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I held my breath as Canadian forward Sidney Crosby sliced through the ice and fired in the shot that was felt around the world.
Canada 3 - USA 2 in men's hockey. Canada took Olympic gold and the USA claimed silver in Vancouver 2010.
Crocodile tears hovered on the lower rims of my eyes as I watched the emotion and my skin raised with bumps of shiver. I took my glance off the television screen and allowed my eyes to crawl down my left arm. "Torino 2006" in life-saving white scroll against the passion of red velour. I wore my Torino 2006 Olympic Games volunteer uniform for today's occasion.
The Olympics are beyond gold for me and beyond medals. The Olympics represent hope, peace, goals and a fight beyond the ordinary.
Yes, we lost the hockey gold today but in the Olympics we all win for a moment in time.
Seventeen days this year of amazing, worldwide glory and cooperation. Be still my heart.
I worked within the Games four years ago as a communications specialist and it remains a "more than gold" experience. I have no athletic talent but I can speak, write and coordinate. That was enough to bring me on the journey of a lifetime to join the Torino "communications team." It took courage and determination to make it there from Green Bay, Wis.
As the 2006 USA Men's Curling team took bronze in Pinerolo, Italy, defeating Great Britain 8-6, I stood beyond black curtains to listen to the thunder of the crowd. I silently threw my fist in the air in jubilation. As a member of the communications team, we were expected to be seen but not heard except when needed. I had been allowed to leave my media post and watch the ultimate win.
After the men had been awarded their medals, I was allowed by security to dance on Olympic ice.
I lowered myself to the ice and kissed it to the cheers of my colleagues. I danced, and in that moment I felt like anything was possible.
The Olympics have the power to reach inside of us in that way.
A group of us then took a chance and crept to the raised podiums where Olympic champions had stood just minutes before us. I took my 5'3" frame and stood on the silver-medal platform. I looked out into the empty stands and then closed my eyes. In that moment, with Olympic ice surrounding me, I made my wish
I wished for the chance to have my own publishing company. I promised myself I would chase it like an Olympic champion.
As a crime survivor, I wanted to build a mainstream pipeline to carry defining stories of survival, including my own battle, "When the Easter Bunny is Naked," to be released in May 2010.
Four years later with another Olympic Games staring at me, I have been able to smile back as the publisher of TitleTown Publishing. We have six books scheduled to be released this year on the national stage.
Olympic dreams do come true and often times it has nothing to do with medals and everything to do with the human capacity to believe beyond numbers and odds.
You don't have to be an extraordinary athlete to appreciate the power of the human triumph over adversity.
In the days, weeks and months after these Olympic Games have passed, remember Canadian figure skater Joannie Rochette who reached into the sky with her eyes after taking a bronze medal on Feb. 25. Her mother had died four days earlier but Joannie's courage on the ice --- it was gold.
