Winter Olympics Day 3
Trip Start
Jan 01, 2006
1
7
87
Trip End
Feb 18, 2007
Torino, Italy
Monday, February 13, 2006
Olympics Day 3:
What a day!!! A long but great day. Got to Torino from Milan at around 11:00. I went and picked up my event tickets at the office and then had some lunch. Definitely more people there today than the first day. It's so exciting walking around and seeing people in Canada jackets, toques, hats, scarves. Go Canada!! There has honestly got to be no other time or place when you can be so blatant with the costumes for your country than the Olympics and it's awesome.
I had heard the night before about concerts and such going on at the medals plaza at night and heard that you could attend if you got a ticket - which were free
Canada wins GOLD
. The thought crossed my mind, so I decided to ask someone where you get these tickets even though I didn't really want to go on a wild goose chase looking for one. So I asked a women at one of the tourist booths, and she told me where to go and that they would be giving them out at 2pm. My speed skating event was at 4:30 and I thought that would really be pushing it, but I went and found the place anyways. Right behind the NBC broadcasting booth. Every night there is local entertainment, the medals ceremony for the previous day's events, and then an international artist performing. I got to the short line that was already started at about 12:15pm. Tonight's artist was Kelly Clarkson!!! Ah!! But if I stand in line, then I won't get to my event in the 2 hours they say to arrive early. I decided to chance it anyways though and stood in line until after 2pm, when they opened the office. I finally got my free ticket for the evening and made it to the bus stop to go to the Oval Lingotto by 3pm. I got to the Oval jst around 3:30 and it took all of about 5 minutes to pass through security and into the building. So much for "it is advised that you arrive at your event 3 hours before the start time". Yeah right.The rink wasn't very full yet, but there was still under an hour to go. Right before the statrt, the place was full of orange people. Oh, sorry Dutch people. There must have been over a thousand of them in total
Concert
. Groups in all four corners of the Oval. I was sitting with one of the American skaters family, and some Canadians as well. There were 14 pairs to skate the 3000m. The 3 Canadians were in the final 3 pairings. It may not be the most exciting event as you are watching them do 7 and a half laps and they are enver really racing each other that closely. It's more watching the time clocks to see if the oens skating are keeping up with of beating the times of the last skaters. Racing the clock. But it was still fun to watch. The one Dutch girl Wust or Wurst had a really good time and the Dutch went mad. Actually I think they arrived mad, so whatever is after mad that is what they went. They have got to be the noisiest, craziest fans of any country. Except I'm sure we could kick their butts in a hockey game cheering match for sure. Doesn't matter they don't play hockey!! Anyways, the Dutch girl set a great time, and then it was Canada time!! Klassen raced well and for the first two laps or so she was under the Dutch girls time, but couldn't hold on until the end. She tripped on the last 100m too which not many people noticed, but I don't think it made much difference at all. So she was in 3rd. Then it was Groves, and Hughes. They did well, but were never medal contenders. So Canada couldn't overtake the Dutch(who then went CRAZZZZYY!!) and we got the bronze with Groves and Hughes in 8th and 9th I believe. Whoohoo!! I then left the Dutch to sing their songs, drink their beer, and hug each other and was off to the Medals Plaza
Concert Lights
. I had about 10 minutes before they stopped letting people in by the time I made it back to the Piazza. Security was even tighter for this than for the actual speed skating event, but it still didn't take long. Once you got inside there were free biscuits, hot chocolate, and drinks for everyone while some local artists were playing on stage. Just after 8pm was the medals ceremony. How cool!! Only when they anounced Bronze...then Silver...and then Gold for Ladies Freestyle skiing did I learn that Canada had captured Gold!!! HAHAHA AWESOME!!! So I got pictures of Heil getting her medal and then got to hear the National Anthem play too!!! How great is that I say?? Next was an American speed skater and then an American snowboarder to get their medals. And then Finally, just around 8:45 it was Kelly Clarkson time. I couldn't believe I had just lucked out and learned she was playing tonight and that I had gotten in FREE!! So she sang a bunch of songs and talked to the crowd even though every time she tried to make a joke she got no response because 98% of the crowd didn't know what she was saying! She sang all her big songs and some others and then after about an hour she was finished. It was awesome being outside, the huge stage, the lights, people from all over the world, and the huge buildings all lit up around the Piazza. It was amazing. Great atmosphere.
Fireworks
I got back to the station and took the last train back to Milan and arrived at almost 1am. The metro was closed, and there were no buses, so I decided to just walk really fast back to the hotel because it wasn't far. A few blocks from the train station, I ran into these two guys that saw my CDN hat and they said they were from Canada too. Turns out we were staying in the same hotel and the same room, so I had some people to walk back to the hotel with. That was strange. Middle of Milan, middle of the night, two random people staying in my room. Apparently they had seen my CDN flag on my backpack.
So there you go Day 3 of the Olympics was AWESOME!!! I wasn't on TV though at the speed skating though I did see the CB camera just belowe me. I am going to try to get a flag, so keep watching for me. The curling will be on tomorrow night I believe so look for my red hat with a big white maple leaf on it and my red and white scarf. The hockey will be on tv too on the 18th. Can't wait for that!! So until then!!!! Keep watching and cheering on Canada! Ciao from Milano
