village life, media and shaking babies and kissing hands
part 2 of olympic living. Now that i'm out of the village maybe i can catch up on things!
When you do well you're time gets eaten up with media and appearances after your event. If you have a medal it's a full time 16 hour day job for days on end. With my 7th it was mid-road busy. Over the week and a bit left during the games i rolled through CTV, RDS, CBC and Global, plus numerous radio spots. We also get called out for quite a few shaking babies and kissing hands events. A few of the better, and/or easier, events were the Canada Snowboard meet'n greet party, a "play it cool" reception at the David Suzuki foundation and one with the mayor. From what we knew about this one it was maelle ricker getting thrown out on stage in front of 10,000 people at Livecity. Turns out the mayor named the day "canada snowboard day in the city of vancouver", maelee said a few words then we all got thrown out in front of 10,000 people! This one was quikly followed by a Damien marley concert that was awesome.
On a few days, you're ushered from one event to the other, not even really knowing where you're going! but it's all good. We're all grateful for the support from fans and sponsors so we roll along, smile, shake babies, kiss hands and enjoy it. It's rare that snowboarders get so much attention.
The olympic village was pretty much like living in a bubble. No stress, relaxing, mellow. it was awesome. The food was good and there was a huge selection. and there wasn't lines at mcdonalds. But a few eating contest got a little out of control. Greg bretz managed to pound back 60 mcnuggets! unreal.
Being our home games, and one of the largest teams we definitely got the choice buildings. right on the water at False creek. The condos were pretty unreal. And our athlete lounge was insane! top floor of one of our buildings. full views all around, ping pong, foozball, tvs, xbobx, wiis, food. everyone spent some serious time up there. Whenever there was an event with Canadians competing, the lounge was packed with everyone screaming and cheering. Getting insight from teamates who weren't competing. pretty cool watching a hockey game with marty brodeur and marc andre fleury and getting their insight into the game. It was awesome.
well, that's enough for now.
i need to go riding.
jl
the team canada moose
village art
hmm which houses are for the canadians?
view from my deck. it's ok i guess
athlete hangout barn. video games, tunes, pool, foozball, etc...
Dom maltais pong-ing in the penthouse athlete's lounge
who lives here?
good luck sneaking into the village
food!
canada house warmup with a view
no pressure!my nephew cedric, terri, and my bro claude with maelle
the vancouver mayor and palmer taylor, sarah conrad, and maelle
small crowd,10,000 people at livecity in yaletown
hate 'em or love 'em! judges and good guys at the canada snowboard party. Brandon wong, myself, dave desa, and marcello centurione
RDS prior to being interviewed by my mom's cousin, and RDS host claude maillot
brad martin and myself on the CTV set
Dr. Suzuki and myself
Dr. Suzuki and a bunch of olympians who are members of "play it cool"
