Welcome to Eircom Special Olympics

Team Ireland Diaries

Thursday 12th February

Well it's day 5 here in Boise and the second last day of competition. Today we had the divisioning runs for the Slalom event, our favourite, this is what we came for and our spirits are high.

We are tired but we know that one last push today will set us up nicely for the grand finale on Friday. It is a cold dark morning as we board the bus and are greeted by Gayle, our driver since we got to Boise. His cheery smile in the wee hours of a frosty morning are difficult not to respond to. He has been looking after us so well, always making sure we are all on board and that we have help to get us and our equipment on the bus in jig time. Eddie and himself have bonded, comparing notes on "working on the buses".

It's 7am as we pull out of The Holiday Inn Express on Vista and Gayle says it's going to be a little longer than usual as the road conditions are poor on the mountain. At last we round the final bend and enter "The Basin". Bogus Basin is a natural basin with slopes leading down form the mountain on all sides in to the car park. The lifts have started and the patrols are out on the ski mobiles checking the course and ensuring that everything is right for the day ahead.

As the day brightens we are in the athlete lounge getting our boots on and this morning we have hot chocolate before we head out as you can tell it's going to be a cold one. As usual we are nearly first to hit the slopes and we are all anxious to see the new course. The air is tense in the venue this morning, there's a storm due in and everyone is watching the skies.

Today we have 2 runs and following that will be grouped in to divisions for finals tomorrow so it is important that we complete the course and stay safe. The first of our 2 runs at 10am starts on time with the forerunner heading down the slopes as the clock strikes the hour. This morning, we are back in order of bib number so we will have a while to wait at the top. Athletes numbered 1 - 103 are all ahead of us but we maintain our focus and wait to be called. One after another the six of us fly down the hill, as does Eddie and the luck of the Irish definitely travelled to Boise as we all had clear runs. It is now snowing heavily and very cold so we head back in to the athlete lounge for more hot chocolate. Even the police on duty are huddled around the few gas heaters that are operating.

Halfway through our break it is announced that our second run is to be brought forward to 12.30pm as the storm is due to worsen. We are back in our gear as quick as we can and back out to put on our skis to be ready on time. Again the order is the same as earlier in the morning and we wait patiently for our call. By 12.55pm we are all down and despite the thickening snow we remained clear. Meanwhile over on the intermediate slope the competition is intense with athletes cutting a fine dash as they come down the shorter slalom course.

It is now 1.15pm and we have to wait for a while to ensure that all scores were recorded and that there were no problems with any of the runs. All is good and by 3pm we are back out to see Gayle and as usual he is ready and waiting for us. As we board the bus he tells us that it was his pleasure to have us on his bus all week and that next week life was going to be very boring without us to brighten his day. We gave him 3 cheers and off we set down the mountain.

It has been a somewhat strange and subdued day but at least now we are on the home stretch. Tomorrow we face the slopes and the challenge of the Basin for the last time and we are confident that we will be brave in our attempt to conquer them. They haven't beaten us yet, and with all our families both here and at home, the Irish volunteers that are here and our good team spirit we don't think they can.

We look forward to tomorrow evening when we will have the chance to give you a final update from Bogus Basin and, you'd never know, we may just have something interesting to tell you.

Schedule for Friday February 13th

9.30am: Run number 1 for both novice and intermediate Slalom

12noon: Run number 2 for both novice and intermediate Slalom.

Elaine

Click 'next' or 'previous' for more blog entries

• Previous
• Next