We couldn’t let the Winter Olympics go unremarked and uncelebrated, so we put our own spin on it. Space (and safety) considerations required us to put the kibosh on some events, like chair hockey, chair luge, 2-person chair bobsled, chair curling, or skating in socks. Discussions around the lunch table yielded three events. The Games were on! February 21-23, 2018
Opening Ceremony
Parade of athletes, a torch, doves, a beribboned official
- Parade of Athletes
- Here come the French and the Danes
- The parade continues
- NSIV’s resident US Triathlon Champion, Tom Kinneman, carries in the torch
- The flame is lit.
Event #1 – Lab Coat Relay
Teams of 3. A stack of neatly folded lab coats. Goal: Get every member of the team to put on, then take off, the stack of lab coats, and fold them up neatly again. Procedure: Team Member #1 puts on lab coat, takes it off, passes it to Team Member 2, who puts it on then takes it off and passes it to Team Member #3, who puts it on and LEAVES IT ON. Repeat until Team Member #3 is wearing all the lab coats. Reverse order. Team Member #1 must put on, then take off, each lab coat and then neatly fold it. Rules: No lab coat can touch the floor. No team member can help put a lab coat on or off. An arm has to be in each sleeve to qualify the “athlete” as having donned the coat. Judging: Winners will be awarded points for time AND quality of folding. Neatness counts.
- The race begins
- Team A racing through their stack
- All 7 coats on
- Almost done
- Let the folding begin
- Team B ready for style judging
- Team A ready for style judging
- Lab Manager Irene, the Style Judge. Note the judging tools
- Careful judging
- Silver medalists: Andreas, Leinel and Derek
- Gold Medalists: Enrique, Vanessa, Morton
Event #2: Pipette Biathlon
Individual Event. Pipette tips. Ice buckets. Pipette tips tossed into ice buckets. Fastest time wins. Rules: Contestant can either do 20 jumping jacks or 30 running in place steps (left foot must touch ground 30 times). Run to shooting line and toss 5 pipette tips into ice bucket. Each miss brings a penalty round (3 jumping jacks or 10 running steps). Two “shooting” rounds – first from a kneeling position, second from a standing position. Exercise, toss, (penalty round), exercise, toss, (penalty round), exercise.
- Group A: Vanessa, Alex, and Madeleine set off
- Tossing pipette tips from the kneeling position. It’s harder than it looks.
- Tossing from the standing position. Also hard.
- Group B: Anky, Enrique, Leonel. Official timers: Olivier, Marty, and Tom
- Group C: Trish, Morton
- The podium. Gold: Enrique. Silver: Anky. Bronze: Trish
Event #3: Bottle Cap Hockey
From college days. Round-robin play. Top four players move to modal elimination round. Rules: Each player shoots a bottle cap puck five times towards the opponent’s goal (formed by their fingers, index finger is the goalie). Players alternate shots. Most goals through the “goalposts” win the match.
- The tournament begins
- Marty vs. Morton
- The podium: Gold: Marty. Silver: Andreas. Bronze: Olivier. Pewter: Alex
- The scoreboard
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