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???"

 

Comments

[Kristan]

Keep up the great work Jim! Its been great reading your blog everyday and keeping myself updated with what is happening out in Vancover.