Exploring "down-town" Sochi

Today was a complete rest day for the women’s games.  This gave us all an opportunity to take a break and enjoy some relaxation time away from the intensity of the games and the need to be at the arena.

Outside the Olympic park

Since we arrived we have been inside the Olympic park and so a group of us decided to take the train from the Olympic park to down-town Sochi.  This gave us a chance to explore what the area has to offer and get a feel for what it is like outside of the Olympic coastal cluster.

On the train to down-town Sochi

The train station for the Olympic park is a short walk from our hotel and just outside the Olympic park security area.  Once on the train it took about 45 minutes to get to Sochi train station with a further 30 minute walk to down-town Sochi where a number of Olympic fans and spectators are staying.  Scott is actually staying in down-town Sochi on a cruise ship which is docked there and so each day he is doing the 30 minute walk from the ship to the train station and the 45 minute train ride to the Olympic park like many other spectators and Olympic enthusiasts.

Down-town Sochi was buzzing with excitement and Olympic fever in the same way that the Olympic park is.  As we wandered around it was difficult to really get a sense of the place at all because it has been Olympified so much!  Thinking back to Vancouver this is probably the same.  My only experience of the Vancouver was during the Olympics which is of course very different to the average day in the town. 

Bosco branded cars

Down-town Sochi is full of thousands of Olympic enthusiasts walking around, all happy to try to talk to you and swap pin badges.  There are also a couple of live sites on the coast-line which are stages with daily entertainment, whether that be live TV screens of events or entertainers.  There is noise and music coming from speakers everywhere – very similar to the park and you get the sense that the whole place is enjoying the Olympic party.

Team photo with the rings

Probably what helps to give the down-town area the Olympic feel is that everywhere you turn there are banners with Sochi on, statues of the mascots or giant Olympic rings.  It never seems to get less exciting when you see the giant Olympic rings and so we all took the opportunity to get a group photo with them.  Memories and experiences we will all have for the rest of our lives.  All of the cars are branded up in some way connected to the Olympics - whether they be official Sochi cars or Bosco sponsored cars which again helps to give the down-town area the Olympic feel.  There are however some familiar things.  We got quite excited to see a MacDonalds - I guess it doesn't matter where you go in the World you can be certain there will be a MacDonalds there for you!

Flying the British flag in down-town Sochi

Being women we all enjoy the opportunity to shop and the down-town area offered us a few stores to look in.  There is an official Olympic store which stocks the same as the official Olympic store on the park.  We also found an official Bosco store which is the Russian brand of clothing sponsoring the Olympics.  Next to these stores was the official Nike Olympic store which had in stock all of the hockey shirts for each of the teams.  After we had exhausted these shops we took a walk along the main street by the sea to find a number of small independent stores all selling a selection of different merchandise from the Olympics.  It was nice to get outside of the Olympic park for a bit and to walk around and browse some of the shops.  We actually didn’t buy as much as you would expect a group of women to buy and you will notice from the picture that the men are the only ones with shopping bags! 

Interview with the Olympic Broadcasting Service

Once we got back to the park a few of the girls headed to the gym to keep their legs active.  I went along because I had been contacted by the Olympic Broadcast Service (OBS) to do a feature for them and I had arranged to meet them at the gym.  I wanted to give my legs a bit of a rest today after my game yesterday and in preparation for my next game which is very soon.  So I just did a very light gym session after the interview!

The Olympic Broadcast Service (OBS) is the Host Broadcaster and therefore responsible for providing the images and sound of the Olympic Games as a service to all broadcast organisations who have purchased the television and radio rights to the Games.  They had heard about my journey to Sochi and wanted to do a short feature on me for the channel which broadcasts throughout the games.

It is always nice to be contacted for a media interview about my personal experience of the Olympics.  The contact came through my supervisors at the IIHF and so I was granted permission to do the interview and had to be mindful of the media guidelines that had been issued to us.  A lot of the time the media focus is on athletes.  Officials are in the background and this is really how it should be.  The Olympics is not about the referees, judges or officials.  It is about the athletes and their chance to compete for the title of Olympic Champion.  However it is nice when people do recognise that for the officials it is also an honour to be selected for an Olympic games.  It is often the pinnacle of an officiating career and the goal of many officials.  I know there are many officials around the world who would love to be in my shoes right now.  We may not be competing for a medal here but we have certainly all been on a journey to be selected to officiate at an Olympics.  We have had to make many of the sacrifices athletes do in terms of training to be given the chance to be here.  Whilst the athletes should be the main focus of media attention it is nice that the achievement of us as a group of officials is appreciated and we too are made to feel part of the Olympic movement.

It is always a bit daunting to have a camera pointed at you and to be asked questions about your life.  It took me a good few minutes to relax and be natural and I am sure I was still a little bit tense!  It is also probably the first time that I have been asked directly by anyone outside of close family and friends’ personal questions about my journey, the impact my Dad had on my officiating career and what it means to me to be at the Olympics.  I am proud to say that I managed not to cry or get too emotional during the interview.  It is not that it hurts any less or that I am not wishing my Dad was here to see all of this.  I guess it is just that I want people to know about the influence he had on me and my journey and I can’t do him or my journey justice if I am too emotional to speak.  It was really nice to get the opportunity to talk about my experiences that led me to being in Sochi and I hope there are people out there who can relate to my experiences.

After the interview the crew wanted to film me while I was working out with my colleagues.  We played a game of wall-ball which is a favourite game of the French-Canadian referee.  It is a little bit like squash without any rackets.  The ball is thrown against the wall and it is allowed to bounce once before the next person hits the ball against the wall with their hand.  The aim of the game is to keep the ball in play for as long as possible with each player having 5 lives before they are out of the game.  The camera man sat against the wall for this and we all thought this was a bold and brave move given our abilities.  We managed not to hit him directly and so hopefully the footage he took is good and makes the feature clip.  We then took the opportunity to swap pins with the OBS crew and so I now have a special ‘Olympic Broadcast Service’ pin to add to my collection.

Getting focussed for my next game

After quite a full day off from the tournament my mind is now re-focussing on the upcoming games and my next game on the ice.  A number of my work colleagues from UK Sport are at the Olympics watching our GB athletes as they strive for medal success.  I was fortunate enough to be able to get a couple of tickets for them to be able to come to my next game to support me.  I am looking forward to having a few fans in the crowd and hope to do them proud.