Home Stretch

We have had an amazing trip to Vancouver, and we'll be headed home in just another 36 hours. It's gone by SO fast!!! The city is absolutely gorgeous and has so much to offer. I'd be willing to bet we'll find ourselves back here for a vacation at some point in the future, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who's been thinking about a trip out to the West Coast :)

Emily's finals last night were so exciting! I know the coverage was on late last night for you East Coasters, so I'm assuming some of you may not have seen it. We were a little worried when we got up to Cypress Mountain, as it was raining and very foggy, neither of which is very good for an aerials competition. Luckily, the rain let up and the fog lifted enough for the girls to compete, though the competition was delayed for about a half hour or so. The venue was absolutely packed, despite the fact that there was a big Canadian hockey game going on when we arrived :) (Canada won, by the way!) Last night's competition was some of the most incredible women's aerials jumping I have ever seen! The field was near perfect and there was some stiff competition. Most of the women looked beautiful in the air AND stuck their landings. The winner of the gold medal was Lydia Lassila of Australia, and silver and bronze went to the Chinese women. (We actually saw Lydia blow out her knee in Torino - something I will never forget... It was a very nice change this time around to see her up on that podium!!)

Mark and I were SO proud to cheer Emily on!!! She is such an incredible athlete and an amazing person. She has overcome many obstacles to be here, and it was overwhelming and awesome to watch her compete in the medal round at her 2nd Olympic games. I can't even begin to imagine what the last few weeks have been like for Emily and her dad - definitely full of emotion and anticipation, I'm sure. We saw Emily briefly today for lunch, and she is just so thankful for all of the love and support she has received from everyone around the world supporting her career and this journey in particular.

Everyone is on their way to the men's finals as we speak, and it should be an exciting competition tonight! The Canadian home crowd has 3 athletes in the field, including Emily's boyfriend, Steve Omischl. The American guys are also placed very well for this competition, with Speedy (and his trick "The Hurricane") sitting in 5th, and Ryan St. Onge in 2nd from the qualifiers. The men's competition starts at 6pm tonight, so 9pm for you all on the East Coast. Make sure you watch and cheer on the guys!!!

Women's Qualifiers

We had an awesome day yesterday, despite the fact that it started at 4am ;) We had to catch an early bus to the venue at Cypress Mountain (where the Freestyle skiing events are being held) for Emily's 10am qualifying round. After a bus ride up the mountain at what seemed like a maximum speed of about 5 miles per hour (those busses were not made to climb mountain roads!), we waited in a long line for the venue to open. Thankfully we had lots of warm clothes since the sun wasn't even up yet! Once the venue opened, we got settled into our viewing spots and connected with friends and family of some of the other athletes and waited for the event to start.

Hopefully most of you watched the coverage on TV yesterday, but Emily had an amazing competition!!! Many of the athletes yesterday had trouble with their landings, but Emily was not among them. She executed beautifully and landed both of her jumps, placing her in 5th for the qualifying round, which means she will compete 5th from last in the final on Wednesday. (Typically, it is better to perform as late as possible in the finals, as judges tend to reserve higher scoring for the end of the competition.) Of the 23 women who competed yesterday, 12 will move onto the finals, including 3 American women - Emily and her teammates Lacey Schnoor and Ashley Caldwell (who is only 16!!). This is the first time since the 1998 Olympics that any American woman has made it past the qualifying round, so the ladies had a pretty good day overall yesterday.

Here is a link to the video on the NBC Olympics website, but I've also attached the live version of Emily's second jump that I took from the stands. The shaking in the video is from Emily's dad's leg bouncing up and down next to me :)

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/assetid=df9d63ed-bc6e-4f5d-af64-8bcd08613927.html

Vancouver 2010

We're finally here! It feels like we've been planning this trip forever, but it came up so much faster than we thought. After a VERY LONG day of travel, we made it here on Wednesday and have been getting settled in. The house we're staying in is beautiful and close to transit to downtown Vancouver. Only a 15 minute bus ride, and we're in the center of everything. Lily has been a champ with the travel and the time change, and we couldn't be more excited to be here.

Emily's first event is tomorrow morning - the women's aerials qualifiers, so keep an eye on your Olympic coverage TV at home! The competition is at 10am tomorrow (Pacific time), and the top 12 women will advance on to the finals, which are scheduled for the 24th.