As I mentioned in My Olympic Memories post - I was very heavily involved in the 2002 Olympics here in Salt Lake and in some of the other sporting events we've had around town, like the World Cup.

Because of these experiences, I've had a unique behind-the-scenes view of some of the events, so I thought I'd share some of the interesting things I've seen.

- You see all this fancy equipment that is supposed to measure things to hundredths of a second or fractions of an inch, but I thought it was hilarious to see how they figure the distance for the Ski Jumping. They have a line of about 10 volunteers that stand in a line going down the mountain. The one closest to where the jumper lands raises his or her hand. Very high tech! For some reason this has always struck me as so funny!

- On the other hand, I got to be in the timing booth at the World Cup Speed Skating event. Now that one really is high tech. They have like three different camera angles that all coordinate a feed up to a guy in the booth and it does a series of still pictures of the race finish. Then he has a computer that measures the fractions of an inch between the three winning athletes. Very precise.

They have a computer set up to Google the results so they can tell when a world record has been broken, or where an athlete has broken his personal best time. However, they had a guy in the booth who was a former competitor. This guy was such an authority on the sport that he could quote most of the stats right off the top of his head.

- All those beautiful lifts that you see in Figure Skating - they HURT like a bugger. Just imagine having your entire body weight resting in a single handspan. It totally kills. I did a few simple lifts in dance classes, back when I was young and skinny(er) and I was surprised at how painful they were.

- If someone offers you tickets for skeleton, bobsled or luge, you might want to think about it. It's exciting because you can get literally within arms length of the athletes - probably closer than any other sport. However, you can only see the little section of the track where you are standing. Then you end up watching the rest of it on a big jumbo-tron. You're much better off watching it at home with all the great commentary to explain it.

- I got to watch the athletes training on the bobsled track. It's funny because they use their old suits to practice in rather than the fancy ones they have for the TV cameras. They would get up off the sleds and every single one of them had big holes in the tushies!!! It was so funny! There was one athlete we were laughing about, she was an Israeli woman, but we were taking bets on a gender check. She was built like a Mack truck and from the back, you'd swear it was a man, even in those skin tight suits.

- I also got to take a tour of the facility I was standing at the top of the bobsled run. It was awesome! They said, don't step on the ice at the top of the track. If you slip, we will not be able to catch you and you will end up in a frozen heap at the bottom of the track. It's that slippery.

- Also got to stand at the top of the Ski Jump. Again, it was awesome, but it was terribly intimidating. I'm not particularly afraid of heights, but that thing is HIGH. You can't even see the bottom of the jump because of the way it curves. I can't imagine how terrifying it must feel to stand up there for the first time and prepare to launch yourself out into space with no view of the bottom, and no type of safety equipment possible. These are some brave people!

- Do you know how they practice all the fancy jumps for the moguls and some of the other events? They do it over a huge swimming pool! It's hilarious - they even have a whole show they put together on Saturday nights in the summer. You sit there on the grass and eat your dinner and you get to watch all these great athletes practicing their jumps. The music is blaring and they have a sort of a conveyor belt with metal wheels going down the mountain. They strap on their skis and roll down the side of the mountain fast as a freight train and they do their all these great tricks and flips.

- Just a heads up if you ever go to a Winter Olympic event, the European fans are crazy! We were at a quarter final match between Finland and Denmark. Their fans come out in huge groups, dressed up in all sorts of crazy outfits, with cow bells and horns, it is party time, and they are having the time of their lives. They even have party houses they set up in the city and anyone of their particular descent is welcome to come down and hang with them. Next time they come to town, I'm totally going to join the party, even if I have to wear Leiderhosen!

- Pin trading. Pin trading is HUGE. There are people who come to town and do nothing but trade pins all day. One of the guys who stayed with us, had a whole suitcase full of them and even had his own special pins custom made and gave us each a set. Our green jello pins were hugely popular and so were the Mascot pins, which I was interested in for obvious reasons (if you didn't read my earlier post, I was a part of the Mascot team). Find out what the good pins are, get a bunch of them and just wade right in and trade like crazy. Even if people don't speak English, they'll trade you if you've got the kind of pins they're looking for. It's a great way to meet people and get a good feel for the spirit of the Olympics.

- I wanted to see some of the Paralympic events, but after taking two weeks of (with pay) to work the Olympics, I couldn't really get any more time off. But I did manage to get tickets to the Gold Medal Paralympic Hockey. I was shocked that they were only $10 a piece. The Paralympics are like the Rodney Dangerfield of the sporting world, they don't get the respect that they deserve and the networks won't even show them on TV. If you ever get a chance to go to a Paralympic event, by all means go. You'll come away inspired.

Here's how they do the hockey for the Paralympics - they are typically paraplegics or amputees, and they have them strapped into a sort of little canoe-shaped sled. And they can really manuever in that thing - it's cool. To get around, they have a little stick. I can't remember if it's one or two, but one end is a paddle like a hockey stick to hit the puck with, and the other end is spiked for them to push themselves around with. It doesn't have as much back and forth movement as regular hockey because it is kind of hard for them to propel themselves for long distances, but it's just as exciting!



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