Long Days for Jay;
Report on First Biathlon
By Jay Bender

Your Cross Country Skier correspondent on the scene, Jay Bender, filed this report from Whistler Olympic Park.

February 14, 2010 - I have been here less than a week, but it already seems like a month. After acreditation ID and uniform pick-up in the city of Vancouver, I headed an hour north, up the breathtaking Sea to Sky Highway to Squamish, B.C., my home for the next three weeks.

The Biathlon, Cross Country and Ski Jumping venues are all at Whistler Olympic Park, another hour north of Squamish in the Callaghan Valley. Because of the narrow highway, and lack of parking near the venues, everyone, including those of us officiating at the Olympics, must ride a series of buses to get there. If the buses are on time it is still a two-hour ordeal.... each way. While we are all excited and enthusiastic about being involved, it turns eight-hour days in to 12-hour ones, with only enough time to get home, have a bite to eat and get straight to bed....ready for another 5 am wake-up call.

Before I whine too much, let me say that everyone is super to work with, friendly, and a pleasure to be around, so we are sharing this experience, coping with the transit issues, and still having a fantastic time. I have made some lasting friendships already.

Yesterday was the first of the biathlon comptetions, the women's sprint. In the few days leading up to this first race, everyone was working very hard on the complex task of staging an Olympic event. It was all business and there was a bit of tension, not spoken, but percieved. After that first race was over, and all had gone well, a collective sigh of relief was felt. We know what we have to do, and we are doing it.

My job here is to record on video what occurs on the shooting range during each race. I have three high-def cameras covering all 30 lanes from different angles, along with the ski lane behind the shooting mats. I have 10 minutes to get the cameras placed and running while the range is closed just prior to each race, immediately after the "Zero" period and just before the start.

During the race, luckily for me, I can't do anything but watch from one of the best seats in the house! On Saturday, IOC President Jaques Rogge was standing BEHIND me. Then, when the race is over, I must quickly collect the cameras and go immediately to the jury room in case the competition jury needs to see footage to resolve a protest. If no protest is filed during the brief protest window after the race, I'm off the hook for that day and preparations begin for the next race day.

If you watch network television you probably think we have no snow at all here, and that what we have has been trucked in. That is the case way down near Vancouver at Cypress, where the moguls competitions are being held. At Whistler/Blackcomb, and here at Whistler Olympic Park, there is lots of snow.

What the problem has been here at the higher altitude venues is warm temperatures. If there is precipitation, it is either wet, heavy snow or rain. The ski track has been soft and with the number of athletes and wax technicians skiing, it turns to gush pretty quickly. Apparently some fertilizer (urea) has been added to the snow to make it freeze at a higher temperature than normal.

The track was noticably firmer today (Sunday), but it still deteriorates during a race and an early start bib has made a huge difference in both the women's and men's sprint races. El Nino conditions and a "Pineapple Express" sending one warm system after another has kept officials battling to keep the course in good shape. Considering the weather, it is in the best shape possible and, frankly, better than many conditions I've skied elsewhere.

The men's sprint on Sunday was complicated for later starters by a weather system that moved in about 10 minutes after the start of the race... first rain, then wet, heavy snow accompanied by gusty winds. Reports were that when that hit, skis got REALLY slow. It was evident in the diminished ski speed of some of the top biathletes, and was seen on the range with missed targets.

Jeremy Teela had a moderately early start bib (#13), had a great race and a great finish in ninth. Tim Burke started only 16 spots back, or eight minutes later, and hit some of that nasty weather. That, combined with a few misses ,put him down in 47th place. Team USA's Lowell Bailey and Jay Hakkinen cleaned both shooting bouts, but their usually fast ski speed was affected by the conditions, putting them in 36th and 54th, respectively.

Forcasts are for drier conditions, although not much colder for a while. We'll get a break from biathlon for a day, so I'll head over to the Cross Country venue (right next door) tomorrow to catch Kris Freeman in the men's 15k, as well as the women's 10k (which Kikkan Randall is skipping)..