By Shannon Dunn
EXPN.com
Feb. 19, 2002
Editor's Note: Shannon sent us over two thousand words from her time in Utah, damn girl! This is the first part of a two part piece describing her Olympic experience first hand. Read about her gearing up for Salt Lake in our related stories and check back soon for her thoughts on the womens field, the mens sweep and other funnies from the land of 3.2 beer. Going into the games I was super excited and ready to get our event under way since there had been so much talk for the last year about it. I met J.J. and Tricia at the SLC airport and we went with Margie, our U.S. Olympic team manager, to the Olympic processing center. There we got all of our Roots Olympic clothing, shoes, bags, etc. We got the opening ceremony outfits, award ceremony outfit, hanging out clothes and bags to carry all of our gear. We had two stuffed bags coming out of there. The clothing wasn't actually too bad…unlike the Nagano Olympics which were full 80's clothes. Then we signed up for our Olympic ring, each athlete gets a gold ring for attending the games. You can upgrade if you want it with diamonds, bling-bling. We waited for the rest of the team to arrive and had a team briefing about the upcoming Olympic experience. We watched a couple videos about what to consider during the time we would be there, and then left to stay at the Olympic village in SLC. We got our credentials and checked into our dorm style room. Trish and I went for a walk around the campus, only the Olympic teams could reside in the village. Everyone has to wear their country's uniforms there, but it's cool because you know where each person is from and you get to check out all the countries' styles. We found a salon and made appointments for the next day to get free manicures, Trish got a facial also. They had a coffee shop with live entertainment and everything there is free. Both dining halls have a huge spread of food which looked amazing, but wasn't that rad, and each has free McDonalds. All the athletes could get as much MickeyD's as they wanted. The following day, we hung out around the village and picked up all the free athlete stuff they were handing out. Then we all drove to Park City because the next day was the first of the pipe practice days. Ok, we stayed at a house a few miles from town. Our team, J.J. Thomas, Ross Powers, Danny Kass, Tommy Czeschin, Tricia Byrnes, Kelly Clark and myself, all stayed in one house and then the coaches had the house across the street along with our personal chef, who we called Cheffie!! This was almost the best part of the trip…that we had an awesome chef for each meal. He ruled it! He owns a well-know restaurant in San Francisco and he hooked us up! I just ate the best food of my life every day! Going to practices, we had to go through a security checkpoint in the car. The military guys would check with mirrors under the car, inside and under the hood. If you got a "level 1" check, they would make each person get out and they'd check your pockets and backpacks, etc. Then all athletes and coaches had to go through airport style security screening. We had five practice days from 10-11:30am then a lunch break and then another practice from 1-2:30pm. It was a little weird to take a lunch break and then ride again. When we entered the stadium to go to the pipe each time it was like we were gladiators because we walked underneath the scaffolding in a narrow walkway. The stands held about maybe 12,000 people. The rest of the crowd would stand in tiers cut into the snow beside the pipe and then below the pipe. The workers were all busy setting up for the competition day. It was a lot of practicing and I heard that a lot of people thought it was too much. I thought it was good because it took me about that long to feel comfortable in those surroundings. Each day when we went home, we would eat Cheffie's snacks and then we had different things each night. One night we had a press conference and we had to go through seven security checkpoints before entering the building. Oh yeah, we had to wear our designated outfits... A white turtleneck and a baby blue vest, no hat. The guys were bummed…I was bummed! We had a couple of sweet questions, like when they asked Danny, "You are a likely candidate for drug use. How do you think the snowboarders will fair on their drug testing?" I was shocked they asked that! What a lame question!! Danny had a good response and said that he was taking the Olympics seriously and he thought everyone else was also. "There should be no problems with [the drug testing]," Danny said. Another guy asked Ross and I what we thought about the public's perception of snowboarders as outlaws and being kind of dumb! Ok, who's the idiot in this picture?! Anyway, I love how the media just loves to make the snowboarders out to be total dirt bag, irresponsible people. The mainstream media may never change! So few reporters know what we actually do… what it takes to be on top, how we create our image in the snowboard world, and the skill we need and risks we take to perform. Shannon
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EXPN.com
Feb. 19, 2002
Editor's Note: Shannon sent us over two thousand words from her time in Utah, damn girl! This is the first part of a two part piece describing her Olympic experience first hand. Read about her gearing up for Salt Lake in our related stories and check back soon for her thoughts on the womens field, the mens sweep and other funnies from the land of 3.2 beer. Going into the games I was super excited and ready to get our event under way since there had been so much talk for the last year about it. I met J.J. and Tricia at the SLC airport and we went with Margie, our U.S. Olympic team manager, to the Olympic processing center. There we got all of our Roots Olympic clothing, shoes, bags, etc. We got the opening ceremony outfits, award ceremony outfit, hanging out clothes and bags to carry all of our gear. We had two stuffed bags coming out of there. The clothing wasn't actually too bad…unlike the Nagano Olympics which were full 80's clothes. Then we signed up for our Olympic ring, each athlete gets a gold ring for attending the games. You can upgrade if you want it with diamonds, bling-bling. We waited for the rest of the team to arrive and had a team briefing about the upcoming Olympic experience. We watched a couple videos about what to consider during the time we would be there, and then left to stay at the Olympic village in SLC. We got our credentials and checked into our dorm style room. Trish and I went for a walk around the campus, only the Olympic teams could reside in the village. Everyone has to wear their country's uniforms there, but it's cool because you know where each person is from and you get to check out all the countries' styles. We found a salon and made appointments for the next day to get free manicures, Trish got a facial also. They had a coffee shop with live entertainment and everything there is free. Both dining halls have a huge spread of food which looked amazing, but wasn't that rad, and each has free McDonalds. All the athletes could get as much MickeyD's as they wanted. The following day, we hung out around the village and picked up all the free athlete stuff they were handing out. Then we all drove to Park City because the next day was the first of the pipe practice days. Ok, we stayed at a house a few miles from town. Our team, J.J. Thomas, Ross Powers, Danny Kass, Tommy Czeschin, Tricia Byrnes, Kelly Clark and myself, all stayed in one house and then the coaches had the house across the street along with our personal chef, who we called Cheffie!! This was almost the best part of the trip…that we had an awesome chef for each meal. He ruled it! He owns a well-know restaurant in San Francisco and he hooked us up! I just ate the best food of my life every day! Going to practices, we had to go through a security checkpoint in the car. The military guys would check with mirrors under the car, inside and under the hood. If you got a "level 1" check, they would make each person get out and they'd check your pockets and backpacks, etc. Then all athletes and coaches had to go through airport style security screening. We had five practice days from 10-11:30am then a lunch break and then another practice from 1-2:30pm. It was a little weird to take a lunch break and then ride again. When we entered the stadium to go to the pipe each time it was like we were gladiators because we walked underneath the scaffolding in a narrow walkway. The stands held about maybe 12,000 people. The rest of the crowd would stand in tiers cut into the snow beside the pipe and then below the pipe. The workers were all busy setting up for the competition day. It was a lot of practicing and I heard that a lot of people thought it was too much. I thought it was good because it took me about that long to feel comfortable in those surroundings. Each day when we went home, we would eat Cheffie's snacks and then we had different things each night. One night we had a press conference and we had to go through seven security checkpoints before entering the building. Oh yeah, we had to wear our designated outfits... A white turtleneck and a baby blue vest, no hat. The guys were bummed…I was bummed! We had a couple of sweet questions, like when they asked Danny, "You are a likely candidate for drug use. How do you think the snowboarders will fair on their drug testing?" I was shocked they asked that! What a lame question!! Danny had a good response and said that he was taking the Olympics seriously and he thought everyone else was also. "There should be no problems with [the drug testing]," Danny said. Another guy asked Ross and I what we thought about the public's perception of snowboarders as outlaws and being kind of dumb! Ok, who's the idiot in this picture?! Anyway, I love how the media just loves to make the snowboarders out to be total dirt bag, irresponsible people. The mainstream media may never change! So few reporters know what we actually do… what it takes to be on top, how we create our image in the snowboard world, and the skill we need and risks we take to perform. Shannon
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Top Rated Photos |
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Most Sent
