WHAT A GAME

VANCOUVER - Lucky enough to be in the press area for the most magical hockey game most of us will ever remember. And then got to sing in the most wonderful singalong ever.

To watch the Canadian flag go up after Sidney Crosby's wonderful goal was quite something. I had to write for our website, but I did manage a few photos during the post-game ceremony.

It was fun to write the story and also keep an eye on our Twitter feed. We got comments from folks in Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Scotland and all over the world; folks who couldn't get TV but were able to "follow" the game on Twitter.

It's pretty coo, and the Star's Twitter feed has been a remarkable success, and a real sign of things to come. More later, after the big party tonight and the closing ceremony, but here a couple pix to whet your appetite.

Day 15 - What to watch

Vancouver/Whistler Games- get ready for the proclamation...Curling cross?

VANCOUVER - When he was president of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch used to stand up at the closing ceremony of each Olympics and proclaim them the "best ever."

Not always, but most of the time. Trouble was, it became something of an automatic response and lost its meaning.

Current IOC president Jacques Rogge, who looks somewhat robotic but has a nice, dry sense of humour, has ceased this practice. Instead, he searches his thesaurus every night before going to bed on the eve of the closing ceremony and finds the right word. "Stirring," "wonderful," "exciting," etc...I'd love to someday hear the words "barely tolerable" or "excrement," but I"m not holding my breath.

Rogge held a breakfast on Thursday for a couple dozen international journalists, including several Canadians. Among them was Jeff Lee of the Vancouver Sun, Stephanie Leyritz of Canadian Press and myself. I don't say this out of some great sense of pride, although I admit it's kinda nice to be on the short list after covering Olympic issues off-and-on since 1989 and covering three Olympic bids; the two Toronto efforts (as I recall, we lost both) and Vancouver's winning campaign. There was nobody at the beakfast from Canada's national newspaper, the one that spent all that money to be the official paper of the Olympics. I do find it kind of odd, as they have some very good reporters. But none of them have spent much time covering IOC sessions over the years, and you gotta give these guys face time if you want to get to a breakfast with the big honcho.

Anyway, the real point is that Rogge laid out some fairly impressive props for Vancouver/Whistler. So I'd expect to hear some pretty nice words on Sunday during the closing ceremony.

"VANOC (the organizing committee) did a great job and the athletes had great games," Rogge said over breakfast.

The Belgian surgeon said there were concerns about VANOC early on.

"Much of this has been exaggerated," Rogge said. "There was fair criticism of a number of issues but they’ve been exaggerated criticism, definitely in the beginning."

Rogge said he's been struck by Vancouver's spirit; a spirit some suggested this laid-back city would never exhibit.

"What will stand out is a kind of communion between the citrizens of the city and the games, the way they participated in this event on the streets of the city and the unique atmosphere we have experienced," Rogge said. "I would say that having spoken to many athletes, they are very happy. They are happy with the village itself, they are happy with the general organization, they are happy with the competition, they are very happy about the warm, supportive crowds. They’re not chauvinist, cheering for Canada only.

"Everyone is excited also by the fantastic atmosphere here in the city and the public, the people of Vancouver partying, having fun, coming together in the city," he said. "This is something really unique that I’ve only seen to Sydney to a certain extent in 2000. Really this is something that adds a lot to the quality of these Games.”

As I said, Rogge does have a sense of humour. He was asked by an American reporter about adding new winter sports. A few things have been considered, he said.

Knowing the IOC has been adding things like ski cross and snowboard half pipe and other, "X-Games" style events. I looked over at Rogge when he was finished and said, "I've got an idea. Curling cross."

He laughed pretty hard, actually, and said, "Hey, that's pretty good."

CLOSING PARTY

Details, of course, aren't being revealed for Sunday's closing ceremony. But VANOC chief John Furlong has promised a "real Canadian goodbye" and said "we might even poke fun at ourselves a little."

I"m still holding out for a Stephen Colbert performance, or at least a nod in his direction. And I'd LOVE to see Neil Young or Joni Mitchell or Diana Krall. Maybe an appearance by the famous, stalling Olympia ice machine? Nah, probably not.

Day 14 - What to watch

Vancouver business boom (of sorts)...Where are my bathroom helpers?

VANCOUVER - Got a report today to say that sales at BC restaurants jumped an average of 33% in the first week of the 2010 Winter Games, compared to the same period (Feb. 15 – 21) in 2009.

By comparison, the folks at Vivonet, whose technology is used in restaurant and hospitality industries across North American, said restaurant and food service sales in Eastern Canada increased a mere 6% and remained flat in the Prairies. Full-service sales (sit down meals) in BC restaurants have taken a bit of a hit since the Olympics began, but Vancouver’s Yaletown, downtown and Whistler are bucking the trend with increases of 130%, 103% and 56%, respectively. They are also basking in the Olympic glow with overall sales increases of 128%, 89% and 44% during the first week of the Games (not including Valentine’s Day).

However, areas within the city, but not close to venues, have actually registered a slight drop year-on-year.

It seems about right. I had a drink the other night at a hotel that's about 10 minutes from the main media centre, quite close to Robson St., and had no trouble finding a table on a hugely busy party night. When the weather's nice and Canada wins a big medal, folks seem to want to simply wander about on Robson or Burrard and soak up the atmosphere.Cab drivers have told me that business isn't bad, but it's not great.

LONG-TERM SPORTS BENEFITS?

Vancouver organizers today talked about how they hope that events like Ashleigh McIvor's gold medal win in ski cross on Tuesday will lead to more kids taking up more sports.

"We've seen cross-country ski programs set up, and there's a luge club up in Squamish," said Cathy Priestner-Allinger, VANOC'S chief sports person.

VANOC CEO John Furlong said he wants to see Canadian kids head to ski hills and other outdoor sports spots."There couldn't be a better legacy that that one," he said.

Call me a cynic, but I don't really believe that hosting the Olympic Games will transform a nation of kids from couch potatoes to cross-country skiers. We've hosted two Olympics in Canada in the past 34 years - Montreal 1976 and Calgary 1988 - and I don't think it's done a lot to reduce obesity rates in Canada or hike sports participation; at least not nationally. We have, on the other hand, seen a large network of sports venues set up in Quebec, which continues to supply a vast number of freestyle skiers, short track speedskaters and figure skaters. Calgary, also, has become a huge training ground for speedskaters, alpine skiers and cross-country racers.

That's one reason Toronto wanted to host the Olympic Games, and why the city is hosting the 2015 Pan American Games.

I'M SO LONELY

It's interesting to see how different media centres operate at the Olympics. They had a bazillion people on staff in Beijing, most of whom spent hours at a time doing...nothing. They had two people stationed outside each washroom to point the way to the toilets, as if we couldn't read the giant washroom signs stationed all around the building. They'd open the door for you, and the second you finished washing your hands they'd leap into action and furiously wipe offending water marks off the faucet or mop up even the smallest pools of water off the counter top.

Here, I'm reduced to having to find the sign of the guy standing up and look for the word "toilet" to find my way. Man, that's tough.

Vancouver rocks, but Whistler's got the Olympic feeling...Olympic one-liners

WHISTLER - Crazy hats. Alpine views. Packed bars. And Olympics everywhere you turn.

Had a chance to check out Whistler on Monday, and one of the first things I did was run into Cindy Burr from Tourism B.C.

"I'll be curious how you find Whistler versus Vancouver," she said.

After a few hours of checking out the village, riding the gondolas with fellow Star scribbler Dave Perkins, dining on burritos at the Rendezvous Lodge near the top of Blackcomb Mountain and generally soaking up the atmosphere, I was struck by a thought (it happens, albeit rarely). Vancouver has been a great, raucous party for the most part. But it's largely Canadian in flavour and doesn't feel quite as, well, Olympic.

That's not a diss on Vancouver. The Main Press Centre and the International Broadcast Centre and the hockey games are downtown, and there are foreign "houses" such as Russia House and USA House and Heineken House for the Dutch. But they're spread out a bit. And when Robson Street or Granville get flooded with folks at night, most of them are Canadians.

You'll see folks in bright yellow Sweden hockey jerseys and bright yellow, braided hats with pigtails, and there are lots of Russians in red-and-white and Americans decked out in the colours of Uncle Sam. But the overwhelming majority of people you see are draped in Canadian flags or Hudson's Bay gear, although how they found the hours to wait in line for the official clothing I have no idea. It's great, but it almost feels like Canada Day in February.

Whistler, on the other hand, is more compact. You'll pass the Swiss pavilion and a few feet later be surrounded by crazy Icelanders in goofy hats, or Norwegians in Viking caps. There's lots of Canada gear,  of course, but it feels more international; with athletes in their national duds sprinkled heavily among the guys who've attached Canadian flags to hockey sticks.

It's also far more compact, so you can walk past two stages with live music within a few hundred yards of each other, then check out Jennifer Hedger getting her makeup on prior to going on air for CTV. (If you prefer you can probably watch Michael Landsberg getting an injection of pomposity, but I'll take Hedger, thanks).

Of course, Whistler also gets the benefit of stunningly beautiful, snow-capped mountains for that Winter Olympic feeling. But the sidewalk pubs and bands and flags and Olympic rings that folks stand in front of  all day long make a big difference. Unlike the Olympic cauldron in Vancouver, this is a symbol that's made for getting up close and personal with.

If you still have a chance to get up there this week, go for it. It's a wonderful way to spend a day.

FIVE-RING QUOTES

There's lots of funny comments floating about anytime you get this many young people gathered in one spot. I particularly like a couple of the quotes I found today on the Olympic News Service, which is a fabulous intra-net tool that most of us scribes couldn't live without.

Swiss ski cross racer Sanna Luedi had wonderful things to say about Canada."I love Vancouver," she said. "It's the best city ever, I think. It's my first time on this side of the earth. There's the sea; it's warm. I'm not so used to the tall buildings. I come from Bern, it's a little bit smaller."

Cross-country ski gold medallist Oeystein Petterson was asked about his nickname, The Sausage.

"You'll be disappointed if you think it refers to what's between my legs," he said. "Some people think I look like a sausage in my racing suit. Looking at the faces here (in the press conference), I don't think you disagree."

German skier Kathrin Hoelzl was asked if she has any pre-race superstitions and had this reply: "Well, I have a certain sequence when I get dressed. And I also wear the same panties when I race Giant Slalom."

Wonder if the Canadian alpine team might want to give it a shot?

Day 12 - What to watch

Riding the rails to Whistler - a great way to travel

VANCOUVER/WHISTLER – After something like 16 days straight of Olympics assigning and reporting, I was paroled from the main press centre for the day.

I got an invite to ride the Tourism Alberta train to Whistler for a few hours of sightsteeing and/or skiing, and even I’m not stupid enough to turn that down. The 5 a.m. wakeup call wasn’t quite welcome, but the train ride from North Vancouver to Squamish and on up to Whistler was tremendous.

 
Mimosas to start things off, followed by an omelette with cheese and Italian sausage and plenty of coffee. Good stuff, but you could do that in town. What you likely can’t do unless you take the Rocky Mountaineer Alberta Train is bask in the sunrise glow that lights up the mountains in and around the Sea-to-Sky highway and not worry about traffic.

I’ve driven the road from Vancouver to Whistler a few times, but I’m usually driving (I have issues with other folks taking the wheel) and don’t have much time for looking out the window. On the train, it was awesome. I was on the upper deck, on the left side with gorgeous views of the sunlit bays and inlets on the way up to Squamish. The train snaked along the edge of the water and sliced through rock canyons filled with tumbling, rushing creeks and towering pines, with no traffic or speedometers to worry about.

There also are a couple of outdoor areas where you can stand and shoot photos if you want to avoid the glare of the giant panes of glass on the train.

Travel Alberta folks have been ferrying folks to and from Whistler the past couple weeks, showing the glories of the Rocky Mountaineer’s comfortable seats and dining cars. You can do the three-hour trip from Vancity to Whistler but they also have routes through Kamloops or Quesnel, B.C., and we can only imagine how nice it is to ride the train through the interior of B.C. and on to Banff or Lake Louise.

 “Flying over the Rockies is fine, but riding in the comfort and luxury of a train is something special,” said Jon Mamela, vice-president of marketing for Travel Alberta. “You really get close to nature, and it forces you to slow down a little."

“Some trains these days are all about speed, but not this one,” he explained. “It’s great for families and just about anyone.”

Alberta tourism folks got a pretty good pre-Games boost from all the world cup sports events held in their province. They’re hoping that a British Columbia tourism boom after the Olympics have wrapped up also will lead folks to trek over the rockies to Alberta.

“People from other countries don’t really distinguish between B.C. and Alberta,” Mamela said. “They just want to see the Rockies.”

There’s Banff and Lake Louise, of course, not to mention Kananaskis and Dinosaur Park and other attractions. But Calgary has become much more cosmopolitan and Edmonton continues to attract  folks with festivals celebrating everything from dance to poetry to jazz music.

Of course, Alberta also has the Big Valley Jamboree and the Calgary Stampede.There’s city sophistication, for sure, but when folks got on board the train they were given the opportunity to grab a white cowboy hat to wear around Whistler for the day.

Hey, if you’ve got a tourism hook you use it. You’ll attract folks to Calgary and Edmonton for the arts, yes, but most folks around the world want mountains and rivers and rocks and hiking and fishing and golf (Alberta golf is coming in your April version of the Star's golf magazine, by the way). And cowboys. Not to mention cowgirls.

The Alberta tourism folks are smart enough to realize that. And a trip to Whistler during the Olympics to drive home the point isn’t a bad idea.

For more information: www.travelalberta.com., www.rockymountaineer.com

VANCOUVER - It’s kinda hard to think of this as a Winter Olympics city.

I walked home from the press centre last night, stopping to have dinner with family at the terrific Italian Kitchen on Alberni, when some hockey fans drove by in a convertible. With the roof down, of course.

Spotted another guy driving with his top down this morning as I headed for a walk down to the parks that line Coal Harbour, which is between the press centre/Olympic cauldron and Stanley Park.
There were lots of folks out and about, walking dogs and taking photos. But the cauldron was nuts. The lineup was more than an hour long, and there were thousands upon thousands of fans in red Canada hockey jerseys, toques and jackets strolling about. Many lined up to see the cauldron from the viewing platform that VANOC smartly opened up, but others pressed their faces against the cyclone fencing or stood on barricades in the road to get their shots.

Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t remember ever seeing so many locals milling about at the various Olympics I’ve covered. The Games were a big hit in Sydney, but the main action was quite far from downtown. There were Olympic facilities in downtown Salt Lake. But it’s downtown, uh, Salt Lake; not cosmopolitan Vancouver. Athens also was largely a suburban affair, as was Turin and Beijing.

There’s only one real event happening downtown, that being hockey. Plus the victory ceremonies at BC Place. Everything else is at Cypress Mountain or at the Pacific Coliseum east of downtown or in Richmond. Or Whistler, of course. Still, you can barely move downtown some nights, and the whole city seems electrified.

Very cool.

Sun shining on Vancouver...not to mention the American Olympic team

VANCOUVER - Okay the Brits are still pretty cranky about Vancouver.

But a combination of factors has helped ease some of the criticism of the Vancouver Olympics.

VANOC chief John Furlong, like all Canadian sports fans, came into these Games praying for success for the athletes from the true north. But he should probably thank the gods for the American success at their next-door neighbour's venue, because it's kept the U.S. media focussed on the athletes and not on the organizational snafus.

  

The American media, and understandably so, are going wild for Skier Lindsey Vonn and snowboarder Shaun White and speedskater Shani Davis, all of whom crushed their opponents on Wednesday to add to Uncle Sam's gold medal haul. With all that glory being heaped on a pretty diverse group of athletes, and with the sun shining and Vancouver looking pretty damned spiffy, the U.S. media doesn't appear to be spending much time on faulty ice-cleaners or luge accidents, notwithstanding the Wall Street Journal story on the luge track

The weather certainly doesn't hurt, and thanks to the Star's Randy Risling for the above phot. Instead of rain and fog, Vancouver is basking under a high-pressure ridge that's making bulbs burst into colour and putting all the visitors from Ontario in a rather jolly mood. Folks are parading in shorts and a warm jacket is sometimes too much.

The sun and warm temperatures have helped traffic too. VANOC officials today said a lot of folks are riding bikes to Olympic venues, and that's not something you often see in the Winter Olympics. Lots of cyclists are riding to work, too, which has cut down on car traffic in a city with darn few highways.

There's still a long way to go, but if things continue like this Vancouver might just escape with its reputation intact. Possibly even improved.

Canadians, of course, are still focussed on picking up medals. The heat is decidedly on the women in today's 1,000 meter speedskating race. Christine Nesbitt of London has won the last four World Cup races in this distance, and she should be get at least something shiny. A gold, of course, would be wonderful.

Canada will have six medals going into the women's 1000 race. It's not bad but it pales to the 14 captured so far by the Americans. And it looks like Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso are about to each win a medal in the super-combined, which would make it 16 and a whopping lead over the Canadians.

There's still time to improve. Many of Canada's strongest events are still to come, including skeleton on Friday, bobsleigh on the weekend and lots of speedskating and short track still to come. Both hockey teams look strong after early action and Kevin Martin and the men's curling team had a good outing today, taking care of Sweden 7-3.

If it's any consolation, the Russians are crying for heads to roll over their uninspiring performance at the Vancouver Games. As day seven dawned, the Russians had just three medals; a gold, a silver and a bronze. Yikes.

It's certainly nice to be getting lots of reader comments on the blog. In case you don't usually check for comments, I'm posting a few excerpts here.

""Own the podium" is just fine with me," one person said. "A little assertiveness doesn't hurt."

"All a scam," another reader said. "I watch people across the street sucking back $8.25 pints and $7 brats after lining up for 45 minutes to see some bogus "pavillion". A lot of nothing to do and nothing to see. This ain't no Expo, just a bunch of quickly slapped together temporary venues to sucker all the tourists."

"I'm sick of the Quebecers always bellyaching for more," said one reader, referring to criticism that there wasn't enough French spoken in the opening ceremony. "They are the most spoiled province in our country!! Am I the only one who noticed there was no mention ofOntario in the opening ceremonies???"