The Beijing Olympics are a very hard act to follow. Over $44 billion still buys a lot these days. Both Vancouver and London said there is no way to compete directly with Beijing, so they have to be different. London still has some time to work on it but, for Vancouver, the test is over. With the closing ceremonies being history, what I started to say was that now Vancouver can get back to normal…but I can’t really say that because Vancouver never stopped being normal…and that’s a beautiful thing. The hospitality was always the same. The shopkeepers and restaurateurs never stopped being gracious. The volunteers may not be wearing their blue jackets but there are still locals on the streets who are anxious to tell you about their wonderful city...and there is still a "Tim Horton's" on every corner.
The 2010 Olympic Winter Games were a breath of fresh air…cold, crisp Canadian air from the north country. Having the good fortune to spend some time on the inside of the Games, I can tell you that the organizers and volunteers never wavered from their mission of being great hosts to the world. You were comfortable everywhere you went…except perhaps in the 4-block-long line to try to buy a pair of red mittens at the Olympic Superstore…no one could have anticipated that colossal demand.
As the Games came to a close, the athletes became more visible. One of the problems at the outset was that the athletes at Whistler Mountain were reluctant to make the two-hour drive to Vancouver for the social gatherings because they didn’t want to make the long trip back late at night before competing the next day. During the run to the last weekend though, they were everywhere…and so were their fans.
Coming out of a downtown hotel, the sidewalk was clogged and the four lanes of traffic were stopped until Shaun White could break loose from the crowd and literally run down the street full throttle with that big white toothy grin on his face and the mob following behind him. I spoke with athletes from Russia, the UK, Germany, the US and Chile. Their stories of making friendships and receiving the royal treatment from the locals were heartwarming. One German athlete told me his parent’s best friends were from a chance meeting at the Los Angeles Olympics and now he was rooming with a son from the union of those best friends. It is a small world indeed!
The patch of rough road that the Games went through in the opening days might have thrown another city into a tailspin. A tragic death in practice, venue problems, ticket difficulties and limited access to the Olympic Cauldron and Flame could not make the Vancouver organizers take the focus off their job. Even NBC-TV took a big hit by delaying the daily broadcast on the west coast. My friend Ann Curry invited me to spend the day on the set at Grouse Mountain in a huge, blinding snow storm and that didn’t even dampen anyone’s spirits. In my discussions with members of the committee, the biggest difficulty was walking the fine line between the world politics of the IOC (the International Olympic Committee) and simply doing the right thing. Performing on the world stage in front of tens of millions of patriotic fans is a very heady place to be.
I’ve read a fair amount of press that says these Games were TOO CANADIAN. Sorry, I don’t buy that. Why do the Games go out for bid? It’s to allow special places in our world the opportunity to show their face to the world. And when the natives embrace that cause by wearing their colors and their flags and their red mittens (one Canadian woman told me her mittens were the best Christmas present she has every received), why shouldn’t they be proud of their country. That makes me feel better about where I live too.
One of the insiders I talked to was a key player in organizing the volunteer effort for the Games. They received 78,000 applications for 25,000 positions. For 10 months, she was one of a group who interviewed every applicant for 20 minutes. As a volunteer, you had to commit to 13 one-day shifts, no exceptions. In that 10 month period, she only turned away 2 people who she thought would not represent Vancouver and Canada in the best possible way. “I couldn’t be more proud of all those who were chosen to represent our city. It was truly inspiring,” she said to me.
And then there was the US vs. Canada hockey game. Wow. It was spectacular even if you are not a hockey fan. There could not have been a more fitting close to these Games than for us all to be focused on that contest. Both sides played their hearts out. As I said to someone at the end of the Academy Awards, Hurt Locker was like the Canadians in the Olympic Hockey Championship. The odds were stacked against it but it still won Best Picture in the face of the most successful film in movie history. It was just so right. I have not talked to an American who hasn’t said, “I’m all for Team USA but the Canadians deserved to win that hockey game.”
Global politics be damned! Aren’t the Olympics supposed to bring us together in the spirit of healthy competition? The Vancouver Winter Games did just that, for me…and the City of Vancouver did it their way, without changing much at all. In the middle of a long, miserable world recession that has us all hanging our heads low, these Games gave us a chance to look up and see the sunshine…and it felt very, very good. Viva Vancouver!!
