Tickets were sold for the event in Vancouver but in Whistler these tickets were only made available to locals. This is partly due to transportation issues getting to Whistler but also because the town of Whistler (its taxpayers) were the ones to fund it. They were not going to have this celebration in Whistler until the town stepped in and demanded it - and agreed to fund the festivities.
Although we can appreciate the logic behind this decision, it was not a good one for us as it made the Victory Ceremonies unattainable for us. That is until the great people we are renting the condo from contacted us and offered four tickets to the ceremony on Feb 13. We quickly accepted the tickets and changed our bus transportation from Vancouver so that we could get here in time.
So last night we had the opportunity to watch the very first medal of these Olympics be awarded to a Swiss ski jumper (there were no ceremonies in Vancouver last night due to the deconstruction of the Opening Ceremonies set). Before they even began we saw veteran Canadian Alpine skier, Rob Boyd, carry in the flame and light the Whistler Cauldron. I don't think many people can say they were there for both cauldrons being lit but we can!
The medal presentations for ski jumping and biathalon were short but great with RCMP in full dress uniform performing the flag raisings. The athletes seemed to be rushed off the podium and stage quickly but you could tell the they were reluctant to leave their shining moment so quickly.
There is no seating in the Medals Plaza and it was raining making it not an ideal event for the kids so we left right after the medal presentation and didn't stay for the entertainment of the evening which was the All American Rejects - a band we are not all that familiar with anyway.
It was a great opportunity for us thanks to the generosity of total strangers.
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network
I like the All-American Rejects...that's too bad. :)
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