W 1000m speed skating
M hockey Canada vs. Switzerland preliminary round
The Falcons have arrived in Vancouver, ready for an epic Olympic games on home soil. We got off to a spectacular start with Christine Nesbitt winning a gold medal in speed skating. The hockey game was a little more challenging than it should have been, taking a shootout to resolve things.
The Torino Olympics are over. It was an amazing time for us and for Team Canada in general. Torino (or Turin if you may – although Torino sounds better) is a spectacular city, with perhaps the best collision of geography, food, and culture on earth, and I’m not kidding. Check it…
Mountains, food, wine, chocolate, cars, sports…it’s basically an adult fantasy land. Thank you Torino.
On my flight home I found a Macleans magazine tucked into my seat pocket. It had Cindy Klassen on the cover, and a photo of the 4 Falcons on the inside. A perfect way to wrap up our Olympic experience.
Our final full day in Torino started off innocently enough…chilling in Canada House, and reflecting on a tremendously successful winter games for Canada. Then things changed.
We started hearing talk about a party going down that evening for the curlers. The men had won the gold the evening before, while the women won the bronze a couple of days earlier. The party was going to take place at BC House – a giant log home built in British Columbia that was transported and assembled in downtown Torino.
A large group from Canada House, including the curlers and their families, was going to take the 10 minute walk through the streets of Torino over to BC House for the party. One of the curler’s mom looked at us in our 1920 Winnipeg Falcons jerseys, and asked us if we could escort the ladies over to BC House through the streets of downtown Torino. We took on the task, partied the night away with the victorious curlers, and forever became “Falcons Security”.
M curling final
Our first Olympic curling experience was the men’s curling gold medal match, Canada vs. Finland in the adorable Italian town of Pinerolo, a short train ride outside of Torino. We settled in early and then watched Brad Gushue, Russ Howard, Mark Nichols and Jamie Korab win the gold with a crazy 6 point 6th end.
M hockey Canada vs. Russia QF
W 1500 speed skating
In the early afternoon we took in our first long track speed skating event, and we picked a good one. It was amazing to see a venue filled with 80% orange-clad Dutch fans. The Dutch and their speed skating is quite the spectacle. They’re fun, they sing, they play music, they cheer loudly during every race (even if no Dutch skaters are involved), they’re incredibly knowledgeable, and above all else, they display wonderful sportsmanship.
Canadians Cindy Klassen and Kristina Groves went 1-2 while Ireen Wüst of the Netherlands got the bronze. This was one of Cindy’s 5 medals during the 2006 Olympics, a record for a Canadian athlete.
The rest of the day didn’t fare so well. We watched Canada get drubbed 2-0 to the Russians in the QF men’s hockey match. The Russians fans were an especially aggressive and unfriendly bunch. After experiencing the pleasantness of the Dutch skating fans, this was the polar opposite.
Edit: Payback would be sweet as Canada and Russia meet up again in the QF in Vancouver 2010.
M hockey – Canada vs. Czech Republic
After embarrassing 2-0 losses to Switzerland and Finland, Canada got their act together to beat the Czechs 3-2.
