Blog: 2010

Having played hockey since i can walk, it's one of the sports i associate the most with the olympics. So i try to get into as many games as possible. Our athlete pass doesn't get us into the indoor venues unfortunately, we still need a ticket. Each country's olympic committee is given x number of tickets for each sport. These are then dished out, in our case, by the athelete services people who are olympic legends marnie mcbean, sylvie frechete and jonathen guilmette. all multiple olympic medalists. They take care of the athletess in our village, make sure we're happy, give advice and also give out tickets. So you ask for tickets in advance and one of these 3 will let you know if you have them or not. Usually hockey games are in big demand, so the usual answer is no. BUT, if you hang out long enough in the athlete lounge chances are someone won't come pick up a ticket and you happen to be right close by, you can grab the ticket.

So between a family ticket, asking for a ticket and hanging around the lounge picking up scraps i got to see all the canada games from the 1/8 finals all the way to the finals and got into the bronze medal game too. The athlete seats are WAY up there, but you're in the rink so who cares. Sometimes, like the bronze medal game, a box ticket rolls through from people who want athletes around. In the case of the gold medal game, i got my ticket (nosebleed) 20 minutes before the puck dropped and it was a coin toss to see who got the ticket! (2 minutes later the other person got one too). I've seen a fair few hockey games in my life, and to say that the canada-russia and canada-usa games were crazy would be an understatement. It was insane, and my voice is still hoarse 5 days later! Soo stoked i got to see those games.
We all know how those games ended and it was amazing to be in the rink.

The hockey players did hang out in the olympic village. You could plop down next to them for breakfast or play some ping pong with them (sid's backhand is not limited to hockey!). I went on a bit of a mission these olympics to meet as many canadian athletes as i could. Makes cheering that much more fun and i like meeting new people. I met sidney crosby, shea weber and marc andre fleury pretty early on as they were in the lounge the most. I was pretty stoked that sid and shea watched the pipe event in the lounge and the following day told me I "was freakin nuts". I provided Fleury and some of the other hockey guys with a laugh as i asked for martin brodeur's name. Obviously i know who he is, but not having cable at my house, i'll say it's tough for me to recognize him without his jersey on! (and a lot of the other guys for that matter). Another day, brad martin and i were the only people in the lounge and playing nhl10 on an Xbox. Fleury came in and watched us play. As we were playing canada vs. canada, i jokingly said we should put marc in net. Well, brad did for the shootout, and i ended up finally scoring in a 12 shot marathon. he turned around to marc " how could you let that in!!?" 'sorry' was marc's sheepish answer through all the laughing. i can't say i've ever played an nhl video game and had the player right there in the room.

Canadians like to put hockey players up high on a pedastal but they're normal people, just really good at hockey. So it was really cool to hang out with them and get to know them (and everyone else in the village!).and yes i realise i just posted stories about nhl players, but that's what people have asked me the most. "do the players actually stay in the village?" "have you seen sid?" yes to both, and they even celebrated their gold medals and the end of the games in the village with everyone else.

sidney and shea. sidney's the short guy in case your wondering

rob fan, mercedes nicoll, sarah conrad, brad martin, and palmer taylor at the russia canada game. Rob's first nhl/world level hockey game!

i'd hate to play canada in this rink! nothing but red shirts and screaming fans

mercedes and i at the gold medal game

it always amazes me that there's still fans for countries half way around the world. Suomi (finland) fans for the bronze medal game against slovakia. and still alot of canada jersey's!

brad martin would be the least official looking person in this box. finland-slovakia bronze medal game

our 2 assistant chef de mission. legend's steve podborski and joe juneau. (skiing and hockey)

scott neidermeyer and i waiting for the closing ceremonies. yup again, he's the shorter guy. if i had another 30-40 pounds on me maybe i would have stayed in hockey!

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"

WOW! little late in getting to this, but life has been crazy the last few days.
Stoked i got 7th in the Halfpipe last wednesday night. It was an interesting day for me for sure.
My first qualification run i fell on a cab 9. WHAT? This rachets up the pressure on your second run by a lot. I was confident i'd land my second run but, sometimes you don't. So i had to spend some time accepting that possibility and getting around it and telling my self that i was going to land that 2nd run.
In quals, my run was shaping up to be switch back 5 mute, cab 9 melon, switch method, cab 7 mute, and edning with a frontside 9 stalefish. As i went through the 2nd run it was all good, until i hit a rut going into my last trick. I bailed on the front 9 and stopped the trick at 720. I wasn't going to risk not landing at this point. BUT, i knew the run would score lower than i'd like. 8th place, top 9 go through, and with 10 guys left to go that can beat me, i don't like the odds. To say i was nervous watching my friends drop in and do there runs is an understatement. i wanted to puke.
But i made it through in 9th.
Semis, i changed my run to dropping in forward for a method, front 7 tuck knee indy, cab 9 melon, switch backside 720 mute, to backside 900 mute.
My first run went ok, but had a few mistakes. Again it left me on the bubble to qualify for the finals. uhhh. But with reverse order seeding for this round I got to watch everyone try and make they're way into the top 6. Nobody was able to bump me so I dropped into my second run knowing i was in.
Food at this point was starting to be an issue. I'd eaten at 11am in the morning, it was now 6pm and finals starting soon. It was a strange schedule for the games but i knew about it a head of time and trained pretty hard to be able to ride for hours on end. But really, the schedule sucked. By the end of the comp, six of us had ridden 3 practise sessions and 3 contest rounds with really no time for more than a snack.

FINALS! the crowd was unreal. I was the first guy to drop in and i took a minute prior to my runs to absorb the scene from the top of the pipe. Big crowd, empty perfect pipe. Loved it. I'll have that memory for ever.
My first run was supposed to be method, front 7 tuck knee indy, cab 1080 melon, front 9 stale to back nine mute, but i clipped the lip on the 720. As i took off into the 1080, i knew i didnt have enough speed to get it done so i landed it at 900 and quickly decided to go into my semis run. Not the run i was looking for.
My second run also was not what it was supposed to be. same run as above but was going to end in a backside double cork 900. I had a bobble going into the last hit
which threw me off enough that i didn't think i would be able to get the double so i went for just a backside 9 to end it off. Not quite the runs i was looking for but 7th at the olympics isn't too bad. It was also the best finish ever by a canadian in the guy's pipe event. So i got that going for me for at least 4 years. haha

The crowd was amazing. I don't usually acknowledge much prior to my runs but being at home and having that crowd, i had to get them to make some noise. It was so loud from up top. Never heard anything like it for a snowboard comp. absolutely loved it. When one of my runs in semis was over, i realized that hanging out in front of the judging booth, the crowd couldn't see the riders. So i ran back up just to give them a wave and the response was crazy. The crowd blew up! That was going to happen again for sure. Both my finals runs, i made sure to run back up the pipe a little ways and give the crowd a wave. It was truely amazing. My last run i gave the crowd a little bow. It wasn't an exit bow from contest riding, just a big thank you on my part. It was the night of my life and a big part of that was the crowd response and i wanted to pay them back.
Thank you to everyone for the support, loved every minute of it! and i swear i'll get around to my emails one day soon.
check back after the games, i'll have some photos up and such.
thanks
jl

Pipe comp is tomorrow.
Practise tonight was super fun. Pipe was perfect. Feeling good and can't wait to shred tomorrow.
All the canadian guys are starting in the second heat. we practise around 2:10pm PST and start the heat around 2:45. I'm rocking #25 or something around that.
check it out!
jl