The Olympics - Vanoc style

My learned friend and colleagues call it Phistler for a reason. If it isn't foggy then it is beautifully sunny and warm. The problem is that you can't race reliably in either. However, that is ski racing. It is an outdoor sport. The weather affects everyone and everyone differently. Each run is different and each delay for 10 minutes changes the course. It either speeds up, slows down, is easier to see or harder to see. That is why race courses in the northern hemisphere are north facing (for the most part). It helps to keep the sun off the course and keeps it from turning into a big slurpy.

In a World Cup race, if you've ever wonder how they decide who starts when, you need to understand the FIS magic formula. So, let me steel the words that The Mighty Skunk wrote (rather than retype it).

In order to understand this dynamic, you've got to understand the basics of the "bib draw" process. For TV and for the crowd, FIS wants the "top seed" to run with bibs 16-22. So in other words, if you're the WCSL points leader and you want to ski early because you know the course is going to turn to mush, the lowest bib you can draw is 16. If the top WCSL skiers had a choice of any number, knowing how slushy the course has been, skiers like Cuche and Riesch and Vonn and Svindal would be choosing bibs 1-2-3. Julia Mancuso has been doing so poorly this season that she's out of the "top seed" and has been "stuck" with a low bib (1-7). But when you're racing in May weather (or Pissler in February), the early bibs are the ones to have. Same thing happened today with Weibrecht as happened with Mancusco in the DH. He was bib #3, as was Mancusco. He put down an extraordinary run, which in cold weather with a consistent course would have put him solidly in the top 10. But meanwhile, the course was softening quickly and was slowing down maybe 0.10 with every competitor. The sun and the warmth did the rest. Not to take anything away from Mancuso and Weibrecht, because everybody with bibs in the top 10 and certainly in the top 5 have had the same opportunity. They were both good and lucky.

Now you know. Not that it was a big secret.

Sadly our Canadians have struggled. The pressure from the local press is just amazing. If we could get rid of the press and let them report on what happened instead of the future, they might just have a chance. Being on your home ground is an advantage, sure, but you get every cub report you can thing of hounding you.

Canadians want to cheer all our athletes. But, imagine just how hard this is for them. Most of them have given up their lives to compete for Canada. The live below the poverty line. They are dedicated and driven. They have no life of their own. And, when they don't medal, they feel like they have let down Canada. The press is just brutal on them. We need standing proudly behind them and cheering them. The fact they made the Olympic team is amazing.

The the press.. world wide... If you want to rip apart an athlete for lack of performance, go ahead, do it. Just make sure it is someone who is a professional, like an NHL Hockey player. Knock yourself out.

However, for those that are amateurs. Leave them alone. They give their life to get to this level. Most live below the poverty level just. They have amazing passion. They need to be rewarded and recognized for being there to represent their country.

The above photo is one I took in Portillo Chile in September. Manny, Julia and Robby.

NOD races in North Bay

Even though I'm fortunate enough to be able to get to World Cup ski races and get to rub elbows with current Olympians, you still have to get back to the grass roots.

Which brings me to this weekend and my trip to my home town of North Bay, Ontario. My good friend Ken had an important set of ski races to run and ensure that the race is fair and done without error.

Well, Murphy was an Optimist and this weekend was no exception. Just like World Cup, we run 2 unique timing systems just in case we have a problem. We call them System A and System B. In the first race today, I hear "Start/Stop" on the radio due to timing. I walk in only to find Ken watching his Windows 7 computer reboot. Yep, the Serial/USB adapters caused a problem and the computer totally froze up like an igloo. Well, that is why we have a System B and he switches over to System B which is running the same program, but the DOS version (remember DOS?).

The DOS version just works. 100% of the time. Never causes us a problem. IT JUST WORKS, which is great when you have a hundred or so people standing outside freezing their toes off. And, if it ever fails due to a power failure, it tends to reboot long before the monitor comes back on. Thank god for System B.

Next problem. Something we call back up hand timing. It is the absolute fail safe if we loose everything. The standard is to use an Alge Timy. Another 2 pieces of equipment that JUST WORK all of the time.

Except today.

Both of them failed. One won't stay turned on. The other one won't turn on at all. It is good to have something for the technology toss. Nice. (It is now 10pm at night and we are in Sudbury and it looks like I have fixed one Timy with a software update, but the other one is still dead).

Lastly, our 2nd set of displays. The ones we show off with by putting them up at the start so that the coaches can see the times of their racers. Nope, can't get those working either and I give up on getting those to work after about an hour.

Now at the hotel, with a fixed Timy, I can now test the display boards. Guess what, they work fine. Next test is to have them hooked back up to the computer that they were hooked to during the race which means that they were being driven by a USB/Serial adapter. This is the same computer that froze up solid this morning.

So, after all that, Murphy left and we were able to get the rest of the races in without any surprises. We are now in Sudbury and get to do the same thing again tomorrow.

It was also great to meet up with some old school friends (high school). Their kids are racing and we got to share some stories of some very fun times.