Edmonton

Edmonton, The World's | Day 4: The reports from the morning's newspapers: Donovan Bailey is a national hero... or he may be a tired jerk. An "unnamed" athlete has asked for refugee status with the Canadian Government. The Royals visited the British team's hotel and were ignored a bit by the sprinters, who were seriously into a video game. The British team gave the Royal Couple a Waterford Crystal vase... I guess British people routinely travel with a few spare vases - I know I have several with me. A very entertaining columnist has a job DT will be applying for as soon as he gets home: the man visits various sports bars and asks customers their opinion of the races! Here is a quote from David Rooney's report today: "I was cheering for the boys," Johnny Cherchuk said from Jox Sports Bar, 15321 97th Street". I mean, seriously, why ask people at the stadium their opinion? And, don't you think anyone could invent such a riveting quote?? And how about giving the address of the bar? DT thinks the writers must drink free.

Notes from the stadium: I forgot to mention the mascots of The World's. Every championship and Olympics has mascots. The mascots are always an undistinguishable animal of some sort... the most famous being KOBI in Barcelona who was an advertising whore - he was sponsored by Coke AND Pepsi and had his face plastered on everything in Spain - including beer and cigarettes, putting millions of sponsorship dollars into Juan Antonio Samaranch’s pocket. I think the purpose of the mascots is for the sale of small stuffed animals. Everyone is buying them to take back to the kiddies. In Edmonton we have two undistinguishable animals - Tracker and Fielder! Today Tracker thought it would be fun to take my beer out of my hand - that kidder!

Canadians are very patriotic! They are covered in Canadian tee-shirts, temporary tattoo's, flags, banners and hats emblazoned with the Maple Leaf. And, though Canadians love athletics - hockey is the only real sport here. Today "The Great One" (occasionally referred to as Wayne Gretzky) was in the stadium and the announcer asked him, "Do you enjoy track & field?" TGO answered, "Yes." and... well, that was enough of that and the announcer started right in on hockey questions! The announcers are two handsome talking heads - in matching light grey suits. They wander around the field and stadium, with camera crews, interviewing athletes and famous Canadians. One announcer is the "English" announcer and the other is the "French" announcer. The English announcer speaks only English; the French announcer speaks both languages beautifully, and easily switches back and forth as need be.

Today was a beautiful sunny day - the hottest day so far, even warmer than yesterday. There was some wind and early in the pole vault it was a concern, but the wind calmed and the competition was fabulous! The most beautiful bodies in all of track & field (and probably of all sport) belong to the pole vaulters. Man or Woman. The local press is raving over the assembled beauties, as is my seat-mate. As usual, American Stacey Dragila ruled! It was a fantastic competition today - get results from a link above - but the place went wild when the announcement was made that EPSON has pledged $100,000 in prize money for a World Record. Then the crowd swooned with the announcer said: "That's AMERICAN dollars!"

Also popular with the local and international press is American sprinter Marion Jones. Today one paper said: "Her smile can melt a glacier and she is so polite and stays to answer all our questions. When she leaves she says thank you!"  She is a charmer. But today she had a bad day and lost her first race since 1997. Or maybe her time in the sun is over? Now we will have to wait to see what her status will be for the 200 and relays.

It was such a busy day at the track - truly a 4-ring circus - with the women's pole vault, women's javelin, women's 400m heats and the men's triple jump all going at the same time! It was hard to catch everything!

Today two races were held for blind runners. Blind athletes race with a guide-person next to them. They bind their hands together and run together, taking two lanes. TEAR-JERKER MOMENT OF THE DAY: The happiest man in Edmonton was blind Italian 100m winner (11.4 seconds) Lorenzo Ricci. On the victory stand, he received his medal from Prince Albert of Monaco. As the Italian flag was raised at the end of the stadium, with the Italian national anthem playing, a small group of Ricci-fans - or maybe just Italians - began to sing the anthem. The look on the face of Ricci was priceless - his face was radiant - shining with pride. Everyone in the stadium was moved - the true meaning of sport.

So, until tomorrow! We will have to get up early to get to the airport to fetch our child. We must wake even a little earlier to phone home to make sure she wakes up to catch her flight! I will leave you with a lovely photo of the evening's sunset from our campsite - it stays light here until about 10:00 p.m. and those clouds are bringing lightning... another evening storm in Edmonton?

Sunset at 9:30p

RV Park: Glowing Embers RV Park in Spruce Grove, Alberta