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Vancouver 2010 Offical Report


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After Lillehammer and SLC!

:P

Hmmmm...

I don't remember any athletes getting killed in Lillehammer or Salt Lake; or the cauldron scheme freezing up.

I didn't like SLC compare the ceremonies with Vancouver and you will know why.

Is it VANOC's fault that the Luge federation allowed inexperienced athletes to compete? It was Canada's goal to top the medals table. The cauldron was like a blip on the radar :lol: who cares about that? when you have competition to look forward too :lol:

What won me over was the fan enthusiasm of the games. That is why I like the winter games. (trust me even if I am Canadian)

Best Winter Olympics ever?

Does anyone know where to access the official results reports?

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^ to this day, I'm still quite embarrassed about that. I mean, VANOC has always emphasized the importance of the cauldron lighting at the Opening -- and yet, this happened?

I was also surprised that the performers, on average, had only 21 days of training -- with each session lasting about 4 hours. And the full tally for the number of performers at the Opening was just 2,000....I'm pretty sure any one of those Salt Lake or Torino cultural acts that lasted 10-minutes had a lot more performers than that.

All in all, right from the beginning, VANOC and the governments failed to realize how important the Ceremonies were. There was so much talk about the sports venues and getting them done on time and on budget (same with the transport infrastructure and Olympic Villages), yet there was little talk about the actual Ceremonies Venue.

Overall, poor planning and a lack of attention to detail....whether it because of money issues, or a lack of staff (because of money issues).

But it doesn't mean I still don't love Vancouver 2010, being that this is in my hometown and all. But it could have been so much better...

The luge tragedy was just terrible luck, and it certainly wasn't VANOC's fault.

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You can't really call the Vancouver games the greatest ever. I know CTV's Brian Williams does, but that's being overly patriotic and glossing over a lot of things. The Vancouver games were tightly organized and VANOC had very few major scandals or problems - Furlong stayed from bid to close, they had lots of support across Canada, they had a full range of sponsors and whatever controversies that they did have were not has big as in the past (nothing like a terrorist attack, huge public backlash or a bribery scandal). And the city of Vancouver and all of Canada welcomed and celebrated the games with tremendous spirit and energy. But the Vancouver games suffered from a lot of little problems. The big ones of course were the mild weather and the tragic death of the Georgian luger. The cauldron mishap was an embarrassment and just one of those things - a minor problem that just happened at a visually important moment - but it was not crucial. It is just that all these little annoying things took bits and pieces away from the Games. They were still very good and I enjoyed them immensely, but it means they were probably not the greatest. Vancouver had the potential for that - imagine if we had mountains of snow at Cypress, if the cauldron leg rose as it should, if the ice cleaners worked and if the tragedy at the Whistler Sliding Centre had never happened? Then Brian Williams would likely be right. But that just wasn't the case.

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I didn't like SLC compare the ceremonies with Vancouver and you will know why.

Again, please? Well, the native North American Indians segment was in a way a spin-off of Salt Lake City's "Native American Welcome" (which was also patterned a little after moments in Calgary and Montreal.

They had two employees make the reports lol

Now I know why there was NO mention of Ceremonies in the Official Report. I guess they didn't want the great cauldron fvck-up memorialized in print. :lol: I know the glitch was forgiveable and made a great catch for Closing, but still it was NOT what VANOC wanted to see. I won't even mention the Georgain's death anymore, for all the excuses, but VANOC had entire control of the venue, its dry-runs, etc., etc..

Now, intoronto, you know how those of us who had good memories about Atlanta 1996 feel about its so-called 'minuses.' Like Vancouver, totally blown out of proportion considering the effort put in.

Again, be careful of using "Best" vs. "Favorites." A few of us here have attended a few Olympics, so in terms of actual on-the-ground experience, "Best" is VERY DIFFERENT from "Favorite." ;)

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Again, please? Well, the native North American Indians segment was in a way a spin-off of Salt Lake City's "Native American Welcome" (which was also patterned a little after moments in Calgary and Montreal.

Now I know why there was NO mention of Ceremonies in the Official Report. I guess they didn't want the great cauldron fvck-up memorialized in print. :lol: I know the glitch was forgiveable and made a great catch for Closing, but still it was NOT what VANOC wanted to see. I won't even mention the Georgain's death anymore, for all the excuses, but VANOC had entire control of the venue, its dry-runs, etc., etc..

Now, intoronto, you know how those of us who had good memories about Atlanta 1996 feel about its so-called 'minuses.' Like Vancouver, totally blown out of proportion considering the effort put in.

Again, be careful of using "Best" vs. "Favorites." A few of us here have attended a few Olympics, so in terms of actual on-the-ground experience, "Best" is VERY DIFFERENT from "Favorite." ;)

Dont get me started with the natives, worst segment in the ceremonies.

I was just saying two as a sarcastic comment, because they laid off like everyone after the games finished.

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because they laid off like everyone after the games finished.

Oh, that's a given when you work for an Olympic Org. Committee. You know your contract is good only UNTIL the end of the Games (maybe extending into the Paralympics). As a matter of fact, the staff who write the Official Report are the LAST ONES on the payroll to go (along withe archivists and accountants). Sometimes their contract extends to like 8-10 months after the end of the Games because they have to put that Report together!!

Now in China, I'm NOT sure that the OR staff there purposely wrote an EVEN lousier OR the first time around (which the IOC rejected), just so that they could still collect paychex for ANOTHER 6 months for the rewrite! :lol: But I wouldn't have put it past them; and they STILL wrote an OR for which Vancouver's is only SLIGHTLY better!! :( (Maybe VANOC had all these ex-HongKongese on their OR staff?? :lol: )

Edited by baron-pierreIV
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Oh, that's a given when you work for an Olympic Org. Committee. You know your contract is good only UNTIL the end of the Games (maybe extending into the Paralympics). As a matter of fact, the staff who write the Official Report are the LAST ONES on the payroll to go (along withe archivists and accountants). Sometimes their contract extends to like 8-10 months after the end of the Games because they have to put that Report together!!

Now in China, I'm NOT sure that the OR staff there purposely wrote an EVEN lousier OR the first time around (which the IOC rejected), just so that they could still collect paychex for ANOTHER 6 months for the rewrite! :lol: But I wouldn't have put it past them; and they STILL wrote an OR for which Vancouver's is only SLIGHTLY better!! :( (Maybe VANOC had all these ex-HongKongese on their OR staff?? :lol: )

:lol: e-mail John Furlong and ask him why.

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The IOC brasses certainly thought Vancouver 2010 was right there at the top from their comments in Vancouver's final report presentation in Durban.

Yeah there are problems here and there. However I think only the fanatics like us would find them detracting enough from the good things brought by VANOC. For instance the cauldron mishap. To the general public (from my experiences chatting with people), it was unfortunate but quickly forgettable. Only a minority of people (like us who spent posts after posts speculating to the last details on everything Olympics) thought it was so 'embarrassing' that the world would see Canada as a laughing stock. It was not.

I even loved the ceremonies, thought it was so appropriate and VANOC did it on their own terms. Compare to Beijing's grandeur yeah it may seem underwhelming but again a lot of people loved the Human-ness from the OC compare to Beijing's robotic execution.

Vancouver is the new Golden Standard for Olympic Winter Games. IOC's words.

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Enough about the cauldron glitch! It was just that...a glitch. VANOC and the Atkins team practiced that thing over and over.

Watch these videos if you don't believe it...

Sometimes in life, the trap door doesn't open when you most need it. Move on.

Edited by Kenadian
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I certainly don't think the cauldron glitch has any bearing on the quality of the games. It's not like Sydney's cauldron glitch wrecked its games reputation.

The luger's death was a bit of a downer, but really the only reason I'd rate Lillehammer slightly higher is that intangible element of magic that the Scandinavian crowds brought to that event. But, yes, it's eye of the beholder. I certainly think Vancouver did the Olympic movement and Canada proud.

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The luger's death was a bit of a downer, but really the only reason I'd rate Lillehammer slightly higher is that intangible element of magic that the Scandinavian crowds brought to that event.

What exactly was it about the Scandinavian crowds that made Lillehammer so special and so different from Vancouver and Whistler, which in itself had great crowds and atmosphere? I didn't really pay too much attention to Lillehammer as a 10 year old, but general consensus seems to be that Lillehammer was *THE* Winter Games.

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What exactly was it about the Scandinavian crowds that made Lillehammer so special and so different from Vancouver and Whistler, which in itself had great crowds and atmosphere? I didn't really pay too much attention to Lillehammer as a 10 year old, but general consensus seems to be that Lillehammer was *THE* Winter Games.

The enthusiasm that brought hundreds of thousands of Scandinavians to camp outside in sub-zero temperatures to watch the cross country events just really made clear how passionately winter sports are regarded in the region. It just really had a magical appeal all round that i think everyone, summer or winter, has tried to emulate since.

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