Several people have asked me what the highlights were of the 2010 Olympics — as well as the lowlights. The highlights are easy. I was in Vancouver for 20 days, and on each and every day, I had a “pinch-me-am-I-dreaming” moment.

On the first day of competition, I had the pleasure — and honor — of standing next to 1992 Olympic gold medal mogul skier Donna Weinbrecht as we watched the women compete in the bumps. It was a cold night with rain blowing sideways, but Donna didn’t leave the mixed zone until long after the athletes had departed. Like the rest of us, she was soaked through, but she remained funny and insightful, predicting that Hannah Kearney would win.

Another day, I met TV commentator Phil Liggett in the hotel elevator, and he gave me a ride to the Nordic combined venue. And on yet another day, I chatted with NASCAR great Geoff Bodine one-on-one about how his bobsled design was faring on the tricky Whistler track.

Even on the days when it was raining, or I had to climb 191 stairs to the snowboarding venue (equivalent to 15 stories), or I hadn’t eaten since breakfast or slept more than 6 hours, every day was a good day. Because a bad day working at the Olympics is still far better than a good day of work at home.

Over 16 days of competition, I was lucky enough to witness — and interview — 24 U.S. athletes win medals in 12 events. Here are the moments I’ll always remember:

-Hannah Kearney winning the gold medal in women’s moguls. Not only was it the first gold medal for the U.S. at the 2010 Olympics, but it erased a “disastrous” experience from Kearney’s Olympic debut in Torino four years ago when she failed to make the final. It drove her to new heights. On a rain-soaked night at Cypress Mountain, she skied a perfect run, and her sheer joy made us all forget the rain.

-The U.S. men’s Nordic combined team winning a silver medal in the team event. Brett Camerota, Todd Lodwick, Johnny Spillane, and Billy Demong all have their own stories — their own high hurdles that they had to overcome. They came together at the Whistler Olympic Park, and all four were almost perfect.

Brett Camerota exceeded expectations in both his ski jump and his 5-kilometer leg of the relay. Then Lodwick, who had come off a two-year retirement to win Olympic and world championship medals, kept the team in the hunt. Spillane took over and hung with Nordic legend Felix Gottwald until the final climb. Demong caught Austria’s anchor, “Super” Mario Stecher, and tried to drop him. Even though Demong was passed on the final hill and finished second, for a team silver, the performance exemplified the power of teamwork. It’s the only time my heart has pounded for 48 minutes and 55 seconds, and I wasn’t doing anything more than standing there watching the race unfold.

-Billy Demong and Johnny Spillane going 1-2 in the Nordic combined large hill event. Two days after the U.S. Nordic combined team took silver in the team event, Demong worked with Spillane to put the hurt on Austria’s Bernhard Gruber. Demong’s attack for gold was also inspiring. On the final climb before the finish, he literally leaped forward and only looked back as he neared the finish.

-Unheralded alpine skier Will Brandenburg’s slalom run. Bode Miller won the gold in the men’s super combined race. But the day also belonged to 23-year-old B-teamer Will Brandenburg.

After racing in his first high-level downhill (he had never entered a World Cup downhill, Brandenburg finished 19^th in the Olympic super combined downhill after a frightening crash in training the previous day). That afternoon, he was on fire in the slalom. As he tore through the course, he seemed to reach for the next gate. The result: He skied the second-fastest slalom run of the day — 2/100ths of a second behind Ted Ligety and almost a quarter-second ahead of Miller.

While some crumple under Olympic pressure, Brandenburg rose not just to the occasion but beyond it. “I was confident and just wanted to see how fast I could go,” he said.

-Steve Holcomb’s Night Train four-man bobsled team dominated the event in four heats over two days. What makes the team’s performance a highlight — besides the fact that they won the first gold medal for the U.S. in bobsled in 62 years — is Holcomb’s calm everyday-ness about piloting a bobsled at 90+ mph. The man has instinctive reflexes that a fighter jet pilot would envy, perhaps developed from the years he could hardly see the course (he suffered from a degenerative eye condition called keratoconus and had a synthetic cornea inserted in his eye just two years ago).

Holcomb’s persistence in mastering one of the trickiest tracks in the world was admirable. The 50/50 curve may have caused him problems in the two-man event, but he had mastered it by the four-man.

-The agony of defeat. What TV coverage probably didn’t show was the athletes who fell or crashed in competition. Many were lesser-known athletes who picked themselves up and finished anyway. No matter who they were, they received the loudest applause from the crowd. And they should have. It takes more courage to have your name listed at the bottom of results sheet than at the top. It made me proud to be among these fans.

Although I am now happy to be home, I will miss Vancouver. But not those 191 steps.