Saturday, March 10, 2018

This now becomes Paralympic Adventures...

Sorry this took so long folks. Been BUSY! All good though. I've already been here 2+ weeks, crazy. I leave for Vietnam in 11 days, not that I'm counting down but I am looking forward to some fun there as I have a great itinerary planned.

So... left the states on February 23rd arriving on the 24th. There were 4 of us arriving into Incheon a little after 4pm and immediately jumping in a shuttle to take us over to Pyeongchang. We checked into our hotel in Alpensia late that evening and immediately grabbed some food and went to bed. The next day was the Sunday of Olympic closing ceremonies so we ventured over to the Mountain Village and checked things out. For the Olympics there were 2 Villages- Mountain and Coast. The Mountain supported the non-ice athletes such as luge, bobsled, ski, snowboard, Nordic; while the Coastal Village supported ice sports such as speed & figure skating and ice hockey. It was pretty much a blur of activity at the Mountain Village with the final day of competition as well as getting ready for closing ceremonies.

Our first few days consisted of transitioning the Olympic Mountain Village to a Paralympic Village as for Paralympics there is only one village to support Nordic, alpine, snowboard, curling & sled hockey. The rest of our staff arrived on Wednesday to help with this transition- the day the first big snow hit, like 18 inches. We were unable to move into the Village until Friday, March 1st. Upon moving in our space was still way dirty as the cleaning crew was unable to clean the day prior due to the weather disabling the workforce transportation. Our staff quickly went to work hard cleaning our office spaces as well as the Athlete Resource Center (ARC). All I can say is gross:(

Athlete and sport staff arrivals started on Sunday the 3rd and ended the 5th. We would greet all athletes and staff as well as help with bags/ equipment. Got many steps in those days as well as weight lifting with carrying many bags and getting them to the appropriate floors. Team USA is housed in one building on floors 1-14 with one elevator. We stay off the elevators because we do have many athletes in wheelchairs who obviously take priority.

So... fast forward to a few nights ago... Opening Ceremonies... athletes looked GREAT. Fortunately the stadium is close so not to far to transport folks... maybe 2 miles. Some of the staff was able to secure tickets as well. Most of the Village staff stayed behind to watch on TV and eat pizza ordered from the dining hall. Happy people!

Day 1 of competition was yesterday and our athletes ROCKED it with 3 golds, 1 silver and 1 bronze. GO TEAM! We won only 2 gold medals the whole of Sochi so off to a good start.

Today is Day 2 and we have won 1 more gold, a silver and bronze:) You can find results and a schedule here: 2018 Paralympic Games

No comments:

Post a Comment