People of the pint-sized variety are either too young to remember or simply did not even exist when the 2010 Winter Olympics rolled into Vancouver. Yet they made up the bulk of the crowd that came to the Southeast False Creek Olympic Plaza for Sunday’s Winter Games Legacy Celebration.
True, the craft stations included tables to make your own Olympic medal (in a sparkly gold, naturally) or a torch made from red and orange sheets of paper were for the young, but the real excitement came from those who had fond memories of first-hand experiences.
Janet Teodosio was pregnant with Lucas five years ago, and wanted both him and his sister, two-year-old Mia, to get a glimpse of recent Games history — even if it was a faint echo of the real thing.
“This is why we’re here,” said Teodosio, motioning to her kids who were fixated on the mini curling game set up next to a vendor tent. “We wanted them to have a taste of the celebration. It was an amazing experience for us. The community spirit, this is what Vancouver is all about.”
Next to the mini hockey rink with its foot-high foam boards, Moonwater and Wes Withrow watched daughter Tayen, aged four-and-a-half, push around one of the plastic pucks with a plastic stick. The family lives in Bellingham, Wash., and made the trip across the line just for the day’s celebration of Olympic memories.
“We had the most epic day,” said Moonwater of their visit five years ago. “I was eight months pregnant with Tayen and we wandered around for 16 hours. Imagine the enthusiasm and the excitement of thousands and thousands of people coming together in one place.”
The day they visited also happened to be the same day it was determined Canada would be playing the United States in men’s hockey for the gold medal in what was called
The Most Important Hockey Game of All Time. There was some friendly ribbing from the Canadian fans who zeroed in on the American flag on Wes’s backpack but it was all part of the day’s fun, he said, adding that they’re more speedskating than hockey fans but, it was all part of the experience.
“We’re Olympic nerds.”
A family of five watched a flatscreen television cheerfully blaring a highlight reel of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic events and, going by the joyous expressions, it seemed like they were either experiencing the Games for the first time, or being transported back to another time.
It was the latter, it turned out. “Watching the video, I just want to cry. I feel like I’m living it again. Being here woke up so many memories for me,” said Rejoice Kryzanowski, a volunteer for both the 2010 opening and closing ceremonies who was also picked to carry the flag for Ghana’s lone athlete Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong as the West African country is also Rejoice’s place of birth.
Husband Jordan Kryzanowski was a camera operator for the Games. One of his highlights was shooting the gold medal curling game between Canada and Norway. Jordan spotted Mike Babcock, the head coach for the 2010 Canadian men’s hockey team, in the crowd and asked him if he’d be willing to appear on the television feed.
“We put him up on the jumbo screen and everybody just went crazy. He was all of a sudden full of happiness and life, he realized all of Canada was behind him,” Jordan recalled. “It was in the middle of curling for the gold medal and the place went crazy. I’m sure you’re not supposed to do that in a curling match, but…”
“The next day, we won,” added Rejoice.
The Games meant so much to the Kryzanowskis that they moved into the Athlete’s Village Housing Co-operative in 2011. As fate would have it, the third child of the Olympics-loving couple was born in the Olympic Village.
“Sequoia was the first child born here. Third kid, fast labour, came out like a bobsled,” said Jordan, laughing. “I delivered her and, literally, she came out like a bobsled.”
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