Today was my first day of curling. I was up and running very early this morning to see the ladies play.
I started out early this morning at Vancouver Olympic Centre. A decent facility in quite a nice location.
Right in front of me was the most interesting game: Canada vs. Japan.
It turned out to be quite a good game. It ended up coming down to the very last rock before Canada won 7-6. I thought Canada played reasonably well, but not exceptional. As I remember seeing, the team was only curling around 80%. The reason that they won was because of Japan missing a few key shots. But all that really matters is that we won. Here are a few more pictures from the game:
After curling, I finally had some free time to just hang out in downtown Vancouver and check out the "Olympic vibe". It's quite an interesting experience and I would recommend that anyone coming to Vancouver take a few minutes and just sit downtown somewhere. You can literally watch the world walk by.
Later in the afternoon, I had my 3rd hockey game of the Olympics: Sweden vs. Germany. I have to say I'm rather impressed with Canada Hockey Place (aka GM Place). I was literally sitting in the top-most row today and I can't say I had any complaints about the view. Edmonton could take a few pointers there...
But back to hockey!
This was definitely the most competitive game I've seen so far. I couldn't really tell if it was Germany playing exceptionally well or Sweden not living up to the standard of reigning Olympic champions. But the main point is that this game was far less one-sided than most people would have predicted. Sweden only ended up winning 2-0. From what I saw, the Sedins were basically invisible. I'll be interested to see what happens when Sweden plays Belarus and even more interested when they play Finland. Sweden definitely has to step up their game.
Here are a few pictures from the game:
I ended up leaving the game early to make sure that I got to today's Victory Ceremony on time. It was definitely worth missing some hockey. I got to see Maelle Rickard receive her gold medal for Women's Snowboard Cross. I have seldom heard a crowd cheer that loud (on par with Stanley Cup finals in Edmonton) and have very rarely felt so proud to be a Canadian. It was truly an amazing moment as a Canadian, a sports fan, and a follower of the Olympic movement.
So, altogether, another great day for me and for Canada. Vancouver is getting some (surprisingly) great weather this week. It's fantastic here.
Up tomorrow:
Men's Curling - Canada vs. Sweden
Men's Hockey - Canada vs. Switzerland
Should be another great day!
