I have even lower expectations for a British ceremony than a Canadian ceremony, which in the end was "OK".

My copy of "With Glowing Hearts" arrived today. It is a very nice coffee table book!

(Better be at $50, let alone the $85 full retail price!)

^ i'm quite impressed with it as well.




The Newest Wonder of the World: The Ruins of Modern Greece
Facilities Built for Olympics Go Unused; A Preference for Smoking Over Sport?

June 17 2010 | WALL STREET JOURNAL

ATHENS—Georges Kalaras used to view with pride the sports hall built near his home here for the 2004 Olympic competition in rhythmic gymnastics and ping pong. Now, he gets mad every time he jogs by.

"Look, it's locked!" shouted the 38-year-old Mr. Kalaras, who works for the Athens city water company. Two stray dogs tangling with each other behind a padlocked metal fence accounted for the only activity in the complex, which seats 5,200 people.

Mr. Kalaras figured the steel and glass hall, costing taxpayers $62 million, would provide recreational space in his neighborhood. Officials envisioned concerts or shops.

Instead, when the Olympic torch went out after the Athens Summer Games six years ago, the doors closed here, as well as at many of the 30-odd other sites built or renovated for the Olympics that summer.

The vacant venues, several of which dominate parts of the city's renovated Aegean coastline, have become some of the most visible reminders of Greece's age of excessive spending. Sites range from a softball stadium and kayaking facility to a beach volleyball stadium and a sailing marina.

As Greece sifts through the wreckage wrought by its enormous public debt, which sent tremors through world finance in recent months, the Athens Games are once again unifying this nation—this time as a target of criticism. They cost an estimated $7.4 billion to $14 billion, minor in light of the more than $370 billion of public debt, but that hasn't mitigated the resentment.

"The Olympics are back in the conversation," says Yiannis Pyrgiotis, who heads the state agency in charge of finding profitable ways to use the facilities. "They're like a ball in a field with everyone kicking it."

Even boosters of the Olympics are having second thoughts.

George Tziralis, a technology investor, in 2007 co-authored a glowing report declaring the venues as "greatly improving the quality of life of the inhabitants of these areas, providing valuable resources to the community and the economy."

On a recent afternoon, staring at a pile of bricks on the unfinished entrance behind a locked metal fence encircling the Olympic sailing marina, he was less upbeat.

"I hope you're calling this article 'The Nonsense of the Olympics,'" he said. Boats filled about a third of the 120 slips at the marina, which remains closed to people who aren't boat owners.

Later, Mr. Tziralis, 28, gestured out the window of his Opel Corsa at a huge, locked complex of mostly vacant Olympic properties, located on the former site of the city's old airport.

"There's no way there shouldn't be a park here six years after the Games!" he shouted.

That complex, which cost taxpayers $213 million, includes stadiums for field hockey, softball and baseball—sports with little or no following in Greece. The facility for canoeing and kayaking slalom at the site was to become a water amusement park. It didn't.

The officials who organized and ran the Games think the ganging up on the Olympics is unfair.

They also point out that Athens is not alone: Beijing still hasn't figured out what to do with its massive stadium built for the Olympics, called the Bird's Nest.

"It's an easy target to blame the Olympics, since they can't defend themselves," says Spyros Capralos, who was general secretary of the Games and held various leadership positions in the organizing and bid committees.

The biggest problem, he and others agree, was that too many permanent structures were built.

Since Greece was late in its preparations—the International Olympic Committee in 2000 admonished the country to hurry up—the focus was on the Games, not on what came after them.

Given the time pressure, it was easier and sometimes quicker, but more expensive, to build permanent structures than temporary ones.

There wasn't enough time in some instances to conduct a bidding process, driving up costs further. No one considered the costs of operating the sites after the Games, Mr. Capralos says.

The national sports bodies also encouraged permanent structures, believing they would promote participation in those sports after the Games. With the exception of rowing, that hasn't happened.

"Greeks like sports, but they like smoking more," Georgios Kasselakis, 24, explained on a recent afternoon at one of the city's countless outdoor cafés.

The IOC says it will take post-Olympic plans more into account when choosing a host city, but few believe this changes anything. Rio de Janeiro had virtually no venues built when it was selected last year for the 2016 Olympics, but the IOC "wanted the Games in South America," says David Wallechinsky, an Olympics historian.

Mr. Capralos, now chairman of the Athens Stock Exhange as well as president of the Greek Olympic Committee, argues that people have forgotten the huge improvement in the city's infrastructure, including refurbishing and expanding the city's subway and railway and adding major new highways. The measures, which accounted for more than half of the total costs associated with the Games, have loosened the snarl of the city's notorious traffic.

And some of the venues are being used, mostly the renovated ones, such as by the country's popular basketball teams. The new badminton stadium is now a theater, recently featuring the Broadway musical "Evita."

But the fiscal woes outweigh these successes. A range of estimates, varying depending on which infrastructure projects are included, echo the accounting uncertainty around the federal deficit.

Mr. Pyrgiotis, who heads the agency overseeing the use of the venues, figures the sites are losing about $12.3 million a year. Most of the vendors who have leased sites for other uses aren't able to pay.

In his cluttered office, he looked at framed photos on the wall showing Greek women in white robes lighting the torch to kick off the 2004 Games. He marveled at how much has changed since then.

"Maybe it's cultural," said Mr. Pyrgiotis, who has several degrees in architecture and city planning from M.I.T. "Our attitudes lead to these very difficult situations from which we try to disentangle ourselves."




Photos of the Athens Olympic sport venues today:

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/...49_468x286.jpg

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/...29_233x423.jpg

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/...05_468x286.jpg

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multime.../5_683430a.jpg

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multime.../4_683431a.jpg

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multime.../6_683428a.jpg

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/m...it_675470e.jpg

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/m...e1_675471c.jpg

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/m...e2_675472c.jpg

http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/i...0616195941.jpg





http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...380683082.html

Given the state of Greece's economy, and the refusal of its citizens to "face the music", I'm not surprised.

Those pictures are so depressing. It's only been a few years! So glad that won't happen to our venues.

Explains the Greeks in a nutshell. Such a shame what has happened there but it is not surprising in the least.

In this day and age the IOC should focus more on cities that are large and advanced enough to host the games, and have at least a passive interest in all sports or have a solid plan on how to re-purpose venues. That and rotate a lot more previous hosts. As much as I'd love to see some more new interesting cities host the games, Toronto (08' bid, possible 20' bid) or Chicago (16' bid) make a whole lot more sense than Cape Town (possible 20' or 24') or Doha or Dubai (rumored 20' bids).

Vancouver's games worked out extremely well. I would not hesitate to host them again in 10 years or so. And instead of a billion-dollar Olympic Village, cruise ships at Canada Place. I think this should be a solution for many future games. (Sucks to be landlocked).

It took me a few secs to realize that those orange things on the road are stray dogs, not garbage.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/m...e2_675472c.jpg




It is most certainly sad that in less than 6 years, this is what the Athens sports venues have become.


http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4011/...aec1f432_b.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/benjami...35580/sizes/l/

This is disgraceful. The funny thing is, Vancouver was actually criticized for its lack of "signature" venues and older facilities.

Who's laughing now?

CNN Money segment on the post-Games success that Vancouver is experiencing:

http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2010...n_bin&hpt=Sbin

Glad to see such a positive report from CNN.
And I believe decades from now, people will really see the long term benefit and treat the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games as another defining moment in Vancouver and BC's history.

i was downtown tonight and english bay was packed and my friend said he has never seen it so busy and I said its the olympic effect

No just one of the first nice warm Friday nights.. I don't think the Olympics had anything to do with it.

I agree. the olympics was very good overall, and I'm a convert, I was firmly against the games going into them.

i've never seen so many people downtown for weeks i think the olympics have really made people rediscover their own city people who avoided downtown for years are coming back since rediscovering

and thats my story and I am sticking to it ;)

On a somewhat related topic there's a lot of protesting going on at the G8/G20 summit. The same familiar vandals dressed in black breaking windows and whatnot.

I guess all of the problems are solved here since the streets have been quiet for months. :tup:

Or could it be that they are just attention whores? :sly:

Following what's happening to Toronto right now, it's a complete warzone.

Why on earth did Harper choose Downtown Toronto to be the site of the G20? That's by far the worst decision ever.

yeah just saw an article of a guy from Edmonton who went to Toronto to protest - his side is that the police harass people and we live in a police state basically - it seems the worst of them are not from toronto that like the ones here just travel around the world to cause chaos

Well, he could have had it in a remote area, or Canadian Forces Base outside of the city, but then he'd be accused of taking democracy away from the people. :rolleyes:

It seems like they forgot about APEC 1997 at UBC when planning for the summit.

We could say the same for the olympics, why have it in a city with a history of protesting and not out in the middle of nowhere so there would be no protesters.
What's happening in Toronto is the the exact thing that happened here, a group of anarchists protesting the only system that allows them to do so. It's ironic that people are protesting the very people that us the people put in power.

Apples and oranges. With the Olympics, the first and foremost issue is choosing an area that is capable of hosting the Games. With things like head of state summits, security tops the list.

You need world-class city infrastructure to host the Olympics, a city with a populace big enough to ensure there is enough significant public interest to support the Games and fill stadium seats, and an area that can benefit from a post-Games legacy. Not to mention that it has to be an attractive location as you have to bid to host it, whereas these summits choose their host by rotation.

The G20 Summit could have been held in a much, much smaller location...like the G8 in Huntsville. Instead, for some reason, Harper chose the complete opposite.

dp..............

was toronto not a last-minute (ish) option for the g20? i seem to recall something like that.

also, don't forget that the G20 is new. What chretien and paul martin hosted last was the G8.

the G20 involves 1000's of people thoughj - so you need a city or large enough place to house all the people involved

20 countries all their media will be showing up - they all need to be housed, the delegations, all the people involved must number in the 100's

where the G8 was couldn't house 1000's of people - they wouldn't have enough hotel rooms

anyone else get the CTV dvd set yet? I got mine and I have to say, a very piss poor effort.

some of the video is grainy. and things are heavilly edited (neutered) so the only real full event you see is the gold medal men's hockey. the opening and closing ceremonies are cut down (why would they do that on a dvd that we can skip through chapters? and especially when the video quality is so low anyway).

ugh, it was very disappointing.

STILL waiting for my copy of the Vancouver 2010 coffee table book.

Source: http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/l...shColumbiaHome

interesting

RCMP disclose details of officer misconduct during Olympics

Fifteen members of the RCMP’s Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit were sent home during the Olympics for misconduct that included skipping out of work early to catch a hockey game and breaching a confidentiality agreement by taking pictures of the Team Canada jerseys.

Another officer was sent home for arriving at work without any bullets.

The majority of the incidents however, involved “inappropriate intoxication”, allegations of unwanted sexual advances, and altercations between police officers and staff on the cruise ship that housed members of the security unit.

One officer was criminally charged with shoplifting.

The incidents were disclosed by the RCMP at a press conference on Monday in Vancouver.

The officers involved represented four different police forces. The Integrated Security Unit was made up of 6,200 police officers from across Canada who provided security services for 90 days during the Winter Olympics.

Another 33 incidents of alleged misconduct were also investigated during the Games, but none of the officers involved were sent home.

Several of those incidents involved police officers leaving their unsecured guns lying around in places including a portable washroom, YVR airport and their bedrooms. Other complaints arose from officers using foul or disrespectful language.

One officer was accused of trespassing after entering a rail yard and throwing rocks at parked rail cars. Another was found sleeping on the job. It was also alleged that an RCMP officer grabbed an Estonian dignitary and ripped his suit.

One of the more bizarre allegations was that a person wearing a balaclava at a Whistler gas station refused to take it off and showed police credentials before leaving. He could not be identified and the file was closed. There were several other instances where the police officers involved in the complaints could not be identified.

...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle1629281/

LOL wtf. Canada's finest.

From Montreal Gazzette:

Basically an article about billeting minor league players but I wanted to highlight quotations from one of the new players who is new to our city. He's from a small town and felt he had learned a bit about Vancouver through Olympic exposure.

Wow. I know this is the vast minority, but still --- trespassing in a railyard and throwing rocks at parked rail cars? How old was this officer? 10? :rolleyes:

My impression though of the police I encountered at the Olympics, though, was generally pretty good.

Same here...though really, my impression of the police overall is pretty good and I have great respect for them.

lol Maybe they are based somewhere that doesn't have... umm... trains. :sly:

I saw police, but had no contact with any during the Olympics.

Which is too bad. I took up all that self defense training when I was told that I'd be oppressed, beaten, and rounded up for no good reason!

We were also told that those CCTV cameras would still be around.... :shrug:

Well, there is that camera of death and destruction attached to the symbol of corporate greed that is the Olympic cauldron.

Woman 'blown away' Slovakian parents' photos found

By: Darcy Wintonyk, ctvbc.ca
Date: Monday Aug. 9, 2010 3:13 PM PT

Andrea Kunova said the day her Slovakian parents lost their camera's memory card at the 2010 Olympics was the saddest of their month-long visit to Vancouver in February.

"My whole family was together, which is rare, and we took so many pictures during the Olympics. They were just so sad to lose those memories."

Her parents, Elana Kunova and Vladimir Kuna, visited Stanley Park that day, taking in a tram ride around the city's historic parklands, visiting the aquarium and taking photos of the eight famous totem poles standing proudly at Brockton Point.

Unbeknownst to the Kunova family, a Knoxville, Tennessee woman named Julie James was also there that day.

James, who was working as a graphics operator for the Olympic Broadcasting Services "doing crazy hours," decided to walk down the city's 10-kilometre seawall to get some fresh air before her shift.

"It was my turn to have some fun so I decided to see the totem poles," she told ctvbc.ca from her Tennessee home.

It was walking on a path near those poles that something caught her eye: a tiny black four-gigabyte camera memory card.

"Who knows how many people would have walked by it -- this little black memory card on the ground on the black asphalt. So I picked it up," she said.

The card stayed in James' pocket for the remainder of the day, and at her desk for the rest of the Games. When she returned to her hometown in Tennessee with the card still in her possession she decided to take her fight to the internet.

She started a Facebook group and posted two photos on the card. The first showed a young man with his arm around an older couple in front of the Olympic flame; the other showed the same man and woman at an Olympic pavilion. Both people are holding Slovakian flags.

"I knew those flags would mean something," James said.

But six months later no one had contacted her, so she contacted CTV News, one of Vancouver's largest television broadcasters. The web story was shared by hundreds of people online, and soon came to the attention of a Slovakian newspaper editor, who saw their national flag in the photos and wrote a story to spread the word that one of their fellow countryman might be the owner.

And it worked.

Someone from the Kunova's village recognized Elana, and contacted a reporter at a local newspaper. The Kunova family, now the subject of an international photo manhunt, was one step closer to their long-lost photos.

"My mom called me and was really excited. She said ‘you won't believe this -- someone found our photos,'" Andrea Kunova told ctvbc.ca from her Vancouver office.

"This is unbelievable. We were hoping somehow we would recover the pictures one day. It's amazing."

Kunova thinks that her parents' patriotism might be the key to them getting their photos back.

"Everywhere they went they wore the Slovakian clothes. I guess it was the best clue they could give."

Kunova said her parents were stunned that a total stranger would do something so nice for nothing in return.

"They could not believe someone had put such an effort into returning the family memories, which you can not put a price on. They would like to thank Julie James for not giving up and contacting CTV News in Vancouver."

As for James, who spoke with the family this morning, she said she never gave up hope that she would find the rightful owners.

...

http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/l...shColumbiaHome

Back only momentarily to post this....holy crap, did anyone watch the Singapore Youth Olympic Games Opening Ceremony this morning?


For a small fraction of Vancouver's cost, they sure put on an amazing show that trumps ours in some ways...the arrival of the flame and lighting of the cauldron was especially amazing.

Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/1532273...22380428/show/

I saw some pictures, it looked pretty cool.

On a happy note, I finally got my Vancouver 2010 book in the mail last week. Yay.

It's a real nice book.... no wonder it took them 6 months to make it :P

Yeah, I was watching those opening ceremonies and couldn't how much more visually stimulating they were (which is essentially all the ceremonies need to accomplish).

Very nice, very colourful. Thanks for sharing the photos link.

While it was a visually stimulating show, in retrospect it absolutely lacked originality. Virtually every segment was a copy from a previous show.


Opening drums - Athens
Fire - Sydney
Monster/lost boy - Salt Lake
Piano - Beijing
Arrival of the flame by boat and pier - Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games


At least Singapore realized the importance of the "grand" and "epic" feeling, which Vancouver lacked.

Thanks for the link to that Flickr show. Those photos were awesome!

Font
 

The

WE
S
TE

Were still in the wrong font in this picture too.

Do you have a shot of them replacing them?

Thx

Since the thread has been revived, anyone knows where I can get any olympic clothing? I dunno winter is coming and I missed out in February, I got lucky and found one sweater in the Bay Metrotown

zellers has lots and the bay stores - most of them have lots

about 6 weeks ago, maybe more - the woman at the store downtown told my friend and I that stock was going to be coming in every few weeks until 2012 - thats when they would probably change designs but all the current stuff is still coming into the stores regularly

so to check back in a few weeks if you don't see the item you are wanting

Ah ok, Thanks SpongeG!

i guess global will be all over this one tuesday...

Snowboardcross had highest percentage of injuries at Vancouver Olympics; study

By Stephen Wilson (CP) – 2 hours ago

LONDON — Snowboardcross was the most hazardous sport at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, with nearly 75 per cent of female athletes sustaining injuries during the rough-and-tumble races, according to a medical study.

The report, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found that at least 11 per cent of all athletes at the games in February sustained injuries — including 20 concussions.

The study reported a total of 287 injuries among the 2,567 athletes, including the "catastrophic injury" which caused the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili in a training crash a few hours before the opening ceremony on Feb. 12.
The findings illustrate some of the inherent dangers in pushing the boundaries in already risky high-speed winter sports.
"Overall, we are a little concerned about the increasing number of injuries that are not just minor," International Olympic Committee medical commission head Arne Ljungqvist told The Associated Press on Monday. "Some of this can be regulated by stricter rules.

"But it seems there is a conflict — the interest of making sport more interesting perhaps but also a little more dangerous. Some athletes want to have more speed, but on the other hand we have to look after the safety of the athletes."
The IOC-funded project is the first in-depth study of injuries at a Winter Olympics. It follows similar research at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, where nine per cent of athletes reported injuries
.
Ljungqvist said the Vancouver report will serve as a basis for working with international federations to minimize injury risks at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

The findings are based on reports from 82 national team doctors and designated medical centres in Vancouver and Whistler. The study said the actual figures were likely higher because not all injuries were reported.

About 25 per cent of the injuries were serious enough to result in athletes being unable to train or compete. The most common injury areas were the head, spine and knees; bruising and ligament and muscle sprains were the most frequent types of injury.

The highest-risk sports were bobsled, ice hockey, short-track speedskating, Alpine and freestyle skiing and snowboardcross, where between 15 per cent to 35 per cent of athletes sustained injuries.

The lowest risk were Nordic skiing, as well as luge, curling, speedskating and freestyle moguls — with less than five per cent of athletes being injured.

The study found that snowboardcross produced the highest percentage of injuries (35 per cent) of any Olympic events. An astounding 73 per cent of the women — 16 of the 22 competitors — sustained injuries. For men, the figure was 11 per cent — four of the 35 athletes.

Snowboardcross was brought into the Olympics in 2006 to inject some life, youth and X Games attitude into the Winter Games. It features athletes pushing, shoving and hurtling down a hill at breakneck speed. The sport's cousin, skicross, made its debut in Vancouver.

"Snowboard and snowboardcross is where I see there is a potential for improving safety," said professor Lars Engebretsen of the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences in Oslo, an author of the study.

"The fact is during the season leading up to the Olympics they also had high injury incidents during their World Cups and pre-Olympic qualification," he told AP in a telephone interview.

Last week, a teenage member of the Russian national snowboard team was killed in a snowboardcross training accident in the Swiss Alps.

Among men in Vancouver, the highest rate of injuries was in short-track speedskating, with 27.8 per cent. The sport features close contact, high speeds and sharp turns.

Bobsled had a 20 per cent overall injury rate, followed by ice hockey at 18 per cent.
Engebretsen said scientists will spend the next six months studying videos of all the serious injuries to determine how they occurred.

Kumaritashvili's fatal accident was the only injury reported in the luge competition, which could be partly attributed to the fact that organizers shortened the course in Whistler to make it safer after his death.

"My impression from before and looking at all the statistics from that sport (luge) is they did not have many injuries," Engebretsen said. "This (fatal) incident was very, very unusual."

The circumstances of the luge crash were not covered in the study.
Overall, the injury rate at the games was higher among women (13 per cent) than men (nine per cent).

...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/can...iCop-7kYbS3kig

Has anyone been following what has been unfolding in Delhi? Now that's a real calamity that truly deserves an international media ass whooping.

Something being chaotic in India isn't really newsworthy or shocking :P

did anyone watch the commonwealth opening? wow most impressive

it repeated at 1 am monday...

not sure if they aired it live

Opening ceremonies blow away ranting Canadians

Toronto, Oct 4 (IANS) They was no more ranting by the Canadian media - which joined the country's sports authorities in slamming India for poor preparations for the Commonwealth Games - Sunday after the opening of the sports extravaganza in New Delhi.

Changing its tune, it called the opening ceremonies 'pitch-perfect' and a 'showcase for its emergence as a global force'.

Writing under 'No Delhi dallying around: Opening ceremonies rock the house' in the country's biggest newspaper Toronto Star, famous sports writer Randy Starkman said, 'Finally, the much battered Delhi Commonwealth Games are under way - and in very fine style, too.''

As a veteran of 12 Olympic Games (winter and summer) and many Commonwealth and Pan Am extravaganzas as well, he said, 'I have generally made it a policy to avoid opening and closing ceremonies. Just not my kind of thing - plus I am afraid if I do show up, they will make me write about them and I don't do pomp and pageantry that well. And there are many that do.''

But blown away by the opening ceremonies Sunday, he said, 'The opening ceremonies here were a real treat and my favourite moment was when the image of Gandhi appeared on the scene, a vision of serenity amid what has mostly been chaos until now.

'I have to say I have been impressed so far by the incredible friendliness and helpfulness of the volunteers in trying to make this work.''

Calling it an unblemished opening ceremony after ' breathlessly bad few weeks,'' the paper said, 'It was an evening to celebrate India's ancient music and dance, its dazzling modern technology...''

The paper added, 'As Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh settled into his seat next to Prince Charles, the ceremonies got underway at 7 pm - right on time - with a series of fireworks that lit up the night sky. Athletes soon began their slow march into the stadium following a series of dance and music performances and the only questions left unanswered seemed to be: would the $16-million helium blimp hovering overhead stay afloat, and how would the audience react to the arrival of Pakistan, India's neighbour and arch rival.

'Turned out there was no problem on either front.''

It said, 'The blimp, covered in mirrors and cameras, was a technological marvel and displayed a visual crawl of the nations' flags as they were announced. Pakistan, meantime, received one of the largest cheers of the night, trailing only the host nation India.''

The newspaper said though Indians are obsessed with cricket, 'the Commonwealth Games will serve as a showcase for its emergence as a global force.''

...

http://sify.com/news/opening-ceremon...em4cebfhf.html