Final Friday

Friday saw the continuation of yesterday's wonderful weather. Just like on day one, a few people could be seen out enjoying the warm weather wearing shorts. From the Athletes' Village, though, snow can still be seen on the mountains north of Vancouver - and there is, of course, plenty of snow where it's needed in Whistler where the Alpine and Nordic skiing events are still continuing.
My shift started earlier than scheduled as I wanted to finish a bit earlier this evening. There seemed to be a few more people around on the streets of the Village today, possibly because competition has ended for quite a few people now, as the round robin phase of the Wheelchair curling is over, and today was a rest day apart from one tie-breaker game. Various conversations and visits filled the day, plus spending some time in the Multi-Faith Centre. One thing that's important at this stage in an event is still to keep focused, even though many people's eyes have begin to turn to packing up, if not actually to returning home. This is just as true for athletes as it is for chaplains and other volunteers and staff. We chaplains need to remember two things at this stage. Firstly, that there may well still be new people to meet and talk to, especially perhaps as athletes begin to reflect on what they have or have not achieved, and whether their aims and expectations have been fulfilled. Secondly we need to make sure that any loose ends are tied, either by us making sure we say proper farewells and finish conversations and contacts appropriately or by us making sure that anyone who wants or needs it can be fixed up with continuing pastoral care, either through continued contact with us or by them being referred to someone nearer their home.
After my shift, I headed off to the Thunderbird Arena to see my first ever ice sledge hockey match. This came about as my hosts had a spare ticket and very generously invited me to join them. It was the bronze medal match, and as tickets for medal matches had sold out a while ago it was a real privilege to be able to go - and I really enjoyed it. I'm not sure I understood the finer points of the rules, but it certainly is a very fast, exciting and physical game and I had a great evening. Ice sledge hockey follows the same rules as Ice Hockey with a few small modifications. Instead of standing on skates, players sit on aluminium or steel sledges fitted with two blades. They grip double-ended sicks, one in each hand. At one end is a sharp pick that the players use to propel the sledge, whilst the other has a curved blade to pass and shoot the puck. One can only admire the strength that the players must have to propel themselves across the ice using only their arms and their upper bodies, whilst also needing to be able to pass the relatively small puck around with accuracy. The match was between Canada and Norway, with Norway winning the match and hence the bronze medal. I think it was hard for the Canadian players losing in front of their home crowd after so much expectation had been heaped upon them, but I was impressed with the behaviour of both players and spectators after the event.