In Search of Georg Hackl: Dispatches from 2010

As I write this I’m aboard the Amtrak Cascades run up to Vancouver from Seattle once again. A bit of déjà vu as I was on the same route literally 1 week ago. I headed back to Seattle for 2 quick days of work to ensure that I delivered on our marketing programs and didn’t fall behind and now I’m back for more. This journey up here I’ll be seeing the Skeleton finals for both Women and Men, the 2 Man Bobsleigh quals and finals, as well as a hockey game, some ladies figure skating practice, and a partridge in a pear tree. I’ve got a couple days off events up here this time so perhaps there will be time to take in the Ireland house and the various other pavilions.

Skeleton tomorrow is going to be a highlight, I can tell already. First off, the sliders are actually starting from the Mens start, 1,450 meters at the top of the sliding center. It’s absolutely ridiculous looking drop at the start and I can only imagine how fast these sliders are going to be going by even mid track.. I’m going to be cheering on both US and Canada here, I’d love to see Hollingsworth and or Uhlander medal and end the seemingly leopard-like domination by the Germans of the sliding sports.

The train today is filled with characters – a pair of couples both in their 50’s were swilling bottles of wine and were almost getting out of control rowdy before they disappeared. I kid you not – they went to the dining car and they’ve never been back. Weird. Then there’s this couple from Texas who identify the country they are from as “Texas” but at the same time seem amazingly well traveled. I’ve already heard stories of their trips by rail around Burma, Vietnam and Jordan/Syria. What a paradox. There’s also a middle aged guy who appears to be some sort of a logger (I kid you not) and is traveling with what appears to be a massive axe and is growing increasingly concerned, the closer that we get to the Canadian border, that there will be (as he worded it) “issues” with him getting in. Of couse at this point in the journey everyone is sharing a story about how their (mom/grandma/friend/date/nemesis) was denied entry to Canada “just the other day” for something as banal as an unpaid parking ticket. While I know Canada does deny entry for DUI’s (which is, yes, a bit absurd) they don’t discriminate based on non moving violations.

Oh god, it’s getting stranger. The Texas couple now has incorrectly told the couple sitting next to them that we will all have to “de-bark” from the train (their words) and carry our luggage across the border while they switch the locomotives. They insist they’ve ridden this route before and that’s exactly what happens. Let me assure you – my faithful blog readers – it’s not. In fact the train rolls all the way into Vancouver station and car by car everyone is unloaded to go through the whopping 2 customs agents that Canada can spare to help ensure that this train service is completely inefficient and makes less sense than driving.

But all is not dark….moments before I started writing this entry a gentlemen who had some sort of mobile internet loudly announced that Evan Lysacek defeated the evil Evgeni Plushenko for a gold medal for Team USA in Men’s figure skating. That’s huge news.

So merely a matter of minutes now before I’m back in Vancouver and the Olympic adventure starts yet again. At least tomorrow we’ll get a decent sleep as I don’t have to be at my Olympic bus until 1130 or so in the morning. That’s a far cry from what it’s been – like 6 am in some cases. Besides, les jeux olympiques d’hiver aren’t about sleeping, the are about watching grown men and women sliding down iced tracks in tight spandex suits, after all……

While I didn’t get a chance to see the Men’s Luge final because the tickets conflicted with my exciting Nordic race – I wasn’t going to miss on the Women’s Luge Final runs (and even the qualifications). Back before the tragic death of Nodar, the Canadian and US teams were thought to have medal hopes – but when the track was changed and the Womens start was moved to the Childrens/Tourist start to the course – the North Americans lost their advantage. There were some serious Team USA luge fans here – the family of Megan Sweeney (a rocking last place after run 1) was majestic wearing pink hats and featuring men dressed as Uncle Sam without shirts and such. I positioned myself with the “Team Sweeney” fans and family as NBC was interviewing them and I figured I might as well be a media hog.

Honestly, the Women’s luge runs were definitely effected by the change in start position. I’ve watched the luge all my life and the start for this looked ridiculous. Somehow, of course, the Germanic teams (Austria included) managed to adapt to the new start perfectly fine and you couldn’t notice anything, but everyone else sorta bobbed around the course since the Junior ramp literally intersected with the luge track at a 90 degree angle. And while luge usually looks just insanely fast, there were parts of the women’s run that just seemed almost slow.

It was never even really a contest – the Germanic teams blew everyone else away while the Americans and Canadians sort of bobbled around the track. A Romanian luger had a huge crash, but was thankfully OK while a Japanese slider was disqualified for being overweight with her sleigh. Ahh the anorexia inducing pressures of the sliding sports.

Nevertheless, even if predictable, it was quite exciting to cheer Germany on as they received 2 medals in the sport they basically invented. Having trained at technically difficult runs like Koenigsee and Igls these lugers probably weren’t fazed by the “Fastest Ice the World” crap that Canada was selling with this luge venue.

As a sidenote, this was my partners first luge experience ever and she really appeared to have a great time. We checked out various track positions, I taught her the basics of the sport and she seemed to have a blast.

I bought tickets from various sources for these games – some directly through the Canadian Channel (VANOC), some through their “Fan to Fan” scal….I mean “MarketPlace,” some through Craigslist in Seattle and some through the US distributor – CoSport. The Nordic Combined was, I believe, my second ticket purchase, after some crazy expensive hockey tickets I bought through CoSport a long long time ago. The Nordic Tickets were all that remained on the CoSport site when they released their final round of tickets for sale. At the time I was just excited to get tickets for an event at Whistler – even though I really wanted Sliding Sports. Little did I know that I got tickets to one of the most difficult events to get tickets to, and also that an American would be a contender for a medal at this event for the first time ever since the inception of the event at the first Winter games in Chamonix in 1924.

I rolled up at the “Whistler Olympic Park” before 9am for the first start of the Nordic Combined which was the Ski Jump off the Normal Hill at 10am. Naturally, I assumed we were really early, so I leisurely strolled towards that park taking pictures along the way. I strolled, I strolled, and I strolled. Jesus Christ – where’s the entrance to this place. I went through security and kept walking. I kid you not, it must have been 2-3 km to the entrance. And it’s not like it’s a straight walk on some asphalt path. No, oh no games fans you will trek uphill in the snow for most of it. It’s a blast.

Finally, I arrived at the Ski Jumping venue. It was just as majestic as you imagine when you see it on TV. Beautifully situated in the Callaghan Valley and ringed by mountains and gorgeous scenery. The hills are truly majestic – towering hundreds of feet over the valley floor, it looks terrifying to imagine that soon men will leap off these ramps and land, soundly, on the floor below.

The competition was really exciting – each jumper seemed to leap further than the next, and against all odds, no one fell. Mid way through the competition, there were all sorts of delays as the judges had to keep moving the start point. Some very strange weather began to ensue where it literally went from bright and sunny, to foggy, to rainy and back to sunny in a matter of like 15 minutes. This was wreaking havoc on the competition and all of the jumpers began to jump less and less far. An American jumper was in 2^nd place at the end of the competition much to the shock of those around me.

Now a moment to describe the crowd. Never before have I seen such a large crowd of Finns, Swedes, and Swiss in one place. Where the hell did they all come from – as I haven’t seen anyone wearing anything except “Team Canada” outfits in Vancouver. Fascinating. My personal favorite were the Swiss supporters, as most were dressed as cows with giant bells and flagons of (presumably) fine ales and wines. So not only cows, but cows with flagons of wine. You don’t see this kind of stuff every day – the Olympics truly to bring out the best in people.

I’m really learning more and more that to some the Olympics are more of a drinking sport than anything else. On one gondola ride up to the sliding centre I witnessed two guys chug a bottle of what appeared to be Kahlua (how DO you chug that) to ensure they finished it before going through security. They were sort of mumbling shit already before this, but after completing the bottle I made sure to get the hell away from them as they were beyond annoying.

After the jumping competition was complete – and just as the clouds were ready to bust into rain/snow – we were told the next part, the cross country race, wouldn’t begin for 3 hours. Now don’t get me wrong, I understand that they need to get the athletes from one place to another but 3 hours seems a bit absurd. So I walked another 2km part way to the Cross Country Stadium but on the way caught some of the action in the most bizarre of all Olympic Sports – the Biathlon.

Walking up to the Biathlon stadium, there were all these strange speakers around the forest that had random announcements. And more than normal at these games, they tended to be in French only. So you’d be on a quiet, almost pastoral path and all of a sudden hear a random fake cheer of a crowd and “Les legendes Biathlon….Erik Bjornalordaloralan.” Something about it cracked me up each time – I guess perhaps I’ve never kept up on who the “legends” of Biathlon were. I was initially considering buying a walk up ticket to the Biathlon to see some of the action, but when I realized I could see most of the course from just standing there – that’s precisely what I did.

Watching the large Scandinavian skiers with massive rifles strapped to their backs race across the snow it gave me pause as I wondered if perhaps this sport was born as a sort of “Scandinavian Drive By” shooting type situation. If so – perhaps we need an update – I’m thinking Swedish dudes wearing Balaclavas riding on snowmobiles with machine guns spraying fire at cows or something. Overheard a son ask his father if those are BB guns that the atheletes are carrying, to which his father replied “Hah – no they are .22 caliber rifles and if they shot you with them they could even kill you.” Wow, that’s cheery, pops.

On the way back to the Cross Country Stadium, all hell broke loose with the weather. What was a gentle rain turned into a downpour, which then turned into basically a blizzard. In the midst of this, Quatchi (the Sasquatch) and Miga (the ½ Orca ½ Kermode Bear) mascots were interacting with children. As I pass, Miga waved at me, and I responded with “Hey Sea Bear” which seemed to make him/her/it happy. Moments later, Quatchi and Miga were unceremoniously thrown into the back of a snowmobile and carted away as the weather was becoming too much for them to handle.

So after killing another 2 hours eating stuff – I took my place at the Cross Country Stadium. Now I won’t bore you with the results and details, but I’ll tell you that Johnny Spillane – an American in like 6^th place going into this busted out of nowhere early on in the event after a Finn fell. Then out of literally nowhere a Japanese dude skied up and was leading by an enormous margin coming into the last 100 meters of the race. Then something weird happened to the Japanese guy – he just sorta went away and Johnny Spillane busted ahead. Finally – against any possible logic, physics or the such – a French dude that the announcers had been assuring us would be a contender all day came out of nowhere (seriously, did he emerge from a snowbank or something) and beat Spillane by .1 seconds. What….the…..F-word. What a bizarre sport. Totally thrilling though and one of the coolest things I’ve been to.

Well I couldn’t have picked a more “interesting” luge competition to be my first ever, that’s for sure. Less than 24 hours from the death of Nodar at the Whistler Sliding Centre, Men’s qualifying runs were set to begin. And what would my first ticket to the olympics be? Men’s Luge Qualifying runs. Geeze – wasn’t quite what I imagined when I bought these tickets.

I almost felt dirty at first going to the Sliding Centre to watch the competition get underway. Suddenly it all seemed wrong – how could we go cheer on the greats of Luge when one of their friends had literally died feet from where we’d be standing, and on the same track they’d be sliding on. Overnight the IOC had decided to erect a safety barrier to keep athletes in the track and to move the Men’s start down to the Women’s start, but insisted that it was Nodar’s fault that he died on the track. Hypocrisy much?

I arrived at a very rainy and cold Whistler Village and quickly found my way to the Excalibur Gondola for the ride up to the sliding centre. After a very short ride, I was climbing up a very wet snowy hill watching half the spectators fall as they ascended to the enterance. Thankfully in later visits up there I’ve noticed this has been remedied, but it seemed a bit absurd that the organizers hadn’t considered this might be an issue. Watching families with kids in strollers bordered on the absurd – how could they ever think they would get the kid up there, and what would the kid possibly see? It was kind of hilarious.

After security and tickets and with some Sliding Sports themed food (Bobs in a Sleigh, etc) and wine in hand, I headed to the biggest viewing area by curves 15 and 16. I couldn’t help but notice the track construction that had occured overnight to mask the dangerous area Nodar died – and you could see others taking glimpses at it with a bit of fear for what was to come.

The first couple sliders went off without incident. Much as I’d imagined – watching luge is part comedy, as you basically have two choices. One, you can pick a decent spot, like the end area where you can see a decent swath of the track from a small distance and your eye can track the sliders for a couple seconds as they fly past. Two, you can try to get really close to the track, somewhere else, but you’ll see the slider for even shorter. I chose the former for most of the event, as there was the benefit of a TV for my viewing pleasure, but I walked around the whole track a lot.

The third slider, a Swiss man, came rocketing down the track and got terrifying close to the top of the track right at curve 16. The entire crowd let out a collective gasp. He must have been within inches of calamity. Ironically, this was the only scare the whole night….but happening so early we were all a bit nervous.

I won’t bore you with results of the competition, as they’ve been posted long ago. The Germans reminded us again that they are the luge dynamos – and I couldn’t protest, especially when I noticed on the screen that GEORG HACKL was their coach! You simply can’t go against greatness – this guy was able to train his lugers on a totally new start position, literally overnight. It was quite comical to see the US and Canadian lugers falter, as even with the Canadian advantage of like 300 more practice runs – they couldn’t adjust to the new start like the stalwart Germans.

After watching almost the entirety of 2 sets of runs – I headed back to my bus back to Vancouver and slept most of the way there. Phew – it’s certainly a bit tiring spending your whole day getting up and down Whistler for events, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Watching my first luge event was just as I imagined…part thrill, part comedy, and something I’ve waited for, for a long time….

Going to the opening ceremonies last night was almost a surreal experience. Watching the event in the past on TV I always imagined that to some extent it was “better” on TV and enhanced through the magic of TV. In fact, I found quite the opposite to be true.

We walked in to BC Place a tad late, so we quickly scurried to our seats – up in the back row of the stadium, but with an amazing view and perspective of the games. Getting to my seat I found a little pouch with a souvenir book (nice!) and a box shaped like a drum that was filled with all sorts of crowd participation goodies. I’ve always wondered how the crowd things that you see on TV happen – now I know. We got a little LED flashlight, a fake candle, a white poncho (to make the lighting look better) and a drum, coupled with a Canadian flag and a drumstick.

Once I situated myself in the seat and assembled all my goodies, it was just about time for the Olympic countdown. The ceremony opened with absolutely amazing footage of a snowboarder going down a mountain, and it ended with him leaping into BC place off a ski jump through the Olympic rings. WOW!

After some formalities and welcomes – the Athletes parade began. I absolutely love this part of the games, to see the world come together and every country have “their moment” when they are announced was beautiful. I cheered extra hard for my adopted lands of Albania, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia! Team USA and Team Canada both had rousing ovations as well. The somber enterance by Team Georgia who only hours before lost a 21 year old friend, Luger Nordar, was greeted with a standing ovation and the beat of drums filled the stadium. It was perhaps for me the most moving part of the ceremonies.

The middle of the ceremony was the “artistic” portion and had some real highlight – KD Lang’s sining of the current tune in vogue – Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” was absolutely beautiful and moving. I LOVED the scene with a tribute to the praries of Canada where a young boy ran above CGI praries and periodically flew – just incredible.

The hyped Bryan Adams/Nelly Furtado song was a bit cornball, but got the crowd going, while I thought that one of my favorite singers – Sarah McLachlan was amazing even while singing a somewhat corny song.

There was a tad of a snafu at the end when one of the torch legs failed and it turned into a torch tripod. All was well though as with the exception of a music hiccup and a missing leg – no one would have noticed.

As expected Gretzy did the final leg of the torch – no real surprise there. I found the end of the ceremony to be kind of strange and to end abrudptly. But no matter, I was so absolutely overwhelmed by the rest of it that it didn’t even matter. Leaving the stadium I was almost on some sort of a high from the whole thing – my mind still processing what I had seen.

I’m so thankful to have scored the tickets I did at the last minute for us to see the ceremony. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience and literally blew my mind.

It’s funny to me how rules are created to solve one very narrow problem while completely overlooking similar things. The conductors on this train went through extreme lengths to point out how there could be absolutely no cell phone talking inside the train cars, how instead you have to stand in the vestibule. Fine – I’m indifferent really – as long as people are quiet what’s the matter. But the funny part to me is that the conductor, nor the rules don’t seem to care that people choose to watch movies without headphones on their laptops. And not just any movies – some bizarro-world movie where all I hear is the sound or horses whinnying repeatedly, endless gunshots and what appears to be the sound of a giant foghorn. I kid you not, it just keeps getting stranger. I may have to take a walk later to see what the hell this person is watching!

The security getting aboard the train in Seattle was unusual, to say the least. It appeared as though there was some sort of US-Canadian joint paramilitary force and they were milling around with extreme firepower. But ironically when the time came to board and they said we were going through security, we basically walked by the dudes and right on the train. Very confusing.

But I digress….you’re not reading this to learn about the train to Vancouver – you want to know about the Olympics!

I find myself almost getting nervous about the games with anticipation – having never been in person to watch any of these events I know not what I have in store for me. I secretly fear that I have a ton of tickets and it will be a mad rush running from one venue to another, but honestly even if that is the case I think it will be a blast. It’s just exciting to imagine the energy of the whole thing.

So my first Olympic experience will, quite fittingly, be the Opening Ceremonies tomorrow. Both my partner and I will be attending – for her, her second time as she saw a rehearsal the other night as she’s working hard as a volunteer for these games. I can only imagine the spectacle that we’ll be treated too – I’ve always envisioned the ceremony as an almost otherworldly place – where things happen that you can’t even figure out how they pulled off. But perhaps my favourite part has always been the parade of athletes – watching people from all over the world stroll in and wave their flags is just awesome.

Not being a Canadian, I’m sure some of the spectacle will be lost on me, but that’s the way it should be. I think when a country hosts the games it is, partially at least, their way of showing off the beautiful elements of their culture and land to visitors. And I can only imagine the pride that one would be filled with if this is your nation – finally pulling it off and hosting the world. So in a way I feel that tomorrow is a day for Canada when we can all salute the job they’ve done to pull these games together in a terrible economic climate. I am a terribly political guy most of the time, full of conspiracy theories and criticism of most things political, but I don’t feel there’s a place for that at the games.

For now I sign off. Let the games begin. Canada, it’s your time as host to welcome us all and show us the beautiful of one of your most beautiful provinces. Like a dinner party in a beautiful home filled with warm hosts, I’m excited to come along for the ride and be entertained!

Why is it always the days at work when you have the most to do when you have the hardest time focusing on anything? Today’s certainly not an exception to the rule and my excitement level to head up to the games is off the charts!

I talked to my partner on the phone last night who was at the Dress Rehearsal for the Opening Ceremony and she was wowed by the whole thing – and can’t wait to see it again when we go tomorrow! It’s hard to believe we’ll actually be there, to mean the Opening Ceremony is just something you see on TV – I always figured as a kid that those there were celebrities and politicians and such – never imagined I’d be in the crowd.

So my first train from Seattle to Vancouver leaves just before 7 tonight. I’m a big fan of trains so I’m looking forward to the journey. If all goes well we should pull into Vancouver station at 11pm. We’ve just extended our hotel one night earlier so we can go right there instead of staying out in the burbs tonight.  We’ve managed to score an amazing hotel location – literally blocks from BC place and rented a parking space in the city for the entire month that is 2 blocks from BC place. This feels like a well planned operation. The tickets I already have are printed, bus tickets printed, bags packed – the time has come.

Tomorrow I suspect I’ll be bursting with excitement as I go to pick up 2 tickets to the Opening Ceremony. I imagine the city will be buzzing with excitement and filled with visitors from every corner of the globe ready to cheer their country on to victory.

I can’t even imagine what it must be like for the Athletes knowing that in several hours they will be competing on the international stage. Especially for sports that are seldom watched on TV like Luge and Skeleton – all of a sudden the world’s eyes are on your run – less than 1 minute that means the difference between national pride and oblivion.

I plan to perhaps do some writing on the train – so perhaps I’ll have a dispatch posted later on tonight about the journey. I envision a train filled with anxious fans ready to be a part – even if in a small way – of the Olympic movement.

It’s hard to believe the games start in only 2 days since I’ve been compiling and researching tickets for the past year! I’ve got these all from various sources, but the bulk weren’t acquired for much over face value, if at all.

I tried to pick a diverse selection of events, with a heavy emphasis on the sliding sports, since that’s my passion. I still would love to get tickets to the 4 man Bobsled finals on the 27th of Feb – want to be there to cheer Team USA and “The Night Train” sleigh on to victory. Currently the tickets are crazy high for that event though, so we’ll see. Other than that, this should be it.

I picked up the bulk of these in Vancouver this past weekend – waited in a nice 2+ hour line to collect my will call tickets. It was quite funny really, they had 3 people in a tiny room the size of a dentists waiting room printing them off.

• February 12: Opening Ceremonies (BC Place)

• February 13: Mens Luge Qualification Runs (Whistler Sliding Centre)

• February 14: Nordic Combined – Individual Normal Hill /10 km CC (Whistler)
• February 14: Vancouver Victory Ceremony (Nelly Furtado)

• February 15: Figure Skating Training – Mens & Pairs (Pacific Coliseum)
• February 15: Womens Luge Qualification Runs (Whistler Sliding Centre)

• February 16: Womens Luge Medal Runs (Whistler Sliding Centre)

• February 19: Mens & Womens Skeleton Medal Runs (Whistler Sliding Centre)

• February 20: Figure Skating Training – Ladies & Ice Dance (Pacific Coliseum)
• February 20: Mens Two Man Bobsled Qualifications (Whistler Sliding Centre)

• February 21: Mens Two Man Bobsled Medal Rounds (Whistler Sliding Centre)

• February 22: Mens Curling Round Robin CAN-USA, FRA-NOR, GER-CHN, SWI-SWE (Olympic Centre)

• February 23: Mens Hockey Qualifying Playoff Game 4 (Canada Hockey Place)

• February 28: Mens 50KM Cross Country Skiing Medal Round (Whistler)

Who is Georg Hackl and why is a blog about the Vancouver 2010 Olympics titled this??

As a child growing up in Chicago, watching the Winter Olympics on TV was something I looked forward to every 4 – and sometimes when lucky and before the dates were aligned the way they are now – every 2 years. While others might have tuned in for the Olympic Hockey competitions to cheer on Team USA or Team Canada, instead I was fascinated, almost captivated by the sliding sports. Luge in particular, early on was a favourite. Now one of things that tends to happen with a sport that is only showcased every 4 years is that it’s fans tend to forget the names of competitors and they tend to change. But the one that has stuck with me through all the years is Georg Hackl – aka the Speeding Weißwurst! I always found myself cheering on Georg in those games, through 1988 in Calgary, the 1992 Albertville games, and 1994 in Lillehammer. I can’t say I remember watching the Nagano games – I must have been to preoccupied with being in College, but when the games returned to the US in 2002 in Salt Lake City – I was dying to go and I remember watching nearly every minute of the wall to wall coverage.

Now for the ironic part…

Georg retired from the sport after the 2006 Torino games where he did not medal. He’s said he’s going to be involved in coaching going forward, and I can only hope this brings him to the Vancouver games!

In reality…

I’m setting up this blog to chronicle my time at the games – living in the Pacific Northwest in Vancouver’s neighbor city of Seattle I’m lucky enough to be able to attend tons of events. That coupled with some diligent ticket buying nearly every day has landed me nearly all the tickets I wanted for the events.

It all starts here…

Right now we’re two days away from the opening ceremonies. And just yesterday I scored 2 tickets to them. I had written off the idea of being able to see the ceremonies – which in the past were perhaps my favourite part of the game – due to the immense cost. But against all odds, 3 days before the games I snagged 2 $175 tickets to the ceremonies. I can’t wait to hear the roar of the crowd as the Olympic Flame comes into BC Place and the cauldron is lit for the first time. To watch the parade of athletes stream in the stadium. To find out all the surprises that VANOC has done a great job concealing. Let the games begin.