Interview on Winter Olympics 2010
Allison AndersonCutrightCisneros
Issue date: 3/10/10 Section: Diversions
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Ben Wilking: I went the first weekend of the Games. It was February. I left on the 12th. I came back on the 15th. It was that three-day weekend we have with Monday off for Presidents' Day.
AC: Did you go with anyone else?
BW: No, but my dad, he's the photo manager for the Alpine skiing events and all those things up in the mountains. So he's been working there since January. So he was there and my mom and one of my cousins, actually. They met me up there too.
AC: Did you work for your dad for the Olympics?
BW: No. Just, there for fun.
AC: How did you get to the Olympic Games?
BW: It was a direct flight, actually, from Phoenix into Vancouver. Then through immigration and customs.
AC: Were there a lot of people in the Phoenix airport going to the Olympics?
BW: Yeah, almost my entire flight was people going to the Games.
AC: Is that all the conversation on the plane was about, going to the Games?
BW: Yeah, pretty much.
AC: Where did you stay once you got up there?
BW: My dad has a lot of volunteers, like local people just helping out, you know? And one of his volunteers rents out his condo and my cousin and I stayed there. We were going to stay in my dad's condo. He's got a place for a couple months but there wasn't enough room. So we just got a little place in the town of Whistler.
AC: So your dad's a photo manager, does he work for a company?
BW: He actually works for Reuters News Agency. It's like a contract photo service but he's working for the Vancouver Olympic committee.
AC: So what did you see at the Olympics?
BW: I went to men's ski jumping, men's luge finals, and I went to the first medal ceremony of the games. It was cool.
AC: Did you see any professional athletes that stood out?
BW: Well, the athlete that won the gold at men's ski jumping, his name is Simon Ammann. He's from Switzerland and I was pretty excited about that because I was born in Zurich, Switzerland. He got the first gold in the games and after he got his gold medal and everything, in the town of Whistler they've got the House of Switzerland. Every European country gets a house for the Olympics. So he was signing autographs and there was a big party for all the Swiss people. So I went over there and I got a couple Swiss flags signed by him. It was really cool to see him. He ended up winning, I think it's four or five but I don't know. I think he's won like four or five golds., which is just unheard of for a single person at ski jumping.
[For the 2010 Olympics, Simon Ammann took two gold medals with him. His total count is four Olympic gold medals. He earned two of those in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.]
AC: Was there any particular jump that stuck out?
BW: Well, his winning jump was like 109 meters and everybody else was like 105, 106 and his was just way farther. It was really cool.
AC: Are you planning on going to the Winter Olympics again?
BW: I would love to. It's the second time I went. I went to the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City and I went to the Summer Games in 1996 in Atlanta. So, I've been a few times. I'd love to go again. I like the Winter Games more than Summer Games.
AC: Why?
BW: I don't know, it's more my kind of sport. I've been skiing since I was two years old. So, I'm pretty big into skiing. So I like to watch all the skiing events… I don't know why! I mean, I guess it's just like there's a lot more really fun events. Hockey, bob sled, luge, jumping, ski racing. I love men's downhill. There's just a lot more really fun events. I mean, I like the Summer Games too but it's not quite as fun.
AC: How did it feel being at the medals ceremony?
BW: That was really cool! It was the first one of the games and the Swiss got first gold. It was pretty emotional, it was pretty cool.
AC: Are you Swiss? Are you an International Student?
BW: No, my parents are both American. I was just born in Switzerland. My citizenship is U.S. I'm kind of a Swiss fan, you know? I play it up. It's fun.
AC: Anything you want to add?
BW: One thing I think they might talk about is, did you hear about the luger that died? It was kind of interesting being at that event after that happened because there was some uncertainty like "Are they still going to do it?". Maybe the [ERAU] students don't know but it's the fastest luge track ever in history. It's a very dangerous track. When I went to the event they'd built a new wall where he crashed. I could see that wall and it's right at the finish line.
AC: "Being at that event"… were you there when he crashed?
BW: No, no I wasn't there. But it's kind of interesting because the track comes down and there's a giant turn at the bottom and then the finish line. Right there, he crashed. Right on the finish line. It's uphill where he crashed. It's uphill, like 30 degrees for 150 yards to slow down. He crashed right at the end, going uphill. It was a sad event. It was a sad accident. It was interesting being there at that event where it happened.
AC: But they kept on going with it, right?
BW: Right. What they did was they made the men start where the women used to start and the women started like where the juniors used to start. That slowed it down a little bit.
AC: Were you warm?
BW: Yeah, it wasn't bad. It rained a lot actually. It wasn't too cold. Yeah, it wasn't bad.
AC: Did the raining interfere with any of the events?
BW: Yeah! A lot of the events got really delayed because it was rainy and foggy. So they weren't able to do the training runs for some of the ski events. Those got pushed back like a week. Oh, I saw Joe Biden while I was there. He came up for the men's downhill race and I and my cousin and my mom were just walking through town and he was coming out of a hotel right there. It was kinda cool. I said hi to him. That was neat.
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