Canadian gold at Sanki

Jump for joy!! 

That's exactly what I did when Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse took the gold medal in women's bobsleigh. I was elated. My team got a medal, a GOLD medal, at my volunteer venue! In the jumping process, I may have pushed my ankle too far, but it was totally worth it! The best part was every Russian on my team came up and gave me a hug. Me. Just a regular Canadian. I was congratulated for the gold medal I did literally nothing to help achieve. That's the Olympics. There's no better way to describe the feeling. When Canada takes home a medal, every single Canadian takes that medal too. It was my shinning moment. Sure, sure, I've said that before, but this has to be the cherry on top of my Olympic experience. My trip has officially been made completely unforgettable.

Getting on my own little podium

Before the final race, my press manager made me a deal. If Canada won gold, he'd let me moderate the press conference. The wagger paid off and I was one of the first people in the world to introduce the team as the gold medal champions. Me! I couldn't believe it. Before the conference I practiced and practiced my speech. When I was up on the platform, the words came out so smoothly. I kept my voice calm (not overly excited like I was in my interview with Mark Connolly) and I kept my pace clean. I'll never forget being a part of Olympic history. This is the first time a team has received two gold medals in women's bobsleigh. This is the first time two american sled teams made the podium. These are Canadian and Olympic record breaking milestones, and I was standing right beside the amazing women who made it happen.

I love how happy they are!

I will never forget this moment. I even traded one of my favourite pins to get the official Canadian bobsled pin! I also couldn't pass up getting the '88 bobsled pin either :)

The good luck keeps flowing

With the bobsled event ending so late, I was at work until 2am. My friend Tania and I managed to catch the first of three buses to the Gorki media centre. There were four of us who were waiting to hop on the bus to the main media centre at the coast. The transportation volunteers told us it would be a 45 minute wait. AT TWO AM! Thankfully a bus driver offered to take us back since his shift was over and he was going that way anyways.

We ended up going on a bit of an adventure through Adler to get fuel. I chatted with an interesting journalist from Michigan the entire ride down. He is covering Michigan athletes, so primarily figure skaters. I'd kill to go see figure skating, but it's an incredibly popular event here, so it probably won't happen.

When we rolled into the main media centre, the bus to our hotel was just leaving. I yelled "HACHU HACHU" which means "I want, I want." Our wonderfully kind bus driver started honking his horn and magically the other bus stopped midway to the street. The four of us, tired from a long day in the mountains, bolted to the bus. As we ran up the stairs, the entire busload of journalists broke into applause. Most of them had been at the Sanki sliding centre for the bobsleigh event, and were happy to see we had made it. If we hadn't caught that bus, it would have been another hour wait.

After the high from watching Canada win gold, and then by chance catching every bus I needed, I crawled into bed around 4am and nodded off to sleep with no regrets. In one day I saw the most beautiful landscapes of the Laura cross country venue, I was part of Olympic history, I met some amazing people, I was interviewed by Mark Connolly and I got back to my residence without waiting outside in the cold. Also the food provided to the volunteers yesterday happened to be phenomenal. All around - a perfect day.