipe is happening today for the men up at Cypress Mountain including Shaun White. This is a personal highlight of the games for me. I will have a report on the riders runs tomorrow. The games are in full swing now and although there have been some problems and delays to start it looks like Vancouver is settling in for the stretch run and working on making Canadians proud to be hosting this premier sporting event.

Monday February 15 2010
Another great day of competition with some fantastic racing in the Snowboard Cross Finals up on Cypress Mountain and at the Speedskating Oval in Richmond. Cypress Mountain continues to have problems with warm temperatures. The General Admission ticket holders for the mens Snowbaord cross races did not get to view the event because of safety concerns in their viewing area. Warm temperatures have made the snow slushy at the bottom of the course and officials worried the hill could wash away due to heavy rain. I am really hoping the weather cools off so our Freestyle Aerials Final next week does not get affected.

Tomorrow we head to our first event of the Olympics. Russia plays Latvia in Mens Ice Hockey at 9pm on Tuesday night. The Russian team is heavily favoured to go deep in this competition and we will see Alexander Ovechkin, arguably the best player in the NHL, play for his country. Before the Russians take the ice the Canadian Mens Hockey team plays their first game against Norway at 430pm PST. All the hype and pressure that surrounds the home nations team will hit fever pitch, it is likely the whole nation will stop what they are doing to catch at least some of the game. It does not get any bigger for Canadians at this sporting event. Hopefully they open strong.

Its great to finally be able to use our first Olympic ticket. This is the stack we have to go through over the next week and a half. Update of tomorrows big day to happen on Wednesday as the hockey events will go pretty late.
Cheers

Sunday February 14 2010
Day 3 of the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver started off with some dry weather and a bit of morning sunshine. Luge, Freestyle Moguls and Cross Country Skiing all had medal events today. The Americans continue to lead the medal table at the end of the day.

We decided to take a quick 2 day trip out of the craziness of Vancouver up into the Coastal Mountains east of the West Coast capital. We headed out to Hope BC, about an hour drive up the Fraser Valley and into the mountains, then turned up the Fraser Canyon and followed the river up into the mountains. After a 3.5 hour drive from Vancouver we arrived in Spences Bridge, a small town in the interior of British Columbia. The 2 road town is situated in a valley surrounded by mountains in what is technically classified as a desert region of the province. The drive out to this small outpost had a lot of rain, 6 tunnels punched through sheer rock cliffs and some stunning views over a deep canyon carved out by the mighty Fraser River.

Even with the quick road trip we prioritized around the Olympic sports that were on offer for the day. We successfully secured some satellite TV in this remote town (that has no easily accessible internet or cellphone reception) to watch the Mens Freestyle Moguls finals. Canada won the first Olympic Gold Medal on home soil when Alexandre Bilodeau laid down a stunning 23.10 second run that included a double twisting flip on the first air bump. We had taken over the common room of our 100 plus year old hotel and it was high fives all round when Canada secured the first gold medal of this Olympics. It was a major weight off the Canadian teams shoulders to have that small fact of no Canadian ever winning a gold on home soil stat eliminated.

More great sports will be happening tomorrow. Whistler has been having trouble with dense fog on the hill that has postponed both the Mens Downhill event and Womens Super G. Winter sports are always weather dependant so hopefully the weather will start to cooperate. Our second day on this road trip will take us through Merritt, Princeton, Manning Park Provincial Park and looping back to Hope. British Columbia has some amazingly diverse terrain and we are taking full advantage.

Let the Olympic Games continue.

Saturday February 13 2010
We got our first taste today of how Vancouver is handling the huge influx of people for this Winter Olympic Games. The first thing I realized after about 20 minutes of walking around in downtown Vancouver was that I was going to have to put on my "Patient Shoes" and expect to wait in long lines. Massive lines or queues greeted us at the Live Fan Zones, any local pubs and even at the Bay shopping centre where Olympic apparel is being sold. The downtown area was heaving with people and its likely only to get more busy. The worst area was around the Olympic Cauldron. There were many unhappy people around this area, the Olympic Flame is cordoned off by a 10' high chain link fence that is a good 40' back from this barrier! This is by far the stupidest thing I have seen so far, everyone who comes to the Olympics wants to get a good picture and look at the Flame and now there is a battle to get as close to the chain link fence as possible with pushing and shoving the norm. Vancouver Olympic Committee if you read this TAKE DOWN THE BARRIER so people can enjoy the wide open spaces in the square the flame is located in.

The first few medals were handed out today with Canadian athlete Jennifer Heil winning a silver medal in the Freestyle Moguls. The Dutch won a gold in the 5000 meter mens speed skating event and a shock win by Slovakian athlete Anastasiya Kuzmina winning the 7.5km biathlon sprint. One of Travelling Backflips favourite events is Ski Jumping and the Swiss athlete Simon Ammann laid down a monster jump on the Normal Hill event of 108 meters to capture gold.

Cypress Mountain continues to have trouble with warm weather and heavy rain. The Snowboard Cross training runs were cancelled today as more work was being carried out on the course and the womens Freestyle Moguls final was a game time decision to be delayed if the heavy rain continued. I can certainly attest that it is warm in Vancouver for this time of year with the typical rain this city is infamous for.

On a positive note the Luge event was scheduled to go ahead today. The race officials completed their investigation of the horrific fatal accident that occurred to the Georgian athlete in yesterdays training run and deemed the course safe with some minor changes. A few modifications of the course and the building up of the wall after turn 16 where the accident happened were under way before the competition began.

A great first day of competition for Canada with hopefully more medals to come!

Friday February 12
The Winter Olympic Games opened up in Vancouver BC Canada today under a shroud of sorrow. The Olympic athletes, officials and spectators were coming to terms with the shocking death of Luge athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili from the Republic of Georgia. Nodar was doing a training run at the Luge course in Whistler  when he lost control, flew out of the course track and struck a steel pole. It was a horrific accident that has controversially been shown on newscasts around the world. The Luge and Skeleton events are currently on hold as an investigation of the crash is taking place. The Georgian team were respectfully applauded and plan to continue competing during the Games while dedicating their performance to their fallen teammate.

As the Olympic Torch travelled around Greater Vancouver for most of the day the speculation of who could light the official Olympic Cauldron for the games was running wild. The majority of the Opening Ceremony for these Games went well with the exception of lighting the torch within the stadium. One of the robotic arms to create the torch structure would not raise creating an awkward moment for Olympic organizers and watching Canadians. The one saving grace to this global embarrassment was getting to see the Canadian legend Wayne Gretzky light the Olympic Cauldron and end the nights festivities.

Hopefully the Winter Olympic Games start on a more positive note tomorrow when a bunch of the sports kick off. This is Canada's time to shine and although it was a rocky start I am confident we will impress the world from here on out.

Thursday February 11 2010
There is now just under 24 hours to go before Vancouver kicks off the much anticipated Winter Olympic Games. The final crunch time to have everything ready before the lights go up and the competitions begin are hitting a fever pitch. Athletes, officials and spectators are streaming into the city and the years of preparation to handle this massive sporting event will now be put to the test.

From recent news reports it looks like the "contingency" plan to get the Cypress Mountain events up to their required world class standard has been successful. Corrugated pipes with dry ice have been buried under the snow for the Freestyle Aerial and Mogul events to keep the snow from melting. The Snowboard Halfpipe venue was almost ready for the athletes to train yesterday and its likely they will be hitting the pipe by the weekend.

The ridiculous pressure on the Mens Ice Hockey team to win Gold continues to build. This is not a big surprise as Hockey is Canada's favourite sport but we really are not helping our team when I hear comments like "anything less than Gold will be a failure" and "the only medal that really matters is the Hockey Gold". Hopefully our top players can live up to the mammoth expectations we as a nation have placed on them. It is also important to note that most NHL teams will be playing their last game on Feb 14 with the majority of the Olympic teams playing their first game 2 days later and literally practicing once or twice!

It was announced today that 30 athletes have been banned from attending the games already as they were caught doping in the standard pre games screening that all countries do on their own. No names or which countries they come from have been released as of yet but it is good to see that there is a process in place and the technology to catch athletes who make the decision to cheat.

Friday at 10am the first competitive events will begin with Ski Jumping on the Normal Hill qualifications starting the games. In the evening the Opening Ceremonies will officially open the game and Travelling Backflip will head over to Vancouver on Saturday.