Body By Milk

In 2002, I was a SAMMY (Scholar Athlete Milk Mustache of the Year) Award winner, and as a result, I appeared in a milk mustache ad in ESPN the Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and USA Today. 8 years later, I'm at the Olympics and in honor of that accomplishment, I was invited to do a live facebook chat with Olympic Gold Medalist Gymnast Shawn Johnson. However, I missed the live facebook chat due to a press conference that ran late, so we shot a little video afterwards. Here is that video!

http://www.akamediainc.com/Client/Milk/ShawnJohnson_Elana.htm

You can also see the video on the Body By Milk facebook fan page.For all you high school seniors out there, don't forget to apply for the SAMMY awards! Applications close March 5!

Ridiculously busy day!

Days can be pretty busy as an Olympian, and today was especially one of them! I started the day off rushing to breakfast in order to make it in time to my live chat with the Washington Post, to which I was of course late- as I forgot to account for time it would actually take me to get online and get to the site. The chat went longer than expected, which is completely ok- I welcome all the questions and fans, but I had to chat and prepare for my next task, an interview with NBC. The interview was in downtown Whistler, which was great and it was a gorgeous day, but the trip takes a minute to get out there from the athlete village. Then, I met up with the students visiting the Olympics from GW and told them about a few of my experiences as an Olympian. I'm actually in the same graduate program as all of them, although I don't actually know when I'll ever finish mine! lol (hopefully soon though!). I then rushed out of there, as I had to do some damage control for some of my less than popular tweets (our tweets get a lot of followers as Olympians so you have to be careful what you say!). After I controlled some of the damage, I then had to rush to get my workout in, and then showed some GWers around the athlete village. I then rushed to shower and get some rehab on my crazy hamstring, grabbed a bite to eat, watched a bit of Shaun White's epic run, and then burnt my mouth sipping cappuccino on the way to bible study. Finally, I finished bible study and came back here to answer all my emails and do everything I didn't do during the day cause there was no time! Definitely busy day, but it's a nice problem to have. My days are going to get a lot less busy starting tomorrow- the time that I call my "drop dead zone," it's the personal time I'm taking to prepare for my races. After my races- I'll be busy as ever again, but for now, it's getting down to the wire and time to focus. So if I don't respond to anyone on facebook, twitter, or even on this blog, please don't take it personally. I thank everyone for all the support and encouragement- but now it's time to go to work! This is what I trained my whole life for, it's time to go get some hardware!

P.S. Rebekah Bradford will be competing tomorrow so check her out!

Rebekah Bradford

I've met quite a few athletes here in the XXI Winter Olympics, so occasionally I'll take the time to tell you about some of them. First- meet Rebekah Bradford! Rebekah is making her first appearance in the Olympics and is a sprint speedskater. To me- sprinting means 30m, but in speedskating, her race, the 1000m is a sprint! Rebekah is originally from Minnesota, but now trains in Salt Lake City with the rest of the U.S. Speed skating team. I met her for the first time in Chula Vista and caught up with her during Opening Ceremonies. She's an awesome person and more importantly skates for more than just herself- she is one of many of us who are competing for the God's glory in these Olympics (rock on!). Wish her good luck as she represents our country and goes for the gold on February 18! Check her out!!

IOC regulations and blogging

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has strict regulations on blogs that occur during the games for all athletes. We are allowed to blog, but it must be written in the first person. We are allowed to post pictures, but they must be of people, not of events. We're not allowed to post any video from any areas that you need accreditation to access- aka- all the areas that I'm in. Finally, you can't go sponsor crazy on your blogs either. That being said, I'll post all my great Olympic video after the games is over :)

Opening Ceremonies

Opening ceremonies was amazing! Words can't describe what it felt like hearing the entire US team chant "USA, USA" in the waiting areas- it was amazing! The day was a long one, it started out with breakfast and then I rushed over to the P&G House, where they did my make-up and made me look fabulous all for free!!! Then I rushed back to the Vancouver Olympic Village for lunch and to quickly get dressed in my white pants before heading out the door to meet Vice President Joe Biden and his family. It was amazing to meet him, and his speech almost made me cry. After meeting VP Biden, the we waited...

And waited, and waited, and waited...

During the wait, people were trading pins, and because I didn't know about this big pin trading tradition, I didn't have my pins! However, our physio, Jason Ross, had a pin and asked me to trade it for him- for something really good. I went on a mission- and traded it with the one athlete from Ghana- the Snow Leopard- which I consider a big achievement for the night. While I didn't have pins to trade- fellow brakeman Emily Azevedo and I spent a good majority of the evening collecting as many US signatures as we possibly could on flags and other items- which allowed us to meet a lot of people from all the U.S. sports- so many great people and great stories!

Finally, we lined up to walk into the stadium. We were in line for what seemed like forever! And even though our Ralph Lauren gear looked great (the white pants looked much better than expected), we were SOOO HOT!!! Those wool sweaters were furnaces! We were burning up! They offered us water, but no one wanted to drink cause we didn't want to go to the bathroom!

Finally, they started calling the country names and we were almost ready to roll out. Being the United States, we were one of the last countries to come out, shortly to be followed by host nation Canada. We all tried to strategize where to stand to get tv time- everyone like little kids so excited! The big winners were the ones who stood by the snowboarders and Shaun White, definitely should have been more strategic- but I'm super glad I walked in with my pilot Erin Pac, I was so happy to share that moment with her after all we've been through.

Walking through that stadium was nothing short of amazing. Walking up the ramp all you could see was thousands of people and bright lights- I imagine that's what entering the gates of heaven looks like (if it were on an earthly scale)- it was beautiful. We were so excited and I never wanted that walk to end- but it did, but luckily the show was amazing too.

Another Busy Day!

Day 2 here in Vancouver is complete! We arrived yesterday and went through team processing where we received 3 huge bags worth of items- including our opening and closing ceremonies gear, which was altered on the spot for us. Then we were told we had a box to ship items home- and that's when the real decisions came into play. I was up until 1:00am trying to decide which items to keep with me and which to send home- trying on clothes and thinking about what items I'd like to trade with other people for their swag, and also which items I want to give as presents and to whom. It was a intense night!

Then- because the time difference is 3 hours, I woke up at 3:40am to be a live guest on the Bert Show on Q100 in Atlanta. It's a show that I personally listen to in the morning and have been trying to get on for a while now to tell them about bobsled- so I was stoked that I finally got on. I was so tired I don't think I realized that I accomplished a life goal by being on the Bert Show, I did the interview and fell right back asleep- very tired. I have a follow up interview with the Bert Show on Monday...should be loads of fun!

When I finally woke up for the day it was a mad scramble to finish packing and ship my box off. Then we worked out and had lunch with children from Vancouver College. Always nice to hear children chant "USA, USA!" when you walk into a room! Such a great experience!

Finally, we had a press conference and then I rushed to a hotel in Vancouver where I was supposed to meet Shawn Johnson for a live facebook chat on behalf of Got Milk? Well, the press conference took longer than expected and the car they sent couldn't get to the building I was in because of all the extra security. Long story short, I missed the chat but shot some footage promoting SAMMY (Scholar-Athlete Milk Mustache of the Year Award) and chatting with Shawn Johnson that will hopefully be used soon. Such a cool experience and I was honored to be involved. (Shawn Johnson had just released Project SHINE and her Milk Mustache Ad). I felt bad that I was late, but was happy the people there were great and excited.

After that busy day, I finally checked into the athlete Olympic village in Vancouver which is amazing! I've been able to get so much video for my Olympic movie- it's been great! I've already met a curler on the women's team, an aerialist, and a hockey player on the women's team (all US athletes). The village is awesome- but more importantly- everyone I've met has been amazing! Everyone- all the volunteers who are so willing to do anything for you- even move all your luggage into your room- have been great! The support from all my family, friends, peers, and fellow Americans across the world has almost led me to tears. Tomorrow's opening ceremonies and I don't know if I'll keep it together- but there's a good chance I will because I'm not sure how to wipe the smile off my face.

Thanks everyone for all that you do!!! I appreciate it!

Vancouver Bound!

I have heard that being an athlete at the Olympics is one of the best experiences of your life. We are on the way to the airport right now to head to Vancouver from Park City, Utah- and yes it is 4:30am. The reviews from our men's team is that everything is amazing. I'm eager to get there and begin this new adventure. I don't know what's going to happen or how I'm going to feel, but I'm excited right now. This is a huge moment for me and all those who have supported me all these years so- here we go! Onto Vancouver!!!