Being a rookie Olympic visitor I am somewhat concerned that there isn’t much I can put into this blog you haven’t read twenty times over. But in the midst of an 11-day visit to the Games, I will do my best to describe my introduction to the Olympic spirit.
The spirit is everywhere and it is like nothing I have ever felt before. Not during a Final Four or Super Bowl or Wimbledon. While I’m not the most traveled person in the world, I have attended all of those events live. I used to think the Final Four had the most amazing sports atmosphere. It is amazing, but the scale of the Olympics is on another dimension.
I would say that only the Calgary Stampede and Disney rival the Olympic spirit. Why Disney? It’s the volunteers. The volunteers at these Games are like Disney employees… except the Vancouver volunteers smile naturally and not because of a biweekly salary. It’s not just the volunteers who smile spontaneously, it’s ticket tackers, security, cashiers, you name it. Everybody is pretty bloody happy.
No bloody pun intended but we drove right into the protest on Saturday and even then the police and emergency crews who diverted us in our rental car were cheery. Maybe they were excited to get a chance to show off their shiny new helmets. But happy they were.
The spirit is impacting the entire city. Canadian flags hanging from condos and cars, shop windows painted with sports and national imagery, everybody adorning their latest purchase from Hbc. It’s impressive. Vancouver is embracing the Games like Calgary embraces the Stampede.
That’s the answer to the “Why Calgary Stampede” part of my earlier quiz.
Love is in the air in Vancouver. It feels like spring to us cold Torontonians here. Especially when the sun is shining like yesterday. There are thousands and thousands of people everywhere and nothing but smiles, hugs, and foreign accents.
It’s truly remarkable. As we marched with throngs of people to see the cauldron yesterday, the crush of humanity to see burning gas was mind-boggling. Inside Canada Hockey (used to be GM) Place, as we cheered on goal after goal scored by our women’s hokey team vs. Slovakia you would have thought each of them was a Stanley Cup Winner. Not a contributor to an 18-0 rout. As my 9-year-old buried his face in the pillows when the last mogul challenger to Alexandre Bilodeau went down the hill, we could feel all of Canada watching to see if we would finally win gold.
I wish I could bottle the spirit up and take it home.
Somebody must have bottled it and secretly injected it into the dozens of people I’ve been in line with. Yes, the Olympics are about lineups and some of them are brutal, but to my pleasant surprise most are manageable.
A major reason they are manageable is that all people want to do is socialize. Yes, the Olympic lineup is more engaging than an online chat room. It seems every time I’m in line people want to reveal more about themselves than they would ever tell their in-laws.
In the span of a few minutes you will quickly find out that the people in front of you have a son in the competition; the Zambonis that keep breaking down are from California; the ticket brokers who sold snowboard standing room tickets aren’t honoring refunds for the cancelled seats; the food at Canada Hockey Place is horrible; that Peter Coors was at the Molson Hockey House; that you’re in the wrong lineup for Will Call; that if you wait long enough a new security tent will open in five minutes; that the Opening Ceremonies ticket takers missed a few people who snuck right up to the front row; that Heineken House is overpriced; that the buses servicing Cypress Mountain were bought on the cash for clunkers program; and that the Dutch faithful wear orange vs. the red-white-blue of their flag due to the lineage of their beloved King Wilhelm.
When I’m in these lines I’m proud to be a Canadian. I’m often a proud Canadian, but this is probably the first time I felt this way on Canadian soil. It’s overwhelming me. Causing me to spend countless dollars on buying Canadian things for my kids. It’s all consuming. It has me screaming at the top of my lungs for speed skaters and female hockey players I have never met before. It has me jealous that I don’t have a significant role in hosting the world at these games. It has me delighted that I’ve been able to see it with my own eyes, and sad that you may not see it with your own.