43. Attend at least one Olympic event, either qualifying round or medal round.

The Olympics were a blast. I've never seen the city more alive, and more cheerfully patriotic! We managed to take in some of the sights, like the torch relay (went right by our balcony!), a live site, the general downtown clamour, the HBC store madness, the Olympic flame cauldron, and even a few street hockey games, including one on Broadway after the big gold medal win. But aside from all that, we had various family and friends going to sporting events on many days during the Olympics. I personally managed to satisfy the requirements of this 101 Things List item four times over with four events:

1. Men's hockey (preliminary round) - United States (3) vs. Switzerland (1)
Holly, Sophie, Mom, Dad and I went to G.M. Canada Hockey Place to see what basically amounted to an NHL all-star game, although less so on Switzerland's side. Luckily, one of Switzerland's best players was their goalie, Hiller. So it was Hiller vs. Miller, and many good saves were made. And hooray for Ryan Kesler - Vancouver Canuck, and one of approximately 40 Ryans on team USA!


2. Women's curling (round robin session) - China (4) vs. Great Britain (5), Germany (6) vs. United States (5), Switzerland (7) vs. Sweden (8), Japan (6) vs. Canada! (7)
Mom and Dad and I went to curling, as Holly ended up being stuck sick at home. This was the only time I got to see Team Canada competing, so that was special! It was neat, because they just barely beat Japan, who had a strong support base of fans in attendence, including a really nice guy who was sitting right next to Dad. The building was frequently rocking to competing cries of "Nippon!" "Canada!" "Nippon!" "Canada!". It was also neat to see the eventual medalists (G: Sweden, S: Canada, B: China) in early play. Plus, we saw the mascots! Fun!


3. Women's hockey (preliminary round) - Slovakia (2) vs. Switzerland (5)
This was a bigger group - Holly, Sophie, Mom, Dad, Kristi, Kristi's co-worker Joyce, and I went to the evening game. It was an incredibly exciting game - the teams were evenly matched (Switzerland's stronger offense against Slovakia's excellent goaltending) until partway into the third period, then Switzerland pulled away as Slovakia tired. Great game!


4. Men's ice sledge hockey (preliminary round) - Japan (2) vs. Czech Republic (1)
Kristi, Munir, Holly and I attended this game, and I was so impressed with the sledge hockey players, holy cow. The amount of arm and upper body strength required to propel yourself around on a sledge must be absolutely huge. And from a programmer's point of view (with no arm strength or shoulders to speak of), the amazingness is just amplified. And these guys were fast, especially a few of those playing for Japan. It was great to get a chance to see sledge hockey, and I look forward to following it more closely in Sochi.


All in all, I'm glad Vancouver got the games, and I think they did a decent job as host city. Yay!