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I remember hearing it some during the World Juniors
I remember hearing it some during the World Juniors
Winter Games organisers remain optimistic, but just a week out from the start of competition Vancouver's skies are yet to deliver any snow.
The temperature in downtown Vancouver is hovering around nine degrees and by Winter Olympic standards that is decidedly balmy.
Winter Olympics organising committee CEO John Furlong says hundreds of workers are now moving snow around the clock.
"There's been a fairly heroic effort up there by the men and women working on the site, many who have been up there for far more hours than they have been off the mountain," he said.
Cypress Mountain, which will host snowboarding and freestyle skiing events, is just a 30-minute drive from the middle of Vancouver, which means the views are spectacular but the temperature is milder than elsewhere.
Australians Britteny Cox and Ramone Cooper will get their first chance to try out the conditions tonight, with two hours each to look at the size and shape of the moguls, the jumps, the landings and the snow.
Only the athletes will get to assess the site today, but Mr Furlong is defending the controversial media lock-out.
"It is quite simple. There is still a lot of work going on in the mountain," he said.
"There is still snow being trucked in and flown in to ensure we have enough contingency snow if the warm weather continues.
"So for safety reasons and our desire not to have any of the course preparation work impacted, we decided just to let on the people that are absolutely necessary for the training which is the athletes and their coaching staff."
But reporters continue to ask why not even single camera can record the scene for all media organisations.
Communications vice-president Renee Smith Valad says it is because of the athletes.
"We looked at different options that would have included a pool feed, pool photos," she said.
"Ultimately what we decided was that it was in the best interests of the athletes to have nothing but our team focused on serving their needs today."
Organisers are determined to put on a positive front.
They say the venues will be ready for competition in a day or two.
But some wonder why the events have not been relocated to Whistler, two hours away, where the snow has been falling freely.
The Vancouver Olympics Committee's David Cobb says they have one last trick up their sleeve - chemicals that harden the snow.
"The decisions on the chemicals will be made at race time and we will live within the environmental requirements that were made when we had the environmental reviews done on all of our venues," he said.
"[We will] look to minimise the amount that we use within the rules and only to the extent necessary if we don't have the cold weather."
Olympian historians have been scrambling for the record books and apparently it is not the first time a Winter Olympics has been missing the very vital element of snow.
There were grave concerns in the months leading up to the 1998 games in Nagano in Japan.
In the end they got too much snow and some events were cancelled, with spectators left stranded.
The International Olympic Committee says the 1964 Innsbruck Games also struggled on the snow front and the Austrian army had to be brought in to help.
That does not provide any comfort to the Vancouver organisers but it goes to prove the only predictable thing about the weather is how unpredictable it can be.
Maybe they should just move it to the other coast...
I managed to weave my way through the byzantine ticket purchase process and nail a few seats. Should be a great time. My wife will be seeing at least half of the curling matches because she will be volunteering there.
The lack of snow is no surprise. This is Vancouver, after all. The local mountains are always a crapshoot - but they have contingency plans to import snow. Whistler is fine because it is up higher.
So CTV will have multiple online feeds as well as the TV feed?I saw something like this being advertised on the CTV website (the station in canada that's going to be covering the olympics).. but.. I wanna see everything in hd on my big tv![]()
No need to go that far, just across the strait would be sufficient for some events. Mt Washington on Vancouver Island has done alright for snow this year. They've had a lot of teams training up there in recent weeks, so many that they actually had to turn athletes away to keep from getting overcrowded.Maybe they should just move it to the other coast...
Watched some TWO-man bobsledding...![]()
. Wonder who's idea it was to go from one-man to TWO-man with one guy laying on top of the other
... and how that conversation went.
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We should be able to get at least two gold medals in speed skating... 5km and 10km for men. Unfortunately we have some generation hole, meaning the shorter distances will probably all go to the US (1000 and 1500m) and some Asian country (500m). As for the women... just a bunch of second places.
Theres a Winter Olympics?!
ah, two gay swiss men sliding down a slope.
how could i forget that?
curling and two man bob are my favourites of course.
Last I checked it was more popular than hurling.![]()
http://communities.canada.com/theprovince/blogs/podium/archive/2010/02/12/georgian-luger-in-terrifying-accident.aspxGeorgian luge competitor Nodar Kumaritashvili is en route to Whistler Hospital after a terrifying crash moments ago at Whistler Olympic Park.
Kumaritashvili was going close to 150 km/h, near the end of the course, when he launched off the track. Witnesses say his body hit a metal pole. CPR was performed almost immediately and an ambulance rushed Kumaritashvili from Whistler Olympic Park.