Actualités Infos - sport

Wednesday, 11 February 2009

Encounter with a transatlantic volunteer: Patrick Maloney

Patrick Maloney, volunteer and originally from Vancouver - Canada - was one of the first to work here. He arrived two weeks ago and started working on the Bellevarde slope straight away with the ski patrol. Glühwein in one hand, crêpe in the other, he admitted he had "put up most of those barriers on the slope by myself". For him, the atmosphere is great, and he gets along really well with "the French". As he explained with a touch of humour: "two weeks ago, I didn't know any of them, now, we meet in the evening to have a whiskey or a beer, trade hats and e-mail addresses". He also added skiing wasn't a major sport in Canada. On the contrary, "if Canada doesn't get a gold Olympic medal for ice-hockey, everybody looks out for a problem. A bit like Austria and skiing. If there aren't three Austrians on the podium, there are big discussions".