2010 Olympics Day 9: Downhill, Slalom, And The Human Missile Events

Nowadays officially marks the starting of the finish of this escapade by means of Vancouver and Whistler’s Olympics, but in real Wick style, I require to finish it with a bang (insert innuendo here). By that I mean a day jam packed with Olympic occasions. I caught three distinctive disciplines, but none are legitimate occasions, seriously. The women super-combined is just a mixture of two diverse ski runs, though the skeleton is almost nothing much more than a balls-to-the-wall human missile contest.

The new prize for the worst $200 I’ve invested goes to the ticket I purchased for the Ladies Super-Mixed. I was stuck in a pit, miles from the racers, behind two ski paths, a row of press cubicles with Volkswagen sized cameras, and 4 fence barricades for the gal catching the occasional edge and bailing into a few spectators. Let’s just say it wasn’t the finest spectator sport I’ve caught at the video games.

I did, nonetheless, get to see some of the most technically sound and quickest skiers on earth. The downhill occasion is the quickest velocity occasion for Alpine skiing, and in which the gates are the farthest apart. To assist you picture this, it’s what you imitate on that run just after you’ve place back a couple of of individuals lunchtime beers in the lodge. The Super-combined event pairs that up with the most technically challenging occasion, the slalom, where the gates are actually near with each other.  First one down the mountain wins — my sort of skiing.

Each are totally various styles of skiing, to the stage of remaining extremely distinctive sports activities. The morning was very cold and the snow on top of the tough program a bit sugary. When the competitors flew down the hill (and if you watched the finish of the skiing events, that’s virtually accurate for a large portion of it — they get in touch with it the “hot air” jump), they kicked up snow behind them that looked like a trail of smoke. I was fairly far away, though, and I like to believe it was smoke. Actually, I would have believed anything at all to justify the overly priced, terrible tickets I purchased.

The slalom took area, just after rebuilding a completely diverse course in the afternoon, and the conditions entirely modified. The icy course for the Downhill was now turning into heavy, moist snow the moment the sun crept in excess of the Whistler peak, blinding all my cohorts in the (sort of) viewing pit. This was the last run of the day for the skiers, and it is when the vitality of the competition ratcheted up. The racers with the most effective very first run times were scheduled to go last, as to raise the suspense I suppose, and that’s just what took place.

In my greatest play-by-perform voice . . . Julia Mancuso from the U.S. is sitting in first, followed by Anja Paerson of Sweden. Germany’s Maria Riesh, a favorite, is on course and, Whoa, we have a new leader! Up coming, America’s Lindsey Vonn, by now a gold medalist at the games. She’s killing the program, is appears like a gold medal run to me, individuals. Three quarters down the run and factors are seeking excellent . . . Wait, No! She goes down! The Vonn-couver Video games is no additional!

The stands had been electric as she went down the hill, the evident favorite, but you could hear a pin drop when she slid down the slope on her back. The number of Germans, in their lederhosen, have been the only ones to be heard as their gal took home the gold. The wicked finish virtually, not fairly but almost, made me delighted I bought those tickets.

Then it was on to my most anticipated event: Skeleton. To get to the Whistler Sliding Center, you must hop on the Excalibur Gondola from the base of Blackcomb Mountain. I had a rather quality speak with some Canadians on the ride

The Canadians: “The Canadians are favored in the two men’s and women’s.”

Me: “No way.”

The Canadians: “Yeah, dude, and the Canadian chicks are sizzling.”

Me: “Nice, I’ll keep an eye out for maple leafs.”

The Canadians: “Think about it, bro, there is just something sexy about a girl ready to turn themselves into human missile going 150 km/h down a frozen waterslide.”

Me: “I hear you on that 1.”

I’m not absolutely sure what medication the persons had been on when they thought of Skeleton, but no doubt there had been numerous. I considered the luge was madness, but it does not even review to what went down that track. Skeleton has far less handling the runners are rounded verses a sharper beveled runner on luge sleds, and the speeds are better. Let’s get this straight for all the academics out there — you cannot truly steer the issue, you are going way speedier, and by the way, you are now headfirst.

On their runs these guys were smashing into walls, hitting the tops of the banked turns, and receiving sent into the foam stoppers at the finish of the track (the final measure preventing the racers from shooting off the finish of the track and hurtling by space). I notice I have an exceptionally untrained eye, but the degree at which the Skeleton seems fully uncontrolled is mind blowing. The number of instances I stood in sheer amazement viewing these missiles blast by means of the Tunderbird Turn, the ultimate picturesque flip over the beautifully manicured Vancouver Olympic Emblem, was amazing.

And to imagine, I believed I may well delight in possessing a go at the Skeleton. Right after seeing it in individual, hell no.

So my trip to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver is now coming to a close. Currently is a day of packing, seeing if I can snag some kind of skating ticket on my way out of town tomorrow, and acquiring prepared to head back to the real planet. Due to the fact let’s face it, events like the Skeleton just shouldn’t come about in the real world.