(Photo Courtesy of Lutheran- Church Canada)
Tonight at 7:30 PM NBC will broadcast the Opening Ceremonies for the winter Olympics, live from Vancouver, British Columbia. The ceremonies will take place at the Olympic Pavilion “Panasonic Full HD 3D Theater.”
According to The Epoch Times, over 25,000 blue-clad volunteers and 11,000 journalists have descended upon Vancouver, BC:
It's a circus, but without the dancing elephants and car-pooling clowns. These five rings move like the gears of a clock, ticking away hundredths of a second that separate bronze from gold, ticks that measure fractions of a point where dreams are made or broken.
Most people are aware of corrupt officials that have been a part of past Olympic Games, as well as drugged athletes that have perjured themselves to get the gold. However, the city of Vancouver is beaming with pride as their city prepares to host the games. According to Epoch Times reporter Matthew Little, Vancouver is “A city where you can enjoy warm ocean breezes and look at snow capped mountains. As the Olympics begin, it seems more and more like the city was made for this.”
The U.S. Olympic team is comprised of 216 athletes, including 123 men and 93 women. Many Americans will be tuning into NBC over the next few weeks to cheer on our hard-working men and women, as they reach to achieve victory that they have spent most of their lives training for.
Below are a few fun facts about Team USA:
- Thirty-five states are represented, including 21 from Minnesota and 19 from New York.
- Bobsledder Chuck Berkeley (Pittsfield, Mass.) checks in as the tallest member of Team USA at 6'5". Five athletes are tied as the shortest members of Team USA at 5'0" including Laura Spector (biathlon/Lenox, Mass.), Caydee Denney (Figure Skating/Wesley Chapel, Fla.), Amanda Evora (figure skating/Sugar Land, Texas), Erika Lawler (Ice Hockey/Fitchburg, Mass.), and Michelle Roark (freestyle skiing - moguls/Denver, Colo.).
- Team USA features one set of twins in hockey players Jocelyne and Monique Lamoureux (Grand Forks, N.D.).
- Twenty-three members of Team USA have children; there are 17 dads and six moms.
- Six U.S. athletes have ties to the military, of which five are bobsled athletes:
Serving in the U.S. Army's World Class Athlete Program are biathlete SGT Jeremy Teela (Heber City, Utah), bobsled pilot SGT John Napier (Lake Placid, N.Y.) and bobsled athlete Chris Fogt (Alpine, Utah)- Serving in the U.S. National Guard Outstanding Athlete Program are bobsled pilot SGT Shauna Rohbock (Park City, Utah / Utah Army National Guard) and bobsled athlete Mike Kohn (Chantilly, Va. / also a Sergeant in the Virginia Army National Guard)
- Formerly serving in the U.S. Army National Guard was bobsled pilot Steven Holcomb (Park City, Utah).