Now that I’m back in the land of the living, let’s get posting about last night. Chrissamighty, I’m a lucky SOB to be in the right place at the right time. A buddy of mine and I were supporting gold medal hopeful Steve Omischl (who qualified in last night’s event at Cypress…yes!) at the Can Fund atheletes house in the Shaw Tower. Turns out that Shaw is supporting Canadian athletes in a big, quiet way that isnt making headlines in papers because, according to Can Fund founder and executive director Jane Roos, “Shaw is doing what it knows is right” and isn’t actively hounding the press for it.
For those of you who think our athletes are mincing down a golden path or over-indulged with a silver spoon, think again. It was fascinating to get an inside look at a support organization for Olympians and then to talk to said-Olympians about how hard it is to actually make their dreams a reality. Like many artists, they have to figure out how to transform, say, a $12,000 grant into a year’s worth of equipment, substenance, etc.
First up on the Tuesday Hotness docket: the saucy and delightful Katie Weatherston, 2006 gold medalist for Women’s Hockey at Torino, who <<gasp>> actually had her Olympic and World championship medals with her:
She even let me bite her medals, if you know what I mean:
No really. No innuendo. Those medals are real gold!
And oh cool…next there was Ben Rutledge, who won gold in Men`s Rowing in Beijing:
(my flash is a judas)
My Olympian hotness last night actually started with Olympic Freestyle Skier Veronika Bauer, who competed in the women’s aerials here in Vancouver. I tried to steal her chair while she was getting her nails painted. She has the reflexes of an athlete, let me tell you. My chair stealing attempt definitely got a DNF.
Next up on the docket: North Vancouver’s Anna Rice, Badminton Player. She competed in Athens and Beijing and has medaled at several other events:
Then of course there was the auctioning event, where we had a chance to bid on an Olympian orgy:
Fourth from right is Kyle Parrott, who’s actually quite hot, and third from right is Alpine Skier Ryan Semple. If only I had won the auction. If only…
Why you can trust Xtra
