From the Games

 Editor’s note: Michael Villani is a Newport Beach resident who is a venue announcer at the Winter Olympics. He will provide stories from his perspective on an occasional basis.

Considered one of the most beautiful locations in the world, Vancouver, Canada is a costal city located in the lower mainland of British Columbia. It’s named for British Captain George Vancouver who explored the area in the 1790’s.

Now, I know this sounds like the beginning of every travel log you’ve ever heard, but it really doesn’t do this remarkable city justice.

Vancouver, home for the next two and a half weeks, as I announce figure skating for the Winter Games, is simply gorgeous. The apartment the Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) has put me in is on the 25th floor of a downtown high rise, overlooking Vancouver Harbor and the snow capped peaks (although not as “snow capped” as they should be) of nearby Grouse Mountain.

I arrived midday Friday to the hustle and bustle of incoming international media and the thousands of volunteers, to a spot on the map that, for two weeks in February, will host the finest athletes in the world.

My announce partner, PJ Kwong, and I met to go over rehearse schedules and itinerary for this week as we prepare for one of the Winter Olympics most popular events.

Saturday it was off to accreditation and uniform pick up ... then to our venue to meet the production staff for a short indoctrination and tour of the facility.

As I previously mentioned, figure skating and short track are being held at the Pacific Coliseum (PAC). It’s an older, “tired” venue that VANOC put millions of dollars into to refurbish it to the splendor it once was. This facelift has made it TV-ready. Of course I was most concerned with the sound system, which was excellent ... crisp and clean.

One thing in closing: I went to a Super Bowl party with our PAC announcing crew, PJ, the two short-track announcers Robert Laurie and Dany Lemay, plus our field talent Josee Chouniard, a two-time Olympian figure skater and a former Canadian national champion. We were in West Vancouver, at a house rented by the Cypress Mountain crew.

There was a joke with these guys.

“Did you hear it’s snowing on Cypress?

Yeah, it’s coming down in truck-fulls!”

It’s the mildest winter this Northern Pacific Time Zone Province has seen in many years.

From what I understand it’s even too warm to use their snow making machinery, so they’re literally trucking it in from the higher elevations for the freestyle skiing and snowboarding venues there.

Nonetheless, you can just feel the excitement building here in Vancouver as the athletes start arriving.

I’ll be here to keep you posted as I report from the Games.