Unless you watch no TV whatsoever, you can’t miss the coverage of the Winter Olympics taking place in Vancouver as I write this. It turns out that one of my very close friends, Lars, just happens to be assisting the Danish delegation (18 athletes and about 19 officials plus ‘Olympic Family’) based out of the Vancouver Olympic Village. Not only is he in the epicenter of the Olympics this month – he also has accreditation that gets him in just about everywhere at every venue! Ask me if I am envious?
As the official ‘gofer,’ his job is to help with just about anything, including driving athletes/officials around, arranging tailors for athletes, shopping up a storm, getting special guests accredited etc.
One of the highlights, so far, was during the rehearsal on Feb. 10th for the opening ceremonies. Lars was selected by the Danish Chef de Mission for the great honor of marshalling a delegation of distinguished, former Olympic athletes (who were offered this opportunity as stand-ins for the various delegations).
Now, if any of you watched the actual opening ceremonies on Feb. 12th, as I did (I must admit, I felt quite nostalgic and proud to be a Vancouverite that night) you know just how spectacular it was. Lars was made Flag-Bearer and asked to lead the Danish delegation through the entire stadium-route, right past Brian Adams, Nelly Furtado, Sarah McLachlan, K.D. Lang and many other celebrities, who were performing exactly as they would be on the official night. According to Lars, leading the group into BC Place in front of a crowd of 60,000 cheering people was quite the rush!
On opening ceremony night, his job was to lead the 37+ people from the Danish group from the Olympic Village right up to the gate where the delegations were filmed as they entered. Another highlight for Lars was assisting with the Team Welcome Ceremony for Denmark, which was preceded by a press conference, both of which had the attendance of HRH The Crown Prince of Denmark and Princess Mary. I can’t wait to hear more about Lars’ Olympic experience the next time I see him.
I know from my Danish network that the Danish speed skater, Cathrine Grave, and other athletes have expressed interest in meeting local Danes while they are in Vancouver. I am proud to say that my friends have risen to the task and have organized a ‘Celebrate-our-Athletes’ night for them, which takes place Friday Feb. 26th at a restaurant called Capones. I actually mailed out the invitation myself to the 100 or so Danes that I have on my Danes in Vancouver e-mail list (a social networking group that I started years ago). So, knowing that all who are on my list are young, active, and dynamic people, I can guarantee that the night will be an exciting one for the athletes. Hopefully, many new friendships will be formed – a shame I can’t attend myself. But one thing is certain, I will be glued to my TV screen watching the closing ceremonies which start at 17:30 Vancouver time (2:30 a.m. here) on Sun. Feb. 28th.