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.

 

I love a good fanny pack. Jess, Team Leader of the alpine athletes, sporting her fanny.

My work area.

Our new hats from the Welcome Ceremony. The Mountain Village staff.

A Beautiful Morning in the Mountain Village

So it's Monday morning and a blue, blue sky and likely 50 degrees out already. Day 3 of competition with Super G racing for our athletes staying here at the Mountain Village, some nordic racing over at the Endurance Village and curling and sled hockey down in Coastal. So I included a link below of Tyler Walker's crash in his mono ski during the Downhill event Saturday. Tyler returned from the hospital yesterday and may compete in his remaining events. How amazing is that?!

So I attached the picture of Putin at the Russian Team's Welcome Ceremony. They had a Welcome Ceremony for each country where they marched them into the little plaza square, recognized the country's athletes and the Chef de Mission and then played that country's national anthem. A nice way to welcome all countries for sure. These ceremonies were scheduled at different times. The US had their ceremony Thursday at 4pm along with BG, the Italians and another country which is escaping me now. Anyways, the Russians were the last to have their ceremony at 8pm Thursday night. Rumor around the village was that Putin would be there so myself and my colleague (Dana Schoenwetter) made our way to the plaza at 7:50 to grab a good viewing area. The plaza became more and more crowded as we waited, waited, waited and waited. Finally at about 9:30 he arrived and made an entrance with all kinds of security. Apparently he walked through the dining hall before we saw him where he shook athletes hands as he passed by only he gave the American athletes the snub.

New Friends

One of the things I love most about traveling is meeting new people from different places and cultures with different thoughts and perspectives. I attached a picture of Khour our National Paralympic Committee (NPC) assistant. We have been assigned 8. It's a volunteer job where they work 8 hour shifts for us doing whatever we may need. For a Games like this that primarily consists of driving and translating. They are awesome and most speak amazing English. Khour is Armenian by birth but moved to Moscow when he was like 3 because there was a huge earthquake in his town. He holds a Russian passport but speaks Armenian in addition to Russian as well as English and is currently learning Chinese. The amazing thing is that he taught himself English and Chinese by watching TV and reading books. Smart guy and so sweet. He likes to run as well and hopes to run his first marathon in August so tomorrow he and I are gonna work on a training program for him. He's super excited and so am I.

I love sitting with the NPC assistants and getting their take on the world. It's funny because I posted a facebook statement about the beauty of sport and how it brings people together despite differences. Tonight we were talking with Khour and asked him about the situation in Ukraine and he said exactly the same thing... sport brings people together. How wonderful is that. Just proves we're not so different after all.

Pictures

Putin at the Welcome Ceremony for the Russian Team the day before Opening Ceremonies.

One of the coach's diagram of the downhill course.

A trail map of the ski mountain.

Khour our awesome NPC (National Paralympic Committee) assistance. Born in Armenia but has a Russian passport and has lived in Moscow most of his life. He's awesome!!!

Unloading the box truck with Team USA baggage.

Fast Forward

So I'm hitting the fast forward button to bring us up through Thursday. Lots of arriving athletes and dealing with bags and learning bus routes. In addition, arranging transport for various folks to get to places. I think I mentioned I am the transportation person. I have named myself the "transportation czar" and I deal with all things transportation. Don't mess with me or I'll run you OVER. In addition to the transportation that the organizers provide "Sochi2014" I have 4 cars to look after to use for anything and everything "outside the system". So any errands that need to be ran, emergency transportation or just going for a joy ride. So... my vehicles (Volkswagen Touregs) have gotten much use. Unfortunately on the first or second day of training we had an athlete crash (downhill training). He has partial paralysis so he skis with a mono ski where his legs are in a bucket and he has poles with little mini skis attached. It's actually pretty amazing to watch. These guys are on the same course as Body Miller was which was technical to begin with and then you throw in shitty conditions (it's probably 60 degrees today) and the fact that they are using only their arms to steer them down the hill at 60-70 mph... it's incredible. Anyways... we had a guy crash and be shipped to a hospital. That was casualty #1... we have had 3 more. One guy didn't have to go to the hospital but the 2 others did which means 3 total so far shipped to the hospital. One by ambulance and the 2 others by helicopter. So another guy crashed during training Thursday and he has since been evacuated out to Frankfurt where he will have surgery in the next day or so. The first guy went home yesterday. He was fine but basically broke his back. It was a spinal fracture which he was wearing a brace for. It's his 4th back break. The one guy who crashed yesterday stayed at the hospital overnight last night (Saturday night) but was back today. So lots of crazy accidents. I'm the one who makes sure the team doctor has a driver and a car to get to the hospital with a translator if need be.Fortunately today was quiet. Here's some video and an article regarding our fourth crash which was yesterday...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KulFWmvbEu4
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/sports/olympics/us-paralympic-skier-is-stable-after-crash.html?_r=0
 

Riding the gondola down from the MVL to Rosa Khutor. Rosa Khutor lies in the valley between the MVL and Endurance Village. This is where most non- athletes and non-staff stay since not everyone stays at the Villages. Due to limited space and wanting to reduce distraction for athletes staying in the village is extremely restricted to athletes and necessary staff.

Thomas and I at the Welcome Ceremony. Thomas is our NPC assistant who is German but speaks Russian, Hungarian, Ukrainian, English and another language... oh, German. He ROCKS!

A view from our offices looking northeast.

Happy Sunday

There will be no rest today or any other day. I say that only because these truly are 16 hour days. People who know me well know how I like my sleep and I can get a little cranky if I don't get it. Well... I guess you rise to the occasion when you have to. It's been fun and games in in MVL Operations. It's get shit done when we need to but not without some necessary shenanigans. Mt favorite these days is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv7Ts4v5_Bs There will be more to come regarding that.

It's crazy I've been here a week already but time flies when you're having fun and working your ass off. Last Sunday (24 hours after my arrival) our first group of athletes arrived. For every Games we organize "Team Processing" where the athletes get all their team issued gear from Nike and Polo. It's insane the amount of gear they get. It's a HUGE undertaking, more so for summer, but this way athletes can get their opening and closing gear, podium gear, media outfits as well as extras that they need to wear really at all times. This is the business side of things... Really the only exception to this is what they choose to wear while competing. Performance gear cannot be dictated by the USOC because it potentially can have an impact on how an athlete performs so there are restrictions on certain items. Nike and Polo have paid the USOC a lot of money to make sure their clothing is worn and they receive the exposure so... so back to Team processing. For these Games the USOC decided to process in Munich, Germany. Different things work for different Games. For Beijing it was in San Francisco because all our flights (United) went through San Fran. For London we processed on the ground in London. For these Games it made sense to use Munich as many of the athletes were coming from training camps and competitions already in Europe. For those coming from the states it was a little more subtle acclimatizing to the time zone as Germany was 8 hours from MST while Sochi is 11. Athletes flew into Munich where they were met by USOC staff and taken to a hotel to relax. Then they were taken through processing which can be a 3-4 hour process depending. They stayed over night and then were loaded along with their luggage onto charter flights the USOC had organized headed to Sochi. The charter flights made sense because a.)otherwise athletes would have to fly through Moscow therefore increasing unnecessary travel time and b.)potentially more cost effective because with all the personal gear, equipment and add to that the team processing gear, most athletes had 5-7 bags which increases travel costs on a commercial airline. It's quite the production with so many moving parts you would not know. I think the athletes have NO IDEA!!!  Anyways... for the Paralympics we had 2 charter flights for athletes and then one charter flight just for extra bags. Crazy huh... for some almost 200 athletes and support staff we had 800+ bags. YIKES!!! The last charter flight ended up bringing the 6 staff members who were processing in Munich and the remaining 300 bags that did not make the first 2 flights. So Charter 1 arrived last Sunday, Charter 2 arrived Tuesday and Charter 3 arrived Wednesday. Because of the 3 different villages it then becomes a matter of making sure all the correct bags are going to the correct village because the athletes and bags are seperated for efficiency. The bags get delivered in a box truck while the athletes head up on a bus or shuttle depending if they are in a wheelchair or not. So... our first week here consisted of meeting arriving athletes and making sure they got on the correst transport and then making sure ALL the bags were seperated and sent to the correct Village. Logistics, logistics, logistics. I should be in a brown uniform.

Here We Are

So I've been here a week now and just have been too busy to keep this blog until now. For those of you who don't know the Paralympics are the Olympics for disabled persons. Sometimes it confused with the Special Olympics but that's for mentally disabled folks. These athletes here are physically disabled. Some may have paralysis from an accident, some are amputees due to accidents, some have birth defects such as missing limbs, some with conditions such as CP while others may be visually impaired. Depending on the sport they are categorized with like disabilities.So I have been assigned the Mountain Village which we affectionately refer to as the MVL. I'm the transportation person who organizes all transportation and is the contact for the Local Organizers (Sochi2014) and their transportation. We have a fleet of cars that we basically rented but there is also buses and shuttles that run regularly to get athletes/ coaches/ staff between villages, to competition venues and to/fro the airport. The Coastal Village sits right on the Black Sea. During the Olympics this area hosted all speedskating, ice skating, hockey and curling so all the indoor venues. I haven't seen too much of these facilities but they look pretty from a far. Very different from what they did on TV during the O-Games. For the Paralympics the Coastal Village hosts curling and sled hockey. It's about an hour drive directly east to get to the Mountain Village and the Endurance Village. I look out my office window at MVL and looks north and can see the Endurance Village although it is like an hour drive to get over there because it means a drive down into Rosa Khutor and then up to the Endurance Village. During the O-Games the MVL hosted all alpine and snowboard events while the endurance village hosted biathlon and nordic events. For the Paralympics there are alpine events such as downhill and super G as well as Snowboard Cross. One of the athletes, Amy Purdy, is here and spending about 3 hours every afternoon with a dance coach from Dancing with the Stars as she will premier on DWTS on March 17th. As for the Endurance Village, they host biathlon and cross country events for Paras.

The Mountain Village
 



The Coastal Village

My Working Space in MVL

 

 

Travel to Russia

It was a lot of travel to say the least. I left Colorado Springs at noon on Thursday and arrived at the Sochi airport at 1am Saturday. Keep in mind that it is an 11 hour time difference but it was still some travel. Colorado Springs to Chicago. Chicago to Munich. Switch airlines (S7) in Munich to Moscow and then Moscow to Sochi. Then a 10 minute bus ride to the Coastal Village Welcome Center where we could see the the hotel we were staying at but it was behind security and unfortunately we did not have our credentials validated which meant no access. After 30-40 minutes of standing around in the dark with Russians who did not speak English, we made our way to another security area closer to the Radisson Blu. Someone from the hotel came and met us but we still had troubles as one of my co-workers had radios for race day. All radios have to be registered and checked a certain way which we were aware of but after 24+ hours of traveling and no sleep... you're a little impatient. We did eventually make it to the hotel at 3:30am to get checked in. To stay in a nice hotel (the IOC's hotel during the Olympics) on your first night to know that you are staying in the Village the next 16 days is a bit of a teaser. I passed out with no problem that night and slept a hard 5 hours after not having slept on my flight which is unlike me.

The view outside the hotel room looking out over the Black Sea.

A late night beer upon arrival had to be consumed.

Walking to the hotel. Finding the makeshift wheelchair ramps. Traveling with Erin Popovich, a co-worker, and swimming Paralympian herself.

 

A Little Hut Trip Fun

Don't Forget the Whiskey

 

I got my tight pants... my tight pants on...

Here We Are...

Almost 2 years later and I find myself in Sochi, Russia for the Paralympic Winter Games. The last 3 weeks have been a whirlwind as I finished my 4th season as head coach of the Coronado High School Girls Swim Team. Season ended March 20th with the team banquet. State meet was February 14-15th in Ft. Collins and the girls swam with such heart that showed in their performances!!! Great efforts by all- so proud of everyone. As for the banquet, I think it's the first one I have truly enjoyed. Banquets always make me nervous having to stand in front of 100+ people and talk about all 40 girls. This year I felt more prepared with notes and thoughts about the season. It was a great night celebrating these girls and everything they accomplished from some folks learning to swim and others qualifying for and competing at the state meet and swimming season and lifetime bests.

So following the day after the banquet I had the fortunate experience of being invited on a hut trip to Francie's Hut outside of Breckenridge. Met up with my Jasmine Friday amd and we had a great day skiing at Breck with my friend Dave (my ski yoda) and Matt and Jake. Beautiful day, nice snow and great people. Apres ski at Mi Casa is always a must. Then it was off to Francie's hut as we still had a 2 mile skin to get back to the cabin. Skied in under the stars and arrived at 10ish to a full cabin, lots of whiskey and a game of cards against humanity. We adventured Saturday, had a great meal that night and then loaded out Sunday and hit Breck again for some great skiing. Back to the Springs for a few days of work before heading out to Russia on Thursday, Feb. 27th.