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!

Favorites Friday: Moments From the London 2012 Closing Ceremony

I sort of missed the boat on this one, guys. The one year anniversary of the London 2012 Closing Ceremony was earlier in the week -- whoops! But considering this week has been a whirlwind both at the OTC and at work, I'm giving myself a break. And besides, there's really no wrong time to watch the closing ceremony! It's basically one giant, "what the HELL? Wait, this is kind of fun," moment, which made narrowing down my favorite moments extremely difficult!

I would've had the extinguished torch and, "See you in Rio!" as my final favorite moment, but actually I kind of hate that moment. That moment marks the beginning of my post-Olympics depression that I suffer from for at least a year.

Gotta say, I loved this ceremony. Like I said before, it was basically a constant WTF, but it was so incredibly entertaining. Doesn't hurt that British music is basically the greatest!

Happy Friday!

Confidential Ceremonies Things: The Epilogue

Ya know, it's a lot harder to find time to blog when writing a post involves more than Command-C and Command-V. But I want to talk about the closing ceremony before it's completely ancient history (sob), and I think my current feeling of wanting to be productive yet simultaneously wanting to procrastinate is conducive to this task. So onward, ho!

I last left off with my departure from London, but my saga continued briefly when I returned in August and got to visit Dagenham one last time. :) It was such a trip being back there. I got to break out the ol' high vis vest and workforce ID and everything was the same... until I got there and walked into the workforce volunteer break area and found it full of costumes. Uhhh. So, things were slightly different. Only one field of play was in use, and there were all these giant metal props everywhere -- remember the London skyline?

Well, this is what we had at Dagenham:

Eventually I found my way, reunited with my fellow volunteers and got my first... er, not-work assignment. To get into Olympic stadium on the night of the ceremony, each performer had to have a specific sticker on their accreditation passes. So I got to hand them out! I really wanted to take one for myself, even though I didn't have the accreditation pass, nor was I going to be there on the night of the ceremony. :P I did that for a bit, and then got to not-work a check-in desk again! So much nostalgia!

While this was all going on, there was some buzz about the talent on site that day. The dress rehearsal was for the first half of the ceremony, so (in theory) all of the singers featured would have to rehearse. I caught a brief glimpse of OneDirection and the Spice Girls while I was in the tent! They were far away, though, and not singing. But it was still really exciting! I'm not sure why the Spice Girls were there, though. They performed in the second half. Hmmmm.

The Spice Girls. This is actually basically what I saw of them! :)

But anyway, I was in the check-in tent for a while before being sent into the circus tent to help wrangle the little kids while they waited for rehearsal to start. Jo was one of the staff members in charge of them so I got to hang out with her! Her group was part of the Thames during Waterloo Sunset -- this part was completely ignored by American TV, of course. During that song, the kids (wearing glittery blue costumes) ran out into the skyline and were the Thames. It was adorable. I can't find any photos of it, but here's what the kids looked like.

Photo from blog.sallymckay.co.uk

Now just imagine hundreds of them!

After some time spent in the circus tent, we took the kids outside to wait by their vom (entrance onto the field of play, not vomit). I didn't really have anything to do anymore, so I got to just hang out here and watch rehearsal. I saw everything from the beginning until the Running Up That Hill/Here Comes the Sun bit in honor of the new IOC members and the volunteers... but of course NBC decided to cut this out of their broadcast. I have no words for my anger. So, in terms of American TV, the last part I saw was the giant John Lennon head.

While OneDirection had left by the time rehearsals started, I DID get to see some singers actually perform! I saw Emeli Sande, Madness, and I think Pet Shop Boys (I'd never heard of them before so I'm not sure if they were actually there, but someone was singing West End Girls, so...). Madness actually walked pretty close to me, and I actually know Our House, so that was exciting. :) If you recall, the beginning of the ceremony was a street party with trucks full of people wearing different colors -- I was watching from near the blue trucks, diagonally to the right of the front of the stage.

There was a break between rehearsals, and this was when I stumbled across Helen, a fellow volunteer, and got some AMAZING stories about the summer. Oh my gosh. Okay, get ready for all of this. The opening ceremony rehearsed at Olympic Stadium for weeks and months, so she said that going to the stadium became just a normal part of life. Excuse me while I choke on my jealousy and the sheer epicness of that statement. And, as huge as the stadium looked on TV, she said it actually felt more intimate than Dagenham. Go figure!

I asked her about what her duties were and when she told me, I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. All the royals and dignitaries and such have their own special box in the stadium, right? Somehow Helen was one of the stand-ins for them during rehearsals. So she casually got to sit in the Queen's box. And she ALSO was a stand-in for one of the Olympic flagbearers. You know, the really important British figures that got to carry the big Olympic flag into the stadium? Yeah, she was one of them.

I actually can't. But, as jealous as I was (and still am, because holy crap), I really really like Helen and was so glad that she got to do such awesome things. She was so excited about it when she was telling me, and she's one of the people that cried when she saw the Pandemonium pre-vis video for the first time, so I'm glad someone who cares that much got such a cool honor as to be the freaking QUEEN OF ENGLAND.

We watched rehearsal again after that -- Madness had left, but Emeli Sande performed again. I watched from near the yellow/orange trucks. It rained for like five minutes, just to give me the full Dagenham experience again before I left. ;P I don't think I have any new stories from this rehearsal, but here are some pictures of the bit NBC cut out.

I liked this dance and I saw these guys rehearse once or twice, so I was doubly upset that it wasn't shown! Oh, and I was also a volunteer, so I was actually triply upset. Boo.

Despite NBC's suckiness (yeah, I said it), I loved watching the ceremony on TV. I had half of it to know what was coming and half of it to have little to no idea what was coming and when. The only parts I knew about in the second half were the Spice Girls and Annie Lennox. The Annie Lennox performance was actually what I was looking forward to the most. I was at that group's first rehearsal when they announced that they'd be performing with Annie Lennox singing live (so I've known that secret for ages!) and were paired into their partnerships & started learning the dance. And, poetically, they were the final rehearsal I got to see (and the final group whose bibs I got to collect) before I left London. Watching them perform in the ceremony was like watching my children all grown up. :) I'm also completely obsessed with that song and listen to it multiple times a day, but sshhhhh.

And that's it, for real. Wow. I have no more Olympics secrets. I feel so uninteresting.

Sochi 2014, anyone?