YOG 2012: Day 1&2 Update

olympic-ringsWe arrived in Innsbruck Friday morning.  The athletes arrived earlier in the week.  Innsbruck is beautiful, and “breathtaking” does not even begin to describe the view of the Alps from almost anywhere in town.  The 2012 Youth Olympics is off to a wonderful start and the athletes and chaperones all seem to be enjoying this historic first-ever event to the fullest. 

The athletes are all staying together in the Olympic Village, and eating meals together in the Congress Innsbruck center, which also has some great cultural and educational activities going on all week.  The medals ceremonies will all take place at Medals Plaza in the heart of the scenic olds section in downtown Innsbruck.  The public transportation that has been augmented for these games is extremely efficient and well designed to move everyone around without needing to worry about cars or parking.

There are 57 American athletes competing here in all the events combined, and the U.S.A. is competing in ice dance, pairs and ladies free style, in addition to skiing, hockey, curling and all the other winter Olympic sports.  The skating competitions will be held at the Olympic Ice Stadium  starting today at 3:00 pm Austria time (or 9:00 am EST).  The starting order for the ice dance competition are now posted and the U.S. team, Rachel & Michael Parsons, are in the first warm-up group.