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Category: Office Olympics - Winter 2006

The final game for the 2006 Winter Office Olympics was le Trike de France hosted by Norway's division-sister, France. It was a quick tricycle race that lasted between 26 and 55 seconds. Two athletes rode in each heat. They started in different corners of the conference room, and crossed paths to exit through different doors. They rode down parallel hallways and looped around the reception area, crossing paths again. There, they had to take a break to drink a small cup of water. Once they'd re-hydrated, they rode the homestretch back to the conference room where they crossed paths again to the corner where their opponent started. Three potential crash spots, but only one minor crash happened that I know of.

Nord Sylvia was our athlete. Before the race, she handed in her urine sample for performance enhancing drug testing. Host Brian didn't seem amused:

This was the funniest event of the games. The French team were great hosts giving out gold, silver and bronze sprockets for medals and a bonus: t-shirts!

The athletes didn't have to pedal, but they had to remain seated and their wheels weren't supposed to leave the floor. I guess that last rule was to keep people from picking up their tricycle and running with it.

Russia and Ireland went first and posted times of 39.4 and 32.9 seconds. Great Britain and France were up next. Great Britain, of course, put in a great time at 30.2 seconds making it look like they would win yet another medal.

I was stationed with my camera on the south stretch of the race. The funniest part was seeing the athletes heading back for the conference room. The looks on their faces!!

Germany and Norway were up next, but neither posted a winning time. Then three-time gold medal winner, Swiss Dean, was up. There were no boos this time as he took his seat on the tricycle. What a madman! It was his last chance for another gold medal, and he gave it his all. When he re-entered the conference room at the end, he didn't slow down, and ran right into the conference room wall! He posted the fastest time yet at 26 seconds and ended up flat on his back!

There were two heats left. Australia, New Zealand and Italy didn't post winning times. Italian Jonathan had some technical difficulty with the equipment when his front wheel went a little wonky. In the last heat, the U.S.A. squeaked into Bronze position, beating Ireland by 1.4 seconds. Swiss Dean won another gold, and Brit George (a girl named George) won the silver.

Go Norway!!

The second to last day of the Olympics, we had the International Food Festival. It consisted of a competition and a giganto pot luck. For the competition, each country offered one dessert and one entree to five judges. Points were scored based on taste and presentation of each. Norway entered stuffed chicken breast and apples with sweet cheesy nutty stuff on top.

My favorite as far as presentation was Ireland's Beef Stew with shamrock pastries and Bailey's Cheesecake:

I took pictures of all the dishes before the judges entered the area. Then I took pictures of the judges judging presentation. Then I was going to take pictures of the judges tasting everything, but the pot luck had already started, and things were moving slowly in the competition area. I decided to quit taking so many pictures and go stuff myself.

I didn't make it to all the countries. Ireland was out of food by the time I got there, so I didn't get to sample their stew and cheesecake. My favorite entree as far as taste was the stew from Switzerland. It had tender meat chunks, cabbage, carrots and potatoes.

The gold medal winners were New Zealand who had a meat pie with the olympic rings baked into the top crust and a tomato sculpted like an olympic flame (pictured). Ireland won the silver and France the bronze. My favorite desserts were from France. They had a creme brulee and some chocolate mousse or custard stuff that was out of this world.

Go Norway!!

Australia hosted the Bloomin' Onion Toss in which athletes had to toss aboriginal rings (painted embroidery hoops) around onions with flowers sticking out of them. There were three tables each with an onion. Each onion was worth different points. It looked easy, but must not have been because several athletes didn't get any of their five rings around an onion.

Nord Craig was our athlete. He didn't win a medal, but seemed to have fun with the event. Here he is tossing a ring at the 10 point onion:

The funniest part of the event was when the three time gold medal winner Swiss Dean entered the playing area. Many in the crowd booed him!! No one wanted to compete against this powerful athlete!! He tossed a ring, missed, and the crowd cheered! He tossed another... another miss and another cheer. Not very supportive was this crowd! All in good fun, though. Dean's a good sport, and the other athletes were relieved to have a chance at the gold.

The gold medal went to the host country's athlete, Aussie Pat. Great Britain, of course, won a medal (bronze) and Russia won the silver. At this point, Norway was out of the running for any of the overall medals. With two events left, though, we weren't giving up our olympic spirit.

Go Norway!!

Russia hosted Russian Hockey. I missed it because I was downstairs covering the Bloomin' Onion Toss. It looks like it was fun, though. Athletes had to hit four pink paper covered washers to the other end of the conference room table for points. They hit them with an upside down disposable food container filled with coins. Areas were marked off with triangles and squares and each area was worth different points. Athletes got two blue washer practice shots to begin.

Here's the scoring layout:

Nord Rob was our athlete. He didn't win anything. He wasn't the worst by any means, and he didn't lose points for hitting the photographer with a washer like another athlete did (it was an accident!).

The gold medal winner with 9 points was one of the ladies who hired me several years ago, Jan. We like to go to El Patio for mexican food sometimes. They have great tostadas and queso. Anyway... Jan was on the Great Britain team which doesn't seem to be able to lose an event. I guess that's why they call themselves "Great." Italy and Japan won medals, too. This was the first event in which Japan won a medal. It's always exciting to witness a first this late in the games.

Go Norway!!

Japan hosted Tokyo Kamikaze (that's No Limit Texas Hold 'em played with Yen). Norwegian Elaine, an avid poker player, represented our team. I wasn't at the event, and I haven't heard any real exciting stories about it, so I don't have much to say. Elaine was beat out by Irish Rand who went on to win Gold at the finals table. I was in the other conference room covering the Boxing event.

For Boxing, Norway was represented by Bruce, The Norse Force. Bruce had just had surgery the week before on his shoulder for a skiing injury, so he wasn't in full health. For this kind of boxing, though, he assured us he was able. After all, you don't need your shoulder much for Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots!

Bruce won the first round against the Brit Phyllis. This was one of the few events the Brits hadn't medaled in so far. In the other conference room, Brit Patrick was on his way to a Bronze.

In the second round, The Norse Force battled Kiwi (New Zealander) Dolo. The winner would be the one who knocked the other's block off 3 times. It was two to two and a fierce match ensued. Pop! Pop! Both robots heads sprang up simultaneously! The judge declared Bruce the winner, but both Bruce and Dolo claimed it was too close to call and they asked to do it over. "Noooooooo!!" I thought. "Bruce was declared the winner!!" But they played it over again anyway. This time Dolo proved to be too much for The Norse Force. She went on to win the Gold. Both losses of the day were to Gold medal winners, so I guess that's not too bad.

Go Norway!!

I competed in the Penguin Shuffle. I was nervous going in. Norway had won only 1 Bronze medal in the first week, and we needed to win several medals this week to be in the running for an overall medal. Plus, I just wanted to win something for myself!

Given my love for penguins, I knew this event was for me. There were five heats where athletes spent three minutes putting quarters between their knees, "shuffling" to the other end of the conference room with their arms at their sides, and dropping the quarters into bud vases. Three LONG minutes. But I'd been practicing, so I was feeling pretty good about it.

As an aside: The night before, I had a dream that they'd changed all the rules. It was a race, and there were four parts. I can't remember the first part, but the second was to paint a small thin piece of wood. I was late to the game, and all the other athletes were doing the third and fourth parts while I was painting my piece of wood. After the wood, I had to run over to a sink, and fill small beige balloons with asparagus. Then I had to go to a pool table and throw the balloons into the far corner pockets. Luckily, when I got to the real event, they hadn't changed the rules.

In the first heat, two-time Gold medal winner, Swiss Dean competed against Irish Suzy and Austrian Lupe. When they announced "On your mark; Get set; Go!" everyone was surprised by Swiss Dean. He was hopping!! He put in an amazing performance, even getting a quarter in the vase as time elapsed. His final score was 11 quarters! Suzy had 6, and Lupe had 2. Here's Dean hop, hop, hopping:

In the second and third heats, three athletes got 4 quarters in the vase with the others getting less. Then it was my turn. I would be "shuffling" with Russian Hector. Let me tell you... 3 minutes is a long time to walk with quarters between your knees and drop them into bud vases. By the end of the heat, I was exhausted!! But I'd gotten 5 quarters in the vase!! Good for a Bronze medal if no one beat me in the 5th heat. Below, you can see my quarter dropping technique. The tongue plays a big part in aiming!

The final heat proved to be too much for the French and German athletes, and I remained the Bronze medal winner. Yay!! The host team, U.S.A., provided penguin adorned cardboard medals with colored ribbons attached. This was Swiss Dean's third competition, and he was presented with his third Gold medal! Can he be stopped!?

Dublin Darts was hosted by Ireland. It's weird that another section was Ireland this time after we were Ireland in the Summer Games.

The Olympics came at a good time for the Irish team. Stores were already putting out their St. Patrick's Day decorations, so it was much easier for the Irish to find hats and things than it was for us Norwegians to find Nordic gear. I looked for a real Viking hat last weekend, but there wasn't one to be had.

I missed the Dublin Darts event because I was competing on a different floor. Nords Hank and Jesse were our dart throwers. Hank said he shot poorly, but Jesse fared well. It was a team event, though, and it wasn't enough for a medal. See Hank and Jesse throwing darts in their paper Viking hats below:

The U.S.A. team earned the Gold, Great Britain earned the Silver and the Irish team took home the Bronze. People begain noticing that Great Britain was winning something in just about everything. We Norwegians hadn't given up, though.

Go Norway!!

I missed the Biathlon event, so I had to piece it together through pictures and accounts from the Norwegian athlete, Gary. Athletes were to shuffle around the conference room table on skis then shoot ten disks with a high tech pistol through a hoop. Then they had to do it again. They were timed with each second worth a point. Each disk shot through the hoop resulted in a point subtracted from their score. The athletes with the lowest scores won medals.

Six athletes skied before Nord Gary. Three had a score of 40. Three had higher points. Nord Gary had a plan. I don't know exactly what the plan was, but it was a plan. I think it might have been "go really fast." Here's Gary going really fast:

Gary finishes with 29 points!! French Lisa takes her turn and gets the popular score of 40. Then Russian Ann goes really fast. Her time was 30, but she made two shots through the hoop so her final points were 28 beating Nord Gary by 1.

With three athletes to go, there were no guarantees that Nord Gary would stay in medal range. Next up was "Pass the Pasta" Gold Medal winner, Swiss Dean, seen below with a very confident look at the starting line.

Dean went really faster and got three shots through the hoop for a total score of 22. That put Nord Gary at Bronze. Two more athletes to go: German Chris and Brit Paul. German Chris knocked Gary out of a medal with a score of 24, and Brit Paul knocked Russian Ann out of a medal with 26 points. Just goes to show... it's not over 'til it's over!!

Go Norway!!

Norway hosted the Ice Fishing event. Athletes were challenged to catch as many fish as they could in one minute. Our hopes sat on the shoulders of Nord David. It could have been a one round game, but 4 fisherpeople tied for 1st place with 6 fish caught. Nord David was knocked out only reeling in 4 fish. In the second round, athletes from Ireland and Switzerland were knocked out with Irish Diane winning Bronze. Three rounds later, Brit Pam out-fished German Jesse by catching 2 fish in 15 seconds to Jesse's 1 fish.

Here's Nord David fishing:

At the end of the summer olympics a couple years ago, all medalists received a medal. This year, no real medals were to be awarded because people complained about having to donate money for the summer olympic medals. Some host countries, however, furnished their own medals. Not to be outdone by others, we Norwegians gave the winners fish on fish hooks. There was a bronze painted fish, a silver glittered fish and (of course) a goldfish! See the medalists below with their fishy medals.

Go Norway!!

The curling event was played by shoving blocks of ice toward a target at the other end of a plastic covered conference room table. Each team had three players who each shoved a block of ice. The players not shoving ice could wipe up the wet spots (or in some cases, squeeze soaking napkins to make the playing field more wet). Two teams played against each other each match.

The scoring was strange, and the rounds to determine Gold, Silver and Bronze were less than satisfying (Great Britain got a bye in the second round and went straight to Silver. huh?) But I'm happy to report that Nords Craig, Neal and Rob came home with a Bronze medal!!

Go Norway!!

I was not a witness to the ski jump event. This year, as in the real olympic games, we have events at the same time at different venues. During the ski jump in the 8th floor conference room, I was up in the 9th floor conference room covering the curling event. More on that later.

For the ski jump event hosted by Switzerland, athletes had to run a car down a ramp, through a loop and up a ramp and hope their car traveled the farthest.

Nord Gary was our athlete. You can tell by the look on his face that he didn't do well.

As you can see, emergency vehicles were on hand to help out those who suffered the agony of defeat.

Norway was again denied a medal, but we haven't given up our Viking Spirit!

Go Norway!!

Today's event was hosted by Austria. It was Shuffleboard on the conference room table. Each athlete got 3 hockey pucks adorned with their nation's flag and had to slide them to the other end of the table. There were taped off sections at the end and each section was worth a certain number of points. The farther the puck went, the more points the athlete got. Sliding off the table meant no points, and they were allowed to knock each other's pucks off the table (and sometimes they knocked their own off!).

It seemed there were many ties to be broken during the event. We called the tiebreakers "Puck Offs." One time, the crowd raised a rousing chorus of "Puck Off! Puck Off! Puck Off!"

Norway was again denied a medal, but Nordic Hank (pictured below) did an outstanding job playing the game. Germany won the event, and Australia is in the lead for the tournament as a whole.

Go Norway!!

Today's event was Pass the Pasta, and it was not without controversy. Athletes were challenged to pick up uncooked pasta with a plastic fork (a certified Olympic device), carry it to the other end of the conference room, and deposit it in a styrofoam bowl. The athlete with the most noodles in their bowl moved on to the final round. Nordic Donna had the most of all contestants in the first round... 32 noodles in 2 minutes!! She made a valiant effort, but didn't do as well in the final round, and Norway was denied a medal. Neutral Switzerland's Dean won the Gold.

Controversy surrounded Ireland. The Irish athlete filled her bowl as she was supposed to, but for some reason, the noodle counters failed to count her noodles before emptying her bowl. She advanced to the final round as a consolation. Sadly (for this year's Irish), she still didn't win a medal.

Italy was the host country, and they provided Gold, Silver and Bronze macaroni medals to the winners.

Below: Some of us Nords from team Norway (Elaine, Kim (me!), Gary, Shantel and Donna in front). Go Norway!!

The opening ceremony for our Winter Office Olympics was short and fun! Here's me just before I ran into the auditorium with the torch to begin the games. Go Norway!!

A year and a half ago, my section at work took home the Office Olympic torch for winning the Summer Olympic Games. We were Ireland then. Now it's time for the Winter Olympic Games, and we're Norway. I'll be carrying the torch into the Opening Ceremonies this afternoon and handing it over, so I took this one last shot of it burning above my cubicle. You can see the Norwegian flag proudly waving in anticipation of the games.

Games this year include ice fishing, ski jumping, pasta passing, and trike racing (le Trike de France). Let the games begin!!