23 replies to this topic

[Ruling Czar]

Well we already know some of the best facts about vancouver

The first city of its size to host an Olympics.
The first indoor opening ceremony.
The largest crowd ever assembled in the downtown core of a city on the final day of
the games (appoximately 500,000) but what else is there?

[Olympian2004]

Ruling Czar, on 07 April 2010 - 11:31 AM, said:

The first city of its size to host an Olympics.

You probably mean, "The first city of its size to host an Winter Olympics." But even then: Is that so? Speaking of the size of the hosting municipality only, Vancouver is even smaller then Torino, Calgary or Sapporo. The City of Torino has more than 900,000 inhabitants, Calgary has a little less than 1 million, Sapporo has 1.9 millions, while Vancouver has about 600,000. Only in terms of the metropolitan region (which has 2.1 million inhabitants), Vancouver might have been the biggest winter host so far (but not the first city with more than 1 million inhabitants).

[SkiFreak]

Olympian2004, on 09 April 2010 - 12:02 AM, said:

You probably mean, "The first city of its size to host an Winter Olympics." But even then: Is that so? Speaking of the size of the hosting municipality only, Vancouver is even smaller then Torino, Calgary or Sapporo. The City of Torino has more than 900,000 inhabitants, Calgary has a little less than 1 million, Sapporo has 1.9 millions, while Vancouver has about 600,000. Only in terms of the metropolitan region (which has 2.1 million inhabitants), Vancouver might have been the biggest winter host so far (but not the first city with more than 1 million inhabitants).

If you don't count the various lower mainland municipalities like Richmond, Burnaby, Surrey, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, etc. I think Vancouver is still bigger than Calgary.

Not sure if this is true, but wasn't Vancouver considered the greenest games so far? (I'm refering to environmental sustainability, not the weather on Cypress )

[mr.x]

Olympian2004, on 09 April 2010 - 12:02 AM, said:

You probably mean, "The first city of its size to host an Winter Olympics." But even then: Is that so? Speaking of the size of the hosting municipality only, Vancouver is even smaller then Torino, Calgary or Sapporo. The City of Torino has more than 900,000 inhabitants, Calgary has a little less than 1 million, Sapporo has 1.9 millions, while Vancouver has about 600,000. Only in terms of the metropolitan region (which has 2.1 million inhabitants), Vancouver might have been the biggest winter host so far (but not the first city with more than 1 million inhabitants).

But you do realize that the City of Vancouver is geographically quite small at about 120 sq. kms compared to Calgary and other past cities. Long ago, the Metro Vancouver region decided not to amalgamate/merge its suburb cities into Vancouver. And to top it, the size of the Metro Vancouver region is only about 40% of what the numbers tell you if you subtract the undeveloped North Shore mountains for our water reservoirs, the forest parklands, the agricultural reserve, etc. Same goes for the City of Vancouver, though not to the same extent.

You could fit six City of Vancouver's into the City of Calgary, which is its own metro region - no suburbs.

And with Torino...well, there are very few North American cities that are overall denser than those of Europe.





Other superlatives:

- Vancouver hosted the 21st Winter Olympics; Montreal hosted the 21st Summer Olympics

- largest Winter Games Opening and Closing Ceremony crowds...60,000 at each ceremony at BC Place

- largest nightly Medal Ceremonies crowds...up until Vancouver, the host cities would have just one medal ceremony venue with a capacity of 6,000-8,000. But with Vancouver, we had BC Place at 30,000 and a second Whistler venue at 8,000.

- perhaps the mildest host city climate yet? (of course, Sochi will take that title soon)

- the earliest sports venue completion in decades, all thanks to VANOC (whereas recent past host cities were still pouring concrete in the weeks and months before the Games started...Vancouver finished all of its sports venues 2-years before the Games began)

- possibly, the most environmentally friendly Winter Olympics yet - both summer and winter

- one of the most atmospheric host cities yet, along the ranks with Lillehammer and Sydney (though on the last day of the Games, Jacques Rogge said that it was much more atmospheric than both Lillehammer and Sydney)

- the longest domestic/national Olympic torch relay in history (both Summer and Winter)...though Sochi might beat this considering the size of Russia, and assuming the Russians want to bring the flame everywhere

- the most financially sound organizing committee in recent memory? (even with a recession, VANOC adjusted accordingly and was rock solid as the Games neared.....with TOROC, in the months before the 2006 Olympics the organizing committee was near bankruptcy)

- the most Live Sites/free events from an Olympic host city (in 2008, the IOC was concerned about the plans and even said it might be "too much" as it was "more than what Atlanta, Nagano, Sydney, Salt Lake, Athens, Torino, and Beijing had combined")

- the most gold medals won by the host nation in the Winter Olympics

- the Best Winter Games Ever?

[SkiFreak]

Two more I thought of:

• Heaviest medals
  
• First medals to be made from junk - literally. Recycled metals were used in the production, so Crosby's gold could've formerly been someones home computer. -this was another point to add to greenest games.

[baron-pierreIV]

The muddiest, rain-iest Winter Olympics?

Highest-priced Ceremony tickets ever.

[Ruling Czar]

The Games with the most spectacular backdrop scenery ever! That is unquestionable for sure!

[Rols O'Bertilsson]

Ruling Czar, on 14 April 2010 - 05:54 PM, said:

The Games with the most spectacular backdrop scenery ever! That is unquestionable for sure!

Lovely, yes. But that's also unquestionably in the eye of the beholder.

Edited by Sir Roltel, 14 April 2010 - 06:35 PM.

[4gamesandcounting]

Quote

Ruling Czar, on 15 April 2010 - 09:54 AM, said:

The Games with the most spectacular backdrop scenery ever! That is unquestionable for sure!


Lovely, yes. But that's also unquestionably in the eye of the beholder.

I loved Vancouver's setting - really beautiful for a winter games, but on TV quite a lot of the alpine events just looked foggy (from what my family at home tell me anyway)!

[mr.x]

^ our summers in this city are so much nicer.