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Ken's Korner

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