Olympic Volunteer Day 4

Day 4 started at 7am on this grey and dreary day, but things looked up as the female skaters took to the ice.  No, Yuna Kim didn’t come nor did the Japanese, BUT Canada’s own Joannie Rochette came to practice.  She was pretty fantastic, landing most of her jumps and skating amazingly.

I was able to attend the interview she had with an NBC reporter and she’s such a nice lady.  It was a bit amusing watching her stretch while talking to the reporter.  I definitely don’t envy her, as she has the pressure of being the next Canadian Female Skater to win a medal in figure skating.  I guess it might be worth mentioning that the USA female skaters were also in attendance, but I don’t think they’ll be a threat at all.

After the females came the Ice Dance practices.  I didn’t even know that there was a difference between Ice Dance and Technical Dance pairs or more to the point that there was an Ice Dance category.  It’s pretty neat though, they’re not really concerned about the twirls/jumps but more of the stylistics with the music.  The brother/sister pair from Japan (although they look mix and probably lives in USA) and the pair from China were especially good.  The pair from China came early to warm up and decided to warm up on the side of the rink, where I usually stand to watch and talk to media ppl, and seemed to be watching the Japan pair.    

Finally I heard that Patrick Chan was coming to practice and so of course I stayed about 30 minutes extra to watch him skate.  He entered the venue through the back doors and I was standing outside of the MZ room and watching the skaters and I saw this Asian guy carrying a backpack and walking my way.  I turned to see if he was a sneaky media person trying to get by (and there have been sneaky journalists, mostly CHINESE, breaking rules left and right…my boss hate the Chinese journalists) and saw that it was Patrick Chan.  The dude is probably as tall as me?  Maybe an inch or so shorter?  I just remembered thinking that he seemed a lot shorter than he appeared on TV.  It was also amusing to see that his eyes are always wide open.  It's like he's perpetually staring wide eyed at something.  Why is that?  Anybody?  He too decided to come to my side of the rink to warm up.  I’m not sure why the athletes are doing this now.  Anywoo…I basically got to watch Patrick Chan skate his short program standing rink side.  Unfortunately he wiped out after one jump that I missed as I was answering questions to the USA security lady (Thanks USA!!).  Don’t worry folks he’s ok. 

On a smaller highlight I also saw Stephan Lambiel from Swiss skate as well.  I managed to move my shift to a day where ALL of the men will be coming to practice…which will be on Tuesday.  I can’t wait to see Plushenko and Joubert in action.  And maybe some of the more famous ladies. 

See you all on Tuesday!