Prince George's Megan Heinicke took time out of her busy Olympic schedule in Sochi as part of Canada's biathlon team to send her thoughts and observations to the Citizen. Here's what she had to say:
Opening Ceremony: It would have been awesome to go, especially since I did not attend in 2010 either; however, it was an easy decision to stay home. I trained the last 4 years to compete in the races - not to enjoy the ceremonies. We are housed in the Endurance Village which is the smallest, highest and furthest away of the three Olympic Villages. Our village only houses the biathlon and cross-country teams. This means that a trip to the coast would be a long one: a short bus ride to the gondola station, about a 15-minute gondola ride down the hill, leaving security, a 45 minute bus ride, re-entering security and then another bus ride to the Opening Ceremony venue would have added up to something between 2 and 2.5 hours one way. They had estimated at least 8 hours for a round trip to the Opening Ceremonies. Very few athletes from our village attended and none of my own teammates went either, although we did all had dinner together in style wearing our Opening Ceremony clothing which was nice.
Security: It's great. There is a lot of security and the more we pay attention the more we notice the number of police officers, security guards, cameras, tanks etc. The thing is, it is all done very subtly and has been made very convenient for us athletes. The check points are pretty efficient - you simply need to scan your accreditation and you are on your way. They have these massive zones that we have been calling ''security bubbles'' where athletes and staff can move around without needing to do the airport security routine or having our bags scanned. We have heard from some of the Canadian friends and family here that the security is much more intense outside of the ''bubble'' and I think we are all feeling grateful that we feel safe without going through a lot of daily hassle.
Food & Accommodation: There is not much to complain about here either! Our team is staying in a large wooden chalet where we have lots of space as well as a living room where we can hang out or watch TV together. There have been a few small problems (some of the electrical outlets don't work and some of the floorboards keep popping up and our front door stopped locking) but whenever we have a complaint, someone comes to fix it immediately. We have about a five-minute walk to the large hotel where the athletes cafeteria is located (about the same distance as in the Whistler 2010 Village). The biathlon stadium is about 10 minutes away and we can easily walk there or choose to take the shuttle buses. The food is not as awesome as the Vancouver Games, but it is by far the best food I have ever had in Russia and it more than meets our nutritional needs. There are lots of options. We have heard that the food here in our village is better than the other villages - possibly because the Russians love biathlon so much? Anyway - we are all happy.
Sprint Race: I was pretty disappointed with my first race. Skiing was mediocre and a total of three misses made it a hard fight to make the Pursuit qualification. It was certainly not how I had wanted to start of these Olympics! There isn't too much to say: I fought hard but wasn't able to bring together the kind of race I am capable of.
Pursuit Race: This was probably the worst race of my career so far. Starting at the back of the field was obviously not ideal, but I went in ready to fight and looking forward to climbing up the ranks. Pursuits are my favourite race format and I have started in the 50s and fought my way up to the 30s or better many times. The reality yesterday was much different. I came into the range for my first shooting to find that I couldn't see through my rifle sights. I really couldn't understand how or what was going on because my sight covers had been closed, everything had been perfect just minutes before my start and I hadn't had a fall or anything unusual. Despite blowing through my sights and having a range official bring me a small tool to clean out my sights I wasn't able to clear them - in fact, I wasn't even able to see what the problem was. Unfortunately Canada has one spare rifle that is shared between our men's and women's team and I knew that it had a long stock that I probably would not be able to use it for prone. I literally lost minutes in the range and found myself skiing with the last 3 athletes. Things went from bad to worse when I did switch to our team spare for the standing shooting. Frankly, I was so far behind at this point that losing another minute really didn't change my situation, but it still didn't help that the Russian range officials needed a long time to locate and bring me our spare despite our coaches having had warned them that it would be needed. After my fourth shooting I chose to drop out of the race rather than finish minutes behind the second last competitor. It was better to save my energy for the upcoming Individual race and less of an embarrassment for myself and for Canada. Basically it was a nightmare. When we took a look at my rifle post-race we discovered that a sheet of ice had literally formed over the peephole on my back sights. No one had seen something quite like that before and we think I had the bad luck to have a bit of snow from the salted slushy course fly up into the peephole and freeze there. I would have needed to take my sights apart to fix this during the race. It was a small consolation to know that the problem was something outside of my control and that there was realistically nothing I could shave done to prevent it - but still, it was a very tough day.
All in all it has been a pretty rough start but despite the disappointment I think I am in a good place for the Individual race this Friday. I am just going to let my frustration fuel me to fight even harder and all the kind messages of support I have received in the last 24 hours motivate me to make the Individual MY race. I think I can count myself lucky that I compete in a sport where we have many different races and that I get a whole new chance in just days. I am as motivated as ever and whatever happens I can promise that I will be out there doing my best and representing Canada with pride this Friday.
