Vancouver 2010 - An Olympic Sized nightmare

I've been watching and listening to both the domestic and foreign press' criticism of the games. Let's face it, Canada didn't have a good start.

First, the death of the Georgian Luger at Whistler while on a training run. Although no one had died before on the track before and the IOC certified the track and there had been thousands of training runs, the excuse that the athlete was at fault for losing his life is not acceptable. Frankly, it's an embarrassment and arrogance that is un-Canadian. The safety should be there such that no one dies, period. Injuries are acceptable... when you are travelling down a sheet of ice at 150km/hr, you should expect injury, but not death. Those risks needed to be mitigated and it is not up to the athlete -- it is up to the IOC and the venue to fix. So, thumbs way down to VANOC and the IOC for this one.

Second, the inaccessibility of the Olympic cauldron. With the lighting of this cauldron a fiasco in itself (why is Gretzky roaming the streets of Vancouver on a pickup truck? How unolympic. A chain link fence between the patrons and the cauldron. Let me say this however: with the number of protesters around, the cauldron needed to be protected. Probably the best way to accomplish this is using plexiglass with security. Amends were made and address the issue. Who cares???

Thirdly, the weather and Cypress mountain. Vancouver's winters are a well kept secret. Yes, it has been known to rain for weeks on end. But there are periods when the low pressure that usually sits over the Gulf of Alaska moves aside and there are a set of glorious days which are warm. That affects Cypress. But the issue that 20,000 fans can't see the event live while the event goes on -- that's weather. You can't prevent the weather especially in the environment of El-Nino and global warming.

Fourthly, the Richmond Speedskating oval. Once again, VANOC went the wrong way by not using Zambonis. They took the gamble of using a Canadian made electric machine rather than the Zamboni. And they paid the price, a very embarassing price. But these machines had been in use for quite a while before the Games, presumably without a problem. And tonight, there was a glitch with the electronic timer, and for some reason, a skater stopped skating believing there was a false start. So, for the long track speed skating, as beautiful as the oval has been, the ice itself has been plagued with problems. This is truly a VANOC issue.





Oh, and the Olym