Calgary Essent ISU World Cup from the viewer’s perspective

(pic with MR, courtesy of Alex Fishi)

Good morning, guten tag, buna dimineata, ciao, привет, and salut.

It is the weekend of the World Cup here in Cow-Town. Exciting, can’t you tell? After all, I AM writing this at 6:45 am. I am sitting in the stands now, watching the athletes warm-up. I have tickets for the weekend, since I am not racing but I also have accreditation. Accreditation, or to be accredited- according to google, means to be given official approval to act upon entering the oval without any trouble. Not that there is any trouble in getting in…you’d just have to wait like 3 more hours ’till the door opened.

I am sitting in the stands that are set on the main running track. I’m facing the oval and all I see it the short track rink which has no mats around since they were taken off. The hockey rink’s boards are off, and the podium is on a mat that is placed on the ice. I see Germany, China, Canada, Finland, the Netherlands US and A, Belarus, Romania, Russia, Polska, Italia and China. And Norway. There are way more teams here than I mentioned above, but like I said, I haven’t looked around too much.

Lots of familiar faces, as there are a lot of……..(OH THERE’S DENMARK TOO!!)….Calgarians volunteering at the event. Also people from all over Canada have come too. Austria just skated by. And Sweden. I’m drinking The Bolthouse Farms’ Vanilla Chai- Kinda sweet, but does it’s magic. Had a double california roll for breakfast. France skated by just now.  (See? I DO have ADD!) (For first time readers, I actually do not…I just like to joke that I do)

So it’s Friday, day one. I’m looking around- different looks of everyone’s faces. 2 Canadian coaches are looking attentively at skaters’ axels. Korean coaches look surprised as one of their skaters speeds by. You can just imagine when a skater skates by, how people on the mats turn their heads . Common, use your imagination! Finnish skater in front of me, focused. Omg, Usher’s “Yeah!” is playing in German over the PA. The chorus is in English though. Ha! Kazakhstan just got on the ice. The view from here is g.o.o.d. good.

I am taking pictures for our lap-recorder, who will also be recording laps at the Olympics in Vancouver. He gave me his camera and I will just take shots throughout the weekend for him. Racing starts at 9:30, B skaters.  Korea’s here.

I will write more, as the weekend goes on. It will be one post, 3 days.

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Guten abend, buna seara, bonne soir, good afternoon fellow blog readers.

The weekend is done! As a spectator I do feel like I was racing, and am tired. I get nervous every time I see a friend on the start line, because I know the butterflies they get and how nervous they are…with some being their first WC. The last day was quite rewarding, for those offiicials who will be officiating their last world cup, as they have to retire at a certain age. ISU requirement. Track record, National Records, Junior World Records and one World record was set this weekend. I want to congratulate all athletes on a successful weekend, whether you had personal bests or even just a darn good race over-all.

I had accreditation to get inside the athlete area, and had access to ze free food downstairs. So I was doing hot chocolate runs with some friends and former coaches. Oh the life of an athlete. The higher you get, the free-er the food gets. I think I will add that to my motivation list…So far I have free food, and seeing friends from other countries… kidding, there is more stuff that actually counts.

Last night was probably the happiest day/night of my life. It was a tad weird because I made it awkward but I woke up the happiest child this morning. I won’t say what happened; only my really close friends know…and those who will read will also know Let’s just say that cheesecake is better when shared.

Overall, before I conclude this post, I want to say that this WC felt like a Saturday morning Time Trial for some odd reason. I don’t know why and how…but I wasn’t the only one thinking that. It was a relaxed weekend, with great outcomes.

I shall leave you now, as I have important business to attend to, and a date with my laundry.

Love,

alex.