This man has a GOLD Olympic Medal!

Day Two

We were heading for the Alpine Skiing area to watch the women's giant slalom. The start time had been brought forward from 11am to 9.30am due to the weather so we had a pretty early start. We caught the bus to the Adler transport hub (the new train station they have built to connect Sochi to the rest of Russia by train (although it still takes 24 hours to Moscow on the fast train!) and after going through security we caught another bus heading up to Rosa Khutor - one of the venues in the mountain cluster. An hour or so later we arrived in the fog and driving rain in the very alpin resort. The mountain resorts have been mainly built from scratch and consequently are very new and actually very pretty. They have been built in the valley alongside the river and the mountains rise steeply on each side. Large cable cars then transported us up to the skiing area. If there had been better visibility we would have seen the ski jumps and half pipes as we passed over them in the cable car. As it was we saw grey cloud and driving rain!

At the top it was still raining but spirits were good (a little like a wet welsh campsite full of hardened hikers). We grabbed a hot chocolate from one of the stands and headed to find our seats in the stand. The stairs weren't for the faint hearted but we came out into the stand that has seen all the alpine skiing finals. We watched the women's first run with Tina Maze grabbing an impressive lead over the rest of the pack and Vanessa Mau definitely not embarrassing herself. there was then a break for a couple of hours until the second run (the times are accumulated and the overall fastest wins). they showed a film on the big screen with a montage of the highlights of all the alpine skiing action which was great but mainly served to highlight how unlucky we were with the weather. It showed the down hill races in glorious sunshine with blue blue skies whilst we were now into our third hour of rain that was coming down ever harder. They also showed a interview with the man whose job it is to design Olympic ski runs - how bad could that be??!!

In addition to the rain the mist was now settling in so that we could barely see the finish line let alone the run of slalom gates above. But whilst people were getting wetter and wetter spirits weren't - the stand was filling up for the second run and people were using anything and everything to shelter from the rain. They announced the imminent start of the second run to cheers and whistles that were only quietened a moment later when they announced that the start would be delayed because of heavy snow at the start! The rain had intensified but then it eased slightly and they were off. The top 30 came down in reverse order so Tina Maze would ski 30th - at intervals of 1.5 minutes. The format made it really exciting to watch - always wondering whether the next skier could take first position and they came down fast and furious. The German, Viktoria Rebensburg had a blinding run to take first place but was just pipped by Anna Fenninger of Austria. Then it was Tina Maze. She had a great lead from the first run but having seen many miss a gate or fall you could almost feel people holding their breath to see how she would do. She started well but as she approached the second half of the course and swung from gate to gate, almost lying horizontally as she turned her pace seemed to slow. Could she hold on for gold? She dived for the line and ....the big yellow 1 came up on the screen - she had done it by 0.07 second!

We headed down the mountain and into the warmth and dry of the bus to go back to the Olympic Park. It was also raining down by the coast but that hadn't kept the crowds away. Russia were due to play Norway in the Ice hockey qualification play offs so the flags and face paints were even more prominent, not to mention the sense of expectation! We had tickets to watch Latvia v Switzerland at 9pm in the ice hockey but as the rain showed no sign of easing and we had 5 hours to wait we enquired about any other tickets available. There was men's speed skating 10000m. Result. This was in the Adler Speed Skating Rink - not to be confused with the short track speed skating rink. The skaters race in pairs and skate 25 laps to cover the distance in a little under 13 minutes!. There were 7 pairs due to race and the winner would be the fastest once all the pairs had finished. At the start they ask everyone to be silent and a massive hush went around the rink and then they were off the skates clapping around the first corner before they settle into the elegant gliding rhythm as they skate down the long straights. They swap lanes each lap and wear special speed skating skates that have longer blades than conventional skates and are only attached to the boot at the front - the back of the boot lifts off to enable them to push harder and glide longer. After the first couple of pairs the ice was cleaned and we were entertained by a dutch brass band! The dutch were out in force - their not very subtle orange glowing around the arena. the first dutchman of the evening raced in pair 5 and easily took the lead. Next up was Jorrit Bergsma (pictured above). he had the race of his life taking the Olympic record, the track record and first place. But there was still one more pair to go and another dutchman to skate - the world record holder. He went off at a fantastic pace and at the half way point was set to take the lead and set a new world record. But had he done too much too soon? He was starting to slow a little but still had a good lead but into the last 2000 metres his time fell off lap by lap and he finished in second position which he was obviously not happy about at all.

The speed skating had been a fantastic spectacle....and we still had more!

After a quick slice of pizza we headed for the Bolshoy Ice Dome - the new Russian home of ice hockey. After the long speed skating rink the ice hockey rink(where they actually play) seemed somehow a little small but maybe also because it is surrounded by steeply rising seats all around with a capacity of 12,000 all protected from the puck by the high plastic sides around the ice and the nets on top of that. The atmosphere however was large! Carnaval like fairground music blasted from the speakers, pompom girls flashing nearly all in the aisles and a large cube screen hanging high above the ice showing bright flashy images. The players came on to fast thumping loud music and from the moment their skates hit the ice it is fast and furious. They come on and off in quick succession, jumping over the sides, braking with a swoosh of the skate. Everything is loud - the skating, the sticks hitting the ice (or each other) the slamming into the sides, the shouts from the benches and the crowd. Latvia went one nil up, then two - when a goal was scored there is much hand slapping and team hugging! They play 3 periods of 20 minutes but they last much longer as the clock stops every time play stops (which is often) and between the periods of play there were two pauses of 15 minutes each during which the ice is cleaned and the goals drilled back into place. Switzerland managed to get one goal back but then Latvia scored a third to take their place in the next round. As the crowds teamed out of the stadium we took one last look at the bright Olympic flame.

It had been an awesome couple of days.