....Darned connection....Anyways I have two days off and I was hoping to ski today but the fog is pretty thick. They have cancelled the training runs today and cancelled them yesterday after an accident. The run is 2.5-5km long and they need to be able to see 250m. (travelling up to and over 150km per hour. I see as I log in that unfortunately a luge athlete has just died. There has been a lot of talk about how fast (and maybe dangerous...) the track may be. That will put a damper on what happens next. You have to ask yourself about the risk that some of the equipment and technology has created?? There is excellence and then... I think about the role of risk....often.
Skiied one day last week and really enjoyed it though I spent most of the day on one run as the light was so flat. We are staying at a beautiful boutique hotel in Creekside, a 4km walk or busride from Whistler. I have found a few good special dinners at a couple of hotels around here. I can just about see the alpine courses from the corner of my window.
The position I have as a doping control officer gives us lots of privileges to see where the athletes eat and live. We talk to them (not a social evening but for a few minutes) as we look for various athletes to test. Most are pretty co-operative though a few are bit initially too happy. This year many athletes will go through a blood screen, that is be warned the night before and have blood taken for haemoglobin levels and possibly other things. The long distance and endurance sports seem to be the most likely areas where cheating may occur.
The days are long and the number of people volunteering seems way too many for the amount of work to do. People are vying for where they fit into the wheel and there seem to be way more chiefs than indians...as the expression goes. People are constantly concerned about what the one above will say. So there are lots of rules and decision makers and people vying for turf. For example yesterday in the blood screening one manager says two athletes per room regardless of country and then the next manager comes along and says that they must be from the same country. Another exampe, at one venue your access passes and clipboards (identifying you as antidoping if you know what to look for) can be carried visibly and at another venue they are to be in backpacks or coats. And so it goes. It seems that errors are too frequent in the paperwork and they are checked by several people but sometimes the errors are not caught....spelling, dates, initials in the wrong spot, etc. That upsets the IOC and the seriousness of it is reported back and interpreted by many rules and ultimately striving for a very professional look. I do understand the concerns and it is a challenge however it makes teambuilding pretty hard.
Heck, I am happy to walk the athlete's village or the cross country starting point or whatever...I love being outside and moving so I am happy to be the peon. I figure that people will get pretty tired soon and the competition for so called valued work will decrease. In fact these days that are supposed to be 12 or more hours (reality 9 or 10) are pretty long and I see that some people are starting to acknowledge that. We also have a lot of chaperones, some of whom travel 3 hours each way to get here. Since we have such coveted positions these are all pretty high calibre take charge personalities and many of them experience frustration at the little amount to be done. If you can get over that then it can be fun. It reminds me of work and relationships but in this case it is all compressed into days and so you see the changes much more quickly than in a real life work situation. So yes, I am enjoying it...not in a ra ra way but rather as an observer seeing how all of these people work together, try to become a team, etc. I realize that I like to meet people doing various other jobs around the venue and meeting athletes, etc. I also like time alone and I am happy to read the paper, etc. Yesterday I felt like the Wal-Mart greeter outside checking off who was coming for blood screens. That is all fine till you find out that if they don't turn up you don't know what that means and if they turn up unexpectedly then they are tested anyways. So let them all go in... they know who they are. So I was learning and laughing testing out a couple of Russian words that the Russian doctor was teaching me. Then an Andorran and then the athlete from Senegal and then all of the Norweigans that we had already taken urine from. I manaaged to see the Bermuda people do their national athem with Squamish Indians as the percussion. So there is enough to keep me interested. And I was able to test how waterproof our jackets are because I stood in the rain for 2 hours. And the Japanese boots (blue rubber boots of Jenny's) were perfect.
I will go up to the Whistler and see part of the Opening ceremonies on big screen tvs and see how the village is supposed to double in population today.You meet people everywhere - on the bus, in the bus,,,everywhere...people are all so friendly. Even last night in the lobby as I came in, I met an Austrian who is a long distance coach for one of the Canadian female bobsledders. I have also met an American of German heritage coaching Kiwis. Rather global in their endeavours and so many European coaches. Then I met the guys working for Piston Bully (is that the brand of your snowcat, Andrew?) and the buses will not stop at their location (this is an issue that needs to be resolved on several fronts but hey never mind). And I had time to do my yoga today and I can walk up to the village. I also tried out the hottub that looks directly onto the downhill course. And finally time to write and record a few thoughts. I have tomorrow off and work 11 days straight.
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