Closing Ceremony

I left London on Friday, August 10th and had another two weeks to travel through Europe.

I was lucky enough to visit Belgium and meet Arnaud and Maykel who were awesome hosts while I travelled around Brussels, to Ghent and did two dives at the world’s deepest pool, Nemo33 (where I actually watched the Olympics while scuba diving at 30 feet!).

I then went and visited Strasbourg, where I lived one year during university.  Tarte flambées, Kronenbourg, biking up the Robertsau and a wicked busker festival were all part of the fun.

The final stop was Paris.  I toured a chocolate museum, the Arc de Triomphe, the Stade de France, saw two game shows being taped in one day (a new personal best!) and tried out for a third (which, if luck is on my side, will lead to another blog).

I’ve been home a week and a half now and am really having the time to reflect on what happened not six weeks ago.  I achieved a life dream and attended the Olympics.  I saw eleven different events.  I met five wonderful London 2012 Canadian athletes – all of whom, I must note, went on to win medals – and got see two Canadian medals won in person.  It’s hard to pick a highlight, although seeing the Canadian women win bronze has special significance.

Thank you to everyone who made this dream possible.  I feel so lucky to have such supportive family and friends who encourage me at all time to chase the wildest things in the world and there is such a rush when I get to participate in them. This will not be forgotten any time soon.

I’m not going to overload this with too many inspirational messages, but I’d like to share a couple of thoughts which I feel are appropriate to finish up this blog with.

First – one of my favourite quotes is “Ours is not to reason why.  Ours is just to do or die”, which is Alfred Lord Tennyson from “The Charge of the Light Brigade”.  I find it resonates with my life.  I have always gone out and tried things, especially new things.  You never know if you don’t try.

Second – I try to live my life by the thought that if “opportunity knocks, open the door”.  I often have people question me as to “how do you get to do all these crazy things?”.  In fact I think these crazy things are open to everyone, you just have to go out and chase them.  While you don’t have to break laws or hurt others to do it, make sure you do things that make you happy.  It really helps.

Finally – always drop your loose change in “the karma box” (as I call it) – when you’re leaving the restaurant, the fast food joint, the supermarket, wherever.  Those really add up.

Oh, by the way, if you want to check out the interview I did, it’s at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzkeLxZDTMg&feature=youtu.be

I hope that in the future I can bring you more exciting travel adventures.  I’ve already started planning for Rio 2016…

Cheers, and thank you for reading,

Vick.

Footy finale

So I’m sitting at court volleyball on the Wednesday evening and I get a text…

“Hey, so I can get bronze  medal Women’s football tickets for tomorrow.  Are you interested?”

YES.

PLEASE.

So it was about 12 hours later that I found myself at London Kings Cross with my friends Richard and Amelie.  And who do we run into but Canada’s chef de mission Mark Tewkesbury!  I ask him for a quick picture but it turns out he’s got to go catch his train, which I totally agree with!

Richard and I were on the same train… but I booked the wrong tickets!  We did get it sorted out in the end however.

When we get off the train it turns out that we are once again in the presence of Mark Tewkesbury.  He mentions that he’s got a minute to take a picture.  So we grab one!

And after he took the picture with me he says “wait a minute, let me take one, and then I’ll tweet it”.

 

SO. BEYOND. AWESOME.

We talked briefly – turns out he’s been to THIRTY events already.  I told him that this was my tenth – he was impressed, especially because I didn’t have credentials.

Following that it was on the shuttle bus, like six days before, and this time, playing for a medal.  Richard’s friend Mike also made his way up and we settled into our seats – much to our dismay behind a row of French fans!

The game was very nailbiting.  Canada was having a bit of a tough time, while the French were throwing everything at the goal and nothing wanted to go in.

It heads into injury time.  Amelie is sitting next to me and she comments that “this isn’t good if it goes into extra time, they look really tired”.  I figure this is the way it is going to be.

And then it happens.

It’s like something out of a movie.

Matheson is nearing the goal, passes to Schmidt who is blocked by the French keeper.  It bounces back to Matheson. She shoots.

AND. THE. BALL. GOES. IN.

Cue the pandemonium. Canada scores!

And about 30 seconds later… the whistle blows and CANADA WINS BRONZE!

(Note: it’s about three weeks later as I type this and I’m still getting goosebumps)

Amelie and I go bat-s**t crazy.  We can’t believe it!  We’ve won!

 

We went so crazy that we ended up on the CTV National News that night!

After we stopped screaming for a few minutes we decide that it’s time to make our way to the other side of the stadium and try and greet the players.  We are running, skipping through the halls of the stadium and are as high as kites (naturally of course!).  We’ve been witness to arguably the greatest football triumph in Canadian history.

We get to where the players are celebrating the win and the security was so kind in letting us get close to the action.  I wanted to have four sets of eyes so I could witness everything going on.  The ladies are taking various group pictures.  Someone is being interviewed for CTV.  Mark Tewkesbury is on the field congratulating the ladies individually with such enthusiasm.  A fan yells out that Sinclair should run for prime minister.

One just has to let it all soak in.

Once things died down we started the walk back to the shuttle bus area.  We end up chatting with some other ladies… one who just happens to be Tessa Bonhomme, winner of a gold medal for the Canadian women’s hockey team in Vancouver! 

Could this get any crazier?

Amelie and I then hopped the train back to London, and then took a tube ride over the north west corner of the city en route to get over to Wembley stadium for the Women’s Footy final, and also my last event.

Wembley stadium is quite the sight.  The sucker is huge, and it’s by far the biggest stadium I’ve ever been in.

When we got through security Amelie and I had to part ways.  It was sad to do but we’d shared memories that will last a lifetime and I hope to see her again the next time I’m in Quebec.

My seat once again was awesome!  I was 13 rows back from the field, just in the corner.  Wow!

The game itself was quite exciting.  The US was anxious to win as they’d lost to Japan in the previous world cup.  It turned out to be a 2-1 final in favour of the US.  At the end it was time for the medal ceremony, so it was pretty exciting to not only see the game where Canada got their medal but also the event where they got presented with the medals!

An exciting time, that’s for sure!

Wrap-up in the next and final post of this blog.

Cheers,

Vick.