My Favorite Olympic Memories

It's been way too long since I've gone full-on Olympic geek on this here blog. So it's about time I get around to changing that! The timing's kind of funny, since I'm sure everyone else linking up with Fan Friday will be talking about football... but variety is the spice of life, amirite?

Earlier this week, the Twitter account for the potential Boston 2024 Olympic bid tweeted asking about everyone's favorite Olympic memories. Well, their first tweet on the subject actually said "moment," not "memory," so obviously my answer was the Miracle on Ice. And let's be real, the Miracle on Ice is never the wrong answer, to any question in any situation. But when Boston 2024 started asking about memories instead of moments, it got me thinking. What ARE my favorite Olympic memories? I certainly have a ton of them. So I thought it'd be fun to go through each Games that I remember and pick my favorite from each one. :)

The ladies' figure skating long program was on the night of my 11th birthday. When I was a kid I was the BIGGEST figure skating nut, so my cousin Molly slept over and we stayed up late to watch it. Because of the Utah/New York time difference, the final programs weren't on until close to midnight (which was a big deal to a couple of fifth graders!). Sarah Hughes was my girl -- she was from Long Island just like me! -- and Molly and I got so intense rooting for her. She was fourth going into the long program, absolutely knocked her skate out of the park, and we were absolutely dying as the rest of the skaters performed. When she won, we shrieked and jumped around and threw our pillows in jubilation. (I know, we were ridiculous. And adorable. And it was awesome.)

I have surprisingly sketchy memories from Athens. I think I was actually on my first-ever trip to London, which might explain why my recollections are fuzzy and/or nonexistent! I do, however, remember when the Olympic flame was put out during the closing ceremony. The cauldron was on top of the stadium, and a little girl on the ground blew it out as if it was a candle on a birthday cake. I'm not sure why that stuck with me, but it's still one of my favorite closing moments!

Yet another Games I have precious few memories of. Man, where was my brain? This was when I first fell in love with my man Apolo Ohno, and discovered Shaun White (il Pomodoro Volante, the Flying Tomato!)... and I know I watched the U.S. men's curling team win bronze, and was utterly perplexed by Johnny Weir, and was thrilled about Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto... but I don't have that one standout moment. Let's pretend I remember watching Apolo's perfect race, shall we? I know exactly how it would've gone, too: screaming my throat raw, digging my fingernails into my face, you know the drill.

I spent most of these Games in Italy (with Molly, again! Are we noticing a pattern here?), so I watched very little of it. However, I'll never forget watching the opening ceremony with my mom. I wasn't really sure what to expect from it, but within about 15 seconds we'd fallen completely silent and were just flat-out dumbstruck. We seriously didn't say a word, and just sat there in slack-jawed awe for the entire first segment. I still don't have words for it. I think we glanced at each other during the first commercial break and had a "hahaha, okay, holy crap?" moment.

I have so many phenomenal memories from Vancouver, because it was the only Games I got to watch while I was at college. So I literally watched Olympic coverage all day, every day, and did so surrounded by some amazing people. I could make a whole list just from Vancouver memories, but my favorite is a no-contest: the men's hockey gold medal game. I watched in a friend's dorm room with a group of people. It was freshman year, and in freshman dorms all doors are open at all times, so you could hear all the TVs on the floor were playing the game as well, each a second or two off from each other. My friends and I were yelling at the TV the entire game, on the edge of our seats, watching the clock tick down to a U.S. loss... until, at the last possible second, we heard frantic yelling and cheering from down the hall. A split second later, our TV caught up, and we watched Zach Parise score the tying goal. So we were screaming and celebrating, and suddenly some guys from the room next door stampeded in to see what happened -- their TV was even more delayed than ours was! They were so anxious to see the goal that they ended up completely missing it! It was the craziest celebratory moment, coupled with the hilarity of dorm life, and I'll honestly never forget it. :)

I had spent four months as a London 2012 Ceremonies volunteer from February-June, so by the time July 27th rolled around I was jumping out of my skin with excitement. I avoided all social media on opening ceremony day to avoid "spoilers" before it aired in primetime... even though I literally knew the entire ceremony from all the rehearsals I'd gone to. I spent the whole ceremony wrapped in a blanket on my couch, fighting back tears. I was a part of this ceremony. It was being run by people I knew and loved. I'd watched those performances come together, been there when those groups convened for the very first time and learned those first beats of choreography. This was quite possibly the coolest experience of my life. (And it didn't hurt that earlier in the day, a fellow volunteer sent me a picture of my name in the program!)

Due to the time difference and my craaaazy work hours because of it (ah, the perks of working for the USOC during Games time!), I watched copious amounts of coverage during Sochi but did it all alone. While my friends went about their normal lives in the land of the living, I was peeling myself from my bed at 3 a.m. and gluing myself to the TV hours before the sun even thought about rising. And honestly? It was the coolest thing ever. I'll never forget watching the USA vs. Russia men's hockey game (two words: T.J. Oshie!), but I'm pretty sure my favorite has to be when Meryl Davis and Charlie White won the first ice dancing gold medal for the U.S. My heart was racing, I was sweating like crazy... I was literally a nervous wreck. And then they won, and I cried. (LISTEN, Sochi was a long, emotional two weeks!)

Wow, I just noticed that all of my favorite summer Olympic memories are from the ceremonies, and all of my winter Olympic memories are from competition. Whoops? I foresee that changing in Rio 2016, though. I'm preparing myself to be seriously emotionally compromised by volleyball and expecting our teams to bring home a gold medal or two (or three? or four?)! ;)

It's kind of cool to look back at my life and notice all these Olympic road marks. But that, really, is another post entirely!

Eight Reasons Why I Want To Be Julie Chu When I Grow Up

A couple of weeks ago I was chatting with my boss, who's about as big an Olympics fan as I am, about some of our awesome Team USA athletes who were in D.C. for the Best of U.S. awards weekend extravaganza. When the topic of Julie Chu (hockey player extraordinaire) came up, the exact words that came out of my mouth (uh, keyboard) were, "Dude, I want to be Julie Chu when I grow up." (Yeah, I called my boss "dude." Don't worry about it.) And the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that that statement couldn't be more correct.

Basically, Julie is rapidly climbing my list of girl crushes, 'cause she's the total bomb dot com. So I give to you...

1. A little over a week ago, I had the whole of the USOC's archived Olympic footage at my fingertips. (And yes, it was as glorious as it sounds. I'll give you one guess as to which year I perused first.) I happened across some of Julie's highlights from Vancouver 2010, and I kid you not, I was watching them with my mouth hanging open. It was beautiful hockey. She's kind of epic. Just look at these goals! (And I couldn't even find my favorite example on YouTube. The struggle of being privy to exclusive footage.)

2. Girlfriend has four Olympic medals (three silvers and a bronze) and has been on four Olympic teams. I mean, I'm not the best at math, but I'm pretty sure that's like an A+ success rate. She's apparently tied for the second most decorated American female winter Olympian ever, right behind Bonnie Blair (who has six medals). Buuuutt, Bonnie Blair was a speed skater and had more events and therefore more chances to medal, whereas in hockey, you've got one medal opportunity in each Olympics. Bonnie also benefitted from the 1992/1994 quad switch, which gave her three Games in six years (1988, 1992, 1994). So the fact that Julie is up there with her is kiiiiind of a big deal.

3. When Julie was on her first Olympic team, I was in fifth grade. I watched her compete in Sochi while almost a year removed from graduating college. W H A T. I can only dream of being that good at something for that long!

4. Julie saw fairly limited ice time in Sochi, which is a pretty significant change from previous years in her career. But it was well publicized that she fully embraced her new role as a team veteran, and she was on the ice for penalty kills (aka SUPER IMPORTANT TIME). And she was the one rallying her teammates after they lost gold. While receiving the silver medal in Vancouver, Julie was one of the players wiping tears away during the ceremony. But immediately after the team lost the gold medal game in Sochi, Julie was the person everyone gathered around for a keep-your-head-up talk. If life was a novel, this would be called fantastic character development.

5. She was Team USA's flag bearer during the Sochi closing ceremony. Flag bearers are voted on by their fellow athletes and are chosen based on their story and the amount of respect others have for them. For instance, past flag bearers include Dan Jansen, Eric Heiden, Bonnie Blair, Gary Hall... kind of a big deal.

And I TOTALLY CALLED IT, the second I saw her at the center of that post-game huddle. No biggie. I'll make sure not to break my arm patting myself on the back.

6. She went to Harvard. So, that's pretty self-explanatory. (But in case that doesn't speak for itself, listen to her do an interview. Girl has the eloquence to prove it.)

7. BUT, she's not relying on her hockey nor her Harvard to get her through the rest of her life. She was one of the athletes that attended the recent Olympic & Paralympic Athlete Summit, which provided "professional development tools" and "covered topics: careers, financial management, personal development and education." And she spoke on a couple of panels there too.

8. This:

Is this when you know you've made it in life? Casually standing on stage with the President as he gives a speech?

In conclusion, if you're not living a Julie Chu appreciation life, you're doing it wrong. :)

Images: 1 - 2 - 3 - GIFs made by me, video footage here

My Life in #SochiProblems

Well, Sochi 2014 is officially dunzo. Like, for real this time. The Paralympic flame has been extinguished and I've already the words "Road to Rio" uttered at the office. Wasting. no. time.

Considering all I've blogged about for the last, uh, month and a half is Sochi, I figured it's high time to update on the status of my life since returning to Colorado and starting my job. In a nutshell, it has been one giant series of #SochiProblems. Though, thankfully, I did not have to deal with dangerous face water. Mine were significantly more enjoyable than that, and involved the most hours of Olympics and Paralympics I've ever watched in my life.

I started my job in an all but empty office; a week and a half before the Games, almost everyone was either in Munich for team processing, already in Sochi, or about to leave for Sochi. And within a day or so of starting, I was handed this.

What is this rainbow explosion, you ask? That's my department's Games-time work schedule. My hours are blocked in in green. The top half of the paper (above the page break) indicates the early shift (3 a.m.-9 a.m.), and the bottom half the late shift (9 a.m.-3 p.m.). Look at all that green on the top half of the paper!

I was, essentially, jetlagged without ever leaving Colorado Springs. My life was half on Sochi time, half on mountain time. Working the early shift also meant being able to work from home, so since my only late shift was on a Saturday, I didn't set foot in the office for a full two weeks. Most bizarre two weeks of my life? Why yes, they were!

My schedule went something like this:

2:50 a.m.: Stagger out of bed, make myself instant coffee/chai tea latte and flip on the TV to NBCSN. Because what else am I going to do at 3 a.m. but watch Olympics coverage? Exactly.

3:00 a.m.: Settle onto the couch, browse NBCOlympics.com for the morning's live stream/broadcast schedule, and start working. Open up several tabs so I can watch as many sports simultaneously as possible. (Olympics FOMO is real, and it's a struggle. Especially when you're trying to use Photoshop at the same time. It's amazing my computer didn't spontaneously combust.)

4:30 a.m.: Breakfast. Usually a smoothie or cereal, but one day I had a pizza bagel. No shame.

5:00 a.m.: On several days, this is when hockey started. Scream at the TV and hope the neighbors are either sound sleepers or doing the exact same thing I am.

6:00 a.m.: Vaguely notice that the sun is rising.

8:00 a.m.: I'm starving and it's waaayy too early for lunch, so, snack time!

9:00 a.m.: Finish working. Well, sometimes. Usually I had stuff to do until at least 10 a.m.

10:00 a.m.: Watch the big-ticket event of the day (since this is primetime in Sochi). Generally figure skating or hockey, and more screaming at the TV.

1:00 p.m.: When the previous event ends and I feel my stomach is capable of handling food after whatever I just witnessed... lunchtime.

3:00 p.m.: By now, NBCSN is re-airing coverage from the early morning hours that I've already seen, so I have a few hours to step away from the TV. Grocery shopping, showering, etc. All the stuff that functional members of society have to do.

6:00 p.m.: Dinner.

7:00 p.m.: Flip on primetime coverage on NBC. Hope to see stuff I haven't already. Usually end up disappointed in that regard and dozing off while they replay the stuff I started my day watching.

8:30 p.m.: Bedtime, before I totally pass out on the couch. Get ready to do it all again the next day!

On the days that I didn't have to work, the only thing that changed was that I'd sleep until 5 or 6 a.m. WHOA, I know, gettin' crazy there!

So basically, I spent almost 24/7 watching TV on the couch. Oops? Before my roommate got home after her month in Sochi, I tried really hard to smooth it out so it didn't look like I left a butt print in her couch. The jury's still out on whether or not this was successful. She hasn't said anything, though, so I think I'm good.

That's prior to my smoothing efforts. I mean, can you tell that's where I spent the vast majority of two weeks? It's practically a nest. I'm a little bit ashamed.

For some added bizarreness, my schedule was two days on, one day off. So in the entirety of the Games, I had a single day off that fell during a weekend. Between that, my bedtime of 8:30 and the fact I was working from home, I all but became a hermit. Most of my social interaction came from going grocery shopping. I DID see a friend on my birthday, though! (It was a Friday and I'd had the day off, but got up before the sun that morning to watch the U.S. men's hockey team lose to Canada.)

Sigh.

Then the Olympics ended, and there was a week and a half in-between period, when the Olympics were over and the Paralympics hadn't yet begun. People started returning to the office (and the Paralympic staff left), and all sorts of Para prep started happening as Olympics tasks wound down.

My hours for the Paralympics were far less weird, as there was less we had to do. But it still involved some serious weekend hours, and two weekdays of working 6 a.m.-3 p.m. Ever wonder what it's like going to work at 6 a.m.?

It really wasn't bad at all, though, after prying my face from my pillow at 5 a.m. I watched our live streaming while I worked, the days ended early and I got awesome parking spots both at work AND at home. (Yeah, I'm one of those people that gets excited about parking spots now. Is this what adulthood is?) And I only had to work in the dark for like, 10 minutes, tops. :P

Coincidentally, I happened to be working the early shift on two days that were very significant to Team USA: the day our athletes won eight medals (including that baller men's snowboarding sweep!), and the day the sled hockey team won gold. It was SO EXCITING to be the person that got to deal with such amazing results! But more results, however, did mean more work.

That's what my planner looked like on the sled hockey gold medal day. But hell, what an awesome day to be working. And look who decided to be a good roommate and tell me to stop working when I got up to get myself food!

That's Charlie. Aaaaand I'm pretty sure he just wanted his spot on the couch back.

And now it's all over. It's been OVER A MONTH since the Olympic Closing Ceremony (how?!?!?!?!?!?!), I have finally emerged from my apartment and been social with my friends and, though we may already be on the road, Rio isn't for another two and a half years. Now, instead of watching the Olympics and Paralympics, I get to turn my attention to things like starting the job hunt again...

Ugh, no, can we rewind a few weeks?

6 Reasons You Should Be Watching The Paralympics

Real talk: I've unfortunately never watched a single minute of competition during a Paralympic Games, winter or summer. I tried, during London, but there were a grand total of four hours of televised coverage, I couldn't get the streams to work, and I was in the middle of the most hellishly busy semester of my life. Basically, it wasn't in the cards. I DID watch the 2012 Paralympic Opening Ceremony, though. I couldn't not watch it, what with my London 2012 Ceremonies involvement! And that one ceremony was enough to totally make me a Paralympic convert. There's something incredible about watching athletes in wheelchairs or with prosthetic limbs march (or, er, roll) into the stadium.

Now that I'm officially on the team behind the team, I've been working with the Paralympic side of things since the Olympics ended. So I'm reading all these stories and watching all these videos, and I'm wondering HOW the Paralympics don't get more attention! I am so. freaking. excited to watch these bionic human beings compete. Don't worry, the bandwagon has plenty of room for you too. ;)

(That right there is Evan Strong, a para-snowboarder and totally adorable human being. Just FYI.)

+All those great things about the Olympics? They all apply to the Paralympics too! Every. single. one. So break out your American flag socks and set your alarm clock for the wee hours of the morning, my friends, because wheelchair curling only comes to your TV screen once every four years! (Yes, you read that correctly: wheelchair curling. It's curling... in wheelchairs. Honestly, do I even need to continue writing this post? That alone should have you sold.)

+These athletes are more capable than most able-bodied people. I don't even like saying "able-bodied people," because Paralympic athletes are sure as hell nothing less than able. Seriously, I don't like the idea of careening down a mountain with two legs and my eyesight, let alone short a limb or two or totally unable to see.

And the extremely high number of two-sport athletes deserves a mention. Alana Nichols competed in wheelchair basketball in 2008 and 2012, and alpine skiing in 2010 and 2014. Tatyana McFadden has 10 wheelchair track and field Olympic medals under her belt from 2004, 2008 and 2012, and is making her winter debut in Nordic skiing. Augusto Perez competed in wheelchair curling in 2006 and 2010, and is now a Nordic skier. And those are just the ones I know off the top of my head!

There are NO WORDS for how mind-blowing these people are.

+Visually-impaired athletes and their guides. Blind athletes are able to compete in alpine and Nordic skiing with the help of a guide, who skis the course immediately ahead of them. The guide has a microphone and the athlete has the receiver in his or her helmet, and the guide calls out instructions and warnings and course conditions and such as they're skiing.

So, can we just talk about this for a second? Paralympic skiers are incredibly fast -- faster than most able-bodied people -- which mean guides have to be borderline world class skiers themselves to be able to stay ahead. So essentially, guides are phenomenal athletes who have decided not to compete for themselves, but instead to help someone else achieve their dreams. The thought alone makes me want to burst into tears. And how about the husband who's a guide for his wife?

+Snowboardcross. This is the first time that para-snowboarding is on the program. Yes, snowboardcross, that absolutely insane sport that leaves me riddled with anxiety just watching it. But these guys and gals do it with a prosthetic leg... or, in Amy Purdy's case, TWO prosthetic legs.

+The U.S. sled hockey team is the answer for all disgruntled USA Hockey fans. Bummed about how our men did in the Olympics? Well, the sled boys are defending gold medalists! In the four Paralympics that have included sled hockey, the U.S. has two golds (and a bronze). Meanwhile, men's hockey has been included at the Olympics since 1920 (22 times) and the U.S. has... two golds (and eight silvers and a bronze). The sled team got the same amount of gold medals in, what, a quarter of the time? I believe that is the dictionary definition of gettin' it done.

+Every single Paralympian has more or less been to hell and back. You've got veterans injured in the line of duty, you've got cancer survivors, you've got survivors of horrific accidents, and you've got everything in between. A lot of them never thought they'd be able to compete in sports again, let alone compete on the biggest stage in the world. So by being at the Paralympics, they've achieved something beyond their wildest dreams.

And really, isn't that what we all aspire to do?

(So this totally wasn't meant to be a sales pitch, but if you have some time, please tune in! All events are being live streamed at TeamUSA.org (that link takes you directly to the landing page -- I even did the "hard" part for you!), and 52 hours are being broadcast on NBC and NBCSN between March 7-16. Come on, you know you want to!)

The 6 Best Surprise Discoveries of Sochi 2014

So, I definitely didn't mean to go this long between posts. Oops? I'd forgotten how hard it is to blog regularly while working full-time in an office like a normal person! As much of a struggle as working at 3 a.m. during the Olympics was, those shifts were worked from my uber comfy couch and left me free as a bird after around 10 a.m. This "real life" thing is going to take some getting used to! (More on my Olympics-life to come in a future post. Stay tuned for those shenanigans.)

But anyway... thought you'd seen the last of the Sochi posts, hadn't you? Well, the LOLz are on you! Not only am I suffering from Post-Olympics Depression (the struggle is real, my friends), but the Sochi 2014 Paralympics are rapidly approaching, i.e. they start on FRIDAY! So we all get to live in the Sochi bubble for another couple of weeks. :)

The big athlete stories of the Games really aren't a secret to anyone, and these athletes headline all of NBC's primetime coverage; Shaun White, Gracie Gold, Lolo Jones, etc. etc. etc. But one of my favorite parts of the Olympics are the athletes in the background. Maybe they're not medal contenders, or maybe their sport isn't all that well-known, or maybe they're not American -- or heck, all of the above. But some of the best quirks and personalities remain largely hidden from the reaches of NBC, until... surprise! So here are some of my favorite Sochi discoveries!

Kate competes in luge, and therefore took a backseat to teammate (and bronze medalist) Erin Hamlin in the media department... until, that is, she started breakin' it down during warm-ups. The girl's got moves and, in case you've been living under a rock, they've totally gone viral! She told NBC in an interview that she jams to Beyonce, and Queen Bey herself posted "Go Kate!" on her Facebook page. Kate brought the party to the sliding center and "dance-blessed" Hamlin's medal and is basically the coolest.

In the anxiety-riddled world of snowboardcross, the only athlete I'd ever really been aware of was Lindsey Jacobellis. But Eva, who hails from the Czech Republic, won gold in Sochi. But the thing that jumps out immediately is... yes, that's a mustache. Every time she makes it to a final, she draws a mustache on her face for good luck. And I mean, now she's an Olympic gold medalist, so it doesn't appear to be hurting her performance!

Misha is a figure skater, and probably one that primetime totally skipped out on; after all, he's from Uzbekistan and was nowhere near the podium. However, dude put on a show. Misha came out and rocked the hell out of his long program on a night nobody else could stay on their feet. Not only did he skate well, he danced like a rockstar and skated to a song with lyrics. That's not allowed and meant an automatic point deduction, but did he care? NOPE! He was having the time of his frickin' life! How's that for a modern-day Surya Bonaly? #rebel

Oh, Gus here might just be my favorite. I don't think anyone in the general public knew his name three weeks ago. But then he was smack in the middle of the historic U.S. podium sweep in men's slopestyle skiing, and then he was adopting a whole litter of stray puppies, and suddenly the world has EXPLODED with Gus-love. I mean, seriously, it's a cute boy with a cute puppy and Olympic hardware. What more could you want?!

My apologies for making mustaches a pattern here, but dude. Dude. Look at that 'stache! I didn't think it was possible for a freestyle skier to look like he stepped out of an old photo from the '20s, but Filip nails it. And the helmet?!?! He may not've medaled in Sochi, but he officially wins everything. Between Filip and the blue and neon green uniforms, I'm starting to develop a soft spot for Slovenia!

Yet another freestyle skier. Sorry, but apparently those guys are awesome. Henrik is quite the character, as evidenced by his dreads and, uh, pants on the ground. He's not really the mental picture I have of a Swede. But why do I love him? His good luck charm is an uncooked egg, carried with him during his runs, as inspired by Cool Runnings. Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on up, it's slopestyle time!

Sigh. I'm going to miss these folks being in my life. But I can't wait to see what characters the Paras treat us to! :)

Who were your quirky favorites from Sochi?

The Real Winner of Sochi 2014: 1980

I think it's pretty needless to say that I haven't been pleased with my 2014 Olympic hockey experience for the last several days. Even after the U.S. men were eliminated, I tuned in for the gold medal game this morning, expecting to see some crazy excitement, and instead got a 3-0 victory. Yawn. (At least we made things interesting when we lost gold in Vancouver, amirite?)

So today I want to talk about the real winner of the Olympic hockey tournament: 1980 references.

It's no secret that the 1980 team is kind of my thing, so seeing other people talking about it on Twitter was kind of the greatest. Obviously this all came to a head when the U.S. faced Russia in pool play, and how could it not? Three members of the Soviet team from 1980 are now in positions of power in Russian hockey; Vladislav Tretiak is the head of Russian Ice Hockey Federation, Zinetula Bilyaletdinov is the Olympic team's head coach, and Alexei Kasatonov is the team's technical official. And then there's Viktor Tikhonov, the head coach of the 1980 team, whose grandson (with the same name) is a forward on the 2014 team. And on the American end is Ryan Suter, whose father Bob was on the 1980 U.S. team. So, y'know, there were connections to be made.

But most of what I saw was purely gratuitous. And totally, completely awesome.

But to my delight, people were throwin' it back to 1980 during completely irrelevant games, and when neither Russia nor the U.S. were even on the ice.

And I've got to hand it to NBC's hockey broadcast team, because they were able to throw some gems into their coverage.

But I think what gets the most credit from me is the following:

1972 was essentially the Soviet Union's "Miracle on Ice," except it was on a basketball court. Video linked here for your convenience, should you want to relive a very unfortunate moment in American sports history. Nonetheless, 1980 reference + 1972 reference = A+.

 

So congratulations, 1980 references! You win the Olympics! Happy 34th anniversary!

(And now I just want to paste Mike Eruzione's "I just scored the winning goal" face on every hockey photo in existence. Someone take Photoshop away from me.)

**Note: Photos are not mine. But the ridiculous things that've been done to them are.