EDITOR'S NOTE: CAFP member Michelle Look, MD was in Vancouver as a member of the US Olympic International Medical Staff and spent the last two weeks providing a first-person perspective of the Winter Olympics as well as her duties. We thank Dr. Look for sharing her stories.

Posted on 02.27.10 by Michelle Look, MD    

Great day at four-man bobsled. The course is fast as seen by the number of crashes at turns 10, 11, and 12 amongst the world's best bobsledders. I was at the start house, infact you might have caught a glimpse of me at the start of Steve Holcomb's run. It was snowing so hard, it accumulated on the track within seconds. After each run, a team of 10 VANOC cleaners (or smurfs as they are affectionately called), sweep and shovel the track. Our team watched as the smurfs would finish as much as 40 seconds faster before the US sled than before the Canadian sleds, allowing  less snow to fall and a cleaner track for the home team. Very sneaky. There were I about seven crashes. When they crash, it is so violent, you just hold your breath until everyone climbs out of the sled.

Their suits are shredded and the abrasions are impressive. There are steering maneuvers for the pilot to attempt when they are tipping, but if a sled is having trouble before the 50-50 curve, they have no chance of recovering in time. When hundredths of a second on the top of the hill translates to a medal or not, the pilot has no choice but to take it to the edge. Go big or go home.

The strategy worked for Jeret Peterson in freestyle aerials.

After a less-than-perfect first jump, our team said time for the "Hurricane." With a 4.90 degree of difficulty compared to everyone else at 4.50, he pulled it out to take the silver medal.

Our high-performance team's proudest moment of the day though was the amazing race in Nordic Combined. Our skiers have been entering cycling races in the offseason to develop their skill in racing strategies. If you watched the race, it felt like the Tour de France. Back and forth our two skiers challenged the Austrian skier until the last 800 meters when Bill Demong put down the hammer. A gold and silver medal in Nordic. Amazing.

Here are some pictures of the day with Elana Mayer, our bronze medal winner from two-man women's bobsled. The medal is as heavy as it looks. More bobsled tommorrow. Steve Holcomb has a 0.40 second lead, let's hope it's enough. One more medal and we are guarnteed to beat the all time record of 36 medals. A huge success for the US Olympic team and staff.