Our team was lucky though and all of our stuff made it on the plane including in some of these seats.A year from now, the Winter Olympics will be held in Sochi, Russia. Sochi, a city on the Black Sea only about 10 kilometers from Georgia, is the most southern site of the Winter Olympics. Googling Sochi, one finds pictures of palm trees but we would be racing in the mountains above the city. Last year's World Cups in Moscow and Rybinsk, Russia left us with some very memorable stories and the week in Sochi proved to be no less interesting or exciting.
Travelling to Sochi was an adventure in itself. We first took a charter flight with lots of other athletes, coaches, and techs from Zurich to Sochi. Skiers don't travel light and the plane was way overweight. Even with ten or more rows of luggage in the cabin, lots of people didn't get their bags until several days later.
When we arrived at Krasnaya Polyana we had to wait for quite awhile for accreditation and this was my first glimpse at the high security of the region. Just in the parking lot, there were cameras and armed guards everywhere.
By the time we were done with accreditation it was getting very late but we still had a long ways to go before we reached our beds. We went through some security checkpoints, where some of us had to turn on our laptops and phones to prove they were actually what we said they were and then we took a gondola up to the top of a mountain where the biathlon and Nordic venues were held. For the games there will be 2 or 3 gondolas and a tram up to the ridge to accommodate the higher traffic but only one is finished so far.
At the top of the gondola was a hotel where we checked in and got our room keys. From there we boarded some modified ambulance looking vans and we rallied through some mudpits of a construction zone on our way to the cottages where we would be staying.
We were all a little dazed by this point and since it was about 2am by this point we were very ready to find our beds. The cottages of the athlete were very spacious with rooms much bigger than we normally find in Europe.
The next day we skied for the first time and this brought on more adventures finding the trails. The cross country stadium is only temporary for the games and the biathlon stadium is permanent. We accidentally took an ambulance van to the biathlon stadium on our first morning here and then walked around for awhile looking for the cross country stadium since we couldn't find anyone who spoke English and also knew where the stadium was. In our wanderings, we came across the workers quarters.
There was construction happening everywhere as the rest of the athlete's village was being finished as well as other hotels, restaurants and other infrastructure. The plan is to have the area be a tourist destination after the Games. There is lots of work to be done in the next year but the work was being done 24/7 through all types of weather.
There was construction happening everywhere as the rest of the athlete's village was being finished as well as other hotels, restaurants and other infrastructure. The plan is to have the area be a tourist destination after the Games. There is lots of work to be done in the next year but the work was being done 24/7 through all types of weather.
The courses here were hard with lots of hilly skiing. We were all excited to test out the new courses though. Friday was a skate sprint and a great day for the team. In qualification we had five girls and two guys in the top 17 and after the finals all seven of us finished in the top 21!
- Here I am racing in my first sprint final! I led my quarterfinal and then finished 4th in my semifinal after some tactically horrible skiing and was ecstatic to hear I grabbed a lucky loser spot into the final! This was a long term goal for me and above my season expectations. I was pretty tired by this point and didn't have much left so I finished 6th but it was still awesome. Now I have the confidence to know that I can fight for a podium position! Kikkan won the race which was especially impressive since she had been fighting a cold all week.
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