Olympic volunteer Donna Hateley will never forget where she was when Canadian skier Alexandre Bilodeau won the first ever Olympic gold medal on home soil.
Hateley wasn’t at the freestyle mogul event, but she was on same mountain and heard Canadians go wild at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
“The mountain just came alive with the roar of Canadians when he won. It was just amazing. You could hear it everywhere,” said Hateley on Tuesday, recalling Sunday’s historic medal victory at Cypress Mountain
And that was just the beginning. As people were coming down off the mountain to catch buses, they erupted into song.
“Someone just started singing O Canada, and it just rippled all the way back through thousands of people and everyone was singing the anthem. It was just incredible.
“You were really proud to be Canadian, I tell ya,” said Hateley by phone from downtown Vancouver.
Even after people transferred onto city buses, they continued to spontaneously sing Canada’s praises.
Hateley, who is the managing director at Alberta Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, is volunteering as a member of the maintenance crew for the snowboarding halfpipe on Cypress Mountain.
“It’s amazing how much work goes into setting up the sites getting everything ready for the games,” said Hateley who already worked five shifts while snowboarders trained on Cypress.
Fertilizer spread through the halfpipe helped hardened the snow, just in time for competition which starts today.
On Tuesday she had the day off, enjoying more Olympic spirit and cultural demonstrations.
After speaking to one visitor who had been to other Olympic games, Hateley was pleased people from other countries are having just as much fun as Canadians who are wrapped up in red and white jackets, mitts, scarves, toques and of course flags.
“(The visitor) found that the Vancouver Games are very kind of down to earth, laid back and he was really enjoying the Games in that type of atmosphere,” Hateley said as drums beat at Canada North House where she watched Inuit performers.
szielinski@www.reddeeradvocate.com