For almost all of us, it was a chance to sit and watch some of the greatest athletes do what they do best from afar. For Scott Spike, the 2010 Olympic Winter Games were a chance to see and experience greatness up close.
An Elora resident, Spike applied to volunteer at the Vancouver Games almost two years ago and wound up serving as an athlete services volunteer at Canada Hockey Place. The decision to apply was done on a whim - a decision that left Spike full of pride.
"I was driving down from Elora to Guelph when I heard an ad on the radio, telling people how to apply to become a volunteer at the Olympics in Vancouver," he said. "I applied the first day, and every day I could come home and check to see if I'd been accepted. It took more than a year to find out that I had been selected - ironically, it was on the first day that I didn't check my email that I got the notification."
After going through the group interview in Toronto, Spike found that his background in hockey was going to serve him well. A former Fergus Devil and Canadian university hockey player, Spike was told that he would be among the volunteer staff to help out at General Motors Place/Canada Hockey Place. He credits his background in the game for helping him land the plumb assignment.
"I played fairly high-level hockey so I understood what they needed to get ready," he said. "If I was going to do this, I was going for hockey. There were some people who volunteered at the Games and all they did was sit on a chair at the end of a hallway to make sure people didn't use a certain door. I'll admit it - I was lucky."
Once he reported for duty, Spike saw just how lucky he was. Among the other staff were people who had been a part of Memorial Cup and World Junior Hockey tournaments, and they had used their connections to get to the penultimate hockey site. But when he found out Canada Hockey Place was his destination, Spike admitted to being conflicted.
"It was both the best and worst day, and I didn't tell anyone for months," he said. "Not even my wife, Sarah, who I have a young daughter with. I was being pulled between two very exciting things. Eventually I told her but said I wasn't going - but when I found out that I was 100 per cent sure I'd be going to the hockey venue, she told me to go. She never hesitated."
What followed for Spike was a whirlwind. Flying in the day of the opening ceremonies, he relied on the army of other volunteers already in Vancouver to get him situated with all the details of his task. The Vancouver Olympic Committee had set him up with a host family, a 70-year-old married couple from West Vancouver. That alone turned out to be quite the experience for Spike.
"They were just great people - they gave me my own apartment in the basement of their place, and the lady even baked me a cake to bring home with me," he said with a laugh. "When I got to the airport to come home, my bag was searched, but not because of the cake. The x-ray machine couldn't see through the puck, so they wanted to check that out."
Arriving at the arena for his first day of work, Spike said he was in the Team Canada dressing room working when the women's hockey team came into the facility for the first time. Their reaction was utterly priceless in Spike's eyes, yet another memory to store away for later retelling.
"I was in there when the girls came in, and when they saw their room they went absolutely nuts - it was great," he said. "You had these world-class players oooing and ahhhing over every little thing. I couldn't believe it was happening."
Once their initial reaction subsided, Spike said it was impressive how classy and dedicated everyone on the team was - from the players right down to the guy who fills the water bottles. But after a week of being away from his family, of nearly being run ragged every day, he said things finally began to slow down. But only a little.
"Honestly, after that first week out there I was fried," he said. "I was tired and sore. I'd met tons of people and shaken hands with them. But I realized that I was there for a reason, and I just became accustomed to everything going on around me."
In contrast to the sheer joy and excitement shown by the women's team, Spike said it was a different story when the men arrived in Vancouver. While the women were almost giddy, the NHL-laden teams of Canada, Sweden, Russia and the United States came in with a business-like state of mind.
"I was there when the Russians came in to the arena - they were wearing their Olympic track pants and some guys had Russia coats on, and I got the sense that they were there to have fun and hopefully win a medal," he said. "With the Canadians, they came off the bus in line, shirts and ties, no cell phones... and they walked right into the room. I just didn't get the sense they were enjoying themselves much at all."
After talking with a trainer for the American team, Spike said things were put in a new light for him. He was told that the US squad was lucky to have one national reporter and a few beat writers following their progress in Vancouver, while the Canadians had to run a lengthy gauntlet every time they left the ice.
As the games played out and Canada ran a different kind of gauntlet, Spike said the mood in the city on the day of the Canada-Russia game was unlike anything he'd ever seen. People had their faces coloured with the full gamut of emotion - happy, nervous, scared, giddy. The intensity he felt in the air was palpable, crackling with a nervous anticipation.
Once that hurdle was passed, Spike elected to watch history unfold in another way. His shift at Canada Hockey Place on the day of the gold-medal match was to start right after the game, but it was cancelled.
"I had been to see some of the other games when I wasn't working - the pass they gave us got us in anywhere, so I spent time watching games when I wasn't there to work," he said. "For the gold medal game, I intended on going to the arena to watch it, but as I was walking towards my security gate, I got the chance to go into Ontario House right next to the arena. That was the greatest environment I've ever experienced in my life. I kept meaning to go over to the rink, but I wound up staying there the whole game."
In the euphoric moments following Sidney Crosby's golden goal, and the erruption of flag-waving pride, Spike said he'd never hugged that many strangers in such a short time in all his life. But that was only a small sampling of the bubbling national pride he saw during his stay on the west coast - something he's hoping will find a way to carry over after the glow of the Games has faded slightly.
"Every day, no matter where you were in Vancouver, there was just so much emotion everywhere," he said. "I saw Brian Burke after his press conference and I thanked him for saying that this was the best Games he'd even been a part of. It was unreal - my hand hurt from giving and getting so many high-fives. I just wish everyone could have seen what I saw."
Some quick hits from Spike's trip include:
* a torch bearer who couldn't afford to buy her torch was presented it by one of the practice rinks in Vancouver, and they only asked to keep it on display so others could share in the moment
* the upbeat, positive vibe circulating the city when Canada won its first ever gold medal on home soil
* the American flag that Team USA had hanging in their locker room - the original flag that the Americans celebrated with following their Miracle On Ice win over the USSR in Lake Placid
* Jaromir Jagr's pre-game ritual of putting his game sticks beside a burning candle
* Finnish veteran Teemu Selanne celebrating his bronze medal with an ice-cold beer
* telling British Columbia premier Gordon Campbell during a gondola ride that BC had done an amazing job in staging the Olympics, and that he didn't think Ontario could've pulled it off
* finding out that equipment manufacturer Nike had to outsource the making of Slovakia defenceman Zdeno Chara's jersey because of his unusual size requirements (and that Chara's stick is taller than Spike himself, who stands 5'8")
What Spike will take away from his Olympic experience - the thing he'll share with his daughter, Charlee, when she asks him about it years from now - is the pride he felt and hopes to feel in the future from being Canadian.
"We don't show it off enough, and we need to," he said. "I think the Games showed that its okay for us to celebrate being from the greatest country in the world. I went to the 50th anniversary of the Canadian raid at Dieppe, and there were more Canadian flags there than I'd seen here. At the Games, I would walk into a crowded bar by myself, but I never once felt like a stranger. I hope that we all learned a little from this."