Day 3: No Words, Just a Gold Medal

Wow, what a day. I feel so lucky to have been there when Canadian History was made. Alex Bilodeau, in a bit of an upset, took the Men's Moguls Gold Medal!!

It was a very very long day, we headed out at about 10 AM, and didn't get home until 11 PM or so, but wow...was it ever worth it.

We were down in the 'pit' for the whole day, crushed in with 4000 other fans. It was a great day weather wise though, bright and sunny, a couple of degrees above zero. My pics and a couple video's from the training runs are below:

My Pics:


Most of my pics are from the training and qualification runs, where Biladeau was 2nd. Once the final's hit I wanted to watch the action, rather than focus on snapping pictures. Pam's pics and a couple more random vids below:

Pam's Pics:


Once the final 11 hit, things really got exciting. 4 Canandians were in the Top 11, so we at least knew we would have a good shot at a medal. Marquis and Rousseau both had great runs, and sat 1-2 for a long time. It really pumped the crowd up, knowing that we were sitting in medal positions.

Ben and Andrea's Pics:


After Dale Begg-Smith's run, we kinda all felt like there might be trouble. He had a really good run, and looked like it would be tough to beat.

However, Bilodeau would just not be outdone, flying down the mountain. Having now seen the replay on TV, he looks so much more controlled on the cable-cab than he did coming down the mountain. He was going so fast, I don't know that anyone was sure he'd be able to hold on.

Once the run was over, the crowd went nuts. We all knew that it would be good enough for a Top 2 spot, but we weren't sure if it would Top Begg-Smith. Of course, when the '1st' went on the board, we all went nuts. There was still one more to go, but we knew we were getting at least a silver.

As Colas came down the hill, we all held our breath! You hate to 'cheer against' someone, but man was I hoping he would fall.

When Colas crossed the finish line, and we saw the sub-23.00 second time, we thought that he had the Gold. His jumps looked good, his turns looked good, and the time was the fastest of the day. What we missed from the crowd was that he'd missed the grab on his 2nd Air, and would be taking a big hit.

I said to Ben, I didn't think we had it...

But then the scores came up...it wasn't even close...Colas was 6th...and we had the GOLD!

The crowd went absolutly crazy. There are no words to describe what its like to be there for history.

We were a ways back, so seeing the post-event celebrations were tough...but I was able to snag this video. Its a little shaky, but not too bad:

Bilodeau Flower Ceremony


The party of course didn't stop after leaving the stadium. On the way back to the buses, everyone was your best friend. Ben and I were interviewed for a Japanese newspaper, and O Canada! was sung by all

On The Way Back to the Buses


Of course what we didn't know is that VANOC totally screwed up the buses. I don't even want to talk about the two-plus hour wait for a bus to Lonsdale, watching empty bus after empty bus head down the hill. It never happened.

After we made it back to Lonsdale Quay, we headed over to the Boston Pizza for a post-Gold meal. We then caught the Seabus back downtown....fireworks exploding over the city.

Fireworks over Vancouver