Thumbs up and thumbs down for Vancouver Games
The is over, and having spent the last couple of weeks reporting on the Games, I have seen some things I would give a thumbs-up to, and some I would definitely give the thumbs-down to.
Archives for February 2010
Canada enjoys a good night at the hockey
The have seemingly adopted a song to pump up the local fans in all the venues.
So when we set up our tripod in to start gathering material the ' "I got a feeling" was pumping out of the speakers.
The fans flooding into the arena are in so many ways very different to a sports crowd in the UK.
Firstly, they come as couples and families; some even bring babes in arms complete with ear defenders and Canada body suits.
Exit looms for honest GB curlers
Let's be honest, we've all been there, trying to summon up a reason why our team deserves to be through and the opposition should be somehow dethroned.
A missed off-side, a nationality question to undermine a whole team or some bit of underhand play - that of course we would never use in our favour - that has robbed us and the sport of the correct result.
If we get hot under the collar, fail to see the other side of the story and are indignant in our standpoint, it just adds to the moment. We are, after all, sports fans.
So it was on Monday night at the . - it was not quite "lose and you are out" but as near to that as it can be.
Hard times for Britain's speed skaters
It's a cliché but it's true - the difference between winning and losing in sport is minute.
If you want a demonstration of this, go to . Britain went into the with the aim of recapturing the quality that they had a generation ago.
Unofficially, we could claim a couple of gold medals in our past when won two demostration events in Calgary in 1988 while doesn't have to add an asterisk to his bronze from 1994. But after these two, our Olympic roll of honour comes to a bit of a grinding halt.
Bilodeau ends Canada's gold jinx
The newspapers on Sunday morning said it all: The monkey was, at that stage in the Games, riding on the back of all Canadians and - hardest of all, it seemed - on those brave enough to step out onto ice or snow with the red maple leaf on their kit.
Two generations of Canadian athletes, in 1976 in Montreal and 1988 in Calgary, have felt it too. Both those teams had failed to win a single gold medal between them and, while no-one really expected it to go on for much longer, the pressure was building.
My job had seemed so easy - "just go out and witness it". Yeah, thanks, boss. So, , the first serious contender was Charles Hamelin in the men's 1,500m speed skating at the Pacific Colisseum.
Hanging out with the village people
In my experience the village is normally basic but comfortable.
Barcelona had tower blocks set back from the beach, which sounds nice until you realised it was an old goods siding yard. A dual carriageway between the two also made the walk to the sea a little challenging.
In Atlanta we stayed in university digs and, while it was more than sufficient for Olympic athletes to "get the job done", I remember struggling to find room on the floor to lay out several kit bags. And that was before and his shoulders took up residence.
Sydney was probably the best in my athletic experience, but that is slanted by the patch that laid claim to.
Smitten with charming Vancouver
The last couple of Winter Games have often been an outdoor endurance test - frequent hot drinks from the concession stands were needed to be able to watch the downhill in snowy during the .
was often so brutal in the Utah mountains that any outside time needed really proper layers, gloves and boots.
Here in Vancouver, at least in town, it's not unusual to see the coffee shops with outside seating, office workers walking to work without overcoats and the gloves and hats are staying firmly in my backpack despite being out filming all day. At the moment, it is distinctly warmer than with one wag terming it the first Spring Olympics!
My turn with the torch
What a nice email to get, an invitation to carry the flame - and when someone asked "Oh, Vancouver, what are you going to be doing there?", it became an easy conversation.
But the reality seemed less exciting somehow. It meant leaving home days ahead of an already long trip on 91Èȱ¬ duties as three weeks became a full month away from my wife and young children - however strong the draw of the Olympics, saying goodbye to three year olds for a month is hard.
Even surrounded by the beauty of the snow and joyous, celebratory Canadians on the day before my torch run, it still seemed illogical. What was I doing? Why had they asked me?
To make things worse, when I turned up for the pre-run briefing only to find my paperwork had been wrong and not only was I in the wrong place but I was late too.
While the organisation of the runners into groups to be bussed out onto the road was normally precise - thousands of runners have covered 45,000 kms across Canada in the last three months- I'd somehow fallen between the cracks, so what should have been a calm hour or so before the run became a flurry of activity.
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In a previous life I won four gold medals at the Olympics between 1992 and 2004 and I now work at the 91Èȱ¬. Whilst I was part of the Beijing team for the 91Èȱ¬ in the summer of 2008, my primary role is as reporter for . I've been told to expect some slings, arrows and some lively debate - if you'd like to direct the first two to my editor's blog and the last right here.
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