993c4_Toronto

Yeah Canada - First gold medal every on home turf! Way to go Alexandre Bilodeau in the moguls!!!!!
http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/freestyle...ensmoguls.html

Sultan

What... CBC? CTV had been plugging Vancouver 2010 for the last few weeks like crazy, it's overkill. During superbowl, every damn commercial was "Vancouver 2010 hosted by CTV" and that stupid Believe song. Yes CTV, we get it, you guys have the rights...kind of turned me off, I'm only interested in the hockey now.

mongrelcat

I'm enjoying the games, can't wait for the Alpine events to go off.

Wish I still had CBC but on the other hand the quality of the feed sucked. And I don't mind the delay since I watch everything off the DVR to avoid all the commercials anyway.

Mike J

That is pretty funny! Imagine how often it would have been if Toronto won the Summer Olympics..... :-)

Mike J

Hey Louis,

My wife was closely involved in the design and manufacture of the structural elements of the large outside torch...it was pretty cool, there is quite a bit of engineering behind the structure. The base goes four feet below the surface of the deck, and its anchored into the girder structure for siemic stabilty. It also has a design life of 25 years, and will be a permanent addition to the Vancouver landscape.

No, they had nothing to do with the torch that did not fully deploy!

As part of the contact, they had to effectively replicate the smaller BC Place torch...and she certainly breathed a sign of relief when the external one fired up!

Cheers,

Mike

timothymoffat

+1,000,000,000

Gotta say I have been less than impressed with all the VANOC/IOC crap/spending/dictating leading up to the events. At the same time, with the events now in full swing, the city sure is buzzing! And the opening ceremonies were sure impressive.

And with today's result, maybe even a wee bit of pride in this humble CDN.

JPP

And what a great run. I love the fact that in the winner's interview he's all about his brother having CP and how his brother deals with that daily is his inspiration. Really amazing to see how fast and how much physical pounding these athlete's knees and legs are taking.
I'd also have to say that Dale Begg-Smith's final run was really impressive as well. What is up with his relationship with Canada? The media spin made it sound like the Canadian gov't/IOC body wouldn't support him as an athlete so he got an offer he couldn't afford to refuse from Australia to move there and ski for them .....?

H.H.Chinn

Hosting the Olympic Winter Games, Vancouver will never be the same, with a much greater impact than World Exposition had in 86. < Geez! That sounds so long ago!! The monies spent on infrastructure and architecture will endure for years to come. Benefits: Now when I come to stay in Richmond, I can walk out of the condo and take the light rail line into downtown without having to worry about traffic and parking and the same if I chose to fly in or out of YVR. It's too bad the effects of El Nino are making work out of keeping enough snow on the competition venues on Cypress.

Rinty

The same thing happened before the Calgary games in '88. There was a media feeding frenzy on various issues and then a 180 degree shift in focus, starting with the opening ceremonies.

I volunteered with the drug testing team for the alpine events, and got to meet some of the superstars: Franz Heinzer, Pirmin Zurbruggen, Steve Podborski, Maria Walliser. It was an incredible experience.

I'm looking forward to the men's downhill, which is supposed to be this am. And the hockey of course. I just hope the guys they've picked, work out this time.

993c4_Toronto

Truly inspirational interview - thanked all the people in his life who supported him and then went on to talk about the other CDN athletes who he expects to join him in winning gold. Seems like a solid guy.

Dale Begg-Smith is a bizarre case. From what I understand he split with the CDN mogul team over philosophical differences (apparently Canada didn't like his sociopath style ;-). DBS wanted to spend too much time on this internet business.

The Australian team seems to be either influenced by DBS's style or else there was just a good fit on the mogul team - the coach lied about his arrival time in Vancouver to avoid any non-Australian media interviews before the competition and then complained that the judging was rigged and that DBS should have won.

Nice personalities all round.

95 NC 993

[QUOTE=Rinty;7314598]The same thing happened before the Calgary games in '88. There was a media feeding frenzy on various issues and then a 180 degree shift in focus, starting with the opening ceremonies.

I volunteered with the drug testing team for the alpine events, and got to meet some of the superstars: Franz Heinzer, Pirmin Zurbruggen, Steve Podborski, Maria Walliser. It was an incredible experience.

I'm looking forward to the men's downhill, which is supposed to be this am. And the hockey of course. I just hope the guys they've picked, work otime.[/ut this QUOTE]

Well Canada better not complain about lack of scoring if that happens. Leaving the incredible duo of Stamkos and St Louis off the team was insane! No one in the NHL is stopping them game after game.

Wilder

The Bilodeau medal is a fantastic achievement for Canada. I was in the middle of a mob downtown when the announcement of his win was made. Words can't describe the excitement and celebration that broke out. What a scene! We're now tied with France at third place on medal count behind the US and Germany. Go Canada!!!

Mike - Very cool that your wife was part of building such an iconic structure and now permanent fixture of Vancouver's landscape. I was there last night with a couple of girlfriends taking pictures over the fence. Still in awe over the the new convention center!

Timmy - I think many have underestimated the value that will be reaped from hosting the games over the next decade and beyond. Still, it's a hard pill to swallow when Vancouver cuts 800 teaching jobs due to budget constraints as the games were getting underway.

Harlan - Big +1. I moved to Vancouver in 86 with my parents (was 14 y/o). It was a temporary move while my dad worked at Expo. Six months turned into a year and the rest is history. Expo helped transform this then small town into a very international and cosmopolitan city many now view as one of the best places to live in the world. I believe the Olympics will have a much more profound impact on the future of this city that Expo did. I hope it brings in more big industry.



So, I went for a stroll downtown at around 5PM yesterday and got home well past midnight. This city is at its absolute best...a non-stop party and it was a blast to be out and about. There are hundreds of thousands celebrating downtown. I've never seen this city so vibrant and full of life. I met up with a couple of friends for dinner, walked around checking out the various Olympic landmarks and events. Went to Germany House for a couple of hours, stopped by Irish House and then caught Daniel Wesley at David Lam Park. I saw three different sets of fireworks. Some of these places have 3-hour lineups. I kid not. I may have some pics to post later. If you can make it down, it's well worth the trip. C'mon down!

JPP

The coach lying bit was bizarre. Fairly obvious Dale didn't want to talk to the other media outlets. He's known as 'The Spam King' for his internet spam advertising business, right? One of the chattermouths said he had made millions from it before he moved to Australia so he wasn't motivated by money, just wanted to ski in the Olympics. I have to admit, even though I hate spam and the people who instigate it, I admire someone that young recognizing a demand for a service like that and turning it into a huge business opportunity and I bet he's tired of having the media focus on it and not his sports performance. It looks like he's a great athlete. It's too bad he's chosen to surround himself with jerks that perpetuate bad publicity.

993c4_Toronto

I agree - he is a great athlete. I seem to be logging some serious hours in front of the TV this weekend. The alpine skiing was great to watch. 5th place for Canada was too bad - esp when the difference between 5th and 3 or 2nd or 1st was so marginal but that's how it goes. It would have been nice to see Bode win gold.

Silver in Snowboard cross!

Let's see how the 500 metre speed skating goes...!

Wilder

Another incredibly close race...