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General Site Info => General Discussion => Topic started by: SUX2BU99 on February 12, 2010, 05:14:44 pm
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Well after I believe 7 years since the announcement the Winter Games start officially tonight about 1 hr drive west of where I am. It sounds like they have a lot of cool venue stuff setup around Vancouver, especially downtown, and in Whistler which is about a 2.5 hour drive outside of Vancouver. The attitude towards the games has been mixed for us who live here. It's cost us a TON of money and that's caused quite a sore spot with people. The media attention has actually dissuaded me from trying to go into Vancouver and see anything because of traffic congestion, road closures, gigantic line-ups that are anticipated and security zones. I may try to get my family down there though just to experience something Olympic since it's quite probable this is the closet I'll ever get to being to an Olympic event.
On a very sad note, earlier today a 21 year old man from Georgia (the country, think Russia) was killed on a practice Skeleton run. He was going 144 kmh and lost control. Got flung out of the track and right into a metal support pole. There's video of it and pics on the web in various locations. Some of him flying through the air right before he hits the pole. Very sad. Prayers to his family.
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i heard that on the news...about the young athlete who slid up off off the luge/bobsled track over the wall doing 90mph. This track, Whistler, has been open for two years and is known as the fastest ever, many records have been set there, but, the athlete from Borjormi, Georgia, ranked 44th in the world, hit the side of the track, which launched him up out of the track and his body hit one of the steel columns...didn't have a chance.
I was going to be part of the Olympics due to my superior skating speed, but, I like Apollo Ohno and didn't want to show him up. Aerosmith comes to mind as I typed that...Dream On.
I hope you get a chance to attend at least part of the games, it should be quite an experience. Having Olympics at a particular city does cost money, but, it is great publicity for that city, and great for tourism for years later. When referring to a past Olympics, people don't say the 2006, 2002, 1998 Olympics, they attach the host city name.....Torino Italy, or Salt Lake City or Nagano....Lillehammer, Calgary, Sarajevo, Lake Placid..etc....
so the publicity will be there for infinity
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WOW is one thing I can say about these games. Living about an hour down the road from where the Olympics were held was an amazing feeling. They started out kind of rough, what with the death of the luge competitor just hours before the opening ceremonies, then the glitch of the interior couldron in BC Place during the lighting of it in the opening ceremonies and then the unseasonably warm weather at the mountain venues.
But it just went up from there and it was incredible. From our first gold that we got (which was the first Canadian gold on home soil ever attained, in the 3 Olympics, summer or winter, that we've hosted) which really got us going for the race for gold, it was incredible.
What really was the biggest success of the games was the giant outpouring of patriotism. The country really felt like it was Canada's games, not just Vancouvers. Of course living in the area of the host city, you feel a sense of pride but the media was reporting that all across the country there was a unification because the country felt it was their time to shine and show the world how much we love our country and being Canadian. As Canadians we don't really show that too much or wear it on our sleeves. But there was a huge shift during the games and I hope it stays. I say this with much respect, that I could identify what the USA feels like to be American. You guys have an incredible sense of patriotism and I think we experienced that here in Canada. It was great.
So besides that, we really kicked some butt at these games!! The government apparently had put in quite a bit of money in the past several years into training programs for Olympic athletes. I wouldn't doubt if it was all part of a plan to make sure we succeeded at making this a great winter games, since it was in Canada and winter seems to be our season. We broke the Olympic Winter Games record for gold medals won, by any country, in the history of the winter games. That's significant!
Congrats to the USA for placing #1 in the overall medal count, Norway was #2 and we placed #3 in total medals awarded.
To get that record we had to win that all-important mens gold hockey game yesterday and we did it! I don't know how many of you watched the game but man was it intense! The USA fought an incredible battle. It could have went either way, no joke. And to win in overtime, it made for about as good of a hockey game that could ever be watched. It was better than a Stanley Cup too because that's just a city who wins it. With the Olympic games, it's your country and that's just so much better. Both teams were playing SO hard though. Amazing.
I'm sad to see the Olympics go though. It's such a massive thing for a city or region to host and experience. We had Expo '86 which previous to the Olympics was Vancouvers biggest thing and that was awesome. I was 11 when we took a vacation to come out and see and it was a great time. The nice thing too was it latest for a few months, not 2 weeks. But now to have also had an Olympics pass through here, it's like the biggest achievement a city can have on the world stage. I didn't get to any events but I took my family downtown to see and experience all the non-event stuff that we were seeing on TV and to see the outdoor couldron. That was great to see. The last Olympics we had in Canada was the 1988 Calgary winter games. I was 13 and living about 5 hours from there. It was fun but I don't remember the country-wide patriotic feeling and on the radio they were saying the same thing. These games were a great success for Canada. Now we are just left with the bill lol
Anyways, it was cool. I just had to share that. 8)