It’s great when we get info from our Olympic’s. This note is from Darcy Marquardt. Enjoy the read!!
Hi all,
Can you believe the Opening Ceremonies are tonight?? The Games really are upon us! And racing begins for some tomorrow.
Before I forget, our first race (the heats) is on Sunday at 12noon, UK time (7amEST, 4amPST).
We face Romania and the Nederland’s in a 3 boat race, the winner going directly through to the final. It makes it REAL when you know your competitors for your first race at the Olympics.
We are settling into the “other” London quite nicely. Our hotel is just a 15min drive to the rowing venue; having opted out of the Athlete’s Village again this time around.
The food is amazing and our transportation is great: our coach has a 15seater van so we can all travel to the course together (about 15min away).
It was like Christmas morning the other night when we all received our HBC suitcase with all the CANADA wear.
I posted a picture on Twitter with the jean jacket, complete with patches, and funky plaid ball cap. Some call it a Canadian Tuxedo, but I just call it interesting?
A special moment happened on the race course yesterday evening when we found ourselves the only crew in sight at the start line of the Dorney race course.
Our coach, John, was shouting to us from the bike “Look around! Look around you! You own this course!”
So cool to see his visible excitement and I certainly got goose bumps when I realized it was just us. A memorable moment, indeed!!Tonight we will be dressed in our Opening Ceremonies gear in our hotel dining room, watching the CTV news feed, but unfortunately going to bed before
Team Canada marches in at 10:15pm.
Part of our prep for race day is getting on the schedule ahead of time which means getting up early to be at the race course for 6:30am.Enjoy what you can of the Openings and you’ll hear from me again at some point before the final.
Thanks for the cheers!
Darcy