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Vancouver 2010 - The cursed games?


ard72

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It's a big event...many things can go wrong. It has nothing to do with luck...and notably there were previous Games that weren't exactly perfect either.

Not that I think Vancouver 2010 is terrible (in fact i'm enjoying it) but even if they were terrible and VANOC was doing a piss poor job what do previous games have to do with a current games success?

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What the hell is going on down at the cauldron/fortress of solitude/menorah?? It looks like a prison.

(why is the flame out in this shot!!!)

here's an even more depressing lookingshot, but at least it's lit!

See fenced-off Olympic cauldron but keep your distance

-Reuters

Want to See Olympic Flame? Bring a Ladder

-NYT

14rings_1-blogSpan.jpg

This is probably one of my very few complaints, that chain linked fence is t-a-c-k-y

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here's one form the times - remember this is not the view of the whole UK media - the TV coverage has been extremely positive!

Times

I had to laugh at this line-

"After all, unlike the organizers of the Beijing Games, Smith-Valade and her colleagues are not in a position to control the weather." :lol:

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Channel Seven news just ran a story tonight here in Sydney and were referring to Vancouver 2010 as 'worst games', though this seemed to be more a grab from the Guardian's piece. Plus it doesn't hurt to have a jibe at a major feature of a rival station's current line up.

One thing's for sure, no matter which way you cut it ticket cancellations, luge deaths and the fenced off Olympic menorah cauldron of solitude has affected people's perceptions of the games and their organisation. And as we all know perceptions can be confused with reality.

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One thing's for sure, no matter which way you cut it ticket cancellations, luge deaths and the fenced off Olympic menorah cauldron of solitude has affected people's perceptions of the games and their organisation. And as we all know perceptions can be confused with reality.

Maybe some of these people should head over to Richmond and have a few at the Heineken House. That'll change their perception. :rolleyes:

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What...no Labbatts? Or Molsons?

Where's all that new found Canuck national pride :P Forget 'own the podium', how about 'own the beer kegs'

Well you got to pay to get into Molson's Hockey House, Heineken House is free! :P But I'm sure the drinks aren't... :(

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as angry as i am with the media painting these games as the worst ever - mainly because of cypress and the weather. cypress was not worth the risk. with its low altitude and history of bad weather, were the pretty pictures of the city and water from cypress worth the risk? imo, after the cancelations and bad press from cypress at last years world cup, they should have moved the freestyle and snowboard to whistler, or at least had the plans in place to move the events from cypress in the event of bad weather.

the one thing that i will have to agree with though is the cauldren and fence.....i cant understand how vanoc thought this prison fence was a good idea. i can only assume they wanted to protect it from the militant protesters in vancouver, given the history with the countdown clock. but like everything, there is a compromise with security and allowing people to take pictures. this is canada after all......we compromise.

vancouver is hosting an excellent games, jubilant crowds, excellent competitions, full venues (which is what the media should be talking about). i think vancouver and canada will be holding there heads high once these games are done.

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I was watching the Canada Norway game on BBC a few hours ago, and the commentators mentioned a few times how the atmosphere in Vancouver is better than it has been in any of the previous Winter Games he's been too, and how from what he's witnessed there so far it's by far the best Winter Olympics in the past 12 years.

Mr X - as i said the BBC have been nothing but positive about Vancouver and this is how the vast majority of the Brits get their news. The BBC at the opening ceremony had nothing but praise for the ceremony and also played down the flame malfunction.

The Guradian and the Times (in fact all the UK press) are haemorraging readers - hence the doom and gloom stories. Also who do these papers hate the most = the BBC who have a stranglehold over media in the UK - particularly digital media.

There is nothing more than they would love to see is the new Tory Government split up the BBC in the next couple of years. It would be good news for them if viewers in the UK turn off from these games and they can further beat-up the BBC who have spent an emormous sum of money covering Vancouver. So Mr X and all our Canadian friends there are perhaps other reasons for these headlines.

It could also be that they wish to take the pressure off London 2012 but they ain't gonna make friends doing it this way - i dread to think what will happen if anything goes mildly wrong in London. Also bear in mind the preparations for the London games have gone (so far) smoothly so our lovely press have had nothing to stir up!

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It looked like mostly comments defending Vancouver to me....guess I need to read further.

one poster even went as far as equate it to socialism and this is what you get for chosing a socialist country. complete bullcrap. one even suggested should've moved some of the competition to the BC interior. its obvius that they don't know that games are given to a city and not region or a country.
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Mr X - as i said the BBC have been nothing but positive about Vancouver and this is how the vast majority of the Brits get their news. The BBC at the opening ceremony had nothing but praise for the ceremony and also played down the flame malfunction.

The Guradian and the Times (in fact all the UK press) are haemorraging readers - hence the doom and gloom stories. Also who do these papers hate the most = the BBC who have a stranglehold over media in the UK - particularly digital media.

There is nothing more than they would love to see is the new Tory Government split up the BBC in the next couple of years. It would be good news for them if viewers in the UK turn off from these games and they can further beat-up the BBC who have spent an emormous sum of money covering Vancouver. So Mr X and all our Canadian friends there are perhaps other reasons for these headlines.

It could also be that they wish to take the pressure off London 2012 but they ain't gonna make friends doing it this way - i dread to think what will happen if anything goes mildly wrong in London. Also bear in mind the preparations for the London games have gone (so far) smoothly so our lovely press have had nothing to stir up!

This is true. The newspaper articles mentioned above are so different from the general coverage on the television news in the UK. For example, the malfunction during the torch lighting wasn't even mentioned during the live broadcast - it's only by simultaniously viewing comments here on Gamesbids that I knew about it - the most used word during their broadcast was probably "spectacular".

I also believe that the negative views in the media regarding Vancouver have more to do with the continued lambasting of the BBC that has been going on here for the past few months and also because London 2012's preparations are seemingly running so smoothly at the moment. London 2012 will have no more critical observers than those in the media here - the Times article for example seems to be written more as a warning to London than a direct attack on Canadian organisation skills.

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One thing's for sure, no matter which way you cut it ticket cancellations, luge deaths and the fenced off Olympic menorah cauldron of solitude has affected people's perceptions of the games and their organisation. And as we all know perceptions can be confused with reality.

Deaths? More people have died on the luge track?

All we need is an earthquake... or better yet David Hasselholf's drunk singing in the closing ceremony!

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This is true. The newspaper articles mentioned above are so different from the general coverage on the television news in the UK. For example, the malfunction during the torch lighting wasn't even mentioned during the live broadcast - it's only by simultaniously viewing comments here on Gamesbids that I knew about it - the most used word during their broadcast was probably "spectacular".

I also believe that the negative views in the media regarding Vancouver have more to do with the continued lambasting of the BBC that has been going on here for the past few months and also because London 2012's preparations are seemingly running so smoothly at the moment. London 2012 will have no more critical observers than those in the media here - the Times article for example seems to be written more as a warning to London than a direct attack on Canadian organisation skills.

totally agree stu - but it makes me so angry that the pull vancouver's good name through the mud in the meantime!!

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I think you're overcomplicating things to be honest. I know there has been a trend of papers laying into the BBC, especially the Daily Fail, but I'm not sure this is part of that.

For most in the UK, the winter games is a nice distraction; they'll maybe watch a few things, but it's not THE event of the year, or even the event of the week for most (more people will be concerned about the Champions League and Premier League). The papers can therefore get away with writing this sort of thing as not many will pull them up over it, because not many will be following them that closely or feel slighted by the suggestions.

There's an Olympics on the other side of the world + some things have gone wrong (many unavoidably but let's put that aside eh?) = nice moralistic article on the dangers of hosting the games and the pitfalls we need to look out for in 2 years.

Nothing more complex than that; weaving a narrative that isn't necessarily there but one which readers, most of whom know no better or don't really care, can lap up.

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Deaths? More people have died on the luge track?

All we need is an earthquake... or better yet David Hasselholf's drunk singing in the closing ceremony!

Oops, me bad...typo fever.

Unless of course you include the death of the careers of the f-wads who sit in the highest echelons of the luge federation, with their Alred E Neuman 'what, me worry' attitude about the event.

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This is bizare in so many different ways. :blink:
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I think this is a great blog, from the BBC site. Balanced and thoughtful:

Perceptions of the Vancouver Games

Roger Mosey, the BBC's director of London 2012

I'm writing this from Vancouver and here in the BBC office we've been kicking round some of the big issues about these Winter Olympics.

This isn't the mystery of why some newspapers still think there's a correlation between the size of Team GB and the number in the broadcasting operation, which I wrote about in comment 11 on this post.

Instead, the talking point is more the trans-Atlantic gap between perceptions of the Vancouver Games in Canada and the media reporting in the UK.

The potential for a diplomatic incident struck me at a breakfast event today organised by Think London.

It was one of those uplifting occasions when the focus is on opportunity: how Canadian firms might invest in London as a result of the Olympics, and how we can work with a range of partners at home and abroad to deliver our promise of the first truly digital Summer Olympics.

The interview afterwards with Canada's national broadcaster CBC focused mainly on that - the way we can transform audiences' experiences in 2012 - but they threw in a curve ball too: what did I think of the British press comment on Vancouver's Games, which seemed to be predominantly negative?

There are two iron rules here. First, I always believe in being polite about a country I'm visiting - and Canada is a particularly warm and generous nation. The second is that I'm wary of snap judgements in response to media narratives.

Having worked in News for many years myself, I love the vigour and rigour of the news cycle - but one day's triumph can be tomorrow's disaster, and vice versa. As a journalist, I'd never claim that consistency is our principal virtue.

So I'll leave it to others to assess Vancouver, especially since I'm about to fly back home.

The right time for conclusions should be after the closing ceremony rather than a few days in. But there are certainly lessons already for the UK, and I've witnessed the keen attention of the London organising committee members who are here on the way events have unfolded.

The blindingly obvious point: Olympic Games are complex.

Running the World Athletics Championships is a big task for a host city, but an Olympics involves running multiple world championships in a massive range of disciplines across 17 days. Things will go wrong.

Sometimes it will be the weather, sometimes it will be bits of machinery. Even in Beijing, one of my memories of the Paralympics opening ceremony - fortunately out of camera shot - was seeing Chinese workers bashing recalcitrant bits of scenery when some parts of the giant revolve failed to turn from their portrayal of winter to spring.

Then looking after the host city is pretty difficult too.

Vancouver has copped a lot of criticism for putting its Olympic cauldron behind a wire fence, and I agreed with a Canadian journalist I met today who said there should be a campaign to "free the flame". But remedial action is underway, and there will always be times when the demands of security conflict with public access. It's an inevitability of the modern world.

Vancouver has generally done a good job of bringing the city to life, and a walk through the animated crowds is a reminder of what the Olympics can do for their host city in terms of entertainment and culture.

But most serious of all, of course, was the death of the Georgian luger just before the start of the Games - and here too there's plenty for the UK to think about, not just in delivering the 2012 Games safely but in how hard we can push 'home advantage'.

Martin Samuel's piece in the Daily Mail was corruscating about Canada, but most recent host countries have gone at least some way down that path.

All that put together means that a degree of humility is probably what's needed most.

The Olympic aspirations are high, and - I'd suggest - worth aiming for. But the delivery is by fallible humans rather than Greek gods. For Britons watching Vancouver my recommendation would be simple: don't tempt fate by criticising too early or unconstructively. In the UK we'll face our national test soon enough.

BBC

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I think we have to consider the source on both sides of this issue. Dick Pound and the IOC aren't going to say anything negative, even if they're thinking it. The British papers are notoriously abrasive and incendiary so of course they will make everything look as bleak as possible. I suspect the truth lies somewhere in between. No VANOC can't control the weather. However, the cauldron has been a mess, there could have been more safety precautions at the luge track, some of the bussing issues are disappointing, the ice at Richmond oval should never have had so many problems, the biathalon scoring mistake was avoidable -- these things aren't good, but they are far from a travesty. I don't doubt that everyone is having a wonderful time. It's the Olympics! How could you not? I was incredibly ill when I was in Athens and I was determined to enjoy myself. Sick or not, it turned out to be one of the highlights of my life. So the fact that people are enjoying themselves doesn't say a whole lot except that there have been no horrifically bad missteps -- which I think is true. We will have to see how the coming days unfold. My impression is that Vancouver has done a respectable job, but that it there have been some weaknesses. Granted, the weather seems to somehow magnify the shortcomings.

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Perhaps local Vancouverites or those more familiar with BC and the biod can illuminate on this bone of contention that's been colouring the coverage of the games...if Cypress hadn't been the venue selected for events which have suffered most noticeably due to weather problems, would there have been a better place that could have avoided some of these problems?

A poorly chosen venue susceptible to environmental issues can mar even the best games (recall how badly Barcelona's yachting regatta fared vis-a-vis crap in the water, as did Beijing's. Or Sydney's weed infested and wind-exposed flat water canoe site?)

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