Day 18: Who said it was all work and no play?

Today was an incredible day for Canada and the four of us.  Canada won its first medal in alpine skiing in twenty years with the bronze medal performance by Jan Hudec, an impressive accomplishment to say the least.  And a couple hours later we won silver in women's snowboard cross with an amazing final race by Dominique Maltais. 

Winning medals wasn't the only exciting part of our day.  Lisa, Doug and Stacey all worked the morning at the COH and were then lucky enough to go to the Men's hockey Canada vs. Finland game.  Doug and Stacey already had tickets and Lisa was able to get an extra on from the COH.  They represented Canada well while being all decked out in Canadian gear and sporting many Canadian flags.  The game was a close one, with Canada coming out on top in overtime.

Mikaela was working at the MPC in the morning followed by a couple hours at CBC in the evening.  While at the MPC, there was a press conference held for Denny Morrison and Gilmore Junio.  Denny won his second silver medal and was coming by to share in his excitement.  After attending the press conference and hanging out with both Denny and Gilmore after, it is clear how close the two of them are and how Gilmore's kind act was just a true indication of their friendship.  They even have a signature handshake they call the "Gilmorrison" which includes a high five followed by a fist pump.  They are also super funny and down to earth.  Mikaela was even able to hold the silver medal which is much heavier than anticipated.  Denny said, "Now you know how hard it is to be an athlete.  Do you know how sore my neck gets wearing that thing all day?!?!". 

After being at the MPC, Mikaela was fortunate enough to score a ticket to the short ice dance figure skating program.  The MPC always has extra tickets to events but the catch is you have to have the proper journalist accreditation to use them.  But a few of the other MPC volunteers were able to get into some other figure skating events with no issues so we gave it a go.  For a quick second, we didn't know if we would be able to get in but thanks to the language barrier (Sorry Russia) and a big smile, the security let us through.  And thank goodness they did.  It was an amazing event! And so surreal to see in real life.  Scott and Tessa skated very well as did the rest of the Canadian pairs.  Although there was some slight discrepancies in the judging of the skating, it was a well done event and only part one of two!