2010 Olympics: Men’s Qualifying Ski Jump

Remember back in the early parts of last year where the people of British Columbia got to enter a lottery type system to purchase tickets for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics? I got in on that first day action and selected my choices. At that time Robyn and I wanted to to attend the various Snowboarding events, primarily the Half-Pipe and Boardercross (SBX). We didn’t get our choices so I was slotted to get into the second round to choose other tickets.

The second round had some glitches and we had to wait an extra week. By the time I got in to select my tickets, the only event that sounded cool was Ski Jump. I selected Ski Jump based on the dates Robyn wasn’t working and I got 2 tickets for Men’s Qualifying Ski Jump on February 12th, the first day of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Our morning started quite early. The 2010 Winter Olympic Spectator guide informed us that our trip by bus would take roughly 3 hours to get to the Whistler Olympic Park (WOP). We selected to catch a 6:20AM bus at BCIT which meant we got up at about 4:15AM to get to BCIT within the time they requested we arrived at before our bus left.

Originally we were to park in the BCIT parking lot in the East. When we arrived we were rerouted around campus to the southern most parking lots, closer to where people were to park if they were going to the Whistler Sliding Centre. We backtracked back to where the buses were being loaded with people who were also going to see the first game of the Olympics.

The bus ride actually took roughly 2 hours from BCIT to get us up to the Whistler Olympic Park. Robyn and I both then said we didn’t have to get up as early, nor catch such an early bus. Lesson learned, right?

When we arrived up at the Whistler Olympic Park we were corralled through security. Our bags went through X-Ray machines as we walked through metal detectors. Sort of like going to the airport, but at least we didn’t have to take off our boots.

From the buses to the actual Ski Jump venue it is about 1.0Km. You go up and down and snake your way to the event with a mass of other people. Even though there was gravel/sand on the paths, the snow and slush still made it a bit slippery to walk.

We reached the Ski Jump venue. Robyn went off to grab us some hot chocolate as I went over to see what was happening on the jumps.

One of the main topics people have been asking in regards to the 2010 Winter Olympics is camera equipment. What type of camera equipment are  you allowed to bring and what are you not allowed to bring. Most people have been asking if they can bring their dSLR (digital SLR) cameras up. The answer is yes. While at our Ski Jump event many people were carrying around dSLRs. They ranged from the Canon Digital Rebels, up to the Nikon D3s. In regards to glass (lenses) the biggest lens I saw with a spectator was a Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 VR lens. Granted the accredited photographers had 500mm and up lenses, but toss on a 1.4 or 2.o on a 70-200mm and you get a bit more reach, especially on a cropped sensor like the Canon 7D or the Nikon D300s. Did I bring up my Canon 7D or even my Canon XSi? Nope, I couldn’t get confirmation in time so we borrowed Robyn’s mum’s Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7 which has 12x optical zoom (in 35mm it’s roughly 435mm). All of these photos (except for the first one in this post as it was taken with my iPhone 3G) was taken with the DMC-FZ7.

Once Robyn got back with our Hot Chocolate (they didn’t have specialty coffees) we headed up to our section in the bleachers.

We were sitting on the 4th row, not bad view to watch the various Olympians strut their stuff in the air! The benches are metal and were a bit wet when we arrived, I’m sure they can get pretty cold too. You can bring something to sit on like a cushion, but we didn’t think of that, we just sat on my jacket.

For this particular Men’s Ski Jump event there was over 60 athletes competing to qualify for the medal round on the next day. We learned that the athletes at the beginning were ranked lower than the athletes that were closer to the end. In fact the last 4 or 5 athletes had their starting gate lowered and were still able to get further distances. The lower the gate, the less time to build up speed to execute the jump at the end, the shorter distance you would technically go. It was amazing to see these athletes sail through the air and land anywhere between 95-108 meters later.

Robyn and I have not seen Ski Jump before and talking to people they have said it is pretty exciting to experience and watch. We would both have to agree. Ski Jump is pretty cool to watch, especially when the athletes sail over the HS (hill safety) line without crashing.

Now on to the photos, in no particular order!

There are just so many photos and it was a really enjoyable event. Now we’re wishing we had more tickets to various Olympic events.

The sun even came out for a little bit! It never rained which was great as like I mentioned above, we were sitting on my jacket.

After the event was over everyone had to make their way back down to the buses. We were glad we didn’t have to take a bus back to Whistler as the lineup was extremely long. There were probably more buses going back to Vancouver but more people heading back to Whistler.

You can check out the other photos I took while at the Men’s Ski Jump along with other photos I’ve been taking during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics over on Flickr.

Thanks to April for allowing me to borrow her Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7 with it’s 12x optical zoom. Without it, I wouldn’t have had any photographs to share with anyone.

Attending an Olympic event is definitely a life experience and we’re glad we got to be a part of it.