Day 12: Déjà vu

What an end to what started as a normal day in Sochi. Mikaela and Stacey both worked morning shifts at the COH. It was pretty quiet around the house with families hanging out with their athletes and enjoying some time together. During our shift, another one of the volunteers said she was just given three tickets to the men's moguls finals that night and asked if we wanted to go. We said yes without hesitation.

The trip to the mountain is not the fastest or simplest. You must take the train from the Olympic park stop. While the stop is just outside the main gates of the park, it takes about twenty minutes to get there from the COH. The train was packed with fans heading up to the mountains for events and we managed to get seats by pretending we were staff, who wouldn't believe an English speaking girl decked out in Canada gear. From the train we had to take a bus all the way to the top of the mountain. Its the same route we did before the games started but with hundreds more fans its much more difficult to get to the top.

Because we weren't planning on attending any mountain events when we left the house in the morning and didn't have time to drop by after work, we weren't as bundled as we should have been. Which basically means running shoes and five hour skiing events don't mix overly well.  But once you walk through the gates and in to the venue, you forget how cold you were and are just taken aback by what surrounds you. The moguls run was insane and so neat to look at. Except for brief moments of cold when Mikaela put her mitts on her feet and Stacey wrapped hers in toilet paper. 

We had standing tickets which are technically considered lesser than the assigned seating tickets but to us it was the only place we would have wanted to be. After the last round of qualifications there was a two hour break before finals. The crowd thinned out and Stacey went to grab some snacks while Mikaela inched closer to the front. By the time Stacey returned Mikaela was chatting up a storm with Mikael Kingsbury's family. Thank you parents for the name Mikaela as that was how the conversation started when Mikael's mom saw the accreditation.

We had a blast with them for the rest of the competition. Mikael's uncle taught us all about the sports and how the runs were judged and Mikael's mom kept telling us not to move as we were her good luck charms. As I'm sure most Canadians can relate, those were some stressful runs. Now try watching the jumps with one of the athletes families! Pretty positive we didn't breathe for half of the final round. But as we all know it paid off for Alex and Mikael as we for the second time this week brought home gold and silver in the moguls.

The Olympics are a time when all Canadians become even more patriotic. We were wearing Canadian flags as capes and were decked out in red and white. Everyone was congratulating us on the way out and asking to take pictures with us.  A moment to be proud and we were lucky enough to witness it and share with our country. And being spotted on TV a couple times was pretty cool as well.