The Games are winding down as events are finishing, but the excitement continues – from the womens’ hockey team final with Canada winning the gold to the close finish of the team pursuit competitions in short and long track speed skating. Tomorrow (Saturday) is the last day of competition at the Oval and it will be the Canadian and USA teams competing for the gold medal in team pursuit. (more…)

Today is a relatively quiet day at ROO while the teams train for the final event of this 2010 Olympics. The event is the Team Pursuit, with Preliminaries on Friday 26th and finals on Saturday.

Various teams train at this time with coaches advising their athletes. Here are US women skaters with their coach on the side. (more…)

It was a winning Wednesday for Canadian women in long track and short track speed skating, as well as bobsled. The bronze medal win by 6-time Olympic medalist Clara Hughes in the 5000 meter race was quite special for me to see. (more…)

I feel very fortunate to be working at the Richmond Olympic Oval. It is a first rate venue. Here’s the view from the Legacy Lounge; quite a different perspective from my usual view from my medical position on the field of play.

The athletes’ facilities in the ROO include separate team rooms, either one country per room, or four countries to a room, depending upon the size of the team. (more…)

It is training day at the ROO today so it’s quieter around here than it has been over the past week.  I am presently working in the Athlete Medical clinic, entering data on the athletes I have seen today but in a short while,  I’ll be relieving the other doc on duty on the Field of Play. (more…)

Saturday the 20th was a long day at the Oval, beginning with the a training session for all skaters, and finishing with the Men’s 1500 meter race that started at 4:15 p.m.

My “ride” to work every morning is the efficient Canada Line train, which travels from the Vancouver Waterfront to Richmond where the Oval is located, or to the Airport. I inadvertently discovered there are two separate lines… (more…)

Today was another beautiful day in Vancouver, and I had an opportunity to explore more of the Olympics outside the ROO.

I headed down to the Waterfront early to see the Cauldron ahead of the ever-growing Olympic crowds.  I was greeted in the Canada Line Station by two of the four Games mascots, Quatchi (a sasquatch), and Miga a sea bear. (more…)

Today was a beautiful day in Vancouver with sunny skies and not a cloud in sight.  It was also my day off and I was fortunate to have a ticket for the USA men’s hockey game against Norway.  It was a nice walk over Cambie bridge to the Canada Hockey Place venue.  The final gold medal men’s hockey game will be played at BC Place, where the opening ceremony was held. (more…)

Today was a very exciting day for the USA team with gold medals in long track speed skating, skiing, and snowboarding!  Two Americans made it to the podium in each of these sports. As you likely already know, Lindsey Vonn won Gold and Julia Mancuso Silver for women’s downhill skiing; Shaun White and Scotty Lago claimed Gold and Silver respectively for Men’s Half pipe; and here on the Richmond Oval, Shani Davis won the Gold and Chad Hedrick took Bronze in the Men’s 1000 meter race!

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Today started as usual with passing through the rigid security. Then there was a morning training session for the skaters. Competition resumed with the Women’s 500 meter race which was really exciting.   The track distance is 400 meters so the athletes race just a little beyond one lap around, at all-out speeds. It is the equivalent of a sprint race in running. There were 18 pairs, with each skater raced twice. The speed skater with the fastest combined time wins the gold medal. Korea won. (more…)