Day 16 - Penultimate Day

Nothing to see or do today. It was a bit rainy in Vancouver and the Olympics were wrapping up. I pretty much had a normal Saturday and heard on the radio that Canada had picked up three more gold medals. The city will certainly have a different feel after the Olympics, but I'll be interested to see how quickly everything reverts to normal. Will there be a permanent change in the city's psyche? Or in the rest of the world's perception of Vancouver? I think not, but we'll see.

Day 15 - Speed Skating

 

Robin and I ventured out to the Olympic Oval in Richmond on the hopes of finding someone selling tickets at face value, or close to it. There were not many sellers but we did manage to get a couple of tickets at a reasonable price. The oval is big, but the seating is actually not as extensive as I'd imagined. There were a good number of orange-clad Dutch supporters in the crowd. The specific event we were watching was team pursuit. Three skaters from each country race against three skaters from another country. They start on opposite sides of the oval. It's tournament style so we watched the men's quarter-finals, the women's quarter-finals and then the men's semi-finals. In the men's quarter-finals Canada beat Italy, setting an Olympic record in the process. The women did not fare as well, losing to the US by four one-hundredths of a second. In the men's semi-finals the Canadian men beat Norway, again setting an Olympic record. They'll face the US for the gold tomorrow. Afterwards we walked to the "O-Zone" and tried to look at Heineken House, but the lineup was too big. We're off to Sue & Tim's tonight to watch Canada vs. Slovakia in men's hockey on the tv.

Day 14 - Women's Gold Medal Hockey Game

 

The atmosphere at Canada Hockey Place was definitely different from the previous games. The crowd was pumped and ready for a gold medal. The first period was tight. Canada was penalized a lot, but the Americans failed to capitalize. In the second period the Canadians again ran into penalty trouble and after surviving a five-on-three they came right back to score. A second goal followed quite quickly and that was all the Canadians needed. We stayed for the medal presentations and heard the national anthem for the first time live at the Olympics!

Day 13 - Sweden vs. Slovakia

 

Our cousin Tim joined Robin and Maria and me at the Sweden vs. Slovakia game. We were all in a good mood after having watched Canada demolish Russia on tv earlier in the afternoon. The game was a pretty quiet affair until Slovakia scored two quick goals in the second. The Swedes came alive then and replied with two of their own. Slovakia got one more before the end of the period. In the third period Slovakia looked content to set the trap and try to frustrate Sweden. They scored a goal on a rush and Sweden again quickly replied. With the minutes counting down Sweden really picked it up but couldn't score again and left the tournament early.

Day 13 - USA vs. Switzerland

 

It was always a bit of a longshot for Switzerland to beat the USA, but they came very close to a shootout at least, which they might well have won. The USA fired about 50 shots at Jonas Hiller and only one fluky goal was scored early in the third. The crowd was rooting for the Swiss, but there was a pretty strong US contingent, too.

Day 12 - Canada vs. Germany

The rain has returned -- I can't remember a February in Vancouver with such a long period of sunny warm weather! No events or games to watch live today. I took it easy and was able to catch a bit of the Canada vs. Germany men's hockey game on tv. I heard that Canada won another gold in ski cross, but haven't read anything about it yet. Tomorrow we're off to see two men's hockey quarterfinal games. Unfortunately, even though Robin bought tickets to three out of the four quarterfinals Canada is in the fourth of those quarterfinal games! Rotten luck. Instead we'll see USA vs. Switzerland (go Suisse!) and Sweden vs. Slovakia, although as I write this Norway is giving Slovakia a run for their money.

Day 11 - Downtown Vancouver

 

Between the first and second semi-finals Robin and I walked along False Creek. The shot above is of the Athletes Village on the south side of False Creek. The sun was shining and the crowds were great. After the second game we walked down Robson, enjoying the sights and sounds and ended up at Japadog on Burrard!

Day 11 - Women's Hockey (Canada vs. Finland)

 

Maria joined Robin and I for a 5 p.m. start in the second Women's Semi-final game. Team Canada looked very good, but the Finnish goaltender was quite good -- much better than the Swedish goaltender. The game stayed close, but the Canadian attack was relentless. They outshot the Finns 50-11 and won the game 5-0. It was a much more entertaining game than the earlier semi-final, but I anticipate the final will be even better.

Day 11 - Women's Hockey (USA vs. Sweden)

 

Robin and I watched the first semi-final in the Women's Hockey tournament. The USA handled the Swedish team 9-1, and were completely dominant.

Day 10 - Men's Super Combined

 

We got up a bit earlier today to go to the Men's Super Combined (one run of downhill and one run of slalom). The event had originally been scheduled for Tuesday. Again, it was brilliant sunshine and quite cold -- perfect conditions for the race. This turned out to be a much more exciting race than the other ski races we attended since there were two parts. Bode Miller had a good, but not exceptional run on the downhill. However, he followed it up with an excellent run on the slalom and captured gold. There was about a 90 minute break between the two races during which Maria and a I took the chair down to the Whistler Creek base and hiked back up to the finish area -- twice!