Paralympic ice sledge hockey

Last Thursday night, March 18th, we went to one of the two Paralympic ice sledge hockey semifinals - USA vs Norway - which was at the Thunderbird Arena at UBC. It was great to finally see an actual Olympic/Paralympic sporting event in person, especially one so entertaining and fast-paced. What a sport - those guys are truly impressive!

Earlier that day, the Canadian sledge hockey team, who were the favourites to win gold, had lost their semifinal to Japan, which was pretty much when the Canadian public stopped paying attention. However, the tournament did of course go on, and the final results two days later were: fourth place to Canada, bronze medal to Norway, silver medal to Japan, and gold medal to the USA. So we saw both the gold- and bronze-winning teams... just not during the actual medal events!

Before the game, Ben and I were trying to figure out which team to cheer for. It was quite a conundrum. Ben ended up deciding to cheer for Norway. I didn't have a strong conviction either way, so I said I'd just cheer for both teams.... ha! However, during the game I found myself quite enthusiastically cheering for the USA, so that was that. Maybe it was something to do with the section full of flag-bearing, face-painted, jersey-wearing, screaming Americans immediately beside me...

The sledge hockey players ranged from those who had had one or both legs amputated, to those who had both legs but were presumably paralysed. All the work is done with their arms - they hold a stick in each hand, and use those to push themselves along the ice on the sledge they are sitting on (which has an ice skate type blade underneath it). The sticks flip over to become the hockey sticks they hit the puck with. Ice sledge hockey is pretty much as brutal as regular ice hockey - crashing into walls, slamming into each other, sticks and pucks going flying, sledges tipping over, etc!

Ice sledge hockey was definitely worth seeing - and only cost $25 per person! It would have been even more exciting had the game been a little closer (USA beat Norway 3-0), but the US team was exceptionally good. In the entire tournament, not a single goal was scored against them by any team. Amazing! My carefully considered strategy as to which team to cheer for definitely worked out. :P

Here are some photos and a video compilation from the match. The USA is wearing white and Norway is in red. Enjoy!

Norway fans...





USA fans...







And the video...

So that's ice sledge hockey - what do you think?!

Click here to see our Winter Paralympics photo album.

Paralympic Opening Ceremony

Last Friday night, March 12th, Ben and I went with Ruth, Davina and Rosalie to the Opening Ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Paralympic Games. This was an AWESOME experience! I have so many photos and videos to upload to this post that hopefully they will convey some of the excitement and atmosphere, because it's hard to put something like this into words. Suffice to say that it was at various times moving, energetic, inspiring, patriotic, jaw-dropping, and beautiful. For only $30, it was a truly amazing experience and an incredible feeling to be there in person!

We all wore plastic ponchos in either green, white, dark or light blue (our section was white), so that the audience of 60000 people turned the inside of BC Place into a living mural of the Paralympic logo colours.

As well as the ponchos, the bags attached to our seats contained a white plastic pompom with flashing red lights inside it, a reflective silver card to shine on cue so the spotlights could turn the crowd into thousands of glittering flashes, and a great souvenir book from the ceremony (one of my favourite pages is O Canada in Braille beside the written version!). The ceremony included a lot of audience participation, including everyone learning an easy dance (before the ceremony started) to do during one performer's song - and which is meant to get us into the Guinness Book of Records (presumably because of the sheer number of people doing it at once)!

Here are some photos and video from the start of the Ceremony (ever seen 60000 people do a Mexican wave before?), including the band playing and some children welcoming the world to Vancouver...













Here's the Governor General of Canada, Michaelle Jean, being led into the arena by children before declaring the Winter Paralympic Games open...







Then, as the children danced, the hanging centrepiece (for want of a better phrase!) lowered around them, and Sumi (one of the four First Nations-inspired Olympic mascots, and the animal guardian spirit of the Games) rose out of the mountain and flew slowly around...















And then it was time for the athletes to enter! Davina and I (and Ben, although to a lesser degree because he was also taking photos) went absolutely mental when the Aussies entered... standing up, cheering, waving our boxing kangaroo flag... but, alas, to our knowledge we did not attract the attention of the big screen cameras! ;)













As the host nation, the Canadian team entered last, and the stadium simply erupted; people were on their feet cheering, chanting and screaming... it was fantastic!! The video below shows both the USA and Canadian teams entering...

The ceremony continued with musical acts and dancing - in many cases by incredibly talented disabled performers, such as a guy who did break-dancing-like moves on his crutches, and a group of skateboarders with prosthetic limbs and guys in wheelchairs who performed jumps and stunts on a skate ramp (see video of Fefe Dobson's song below). Mind-blowing!!

Two young Canadian singers got the crowd going: 25-year-old Fefe Dobson with "I Want You" and "Watch Me Move" (the video with the flames), and 16-year-old Nikki Yanofsky with "We Rise Again". Nikki was accompanied by a choir of 2010 children who stood up and sang from their seats (you can see the choir in the photo and second video below - they are wearing red and white)...

Then there were speeches by important people, large balloons and feathers, huge moving images projected onto the floor, and the raising of the Paralympic flag...



















Rick Hansen, a Canadian paraplegic athlete and activist for people with spinal cord injuries, gave an inspirational speech...

And then it was time for the entrance of the Paralympic flame. This was preceded by a video montage of the late Canadian humanitarian, athlete and cancer research activist Terry Fox, and then, accompanied by a great deal of cheering and pompoms flickering in the dark, the flame was walked slowly into the arena by Terry's parents, Betty and Rolly Fox, who live in one of Vancouver's neighbouring cities. In a beautiful and moving finale to the ceremony, the flame passed around the circle of torchbearers and the cauldron was lit by future Canadian paralympian, 15-year-old Zach Beaumont.













And that was the Opening Ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Paralympic Games... truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

To see more photos, click here.