I hope you are enjoying reading about my Olympic experience. Today's post tells about one of my favorite memories from the Games - one of the few things I vividly remember (I'm not very good at remembering things.) One of the leaders decided it would be a good idea to have one of the lifeguard chairs from the nearby pool in the center of the entry and one of the volunteers would sit in the chair with a bullhorn and welcome the world to the Oval. I thought that sounded like fun, so I said I'd do it. No one else even wanted to have anything to do with it. It turned out to be really cool and after I did it, a bunch of people wanted to have a go at it. I remember that I thought it was a really fun assignment.
Tuesday, February 12, 2002
Today’s event was the finals of the men’s 500 meters. It was another short day. My shift was from 9:30 to 4:00. I didn’t carpool today because the group had a split shift. A couple of them came in at 6:30, and the rest were all coming from Tooele and Magna, so I was not on their way. It worked out just fine.
Today was nice: clear, cold & windy. I went out to Sector Entry again. That’s a pretty fun place because people are happy to be there. My first assignment was to sit up in a tall chair, like a lifeguard’s chair, and welcome the crowd to the Oval by saying, “Welcome to the Utah Olympic Oval” with a bullhorn. It was fun, because everyone looks at you. I wave and smile. Everyone is happy. I joked with a few people about not running at the pool. :0) The bad thing about the Chair is that it gets cold up there! The wind was coming from the north and the Chair was facing directly north. Even though I was layered to the max, wearing a hat & gloves, I was chilled. You can’t move around up there, so you just freeze. No one wanted to take the bullhorn, so I had to stay there for over an hour. BRRRR!
A funny thing happened while I was up there. A group of Dutch people came in. They are easy to tell from everyone else, because they are really into speed skating and come all dressed in orange with funny hats and wigs and flags and happy attitudes. Anyway, a large group came in. I greeted them through the bullhorn by saying, “Hello Holland!” I’ll be damned if they did not circle my chair and begin dancing around it waving their flags and chanting, “Holland! Holland!” One of them then climbed up the back of the chair, leaned out over me and said, “Hello America! How you doing?” It was very funny and many pictures were taken. I was praying the chair wouldn’t tip over backward, crippling the Dutch guy and me. Everything was fine, though, and we all had a good laugh!
When I did finally get down from the chair, I went up to the gates where people queue up to go through security. There I just remind people to have their tickets ready and bags open for inspection. I also talk to people. Lots of people want to know about the uniform, how much it cost, what they gave me etc. One lady today wanted to know if my shoes came from SLOC. (They didn’t.) No offers to buy the coat today, but two offers to trade coats. I also had a couple more offers on my cross pack. Several people thanked me for volunteering. One guy asked me if they gave smiling lessons because everyone he had seen was very smiley. I guess that’s a good thing.
The queues were moving pretty well, then one line got kinda slow. Some Americans in that line got kinda pissy with me. “We came in at the same time as that group up there, and look how far ahead of us they are in that line,” a woman griped. I explained to her that someone ahead of her probably had a larger bag with lots of compartments, or had a lot of electronic equipment that had to be checked. “You should go up there and say something to the security people so they’ll move this line along quicker,” she said. About that time, they started moving again, so she calmed down. I just told her that the lines move along much more quickly if bags are open and electronic equipment is turned on, but it’s just like lines at the grocery store: someone else’s line always seems to go faster. She did get into the venue well before race time anyway.
After lunch I went back out to the entry. A couple of people came in, but that was it. We closed the gates and got ready for the egress. “Thanks for coming! Have a good night!” Pictures with the National Guard. The people from Holland all clapped for us lining the route. The egress is always entertaining. Imagine walking out of the venue, and the whole way is lined with yellow-jacketed, smiling people and National Guard troops.
The final outcome of the races was Casey FitzRandolph of the US with gold, a Japanese guy with silver, and another American, Kip Carpenter, with bronze. Very good!
It was a good day at the Oval!
Today was an event day at Deer Valley. MT had to leave here at 4:15 this morning, and he got home around 6 or so. The event there was men’s moguls. Marty got to watch the whole thing. He thought Jonny Mosely was the best, even though he came in fourth. He had a sweet move called the Dinner Roll, but he wasn’t skiing very fast. Moguls’ judging is pretty subjective, I guess. Part of the score. 25% or so, is derived from the speed down the hill, and the rest is style. An American did get the silver, but most people felt Jonny was robbed.
Picabo Street skied at Snow Basin today. She didn’t win either.
The big news today was reaction to the pairs figure skating judging last night. The Canadian team got the silver medal. A Russian team that was not perfect won the gold medal, and there is going to be an inquiry into the judging of that event. One judge has said that she was asked to give the Russian team a first place vote, and in exchange, her country would get a first place vote for their ice dancing team. That’s collusion, and it’s not right. That has been the big story.
Tomorrow’s event at the Oval is the first round of the women’s 500 meters. It is in the afternoon. I don’t have to be there until 1:30, but then I have to stay until 8. Hopefully we’ll get done a little earlier. I actually was debriefed and dismissed around 3:15 today.
I haven’t yet bought any Oly merchandise. There are two hats I wouldn’t mind having, even though I know that hats are generally a mistake, but they are so cool that I just really want them! One of my carpool friends, Fran, told me that the merchandise store at the Oval would be open to employees on Friday so we could go buy stuff. Friday is not a competition day, so we all have the day off. I don’t know if it’s true that the store will be open for us. We’ll see.
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