As wonderful as it would have been to get down to Vancouver to experience the Olympics in person, and it would have been wonderful, I would have had to sell my car and my computer and, uh, everything I own just to make it out there. I’d probably have to keep the car so I could drive it out there and and sleep in it, actually. Vancouver is expensive any old time so I can only imagine what prices skyrocketed to now. Some well-meaning friends expressed great shock at the fact that I have never been that far west, apparently it was made for me, but their ideas on getting there made me raise an eyebrow. Oh, so you and your friend rented a chalet on the mountain and only spent $100 a day on lift tickets to go with your ski gear that costs more than all my consoles combined and it’s that simple? I’ll get right on that!

Vancouver, especially as portrayed by CTV during the games, is full of nothing but postcard vistas. Not fair! I do really like Toronto but I know I will not spend the rest of my life here. I’ve never seen a real mountain like those out West. Just some of the tinier ski hills around the city; they blow me away every time. I’ve been addicted to Olympic Morning since I found out that Jay Onrait was one of the hosts and they’ve done a great job showing off the city and the amazing atmosphere on the streets. Oh, the streets. I’d be out there with a camera and not sleep for two weeks collecting all the stories and having an amazing time talking with people from all over the world. I would be all over visiting the nation houses, too. And this is all without even seeing a single event :)

While these Vancouver games got underway with a horrible tragedy, and more missteps since then, I hope the overall impression of the event comes out positive for people. Unless you are British or Russian. Their medias really, really, hate us. A lot. It’s pretty funny.

Are you guys watching events at all? Any new favourite winter sports? I’m so thrilled that more people around the world are checking out curling as a result of these games. It’s so much fun to play, if you get the chance, and the strategy from these top level rinks makes for great games.

Seriously. I have work to do but I’ve been doing so little of it! I’m so behind with writing that it’s gonna be tough to even do a recap so far. The live twittering and facebooking had to stop since I was too busy chatting with others and it was just too much to watch the event, chatting on IM, and annoying the hell out of people on IRC.

Opening Ceremonies

London 2012’s Olympic Organizing Committee must be thrilled with us for not having a mind-blowing opening. It wasn’t horrific but it wasn’t all that great either. I love fiddlers, so that part totally worked for me. The bear was alright. The whales were completely amazing. Since the opening was held indoors, a very wise decision in Vancouver, they were able to pull off some stuff that would have been extremely difficult otherwise. The projection technology was amazing to watch and I wonder what it looked like for the people there. The snowboarding video off the top was pretty well done, too. It’s a pity about the indoor cauldron malfunction, especially since Catriona Ann Le May Doan didn’t get to help light it. Gretzky’s truck ride to the real cauldron was pretty hilarious, eh? It looked so tacked on! Also, poor Gretzky. He’s totally making the :| face.

Selected Events

Female Moguls were a heartbreaker. I wanted Jenn Heil to win the first gold on Canadian soil soooooooo much. So so so so so so much. Congrats to her for the silver! Kristina Groves, speed skating, pulled off an amazing performance in the 3000m race to end up with a bronze. Then, of course, the Canadian hero Alexandre Bilodeau stands up to the incredible amount of pressure and get the gold!! Woooo!!! ^_^

Oh, and Mike Robertson wins Olympic silver in snowboard cross. Some say that he choked because he basically coasted to the finals but I disagree. He made one small mistake near the end that cost him but that’s far from choking. Not to mention that he got pushed around at the top by Nate Holland, who eventually spun out on his own and finished fourth. This came as a wonderful surprise for France’s Tony Ramoin who just had to finish the race to capture the bronze.

I do feel bad for Jeremy Wotherspoon, hoping he could cap off his 500m career with one last medal and remind Canadians how powerful he was and the amazing run he’s had with all the world records, too. As Gaétan Boucher just said on Olympic Morning, it’ll be great if he could pull a Dan Jansen in the 1000m even though it’s not his best event. Boucher also calls no medals for the girls in the sprint today but I think they can definitely use this to build for next time around with some top 20 finishes. I wish I got RDS so I could hear him call some of the events and catch his insights.

UPDATE:

markv passed on the link, a live fan perspective of Alexandre Bilodeau’s gold medal ceremony. Amazing! The 2nd video is the loudest :)