Eleven Year Old takes over the Olympics!

One of those people is Ty Wager of Alberta. He was chosen by McDonalds to be apart of the Champion Kids program. As part of this exciting once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the Lacombe youngster– along with a parent or guardian – is attending high-profile Olympic Winter Games events, meeting athletes, visiting cultural sites and interacting with other McDonald’s Champion Kids from around the world.

Basically he is doing what we all wished we could!

Ty and the other Canadian McDonald’s Champion Kids were chosen by a selection committee that included two-time Olympic gold medalist Cassie Campbell and, in Quebec only, two-time Olympic Silver Medalist Alexandre Despatie based on their commitment to fitness and leading an active lifestyle, for participating in a variety of extracurricular activities and for demonstrating leadership among their peers.

Again, things we all wish we could do.

I asked Ty to write a couple of blog posts for me about his adventures. Sometimes, us grownups are way too cynical to appreciate the games and what they mean to so many people. I thought it would be fun to read what Ty thought about the games and all his adventures.

Check out his blog post below. He is going to write one more when he gets back home. It sounds like he is having a blast so far!

“Thursday was an amazing day and to start off my great experience I got to do a smoothie making contest with Picabo Street, Cassie Campbell and Shawn Johnson. Our group was last to go up and everything was going great until Picabo decided to dump the whole container of ice into the machine. We got third! But after getting a hug from Katrina Witt and a photo with Cassie Campbell it was well worth it.

After our short bus ride to the aquarium we got out and had all of the media gathered around us asking questions about the smoothie contest. It was amazing. The first spot we stopped at was the blue jelly fish. They were so small you could hardly see them. Next I spotted out the two baby beluga whales. One was born a year and a half ago and the other was just six months old. We also saw the sea otters and sea lions. They were both very fury and could hold their breath under water for great amounts of time. Before we had to go we caught a great dolphin show where it showed us how they protect them selves against their predators.

On our bus ride to the Capilano Suspension Bridge we passed over the Lions Gate Bridge where we saw East and West Vancouver. When we got to the bridge we started off by learning about the history. The forest has one of the biggest trees in Western Canada. It was huge, and next up was the bridge. It was so high if u stood on it you would be up to the shoulders on the Statue of Liberty. We also had a great welcome supper that night which was great.

Friday was another great day. We started off by heading over to Grouse Mountain. My dad took me while my mom and sister went shopping. Back to m y point, we had to take a sky train and climb up a huge mountain that took us eight minutes to get up to. It was scary. We eventually got up there and when we did it was time to go snow shoe walking. That was cool because we got to see all of the different kind of carvings the first nations made. There was also an ice sculpture made out of ice. We went in and had lunch where a first nations person did some drumming for us. After that we had a sleigh ride back to the cabin where we headed back down for the opening ceremonies!

The bus ride took us quite a while to get to B.C PLACE because of all the traffic. We finally got there and through all of the lines into our seats. Just in time for the start of it. It was kicked off by a snowboarder jumping through the rings. I was amazing. Next up was a couple of first nation’s stories then the athletes. After the athlete’s country was called up the athletes came and sat beside some of the fans. I was lucky enough to have the Czech Republic by me. They gave me a small version of there flag and some of the signed it. It was amazing, but later on in the show sad. Early that day a Georgian athlete had died after a luge crash. It must have been hard for his team. When Canada came out the crowd went crazy. Yes including me. It was an amazing show and it came to an end when four former Olympic athletes including Wayne Gretzky lit the cauldron. I will remember this forever.“