Whistler Wonderland: I Love Information

Yesterday we toured the Media Center, which is housed in the Whistler Convention Center in the center of the town. We saw the public press areas in the front, and nearby there were rows and rows of documents of information organized alphabetically by sport, and then labeled according to the topic of the document. My eyes went straight to the Luge section, which still had papers sitting in the cubbies despite the fact that luge competition had ended last week.

Excited by the potentially valuable information those documents contained, I got our tour guide (a Cleanevent team leader) to snag me one of every document we dared to take, since we weren’t sure if we’d get in trouble if caught. The pieces I took contain lots of background information about the sport and the Sliding Center, as well as some Games News. I ranked the Flash Quotes and Press Conference transcripts lowest on my list of priorities, so we abandoned those in favor of quitting while we were ahead. I might ask Sara to get some more next time she goes to work…

The most interesting document, i.e., the one containing the most random facts, is “Luge by the Number”. The following are some highlights.

•    153.93 – top speed in km/h reached in Men’s Luge on the Whistler Sliding Center track
•    104.6 – cost in millions of Canadian dollars to build the Whistler Sliding Center track
•    65 – number of Olympic medals won in Luge events [out of a possible 108] by German competitors since 1964. Twenty-nine were won under the banner of East Germany, 10 by West Germany, and 26 as Germany (GER).
•    46.808 – time in seconds of the Men’s Singles Luge course record at the Whistler Sliding Center, set by Felix Loch (GER) during a World Cup run on February 21, 2009.
•    14 – a total of 14 different Luge competitors at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games have a relative also competing in a Luge event.
•    8 – birthdays celebrated by four females and four male Luge athletes during the Vancouver Games
•    2.5 – average thickness in centimeters of the ice on the Whistler Sliding Center track. Depending on the turn and the sport, the thickness can range from two to five cm.
•    -5 – temperature, in degrees Celsius, that ice makers try to maintain for the Whistler Sliding Center track, the ideal temperature for achieving the fastest speeds with the most consistency.

Okay, I understand that you aren’t all as obsessed with Luge as I have become, so I’ll add some more photos from my tour of the Media Center.

A floor plan showing part of the building and where each media broadcaster is housed. Some of these offices, such as Canadian Olympic Committee, have leather couches and refridgerators.

You cannot imagine the sheer volume of cords that run all through this place. The cages had to be built to sustain the weight, and this isn’t even one of the thickest bundles!