Halloween at the OTC

Halloween is finally here! This is one of the most anticipated holidays of the year, and for many it’s a favorite. It is such a fun excuse to get to play make-believe and get crazy like a kid again. Who doesn’t like to splurge on sweet, festive junk food and spend time thinking of a creative costume every once in a while?

This holiday is even more important for elite athletes who eat, breathe, and sleep their sports everyday; rarely getting to be silly and let loose.

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Here at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) in Colorado Springs, the staff does an amazing job at making it simple to enjoy holidays as they pass through the busy training and competition schedules of all the Olympians, Paralympians, and hopefuls who reside here.

The OTC staff is always thoughtful about having featured parties for it’s family of residents and guests, knowing that there are other events people might have planned. So this year Halloween was celebrated on Thursday night, and even though it was two days before the actual night you would not have been able to tell the difference. The cafeteria was crawling with festive foods and creepy creatures.

This year the party started before even entering the dining hall with a “Haunted Hallway.” The spirit of Halloween was displayed everywhere in the hall complete with dancing skeletons and severed body parts.

It is so nice after a long week of training to be able to take a minute to sit down and laugh with friends over severed finger bread sticks or shrimp cocktail brains. The dining hall staff did a wonderful job of planning an imaginative menu with all sorts of twisted treats.

Not only was the food fun to eat, but the environment was anything but dead. Most all of the employees and interns had on some sort of get-up that was bound to turn heads.  One of the funniest was Terris Tiller, retired pentathlete and dorm supervisor, dancing around with fur legs, hooves and a flute as half goat, half human, Pan. There was also a group of interns hilariously dressed as the Golden Girls - orthopedic shoes, grey hair, and all. 

A good portion of the athletes got into the spirit; there was Gilligan and Skipper, a ninja, a loofa, a surfer, a Paralympic skier, as well as Popeye. Naturally the visually impaired umpire/referee costume was a huge hit, winning the costume contest.

Little activities were taking place as well, conducted by the ring leader Sherry Von Riesen featuring a devil-nun outfit and her side kick intern Adam Andrasko as Colorado media hoax “balloon boy's” father, Richard Heene.

The main event was pumpkin carving, which is a fun activity to get messy in the cafeteria with. There was also a candy counting contest and laser tag provided by Laser Quest.

When you become accustomed to living in workout clothes and being too busy to plan extracurricular activities, nights like these are appreciated more. Thanks to all the planning and behind-the-scenes work from the staff, the athletes got to mix up their regular routine, get back being kids again, and soak in the candy-filled holiday.