Farewell to all our Ruhpolding Friends

Our time in Ruhpolding wildly surpassed our expectations , and everyone is sad to leave. What made the event so memorable for us was the friendliness of the local people and the characters we met. We say goodbye until next year in Canmore, to all our new friends:
Jakob the 4th and Jakob the 5th, the Gluhwein bar owners, Herbert the head of tourism, Lumpi, the race sound manager, Andreas the volunteer tent schmoozer, Flo the cappuccino bar caretaker, the Austrian Grandpa with the friendship drink bottle, Herman the German, the newscaster who we never really appreciated how famous he was, and of course our hotel owner Markus the John Cleese of Ruhpolding.
Auf Wiedersehn

The Relay or Getting Featured on Eurovision

The Youth Men Relay started with an exciting mass start. There were 22 countries, entered, which was the largest number in the competition. The relay is a sprint format with two shootings and penalty loops. However, the difference in the relay is that each athlete has an additional three bullets available which are loaded individually by hand. Kurtis started in the number one position for Canada. He cleaned his first round without using any extra bullets, and was in an excellent position. He had some trouble with his extra bullet on the second round, but he kept his cool and was able to shoot five for five. In the front pack there was a group of three, Germany, Norway and Italy, who were way out in front. Next was the middle pack which included Canada. In the relay, the cheering is very intense because each country has only one team. The fans were going crazy and the noise level grew and grew throughout the race. Then, on Kurtis final lap, after the steep downhill, he had a spill. I didn’t see it, but Patti (our most faithful fan) had seen it, and she counted only three seconds before he was up. The spill was so fabulous that it was featured on the Jumbotron and on the Eurovision race summary film, so Canada sure had a lot of exposure. We found out later that night from Mattias( a Canadian coach) that there were 4,000 fans in attendance and an additional 500,000 fans watched the race and the spill on Eurosport!!! Kurtis had managed to put our team in 9th place, and the excitement started to build.
After a flawless handoff, Scott Gow, the second Canadian started off. He skied like a demon and shot without penalty. For the rest of the race I joined Patti on the hill. She ran up the hill with each Canadian pass, swinging her noisemaker and screaming out encouragement, until the athlete was out of sight. She would then run down the hill, and start again with the next one. She also cheered for the Italians by shouting ‘go cappuccino’ for each athlete. On her return, Patti’s noisemaker swinging arm is going to need a massage. Scott had a great race, managed to gain time, and we started the third leg in a great spot.
Joel Pacas (from Canmore), was the third and final relay athlete for Canada. The coaches on the hill were screaming out information in all languages, and Patti finished her final three hill runs. Joel had his best race of the week in the relay, and only missed one shot on the range, so everyone was screaming and cheering him onto the finish, where Canada ended up with 9th spot, a top 10 finish!!! Yahoo!!

After the Individual

The Support Group Training Plan or Taking one for the Team

We have had various goals over the week, but top on the list was gaining access to the VIP tent. There wasn’t a VIP tent in Italy, so we were surprised when the very stern Man at the gate wouldn’t let us into the tent, no matter how personable and eloquent our German speaking team members were. Of course this caused consternation for many members of the support group, and the mission was set in motion. We started out meeting people at the disappearing log cabin(mentioned in previous blog note) and suddenly, events were set in motion and have taken on a life of their own. We finally gained access to the tent on Tues, but due to the guilt feelings of one team member, who didn’t agree with our schmoozing tactics, we had to work on getting the actual passes. The Canadian coaches were only given two passes and had been sharing, so we came up with our Strategy of ‘Taking one for the Team”. Well, suffice to say that on Rolf’s 50th birthday, we were presented with 12 VIP PASSES from the Mayor as guests of the organizing committee. The coaches could not believe how we managed it and I thought that Jean Paquet’s eyes were going to pop out. So, now we have access to free gourmet food, wine, cappuccino bar, giant beer coolers, and the piece de resistance is the Gluhvine balcony overlooking the Start and the warm up area. Cheers!

The Individual

The Individual was held over two days and was a grueling 12.5 km race for the youth men with four shootings and one minute penalties instead of penalty loops. It was a gut churning event to watch as placings flop back and forth according to shots hit or missed.
Kurtis started off hitting four, and then hit five, so was 15th and the Canadians were going crazy. His mom was not aware of his shooting as she was at her favourite spot on the trail ‘the hump’, and was trying not to pass out from hyperventilating. However I was aware that something was going on when the Swedish Team coach started talking about the Canadaish over the walkie talkie, so suffice to say that I was barely breathing.
Anyway, back to the race. Kurtis told us later that he was really tired when he got into the range for his third shooting, and he missed three shots. So, then he dropped back to 60th spot,(this from my correspondent Rolf). But he resumed skiing like a demon, and returned to the range to hit 5/5, and finished in 35 or 37 (oops, note to self, check the facts before writing). He reports that it was a very difficult race, but we were very happy with the results.Please check the Biathlon World website for other results, as your faithful correspondent has not done her job properly today, sorry. (nothing to do with the Dorfstadder of course).

Thank you

Thank you for all the encouraging comments, it is comforting for me to hear from you, and we appreciate the support. Oh, I haven't yet heard from some who's name starts with Ci---, the name to be revealed shortly if no comment is made.

New Readers

So far my news has been focused on my friends and family, but now I have some readers in Canmore as well, so I will include more comments and results for them.

Wild Weather and best shooting in category for Tana

There are only three windy days a year in Rupholding, and Sunday was one of them. The Pursuit started with intermittent gale force winds whipping through the range. Kathleen and I stood on our favourite bridge to watch, and had to watch out for tree branches. Anyway, it depended on luck whether the athletes entered the range at gale force or calm. Kurtis shot 5/5 right away and was in 11th position for a while, on second shooting got 0/5, third shooting 5/5 and fourth shooting 3/5. He overtook an Austrian at the finishline for a photo finish, and finished .1 second ahead. Kurtis ended up 35th and Scott finished 21. Joel Pacas maintained his 58th spot.
Kurtis was happy with his race, it was incredibly tough conditions.
The big Canadian news of the event was that Tana Chesham got 19/20, which was the top shooting in her event!!! She moved up 22 spots in the pursuit, and everyone went wild, it was amazing. (Mom, that is the fudge girl) And, to top it off she did it in driving rain. We were all soaked through by the time the race ended and didn't stay to watch the Junior women, where Canadian Meghan Tandy (from BC) finished in eighth spot, our first top ten result.
In Kurtis' category, a boy from the US, Leif Nordgren placed third. We went to the medal ceremony to support him, and as usual totally underestimated the crowds. Biathlon is now the top winter sport in Germany, (or so we were told by a newscaster last night). The locals have been very nice to us, and one local lady at our table told us that she was very pleased that a Canadian got on the podium(Meghan Tandy 8th-they give awards up to 8th spot)

Yahoooooooooo, or how to pack a week into one day

What a day!!!!!!!
We took the bus up to the range at 8:00 am and watched the Junior men. Patti, Cathleen and I were freezing so we looked around for the tent, found it, had a schnapps and headed out again to see the Youth men. I was so nervous that I thought I would hyperventilate( it's tough being a mom), and would have been even more nervous if I had seen the hill from hell before the race. There is a long steep hill with a hairpin turn at the bottom and a bridge after the turn. Patti was watching from the hill and saw Kurtis who made it down three times without incident. Scott had a fall but jumped up quickly. Kurtis and Scott both hit 9 out of 10 on the range. Kurtis over took someone right at the end and did the splits at the finish line to beat him. Kurtis ended up in 25th and Scott in 17, and qualified for the Pursuit tomorrow. It was an amazing race, Congratulations to Kurtis and Scott.
Patti has been a great spectator, and ran up and down the big hill cheering her nephew and teammates on. She now realizes not to hang out with the moms during their child's race. Apparently we're just not as relaxed during the race?
We saw the women in the after noon, and at this point , all the Canadians have qualified for the Pursuit.
Oh ya, Patti had a handsome German blow a kiss her way and yell "I love Canadians"
So, it is a lot of fun having her with us.
We're off to visit the boys now, they have to keep their legs elevated for half an hour a day, and are resting in the hotel for tomorrow.
Auf Wedersehn,

That's a lot of fireworks or Bavarians with whips

We went down the block for the opening ceremonies last night. There are about 370 athletes here from as far as Argentina. Rupholding put on a great show, there were local dancers and about 20 minutes of fireworks. We also have our own local cheerleaders assigned to us, who choose Canada to support and who waved our flag for us at the ceremonies. I felt very proud as Kurtis and friends walked in for the athlete parade.
There was one rather unusual local tradition which was demonstrated at the ceremony, which involved young men in traditional dress snapping whips which were about 8 feet long. Rather sobering, but it did not stop us from having our schnapps and meeting up with many friends from last year's competition afterwards.

It's hard to keep up with the Cheshams

There were eight Canadian spectators on our plane over to Munich. Patti and I felt like we had the coolest headgear, which is a Mapleleaf hat from the World Cup Downhil in Lake Louise.
But of course we were outdone again this year by Richard Chesham who has a different hat for every race day. Our hotel is right in the middle of town and is only steps away from a great coffee shop, gluhvine(mulled wine) stand and bakery, so what more can you ask for?

Rain??

We heard from Kurtis who made it to Rupholding on Sunday. He had a good day at the range, and also asked us if we could bring his raincoat, because it had been raining.
Rain, of course, is not what one envisions at a Biathlon event, but I don't think it rains inside the beer tent, thank goodness.

Setting up this blog was the hardest thing about getting ready

Well, I think I have finally figured it out and will be able to give you guys up to date info on my trip. We sent Kurtis off today along with Scott (Calgary) , Tanya and Joel(Canmore). We didn't see the team coach anywhere, so we all hope they will end up without incident in Rupholding by tomorrow. The Airport seemed very relaxed this time about checking all the rifles, so things are looking good.
Rolf bought a bunch of Canadian paraphanelia on Sat., so we are ready to become the crazy Canadian cheering squad once again.