On Thursday I watched Christine Nesbitt win gold in a gut-wrenchingly close race where she pushed through the pain to win by 2 1-hundredths of a second. Then on Friday, seeing Jon Montgomery win gold here in Whistler ignited Canada's spirit all over again.

These performances have been inspirational, exciting, and have awakened the Canadian spirit in this nation. On Friday night, all of Whistler was on fire and Robson Street in Vancouver was packed as Canadians flooded the streets with cheers. My favourite part was hearing the crowds spontaneously break out singing our national anthem.

These moments make the hard days as an athlete feel worth the effort. Those kinds of highs are virtually unattainable in daily life, but at the Olympics you're not alone on the sporting field. You feel like a piece of every Canadian is right there with you, especially here at a home Olympics.

However, there's the other side of the coin. The alpine team hasn't come through with a medal; speedskater Denny Morrison had one of his worst races in the 1000 metres and came up short in the 1,500; and Mellisa Hollingsworth missed the skeleton podium when she was favoured to win.

All of these stories remind us how often, in sport and in life, things don't always work out as we hoped. But these athletes will continue to excel and push forward, and they will continue to inspire as they get back up and to do it all over again.

I'm certain our alpine team will continue to excel on hills around the world and I look forward to watching the technical events later this week.

As for me, I'm still enjoying my work with CTV. The learning curve has been steep but I'm starting to feel more comfortable in front of the camera. The people behind the scenes are such an amazing crew. It's an honour to work with them.

During these Games I've had some sad moments, usually during physio on the days of the races I thought I'd be competing in. I'm so proud of our girls, though, going out there racing hard for a medal. I can feel their disappointment, but I also hope they love the experience. Everyone out here is just cheering on the red and white (or yellow if you're a ski racer) athletes like crazy.