Day 4 of Competition

It's Tuesday and the 4th day of 9 days of competition. Yesterday was another tough day at the Alpine Center where all alpine events are hosted. I headed out for a run a little past 10am with our athlete ombudsman when we decided to take the gondola down to Rosa Khutor and run down there. We got in a nice 9K but halfway through while checking out Putin's mansion we saw a helicopter. My immediate reaction was "we should get back in case that's one of ours". Then another helicopter... "this is making me nervous". Sure enough, we get back to the office and two of our female alpine skiers in monoskis had crashed and were both airlifted to the hospital. Apparently they are ok but this is the 4th and 5th athlete to be airlifted to the hospital. I'm still unsure if this is an American thing or if other countries are having as many major crashes as us. The conditions obviously suck but I think our athletes tend to be a little more aggressive than others. Both athletes are fine but did have to stay overnight at the hospital. I've never seen staff doctors work so hard. Lots of back and forth trips to the hospital with our NPC assistants who are sent to drive and translate.

In terms of our performances thus far, we have won 3 silvers and 4 bronzes through day 3. 6 of the medals from alpine events while the other is a nordic skier named Oksana Masters. Oksana also won a silver medal at the 2012 London Paralympic Games in rowing (mixed double). She just started cross country skiing about a year ago. Another female who has won an alpine medal here doubles as a summer Paralympian athlete in basketball.

My run on Sunday down near the Alpine Venue. Note missile launchers in trhe background- no joke.