By Adam Stewart
While we were up in Whistler this past Saturday night (February 13) interviewing a slew of Alpine Skiers, freestyle skiing extraordinaire Hannah Kearney was dominating another nearby mountain taking home the first U.S. gold medal of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Today, we had a chance to catch up with Hannah in downtown Vancouver on the waterfront overlooking Cypress Mountain — the same slope she dominated on Saturday night.
The soft-spoken Hannah is embracing everything that comes with Olympic success — in fact, Boston Red Sox chairman and co-owner Tom Werner actually called her cell phone during our interview to extend an invitation for her to throw out the first pitch of the 2010 baseball season when the Sox play the Yankees at Fenway Park in April. As a New England native and diehard Sox fan, her excitement shone through almost as brightly as the new medal that adorned her neck. Hannah gave us the full lowdown on her new piece of hardware, noting how this year's minting of medals is totally unique.
Each medal is actually one small piece cut from two large pieces of artwork created by Canadian designer and artist Corrine Hunt. The final product embrace images of cultural symbols and wildlife. The Olympic medals — a total of 615 will be given out — are also made of recycled materials (like recycled electronic circuit boards), which is another first in an era of Green Games.
That's even more bonus points to our environmentally friendly neighbors to the north, who have integrated the games so well into their beautiful city and culture. Now, if it would only snow just a little.