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A
big day for B.C., and I guess, for all of Canada.
Of course, I am referring to the opening of the 2010 Winter
Olympics.
The
main opening spectacle comes later today, so I cannot comment on it, but
the torch arrival has been something of a show in itself.
We saw some well known Canadians carrying the torch through the
streets of Vancouver and surrounding communities, notably Walter Gretzky
and the father of Terry Fox, former Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan who
made his journey in his wheel chair and others.
One
surprise was the Terminator showing up for a run with the torch.
Kind of ironic that Arnold, being an American, would be chosen,
especially since he has admitted that he ate steroids like most of us
eat cheerios to get his famous body in the shape he did.
He probably would still fail an Olympic drug test.
It comes to mind though, that Premier Campbell might have pulled
strings to get Arnold up here as Gordon might need to seek asylum in
California when the actual cost of the Games is made public.
But
today, money does not seem to matter.
Television coverage is widespread on all channels and networks,
interviewing any celebrity they can find, and speculating endlessly on
who is going to actually light the cauldron that will burn through the
entirety of the games. And
for the record, I have not the slightest idea, nor was I asked to do it
myself.
The
games themselves are starting off with a bit of a dark cloud though,
with the training accident and subsequent death of the Georgian Luger,
who crashed at high speed and ran into an unpadded steel pole.
Oops! One would
think that anything close to a high speed event like the luge or
bobsleigh runs would be protected against impact, but accidents do
happen, and when these things are moving at 140 kms or more, they will
travel a long way. This is
a very unfortunate happening, and I am sure that all athletes of all
countries are mourning this young man’s loss.
May it be the last accident at these games.
Now,
if the weather will co-operate, the games can proceed.
I am not hopeful, and trucking snow in to keep the ski runs
covered does not seem to be a very effective solution to a major
problem. I really wonder
what the Olympic committee and the organizers were thinking when they
slotted these games into a place where snow is always a crap shoot.
To me, it would have made more sense to have the skiing,
snowboarding and other sports like that at Valmont or Big White.
Having
said that, they could be trucking the snow from Saskatoon, we do have
some to spare, and unfortunately a lot of it is still exactly where it
fell two weeks ago. Nuff
said there I guess, except to say that if you google ‘disaster’, you
get ‘snow clearing in Saskatoon’.
See
you later.
Ken
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