Winter Olympics

It comes round once every 4 years; that time when Britain becomes uncontrollably enthused about Curling, Cool Runnings is on the TV every other day and THAT Torville and Dean moment in the purple floaty numbers is repeated A LOT. It's Winter Olympics time! I for one love it. Most Outlookers are outdoorsy; whether it's surfing, paddling, climbing, horse riding. Me (marketing executive), not so much. I'm big on the cultural experience of travelling and amazing scenery; not so big on the technical adventurous stuff. I do however, really like watching the Winter Olympics. I've been watching bits and pieces of it this year and can I just say, how amazing does Canada look?! Wow. Just beautiful.

So I was burning the midnight oil the other night and got hooked into the men's snowboard cross. I don't claim to be an expert on snowboarding, so experts out there bear with me and my terminology. This basically involved sets of 4 snowboarders racing at break neck speed over an icy course of jumps, sheer slopes and tight corners. Only two made it through each round which made the racing fierce. The competition was pretty cut throat as the speed and sharp corners meant that racers were falling and knocking each other out of the race all the time. It seemed to me that as well as supreme skill, there was also a lot of luck involved. What I really enjoyed about watching it was that this is something I would normally take no interest in. But here I was at midnight on a Monday night completely captivated by a snowboarding race. I guess there's just something special about the Olympics. The eventual winner was America's Seth Wescott. Below are some pictures from the event. My favourite is the shot that catches the riders just as they're flying over a jump with the Olympic rings in the background.

The other interesting fact I learnt the other night is that due to a lack of snow on lower ground where some of the events are being staged, some tracks (the moguls track I think) have been created by piling snow taken from higher ground on top of hay bales!