Day 2

Day 2 began with more bad news. The Men's Downhill Skiing on the Dave Murray Course was postponed due to mild temperatures and rain on the lower half. While the Men's Hockey is the main event in the Winter Olympics in our Country, the Men's Downhill is the big event in many parts of Europe and it was going to happen in prime time over there. It's a little disappointing and very surprising. I'd heard that Whistler was in good shape and the only place that we should worry about was Cypress Mountain. It's interesting that the Men's Downhill has been postponed until Monday morning, and the events at Cypress went on as scheduled.

The course at Cypress looked amazing and was in great shape for the Women's Moguls. The only potential problem was fog as the judges at the bottom need to be able to see the top of the course. This was a big opportunity for Canada to win it's very first Gold Medal in it's home Country. We had the reigning Gold Medalist from Turin Jennifer Heil, (she was my pick to become our first Gold Medal winner) and Summerland BC's Kristi Richards who was in 4th after preliminaries. I have to say that the Moguls are a pretty cool and very exciting event that I know absolutely nothing about. (Although in my blog I generally just bullshit and claim to be an expert on everything so just play along.) These Women are fearless. When they got a shot of the starting gate looking down the hill, I was thinking that if I was going to ski (Okay, fall and roll all the way to the bottom) down that hill I would need to be wearing a diaper. Thankfully the fog stayed away and they were able to complete the event. Unfortunately Richards fell after the first jump. She had a great running going but just had a little too much speed. She went for it and didn't make it but that's what I like about this event. You can't sit back and play it safe. You have to attack the run. There was a gym full of her friends and family at a middle school in Summerland who were very disappointed, but they should be very proud and I'm sure they are. The second to last skier was Heil, one of the favorites in this event. She also attacked the course and had a great and perfectly clean run. She raised her arms in celebration as she crossed the finish line and the crowd exploded. (Don't panic, it's just a figure of speech. There was no terrorist activity on Day 2.) But there was still one more racer to go. She was the American favorite. (If you must know her name, Bing it. See what I did there? Hey, it's good to change it up once in a while.) Anyways, the American flew down the course in a blaze of glory (thank you John Bon Jovi) and captured the Gold Medal. As a proud Canadian I have to admit that it stung a little watching the two Americans on the podium celebrating and waving two American flags. But I'm not bitter and I realize that the Americans were just celebrating and it was nothing personal. Having said that I still wanted to grab the Gold Medalist by the pony tail and dip her face into a vat of acid. There I said it. But seriously, listening to Jennifer Heil talk later that night, I have a huge amount of respect for her. She said that as long as you do the very best you can, it's okay if you are beaten by someone who was a little bit better. That's certainly been my motto for many years. (Although I don't actually follow my motto, that would involve putting down the chips and dip and getting my ass off the couch.) Heil carried herself with such class and was so gratious that she is my new hero for these Olympics. I think we place too much importance on winning and not enough on simply becoming the best that you can be and giving all that you have in a sportsmanlike way. AND perhaps most importantly, enjoying what you are doing every step of the way.

Along with the Women's Moguls, I have also become a fan of the Short Track Speed Skating. It's kind of like the Long Track Speed Skating on crack. There were wipeouts, and false starts and all kinds of craziness. In the Men's 3000 metres, Korea was set to finish 1,2,3 going into the final turn but two of them crashed into each other and wiped out. The two Americans won the Silver and Bronze. No medals for Canada. The Short Track Speed Skating takes place at the Pacific Coliseum and they've done a pretty incredible job dressing up the place. I was quite shocked to see how great it looked.

The Women's Hockey began with some intensity. It was a real nailbiter as Canada hung on to beat Slovakia 18-0. I didn't watch more than a couple of minutes (truth be told I fell asleep, come on, I'm exhausted from staying up all night writing these damned blogs) but don't you think Canada could have let up after 8 or 9-0? Not very gracious of us. I hope we at least apologized to the goalie after every goal.

I have seen the 2010 logo on everything from backpacks to coins to scarfs to shot glasses but I haven't seen any Olympic umbrellas. Have you seen the weather in Vancouver? I'm thinking that we could actually make some money on these games just from selling umbrellas. The forecast doesn't look great. More rain and lots of it apparently. Tuesday looks a little bit better and then we should get some sunny skies for Wednesday and Thursday. This has been your Weather Update. Now back to our lead story.

Our lead story tonight involves several idiots in masks breaking store windows in Downtown Vancouver and nearly causing a riot. While I respect the peaceful protesters, I have no respect for anyone who needs to wear a mask to hide their face or for anyone that does any damage to property or worse, to people. If you are a protester and want to carry a sign, that's fine. You should feel proud about what you are doing. You should feel like you are looking out for this city and this Country. Anyone that feels they need to hide their identity should take a good look at themselves in the mirror. You are not a hero or a saviour. You are a coward. (And Darren, I'm not referring to you. You wear your black mask only because it matches your assless leather chaps and black vest and handcuffs. Everyone needs a hobby.) The problem is that these violent 'protesters' really aren't protesters at all. When I heard on the news that they come from Central Canada I can't say that I was surprised. I'm guessing they are just disgruntled Leafs fans. These people aren't making any statements against the Olympics. They are simply looking for attention. Let's unmask them and put their pictures in the paper for all to see. They may think they are heroes so let's see how the rest of Canada treats them after all their acts of stupidity. I say let's make pepper spraying an Olympic Event and these people could be the sprayees. I'd pay good money to see that. I may even get off the couch to be a witness.

Well that about covers Day 2. Apparently there was also the Women's Biathlon 7.5 km Sprint. (7.5 km sprint? I mean 7.5 KM SPRINT???!! For me it would be a 7.5 km crawl.) I'm not sure what happened but since I didn't hear anything about it I'm guessing noone got shot and that's a good thing. Highlights from Day 3 will probably include the Men's Moguls and the Pairs Figure Skating Short Program. I think that's worthy of another day sitting in my easy chair drinking a fine Cabernet Sauvignon and eating some sausage rolls and swedish meatballs. At least I won't have to carry around an umbrella.