This is the final entry of my Olympic diary. It's a pretty long post because I actually wrote about two days in this one entry. I will put a couple of pictures here, but I am also putting some pictures out on Facebook.
Saturday, February 23, 2002
Oh my God! I can’t believe it’s over! I thought it would never get here, then I thought it would never end, and now I’m in disbelief because I have worked my last Olympic shift.
I didn’t have a chance to write yesterday because I worked my shift, then we went to the Medals Plaza and got home late. I had an early shift (6:30 am) today, so this is my first chance to write. I have lots to write about!
I’ll start with Friday, the 22nd.
It was a gorgeous day. Breezes out of the south, sunshine, highs in the 50s. It was great! Of course I went back out to entry. I had to hurry to get that assignment though. All the lame-os who had been inside all the time wanted to be outside on the nicest day during the most boring (in my opinion) event, the men’s 10,000 meters. That’s 25 times around the track.
So anyway, I did get to go to entry. I like Entry 10, which is the front entry, but Robin was the team leader, so I went to Entry 30 on the road. I had the staff access gate again. It has the most gorgeous view of any post, the Wasatch Mountains. I was getting big sun. I have the sunburn to prove it! Man, it was nice out there.
One of the volunteers had brought a Nerf football, and a bunch of people started playing catch. That turned into a little game of touch football before the gates opened. I didn’t play, but it was fun to watch.
The races were set up so there were three pairs, an ice break, three more pairs, an ice break, then two pairs. Derek Parra of the US skated in Pair 4, so a lot of people left after that. It was a very mellow day with people trickling out all the time. Really, who wants to watch ten guys go around the Oval 25 times each? Not too many people, except the Dutch. Joachem Uytehaage (sp?) shattered the 13 minute mark, coming in at 12:58:??. He set the world record. The Dutch also came in second. A guy from Norway, who was slobbering all around the track while he was skating, got the bronze.
My work gave me a pair of tickets to the Olympic Medals Plaza (OMP) for Friday night. The Goo Goo Dolls were playing that night. MT and I were super-excited to go.
We parked down at the Park & Ride by Granite and took the shuttle. It dropped us off by West High School, then we had to walk several blocks to the OMP. It takes up a lot of downtown. It starts behind the Triad Center on 400 West and North Temple, then goes east to South Temple, then south to at least 100 South. We didn’t walk that far south. It’s big. That’s all actually called Olympic Square and it includes the Delta Center and the Olympic Medals Plaza itself. It also houses the Coca-Cola Interactive tent and the Olympic Superstore. The OMP is in the big parking lot across the street from the Triad Center.
(I wanted to include this pic so you could see what the OMP looked like. Also notice the gigantic banners hanging on the building around the city. It was beautiful!)
There was a huge line of people who did not have tickets to the OMP but just wanted to get into Olympic Square. There was also a huge amount of people who did have tickets who wanted to get in. The lines at the security checkpoint were long, but moved fairly quickly. I think we stood in line about 20 minutes. Once we were in, we had to figure out how to actually get into the OMP. It was crazy. I could hear music playing, and I was sad that we were missing the Goo Goo Dolls. When I focused on the music, however, I found that it wasn’t the Goo Goo Dolls, then I felt better.
Because Granite was an Olympic Donor, we actually had seats in the bleachers, so we didn’t have to stand in any of the designated areas. I was very happy because the worst part of my Olympic experience is that my feet hurt every day from unaccustomed standing around. My shoes are comfortable, but my feet are just not used to supporting my body in a standing position for 8 hours a day. So, we were happy to sit.
We got there in plenty of time for the medals ceremonies. It started out with a dance/acrobatic troupe from NYC call AntiGravity. They did a routine that was really cool. Then a Child of Light came onto the stage, and the stage kind of opened up to reveal the mini-Olympic cauldron. It was beautiful! The stage was really gorgeous.
The medals were presented in women’s giant slalom, men’s 10,000 meters speedskating, men’s curling, and men’s Nordic Combined. It was all very awesome, much better than it is on TV. I was sad that no Americans were presented with medals that night, but it was still really great! MT and I especially enjoyed the Swiss men’s curling team. They took the bronze. They were doing with wave thing with the crowd that was pretty funny to watch. They did it over and over until the crowd “got” what they were doing. The women’s hockey teams from the US and Canada, silver & gold respectively, also paraded across the stage to very excited cheers. They had actually received their medals the previous night at the hockey arena. After the Olympians had received their medals, there were some fireworks.
(This is a pic I took of the speed-skating medal presentation that night!)
Victoria Jackson, of Saturday Night Live fame, entertained the crowd while the Goo Goo Dolls got set up. She was pretty funny. If her jokes weren’t going over, she would stop and yell, “U of U” or just “Salt Lake City!” The crowd would then roar with joy.
The Goo Goo Dolls came on at 9:00 and they just rocked! They played all their hits, and they’ve had a lot. At 9:30, there was a break in from the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and the band played “Broadway is Dark Tonight”. My favorites were of course “Name” and “Slide”. They ended with “Iris” and the whole audience was singing & swaying. 20,000 people were in the OMP. It was unreal! Let me just say that Johnny Rzeznik sings great and has a pretty face. He smiled and I melted! That rock-n-roll hair! That square jaw! Those dimples! And he rocks. Did I mention that? Right.
During the concert, we were standing up and singing along and dancing around. We were in the back row of our section, so we weren’t blocking anyone’s view. A yellow-jacketed volunteer was standing in the entry behind us and I asked him to take our picture. Fun! I took lots of pics.
After the concert, there was a really nice fireworks show. I don’t mind big fireworks like that. (I just don’t like everyday people to have access to fireworks.) The show was set to a song by Aretha Franklin about the flame; a whole link to the Light the Fire Within theme. Whenever the flame was mentioned, these big firey flames leaped out of the top of the stage. We could feel the heat from them way back out our seats. Nice.
I wanted to go to the Olympic Superstore afterwards, but there was a huge line and MT just wasn’t into it. Since we had worked all day and had early morning shifts, I agreed to bag it. We walked past the Coca-Cola tent, but there was a huge line for that too, so we just left. We ended up getting home around 11. What a great day!!
It was tough to wake up this morning, but we did it. Courtney (the babysitter) stayed with T on Friday night and just slept over. We both left at 6 am for work. I got to my shift much more quickly than Marty did!
Because I was there so early, I had to work in Sector Bravo. I had positioned myself at the locker room entry on the bottom floor, but I had to give up my prime post when another volunteer who is a namby-pamby didn’t want to go outside. I was annoyed and told my team leader that I was. I didn’t want to work in athlete mag & bag! I had avoided checking bags for 11 days, and I didn’t want to break my record on the last day! He was cool, and I went up to the locker room entrance on the main floor. There was a woman there who really wanted to go out to athlete mag & bag, so it worked out well.
The woman I was paired with was Debbie. She has terminal lung cancer. She was very open about it. She told me about when it was diagnosed and how it came about. She had this lump in her leg since her second child had been born 22 years ago. Through the years the lump had never changed, and she had it checked every year. Then, last spring, it started to grow. They did tests, and it was cancerous. The cancer had spread through her bloodstream to her lungs. She has never smoked.
The lump was removed in May, but it was not completely gone. They had to go back in to take it all out. She had to have a skin graft. She said that was the worst part of all of it; that is was extremely painful, even worse than the chemotherapy. She said she was very sick when the chemo treatments were first started. She lost all of her hair very quickly. She said it would just come out in handfuls. When she laid her head down, there would be hair all over the pillow. She finally just asked her son to shave it all off. She said she tried wigs a couple of times, but they were uncomfortable and itchy, so she just wore hats and scarves.
I did not ask Debbie how much longer she had, but she told me that she had worked up the nerve to ask her doctor that question. His answer was “not years.”
She said that her family was having a hard time with her sickness, but she seems to have made her peace with it. She is a very nice lady, and when she left today, I wished her well and thanked her for hanging out with me.
That was a lot to think about before 10 am!
When the main shift came in around 10:00, we were absorbed from Sector Bravo into Sector Admin. My new team leader was Lynn, my favorite guy! It seemed like we were a little over-staffed for the amount of activity that was going on, so I had a break and walked around. The gates didn’t open until 11, and athlete training ended at 10, so there was just not a lot going on from 10 to 11.
I ended up standing outside at the media entrance checking credentials. Yuck. Then I went to lunch (Olympic hot dogs rule!) After lunch I was at another Access Control Point. It was from the rink to the main part of the building. It was very hectic. There were 2 of us at that door. This is where I began my official famous people watch.
The first famous person I saw was the Canadian figure skater Elvis Stoyko. He is not tall. Of course I saw many speed skaters, but I don’t know all of their names. Plus they look different in their sweats than they do in their speedskating suits. I did recognize the Canadian gold medal winner in the 500 meters, Catriona LeMay Doan. She is also not tall. I thought she would be taller than she is. She stood right in front of me and did an interview. There was a media guy running around that looked like Apollo Anton Ohno, but it wasn’t. I did have a spectator ask me if it was Apollo. When I told her it wasn’t, she didn’t seem to believe me. I told her that I had checked his tag, and it really wasn’t him. Later he walked out and she then knew that it really wasn’t Apollo.
Dr. Eric Heiden walked past me a couple of times today. He’s also not so tall. Is there a pattern here? Bonnie Blair isn’t tall either. Only the Dutch skaters are tall. I think I saw Dan Jansen one day, but I can’t verify that it was really him. It looked like him, though.
The biggest VIP at the Oval today was the President of Germany. Yesterday the King of Norway was there! Donald Rumsfeld was there the other day, too. I didn’t see them, but I did see the President of Germany. I don’t know his name. It was good for him to be there today. Claudia Pechstein of Germany broke the world record in the 5,000 meters and won the gold medal.
I also saw Mike Leavitt, governor of Utah, and Deedee Corradini, former mayor of Salt Lake City. I congratulated Sabine Voelker of Germany on her Olympics. She was right by me. She was nice.
Finally, my shift was over! My Olympics were done. I said good-bye to Lynn, thanked him for being cool and wished him well. I went to the staff break tent to get a drink of water. Leland and Fran from my carpool were there so I talked to them for a few minutes. I took a picture of Queenie, the bomb-sniffing dog and her master, the National Guard guy. I walked out through spectator exit and said good-bye to Phyllis, my other favorite team leader. She gave me a big hug. It was nice. I took pictures of the exit crew, the volunteers and National Guard. I thanked Lee for being cool. He also gave me a nice hug. It was a very warm fuzzy thing. Everyone was happy, but kinda sad too.
So that’s it. That’s the end. It was great. I had a wonderful time. My feet are sore, and I never want to wear those stupid snow pants again. I don’t even really want to wear my vest or coat for awhile. I’m sure I will though!
What a great experience. I’ve been wrestling with whether or not I have fully captured the spirit of the Games. I wanted to immerse myself in the Olympic vibe by going downtown, or going to one of the “Houses”, but I think that I have experienced the Olympic vibe. I was right smack dab in the middle of the Olympics on every event day at the Oval. I saw world records broken. I saw many athletes up close & personal. I spoke to people from around the world and around the United States every day. I did go to the Medals Plaza and experience that scene. I have been up to Olympic Stadium to see the cauldron. I’ll probably drive by there tonight, too, so I can take a picture of it at night.
I have tons of memories of these two weeks. I have no regrets. It was fantastic and amazing and fun and cold and hot and wet and windy. I will always remember the Dutch and their love of speedskating and their friendliness. I will remember the people who wanted to get in so bad that they were willing to pay double face value to the scalpers so they could watch Derek Parra. I’ll remember watching Chris Witty and Derek Parra cross the line in record time to win the gold. I’ll remember the exit line that thanked the spectators for coming; the lines of yellow-jacketed volunteers and camo-clad National Guard soldiers. I’ll remember talking to the Secret Service guys. And I’ll remember the volunteers. Everyone was different, but we were all there for the same reason, and we kicked ass!
The Oval is a great venue. I personally talked to media and spectators who told me it was their favorite venue. I think it’s the best because it was so convenient for me. I liked that fact that our events were only about 2 hours long, and we only had one spectator session a day. I like speed skating, except in the longer distances. We had cool entertainment. It was a more intimate venue, since only 6,000 people could be there, including staff and media. I have signed up to work more events at the Oval if the opportunity presents itself!
The gold medal hockey match between the US and Canada is tomorrow, and tomorrow night is the closing ceremonies. And that’s the end.
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