Photo courtesy of Shannon Bahrke

Arriving in Vancouver was a little surreal. As soon as we stepped off the plane we got our credentials. I’m officially an athlete at the Olympics. The pictures on the credentials are horrible, we were not allowed to smile, so I look like I am either trying to steal something or have lived a very unhappy life.

As soon as we got those, we hopped on a bus and headed to our United States Olympic Committee (USOC processing). Processing is where we get to do all of the fun stuff. But first I had to eat! I hadn’t eaten for a while and was starting to get hangry (hungry and angry because you’re hungry).

The first place we headed for after lunch is a huge room filled with Nike and Ralph Lauren clothing. We get a huge shopping cart and we fill it to the tippy top with all kinds of outfits. Our Opening Ceremonies uniforms, Closing Ceremonies uniforms, Podium outfits, hanging-around wear, shoes, hats, gloves, T-shirts, bags. Anything that revolves around our Olympic uniform, we got. It is literally like Christmas on steroids.

After that stop we headed over to Olympic ring sizing. They give us a complimentary ring and if you like you can “upgrade” it. Since I am a woman with a love for bling, I opted for the highest upgrade possible. White gold with a bunch of diamonds!! Then we go to the watch station and pick out our watch. I got the black leather band instead of the all silver one. Then we go to get our picture taken again for I’m not sure what. And since I had been up since 5:30 am, I’m sure that’s a real keeper!

After all of the swag stops, we got to have dinner and then we had an Olympic Ambassador briefing. Dan O’Brien and Nikki Stone took us through an uplifting hour and gave the final sendoff for competing at the Olympics. At this point in the day I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open. Finally at 10:00 pm we got in our team cars and headed home. The entire mogul team and our staff are staying in a house up near our venue. It is a beautiful home and will be a nice place to stay while we are here. We have our own chef who is cooking us fabulous meals. I can’t tell you how cool it is to wake up to the smell of bacon!! So now, I am heading off to sleep because I can’t even think straight anymore. Goodnight from Vancouver!

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