Thursday, March 11, 2010

What it means to be at the 2010 Paralympic Games

I have made it to the Village. It is an amazing place here. I feel like I am back at college except I know everybody and everybody is here to perform at their best. There is the feeling of an elite society that are here to do what they signed up for and do that at the best that they can. I am glad to be here. I am glad to be apart of this elite society. There are twenty-seven Alpine skiers representing the Country. I am representing one of fifty-three athletes, that is as an individual I am represent 5.8 million people. I hold that on my shoulders and walk proud. I am proud to be an American. I am excited to be competing for America.
I have had a couple of good days here so far. The first day was just a chill day. I got to explore the Village a bit. I bought the souvenirs that I wanted for myself. Expensive, but luckily I got to use my Visa gift cards well, thank you CTAM and USOC. I also made it to the hill. What a cool experience to be able to stand in the finish coral before the racers and spectators showed up. Standing there was truly breath taking.
On the second day I went free skiing on my downhill skis to get used to those again. The skiing was fun. After the skiing I went up and watched the test skiers of the downhill. They all did really well and it was cool to see what my family is going to see. After that I went to the gym and did got a workout in and then chilled the rest of the day.
On Wednesday we got to run the downhill. The downhill is going to be fun. Unfortunately there is a lot of new snow and a lot of fog. We were on a three hour delay. I did get to run but the men's standing did not. I was happy that I got to run. It is done and over with and even if the next run is just the race I will be ready and happy. And on that note today's run was canceled due to snow. There was at least six inches of new snow here at the Village so add a bit more and that is how much there is at the mountain. The great news is that there is more on the way. Downhill always brings out the best weather.
I get the day off and I get to have another day to get ready. I am ready.

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