One of the cool things about creating so much content during the Olympic Games is that you can make stuff with it…
Make sure you view the full size image.
I built this using the 1200 photos I’ve uploaded to Flickr (so far) and a fun little program called Photo Collage that I’ve written about before.
I managed to shoot over 17,000 photos and hours of video during the three weeks I was covering the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Whistler, Cypress and even Whitehorse, Yukon for a day.
Here is the 8 minute version of those 3 weeks:
Music: Above & Beyond – World on Fire (12″ Remix)
I managed to kill my DSLR shooting on Cypress Mountain in the rain…it’s in the shop getting looked at so my fingers are crossed. I’m going to miss the first half of the Paralympic Games because I’ll be in Austin, Texas attending South by Southwest but I hope to catch the tail end when I get back….hopefully with a working camera.
A huge thank you to all my friends, family (especially my wife, Stacie), the staff and volunteers at the BC International Media Centre and all those that helped make these Games the amazing, once in a lifetime, experience that it was for me.
I hope you enjoy the video as much as I enjoyed making and living it from (mostly) behind the camera.
Easily one of the busiest pavilions, the Royal Canadian Mint had fantastic crowds of people for one simple reason: they let you touch the medals!
A coworker waited 9 hours in line to get his photo with the Gold medal!
The Million Dollar coin (now actually worth about $3.5Million)
Of course, I had to hold a Gold medal myself too
The main pavilion closed at the end of the Winter Games but I’ve heard they are moving to a different location for the Paralympic Games so you’ll still have a chance to handle the medals. The lineups might even be more manageable.
UPDATE: The Mint has announced it’s new location during the Paralympic Games – The Vancouver Public Library.
Science World was transformed into Sochi World to present Russia’s host city for the next Winter Olympics after Vancouver in 2014.
I have to say, it was a pretty wild pavilion…I felt like I was inside a Russian airport from the future…or a wicked set from a James Bond movie. So much going on, so many people and so many unique things I’ve never seen before (having never been to Russia). I think they accomplished their goal of immersing visitors in the Russian culture.
I’m still not sure about their mascot though…
Outside near the enormous line to get in was an impromptu sing along:
I’m pretty sure after the Winter Olympic experience I’ve had in Vancouver, I’m going to do whatever I can to get myself to Sochi in 2014.
Purely a monster name drop post of some of the awesome athletes I was fortunate enough to photograph during my Olympic Adventures:
Jasey-Jay Anderson, Gold medallist for Snowboard Parallel Slalom
The entire Men’s Gold medal winning Speed Skating Team, including double Gold medal winner Charles Hamelin
Clara Hughes, Bronze medalist for speed skating
Ashleigh McIvor, Gold medalist for Women’s Ski Cross
Gold medalists for Ice Dancing, Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue
Kevin Martin and members of the Gold medal winning Men’s Curling team
Cheryl Bernard and the Women’s Silver medal winning Curling team
Maelle Ricker, Gold medalist for Snowboard Cross
Team USA figure skater, Johnny Weir
Canada’s new drinking buddy, Jon Montgomery, Gold medalist for skeleton
Silver medal winning Woman’s short track team
Jenn Heil and the Women’s mogul team
Alex Bilodeau, Canada’s first Gold medal on home soil for Men’s Moguls
and finally, the Great One himself, Wayne Gretzky
Click through on any of these photos for more from each of their photosets.
I was warned that pin trading is a HUGE part of every Olympic Games and Scales & kk couldn’t have been more right
These guys are HUGE pinheads 
Here’s just a small sampling of what I scored during the games:
Of course, the fact that Apple had Canadian pins was pretty cool:
But this is probably my most prized pin gift given to me by a Samsung Executive during a press conference where they announced they were an official sponsor of the Paralympic Winter Games:
I’m not sure I’m quite a pinhead yet…but I can certainly see the appeal. We’ll have to see what happens in London…
My view of the win from Robson Square…a perfect close to an amazing Winter Olympic Games for me.
Another random interview/photo opportunity popped up yesterday when Rebecca & I met up with George Stroumboulopoulos, from CBC’s The Hour, outside Robson Square and we shot a quick interview with him:
I love how he dealt with fans while we were shooting the interview…very cool guy.
Canada’s favorite Skeleton man, Jon Montgomery discusses how he originally discovered Skeleton and what steps he went through to get involved in the sport:
While not directly Olympics related, it happened during the games so I’m going to include it here as it’s all part of my experiences in February. This event was a nice diversion after a week of Olympics related activity.
My good friends at Molson invited a bunch of local folks over to their brewery to check out their latest beer offering, Rickard’s Dark. Unlike other beer events I’ve been to, this one featured a food pairing that we got to experience blindfolded! To make it even more interesting, the food was prepared by the Irish Heather’s own Chef Lee Humphries.
I haven’t figured out how to let you taste their new beer yet via this website so for now, here is some food porn:
English sticky toffee with BACON ice cream!!!
I can only hope that the Irish Heather starts to offer some of these amazing dishes.
Dave Olson even had a chance to record an Olympic Outsider podcast with Gord Rickard himself:
As I mentioned, the food tasting was done via blindfold and was held around lunch time….it wasn’t until the dinner hour that I realized I had managed to drip some food (not even sure what it was, possibly the sticky toffee) onto my True North Media House badge and had been walking around with it stuck on there for most of the afternoon.
I don’t think anybody noticed…
