Uniform & Accreditations: Looking the Part

Countdown to 2010 Vancouver Games: 2 days; 18 hours; 3 minutes

I was scheduled to pick up my uniform and accreditation at the Whistler Games Service Center today at 3:00 PM, the day before my first volunteer shift at Whistler Olympic Park. The place is situated on the same property as the Whistler Racquet & Golf Resort at 4500 Northlands Blvd which was pretty close to the Village core.
 
I was a little worried about getting my uniform. For one, I had read elsewhere that they were quickly running out of the smaller sizes for uniforms, especially with the Games drawing ever nearer. And I was picking up my uniform pretty much at the 11th hour of the Olympic Games. However, given that I sport a size 24 waistline, I'm one of those who would categorize herself in the extra extra small. Anything larger than small on me would be paramount to a disaster.

 

Maybe that's why I showed up early to the office, at about 2:30 PM I walked through the doors of what turned out to be a tent to this cheerful little welcome desk facing the door, manned by volunteers like myself. I apologized for arriving early, but they shook their head, indicating that the place wasn't busy at the moment and that it was no problem. So I went ahead and started the process to getting myself fully accredited.

 

I did hit a snag in the process. Apparently, an Ontario Health Card alongside a birth certificate was not enough for the individuals at the accreditation desk to prove that I wasn't a doppleganger. I panicked a little as that was all I had to formal government documentation on me from Ontario. I explained meekly that when they did the security background check during the interview process leading up to becoming a volunteer for Vancouver 2010, that my birth certificate and health card was enough proof of my existence. 
 
They took pity on me. After looking over my documents, they allowed me to proceed with my accreditation services starting with the picture.
 
I don't photograph very well. Especially when they told me that I couldn't smile, which threw me off for a second and resulted in my rather serious expression on it. Also, I was a bit stupid. I wore my Team Canada baseball cap all day today, and didn't think to fix my hair in order to prevent the "hat hair" look I ended up with. But at least I remembered to take my hair out of my ponytail.
 

With that awful picture out of the way and my accreditation hanging around my neck, it was now off to pick up my uniform. I arrived nervously, they scanned my accreditation card and I asked if they had any smalls or smaller.

The woman gave me a one-over and then handed me a sheet of paper with a list of things that I should be getting next to blank squares. She then escorted me to the fitting room, telling me she'll look for the smallest sizes she can find.

 

When she came back, I discovered almost all of the pieces she gave me were extra small! The only one that wasn't was one of my blue shirts, which was a small. But I basically managed to get the smallest size in just about everything! And the colours of the uniform was amazing to behold. It was a beautiful shade of light blue.

 

Even at extra-small though, the snow pants were massive on me. I had to fold up the bottom of the pants to keep them from dragging on the ground. But it still would not save them, as later in the week I would succeed to tear a small hole in the bottom thanks to friction. 

It was as if these sizes were standardized to the average American woman as opposed to Canadian women who, we assume anyway, are much thinner.

The woman asked if I was going to wear anything underneath. I told her that I was going to be wearing a black vest I got from my aunt at Christmas this year underneath the blue shell. She suggested that I switched my fleece vest to a small as I had to wear my own vest underneath the Vancouver 2010 one. That did pain me a little to do, because the extra-small fit so well, but no way would an extra-small vest be able to fit my black wool vest.

With the sheet marked down and my uniform all neatly tucked away in the large blue Vancouver 2010 tote bag, they sent me off to check out my uniform and "welcome" bag.

Apparently, check-out was where I lucked out again. We were only supposed to get one toque for our uniform. Somehow, when I opened my tote bag that evening, I discovered that I had managed to walk out with two of them.
As the cashier checked out my items, she told me that I was getting close to $800 dollars worth of free stuff.  All told I got:

- 1 XS dark blue outdoor pants
- 1 XS light blue jacket shell
- 1 S light blue fleece vest
- 1 XS sleeve pattern light blue shirt
- 1 S sleeve plain light blue shirt
- TWO (2) light blue toques
- 1 brown bag of free stuff that included: a Far Coast travel mug (unfortunately mine was broken), a Cold-FX figure skater pin, and a booklet full of free promotions and coupons.

I didn't understand it then fully, but I know now. I was extremely lucky to get what I got and having them fit me as well as they did.

When I later spoke with fellow volunteers at the venue only days after I recieved my uniform, they were all shocked that I managed to get any extra smalls at all. They were even more baffled at the fact that I got them basically three days before the beginning of the Games. Especially when all of them picked up their uniforms well before I did.

Asami ended up with a medium sized jacket. Lisa had to beg for the service center in Vancouver to let her have a small long-sleeve shirt, while the other one was a large, so big in fact that it's basically unwearable for her. She above all others was the most shocked at the fact that I managed to grab as many small sizes as I did.

Getting extra-small anything was practically unheard of after the end of January.

Before, I only had the attitude. Now I have the wardrobe to look the part at these Olympics in Whister. And I'm ready for what these Games will throw at me over the next three weeks.

Let the Games begin!

The back of the outer shell jacket of the Vancouver 2010 blue jackets