Tickets and Torches

So I, again, lucked out and managed to snag a few more tickets to some other events at the Olympics. Now I also get to see snowboard cross and long track speed skating:

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

1030-1500 - Cypress Mountain - Men's Snowboard Cross Qualification and Final

1530-1850 - Richmond Olympic Oval - Men's 500m Speed Skating Final

1900-2130 - BC Place - Vancouver Victory Ceremony

If you're not familiar with the Vancouver area, this likely doesn't seem like a problem. For everyone else, you know it's almost 50km from Cypress Mountain to Richmond...through the middle of Vancouver. It will be a very...interesting day to say the least. But as long as I get to see some snowboarding and some speed skating, all will be good.

Now, on to my main point of this post: The Olympic Torch Relay. The torch relay is a 106 day trip across Canada starting on October 30, 2009 in Victoria, B.C. and finishing with the opening ceremonies in Vancouver on February 12, 2010. Many of the torchbearers for the 2010 Olympics won't be famous athletes or movie stars, but rather normal, everyday Canadians. Two contests were held by RBC and Coca Cola Canada to find qualified Canadian citizens to carry the torch across the country.

The relay spans the farthest reaches of Canada from Alert, Nunavut in the north to Point Pelee National Park, Ontario in the south and from Cape Spear, Newfoundland in the east to Queen Charlotte, BC in the west. For all 106 days, there are celebrations in the various towns and cities where the torch is resting overnight. The VANOC website has all the necessary details on when the torch is coming to your area and you can check that out here.

The Olympic torch will be arriving in Edmonton on January 13, 2010.

Future updates will depend on whether I think up or find anything interesting about the Olympics between now and October 30 (the start of the torch relay).

My Olympic Schedule

Since I am the stereotypical male Canadian, my first desire for Olympic event tickets was hockey.  Being a stereotypical western Canadian, I also wanted to see some curling.  Luckily for me, the only tickets remaining by the time I managed to log into the VANOC website were hockey and curling.

Interesting trivia: 

The 2010 tournament will mark the first time since NHL players were allowed to compete that the Olympics will be held in a city with a NHL team. For the first time, Olympic games will be played on a narrower, NHL-sized ice rink, measuring 61x26 metres (200x85  feet), instead of the international size of 61x30 metres (200x98.5 feet).

(Source: Wikipedia)

Now that that random factoid is out of the way, here is my Olympic schedule:

Sunday, February 14, 2010

1523 - Arrive in Vancouver

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

1200-1430 - Canada Hockey Place -Men's Hockey Preliminary - USA vs. Switzerland

1630-1900 - Canada Hockey Place - Men's Hockey Preliminary - Canada vs. Norway

1900-2130 - BC Place - Vancouver Victory Ceremony

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

0900-1200 - Vancouver Olympic Centre - Women's Curling Qualification

1630-1900 - Canada Hockey Place - Men's Hockey Preliminary - Sweden vs. Germany

1900-2130 - BC Place - Vancouver Victory Ceremony

Thursday, February 18, 2010

0900-1200 - Vancouver Olympic Centre - Men's Curling Qualification

1630-1900 - Canada Hockey Place - Men's Hockey Preliminary - Switzerland vs. Canada

1900-2130 - BC Place - Vancouver Victory Ceremony

Friday, February 19, 2010

0900-1200 - Vancouver Olympic Centre - Women's Curling Qualification

1630-1900 - Canada Hockey Place - Men's Hockey Preliminary - Czech Republic vs. Latvia

1900-2130 - BC Place - Vancouver Victory Ceremony

Saturday, February 20, 2010

1200-1430 - Canada Hockey Place - Men's Hockey Preliminary - Norway vs. Switzerland

1630-1900 - Canada Hockey Place - Men's Hockey Preliminary - Latvia vs. Slovakia

1900-2130 - BC Place - Vancouver Victory Ceremony

Sunday, February 21, 2010

1540 - Depart Vancouver

Unfortunately, the Olympic hockey schedule had not been published when I purchased my tickets.  Luckily, I managed to get two Canada games and two Latvia games (I consider myself approximately 42% Latvian in terms of ancestry).

For those not familiar with the Victory Ceremonies, the VANOC website describes them as follows:

Olympic Victory Ceremonies will be held every night from February 14 to February 26, 2010 at BC Place*, and from February 14 to February 27, 2010 at the Whistler Olympic Celebration Plaza.

Both venues will feature large video screens in order to link the nightly Olympic Victory Ceremony presentations in Whistler and Vancouver. Medals won in Whistler will be presented at the Whistler Olympic Celebration Plaza before a live audience of 8,000. Medals won in Vancouver will be presented in BC Place before a live audience of 35,000.

Each night the Victory Ceremonies will be followed by a live concert in each of these venues.

Any tickets that have not yet been sold will be made available on June 9.  Although it might be nice to get tickets to a few Whistler events for Monday Feb 15, I'll be happy with what I have if this is all I get.

Coming up next: Olympic Torch Relay.

Preface

I'd like to start this blog out with a quick introduction to myself and my interest in the Olympics.

For as long as I can remember, the Olympics (both Summer and Winter) have absolutely fascinated me.  I can very easily describe what my day is like when the Olympics are going on:  wake up, turn on the TV; watch the Olympics, go to school/work, come home, turn on the TV; watch the Olympics, sleep.  When the Olympics are being played, it doesn't matter where in the world they are; I am completely mesmerized by whatever I see.

Of course, when the Olympics are thousands of kilometres away (and you're a rather impoverished student), seeing competition in person isn't really an option.  The last time the Olympics were anywhere near me was Calgary 1988.  Unfortunately, I was only 3 years old.  July 2, 2003 changed everything for me.  The 115th session of the International Olympic Committee in Prague, Czech Republic announced that Vancouver/Whistler had won their bid to host the 2010 Winter Olympics.  It became one of my main goals in life to finally experience the Olympics LIVE in Vancouver.

Fast forward to mid-2008: the Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) announces that Canadians can start applying for Olympic ticket packages on October 3.  Naturally, I scrambled to find out as much information as I could on what ticket packages were available.  Price was not something I concerned myself with.  By the November 7 deadline, I had selected a package of tickets spanning the last week of competition.  However, by the beginning of December, I had not heard so much as a peep from VANOC.  I can't even describe the disappointment I felt.  My only hope was the so-called "Priority Access Period": a chance for those who had bid on tickets to buy what was left over.  The morning of December 12 was a mix of nerves and excitement.  At 10:00am, I logged in and took my place in the virtual line for tickets.  After a few tense hours (and some rather maddening internet glitches), I finally had tickets to the Olympics.

Now it's only a matter of containing my excitement until Tuesday February 16, 2010: my first Olympic event.

Coming up next: my Olympic schedule.