Sochi 2014 February 28, 2014
Posted by freda in Birmingham, Michigan.6 comments
Sochi 2014 (Don)
(Don’t forget, if you click on any of the pictures, you can see them full screen.)
Don and I were fortunate, and very happy, to attend the Winter Olympic Games in Russia, as guests of NBC, as Chevrolet was a major media sponsor. We hosted a number of Chevrolet dealers from across the US, who had earned the trip based on strong sales to close out 2013. There were two sets of winning dealers, going in what NBC termed “waves”, but we were able to get there early enough to host both groups.
We left home on Friday, Feb 7th, and after a very long day of flying, including a 2-hour delay out of NYC because of an extra security check at the gate (a very thorough-ish hand search of all carry on luggage) rather poorly organized, which resulted in us missing our connection from Moscow to Sochi, (though we got on a later flight to Sochi – along with the NBC Today Show team, including Al Roker), we finally got to our hotel on Saturday, about 8:30 p.m. local time. We were staying at the Radisson in Rosa Khutor, the mountain area for the Olympics. The whole mountain village was built for the Olympics, and luckily this hotel had been constructed a few years ago, and was complete and lovely: http://www.radisson.ru/en/hotel-rosakhutor
The hotel was taken over by NBC, with multiple restaurants and bar choices and a large room called the Moscow Room, set up with a bar and many TV screens, for gathering in groups. After we unpacked, that’s where we headed, to wait for the GM dealer couples already in Sochi, to come back from their evening event. We had a great visit-meet with them (I’d only met one of them before), and then collapsed in bed.
NBC had organized our days like this: each day we had tickets to a “featured event,” usually in the late afternoon or evening, but they also had limited tickets to many other events, and if we were interested, we had to sign up today for what we wanted to see tomorrow, which meant every morning lining up to sign up, and hope to get tickets. Don decided to go to Men’s Downhill our first morning, but I knew it was too early for me after our day of flying. So, I slept in a little later, then took a walk around the mountain-village, and then had a nap,
mountain village
and Don went to the Men’s Downhill –
the Downhill course (Don)
the starting list (Don)
racing (Don)
at the finish (Don)
I love this shot of a lone camerman (Don)
mountain venue (Don)
Coco-Cola is the *only* beverage of the Olympics (Don) – well, besides vodka 😉
Back at the hotel, Don had a nap, and then we were herded onto the buses to head to the Olympic Village for our first “featured event” of Team Figure Skating Finals, a new event at these Olympics, and which included Women’s Free Skate, Men’s Free Skate, and Dance Pairs Free Skate, for the final five teams of Japan, Italy, USA, Canada and Russia.
The Olympic Village was a 45-60 minute bus ride from our hotel in the mountain area, depending on traffic, a trip we made every day. NBC had hired several interns, all university students, at least half of whom spoke Russian, to be our ‘handlers.’ At the hotel they held signs with events on them (e.g. “Speed Skating,” “Hockey,” “Curling,” etc) to make sure we got to the right bus and right event for which we had tickets. At all times, in the hotel and at the venues, we were required to wear a “spectator pass” around our necks,
spectator pass, worn around our necks at ALL times
and when we were heading to the events, a second lanyard holding our event tickets.
a sample of our tickets
Without those it was impossible to get into the Village. Once there, we walked from the parking lot to the security check, where we scanned our spectator pass to enter. Then, just like at an airport, our possessions went through x-ray, and then not quite like at airports, we were thoroughly patted down. Of course we all appreciated the thoroughness, but it also became a bit of a joke. The best line was from a woman who said, “well, I feel like a cigarette now!”
Once through security, the NBC interns were placed along a sight-line, holding what they called “lollipops” that led us to the NBC Hospitality Suite, about a 15-minute walk through the village.
intern with her “lollipop”
The buses were timed so there was always time to relax at the Hospitality Suite and indulge in drinks and amazing food before heading to our Olympic event.
The Olympic Village was really fabulous; so well designed with all the arena venues in a circle around the flame. There were Russian volunteers everywhere in their colourful outfits. Besides the arenas, there were a variety of pavillions and outdoor stages for entertainment, and a number of food kiosks. The weather was fabulous the whole time we were there – sunny and warm – and it was a delight to walk over the rainbow bridges and people watch.
on the rainbow bridge (Don)
on the bridge – Iceberg Skating Palace behind
another view from the bridge
Welcome! (Don)
the Sochi 2014 glove (Don)
in the village
the flame
flags around the flame
We are here!
heading into the Iceberg skating palace
Figure Skating Team Event: Canada, Russia, USA, Japan, Italy
We saw some wonderful skating in this new Team Event, a hint of what would come in the individual events… The American, Jason Brown, was thoroughly entertaining:
USA’s Jason Brown
The Canadian, Kevin Reynolds, was excellent:
Canadian Kevin Reynolds
The Russian Plushenko, strong and perfect, before he had to withdraw from competition:
Russian Evgeni Plushenko
the mostly Russian audience very happy with the Russian skaters
Canadian team waiting for results
My favourite thing to watch – the little girls picking up the flowers!
picking up the flowers (Don)
off for more flowers (Don)
I also love their outfits. All the volunteers had variations of this theme (Don)
The zambonis matched their arenas
the whole figure skating arena
flags of the arena
ready for the next skater
The 15-year old Russian Yulia Lipnitskaya blew us ALL away, and brought me to tears:
Yulia Lipnitskaya
a perfect skate, that she couldn’t duplicate in her individual competition
Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir were beautiful and perfect. I’m so glad I got to see them live:
Tessa and Scott, ready to begin
oops, maybe ‘slightly’ out of sync
so beautiful
and finished
The final Team Skating results: Russia Gold, Canada Silver, USA Bronze. Leaving the arena, the beautiful exterior showed us the current medal standings:
medal standings showing on the Iceberg Palace
We were back on the bus by 10:30 p.m. and arrived at the hotel for a midnight buffet – a standard night event, it turned out, mostly because we were never eating a real dinner, only ‘grazing’ before the evening event, and then again at midnight.
For our 2nd day, we chose tickets to see Short Track Speed Skating for our ‘optional’ event in the early afternoon, held in the Iceberg Arena, followed in the evening by the ‘featured’ Speed Skating – a longer track in a different arena – The Adler Arena. Our bus from the hotel left early enough to give us some time to walk around the village and check out a few pavilions.
another gorgeous day!
Sochi Olympic mascots
faces in 3D pointillism and constantly changing
home of the next Winter Olympics (Don)
traditional costumed dancers
hat detail
Short Track Speed Skating may be my favourite event to watch – SO exciting, as they whip around the corners, practically touching the ice, and so easily wiped out.
Canadian passing on the outside (Don)
sometimes I don’t know how they stay standing! (Don)
Canadian Charles Hamelin in the lead (Don)
It was so exciting to be there to see Charles Hamelin win GOLD in the Short Track 1500 metre – especially as he wiped out of his other events.
Charles Hamelin GOLD
We stayed to watch the Flower Ceremony…
Flower Ceremony
Gold medal winner, Charles Hamelin
In between skating events we went to Canada House to buy some Canadian garb. As grateful as we were to Chevrolet and NBC for the trip, of course we were rooting for Canada! Don had tried to get into Canada House the previous day, but you could only get in by invitation, (and couldn’t even get into the shop without the pass), so… he emailed a friend, who emailed somebody who emailed somebody and soon Don had an email to tell us our invitations were waiting at the front desk at Canada House. When we got there we went through the process of accredidation – picture taken, lanyard pass created,
Canada House accredidation (yes, they misspelled my name)
and then we shopped. I got a great scarf and Don got a toque and tshirt. Back to the NBC Suite for food and drink, and then on to the Speed Skating event. This takes place on a bigger course, so it’s less dramatic, I think, and sometimes pretty boring. It’s also really hard to take pictures as the skaters whizz past. This is the only one that turned out:
speed skater (Don)
The Dutch dominate in speed skating, taking 24 medals, 23 in long-track speed skating and one in short track – here’s a great article about that: http://www.sbnation.com/2014/2/26/5405120/winter-olympics-2014-netherlands-speed-skating-medals-dominance. The excitement at our event came with the finals, when Dutch skaters swept the finish, Gold-Silver-Bronze, with twin brothers taking the Gold and Bronze. Being half Dutch, this was almost as exciting for me as the Canadian win! 🙂
As we exited the arena, Don and I realized the nightly medal ceremony was about to take place, and we could see Charles Hamelin get his medal. The area for medal presentations was crowded and exciting. We saw several presentations, waiting for Hamelin, including Ireen Wust of The Netherlands receive Gold for Women’s Speed Skating 3000 metre.
medal ceremony stage
Ireen Wust, Gold – on a screen as it was hard to see the stage from where we stood
Dutch flag in the centre
Finally, just as we worried we’d have to leave so we wouldn’t miss our bus, Charles Hamelin, medal ceremony, and then the raising of the Canadian flag and singing of the National Anthem – so moving to be in the centre of that!
Charles Hamelin GOLD
Oh, Canada!
Back to the hotel, and it was party time! The first wave of guests were going home the next day and NBC was sending them off with a bang! First The Swon Brothers (finished third place on the 4th season of NBC’s ‘The Voice’) entertained us, and then it was a DJ playing dance music so loud we yelled the rest of the night away. We were up until past 2:00 and slept until noon the next day! I had a massage booked that afternoon (bliss!), and then we were on the bus to the Village, first for drinks and snacks at the Hospitality Suite and then to our evening event – Figure Skating Pairs Short Program.
across the wonderful rainbow bridge into the Village
The Pairs Skate Short Program was a LONG night – 20 pairs skating their short programs, of course to different music, but incorporating the required jumps and moves meant a lot of the same thing. We watched the Canadians with interest, of course – all 3 Canadian pairs did well enough to advance to the final long program –
Canadians Paige Lawrence & Rudi Swiegers
Canadians Meagan Duhamel & Eric Radford
This American team was very colourful –
Americans Kirsten Moore-Towers & Dylan Moscovitch
But, our favourite short program, for fun presentation, came from the German team, skating to The Pink Panther -the hot pink catsuit photographs so well!
German pair Aliona Savchenko & Robin Szolkowy (Don)
German team (Don)
Catch me if you can! (Don)
German team (Don)
The audience was almost as interesting as the skaters. Photo-journalists made their way over to our section during breaks because a few rows behind us: a Russian Cosmonaut and an American Astronaut (does anyone recognize them? We don’t know who they are.)
Russian Cosmonaut, and slightly hidden American Astronaut
And in the row Right Behind us, Russian pop singer Oleg Gazmanov, who specializes in patriotic songs and is also a candidate for Master of Sport for Russia for Gymnastics. (We had to google him to learn this.) He was interviewed during the first break and from then on THRONGS of Russians made their way over to have their pictures taken with him. It became a bit of a joke because we were so crowded, and I think we will be in a few of those pictures!
Russian singer Oleg Gazmanov and his wife
On Wednesday, the 12th, we had signed up for vodka-tasting with international bartender Bek Narzi, but Don found out he could get a ticket for the Canada-USA Women’s Hockey preliminary game, so off he went to that while I sacrificed and stayed for the vodka “drinking,” as it turned out! 😉 We drank a mixed cocktail, sampled shots of three different kinds of vodka, and then had three more cocktails, while learning about the history of vodka in Russia:
Moscow Spring Punch – very orange because the bar is copper-coloured and the light in the room rather coppery, as well
the recipe
Bek Narzi
another cocktail
and another (I *may* have had two of these)
the last cocktail
served in these mugs we got to take home (blurry picture *may* be due to vodka consumption)
It was all great fun! And then I got on the bus to the Olympic Village, watching the last half of the women’s hockey game on the TV screens, sitting outside in the gorgeous sunshine at the Hospitality Suite, quietly cheering for the Canadians while surrounded by Americans! Don met me at the suite after the game – Canada won – to eat, and then we were off to the Pairs Long Skate, the final. The Russians were truly exciting to watch, and got Gold and Silver. Our favourites from the night before, the German couple, had been in 2nd place, but they both fell during their performance – heartbreaking – and ended up with Bronze. My favourite from this night was the Gold-medal Russian couple, skating to Jesus Christ Superstar:
Tatiana Volosozhar & Maxim Trankov
great music, great costumes, great performance
Thursday, 13th, first to Short Track Speed Skating and then USA vs Slovakia Hockey Game. It was *another* gorgeous day!
colourful character
on the rainbow bridge
reflections in the Bosco Olympic Store (Don)
The short track speed skating was as exciting as always, though sadly the Canadian men’s relay team had a wipe out; heartbreaking when they had a chance at gold. Then three women wiped out in the final for the 500 metre event; it was wild. Ran into these crazy Dutchmen as we exited the arena:
3 Dutchies
Walking from one arena to the next, passing the flame burning bright on a gorgeous day:
beautiful
Hockey: USA vs Slovakia, with half the arena cheering for the USA and half for the Slovakians, and six of the seven US goals right in front of us!
exciting game; final score
The sunset was gorgeous as we exited the arena:
sunset over the Black Sea
and reflecting off the mountains
the Opening and Closing Ceremonies stadium
We got back to the hotel relatively early, compared to other nights, with great intentions of going to bed early. I will blame the dealers for the fact we stayed up partying until 1:30 a.m. They were a fun group!
Don had a massage in the early afternoon, and then we were back on the bus to first head to the “back stage” of the NBC Today Show taping. It was actually quite boring, with a lot of standing around in the background, cheering when we were told to, etc. And it was HOT standing in the direct sunlight (probably our warmest day), so we didn’t stay for the whole show. But, all the Today Show hosts were very gracious, came over to shake hands with the “audience” and pose for pictures, etc.
the backs of Al Roker and Matt Lauer – Today Show hosts
featured Olympian guests – the 3 Americans who swept the podium in first-ever Men’s Freeski Slopestyle Competition
time to leave the Today Show
the Olympic Rings, of course
Relaxing back at the Hospitality Suite, enjoying food and drink, and suddenly everyone was abuzz with the rumour that Putin was going to show up at the next-door American House, where the athletes and their families hung out, across the outdoor patio area which NBC shared with them. People were hovering, cameras were set up, and then finally, surrounded by security, he *did* show up! He sat on the patio, had a glass of wine, and answered interview questions. We were inside the NBC suite, and the doors had been closed to the patio, for security reasons, but I passed my camera up to one of the NBC interns who was standing on a table, and he took this picture for me:
Putin, through a window
After that excitement it was time to get to our Figure Skating Men’s Long Program final. There were some good skates, but none of them were quite as dynamic as they could be.
Misha Ge from Uzbekistan was one of our favourites
Candian Kevin Reynolds waiting with his coach for results (he finished 15th)
Silver-medalist, Canadian Patrick Chan
the Japanese fans had Gold-medalist Yuzuru Hanyu to cheer for, though several here are holding signs for 6th-place Daisuke Takahashi
When we exited the skating arena, the roof of the hockey arena was lit up with the Canadian flag, indicating Canada had won their hockey game – that was cool to see!
Canada wins their game!
Our last day, Saturday 15th, Don participated in a “skate with Tara Lipinski.” Tara was the Gold-medal Olympian at the 1998 Nagano games, when she was just 15 years old. At the Sochi games, she and Johnny Weir were the figure skating commentators. (I listened to them a lot once we were home and I think they did a fabulous job.) Tara did a bit of a presentation, and allowed for Q&A, before those participating took to the ice. Don hadn’t put on skates since we left Ontario (8 years ago?), but after a shaky start, he had a blast.
Don and Tara Lipinski
When he got back, we wandered around the mountain village, doing a little souvenir shopping, enjoying the sunshine.
mountain village, and a river runs through it
Bosco (Russian version of Nike) supplied all the Olympic clothing. Gondola in the background
Don stopped for a sausage
enjoying cold beers on the patio (hard to believe it’s winter in Russia)
they must be hot in those outfits on such a warm day
the mascot statues always drew a crowd
it really is a pretty village – hopefully it gets used after the Olympics
Olympic banner
Then, back on the bus for the last time, first to enjoy a little time at the NBC suite with all the GM gang:
it was a great group!
And then to the Men’s USA vs Russia hockey game – SUCH an EXCITING and INTENSE game!
1st period score board
the audience reaction is just as interesting as the game
the Russian ushers are tense
the hockey arena zamboni
an interesting costume
play hockey!
USA goalie
Russian Goal!
Olympic mascot in the audience
this game has cheerleaders
tied!
still tied after 3-shot shoot out
Oshie – American hero
final count
USA wins!
It was quite an end to our time at the Sochi 2014 Olympics! We exuberantly made our way back to the NBC hospitality suite for a celebratory drink before heading to the bus and back to the hotel to pack. Don and I had to be up SO early, leaving the hotel at 3:30 a.m. for the beginning of our 26 hours in transit. No matter. It was worth it – a fantastic experience!
Good bye Canada House
Good night Sochi
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