It started with a spectacular opening ceremony with a snowboarder flying through the Olympic Rings at the BC Place stadium, Vancouver, the largest, warmest and lowest city every to hold the Winter Olympics. But the glitz and glamour of the ceremony failed to hide the problems facing the Olympics and Vancouver both on and off the piste. The tragic death of the Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, who was killed in the warm-up session, will without a doubt overshadow the fortnight, but the show goes on. The Georgian team, who received a unanimous standing ovation in the opening ceremony, will compete in his honour.
Like most Olympics, Vancouver 2010 has been massively over budget. In July ’03 the budget was around $2bn, yet six and a half years and a stock market crash later it looks as if the games will cost Canada in the region of $6bn. Public opinion wasn’t popular either when the City borrowed half a billion dollars to finish the Olympic village last year when schools and other public sector services were being closed down.
The Winter Olympics itself is hardly recognised in the international sporting calendar (most people prefer to go skiing than watch it) yet tends to cost host cities just as much as the Summer Olympics. Canada’s history of hosting Olympics is also pretty patch, the 1988 Winter Olympics of Calgary may have made a slight profit and left a lasting legacy with the facilities being used by teams (including GB) as a base for Vancouver, however the same can’t be said for the infamous Summer Olympics of Montreal in 1976. Planning errors and strikes left Montreal paying for the games right up until 2006, but it wasn’t all the organisers fault. Security costs soared after eleven Israeli athletes were murdered in Munich 4 years earlier and 22 sub-Saharan teams boycotted the event after the IOC allowed New Zealand to take part, despite the country breaking a UN embargo by letting the national rugby side tour South Africa. Incidentally, Vancouver 2010 will see the first black African compete at a Winter Olympics when Glaswegian born Ghanaian, Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong takes to the slopes. The slalom skier dubbed as ‘The snow leopard’ moved back to the UK in 2000 where he got a job as a receptionist at Milton Keynes indoor skiing centre. Of course you can’t mention fairytales without Eric the Eel. A wildcard from Equatorial Guinea who had never seen an Olympic sized pool before, and took swimming only 8 months before the Olympics, and yet went on to win a gold medal in Sydney after the two other competitors were disqualified for false starts.
Looking to the future, the Olympics only means one thing this side of the Atlantic. Everything that happens in the next two weeks will pale into insignificance compared to the controversial London Olympics. Enough column inches have been dedicated to the huge problems and criticisms of the 2012 games which will be astronomically over budget and we may not be able to afford them, but they will bring some benefits to the rest of the Great Britain. Take the Yorkshire and Humber region for example, 90 companies have secured contracts to deliver goods, services and skills for the games and there is a reported £1bn worth of contracts still to be won. The rest of the country will benefit from tourism. Visitors who won’t being able to afford to stay in London without remortgaging their house will stay in other parts of the country and ‘commute’. All the teams won’t be able to base themselves in London. People will get the opportunity to see the games and (although it sounds cheesy) it’s inspired people from all over the country. That’s not to say it’ll all be value for money, especially the way the Mayor of London at the time, Ken Livingstone negotiated it meaning the whole country will pay, but since we’ve spent all this money we may as well enjoy it!
Anthony Lock
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