Introduction

Hello and welcome to my blog! My name is Andrew Matthews and I'm a snowboarder athlete from Yellowknife, NWT. I decided to start this blog to keep my friends, family, fans and sponsors up to date about my life as a full time snowboarder. I will be posting about my travels, competitions, training and random awesome things that I come across. Enjoy the journey!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Olympic Fever!

The past couple weeks have been absolutely unreal. I have always been a huge fan of the Olympics; To be immersed amongst the magic and madness was unbelievable. It was amazing to see so many people proud to be Canadian.

This video is from the Opening Ceremonies at the Village Square when the Canadian athletes walked in. It was an amazing environment and it really got me pumped on being a part of the Olympics. Mike Janyk, a local ski racer that competed in the games, spoke at the ceremonies. He was so stoked to be there representing Canada. Awesome!

No wonder why we won gold, look at our hockey players!

I was so lucky to have the chance to watch the Canada Switzerland game with my family. The arena was nuts!! We couldn't believe that it went into a shootout but it was so much fun to see.
There were free concerts every day during the Olympics in Whistler. This is Matisyahu, he played a great show. Check him out here.

This was the massive crowd that came together for the hockey finals. What a riot! The place went nuts when Crosby scored in Overtime. I'll never forget that day or that game.

I could write a short novel about how amazing the Olympics were but I think I'll try to keep it short and sweet. I was inspired and proud so many times throughout the Games with the performances put forth by the Canadian athletes. Congratulations to all of the athletes. I was so happy to see Jasey Jay Anderson take it home in the giant slalom, Maelle Ricker win the boardercross as well as Mike Robertson take home the silver medal. All of them were riding so well it was fun to watch.

It was incredible that we won so many gold medals too; the Own the Podium funding did pay off after all (the negative talk during the first week). Elite athletes need top funding to support them in order to have a chance at standing on the podium in the Olympics and World Cup events. I read that 80 percent of Canadian Olympic athletes are left in debt after the Games. This goes to show that money isn't everything, these guys are doing it for the love of their sport. Nevertheless, I hope that our country continues to strongly support our athletes in the future so that we can keep the ball rolling with strong sport programs in Canada and give kids something to strive for. Go Canada Go!

See you in Russia!