Hurdles cleared, Vancouver ready for the Winter Games

By DAVID CRARY

Somehow, despite a global meltdown and a local thaw, the hosts are ready. Vancouver is abuzz and the stage is set for a Winter Olympics with dazzling settings and story lines.

Bring on Lindsey Vonn, skiing for a slew of gold medals, and the unpredictably intriguing Bode Miller. Anticipate the showdown between Asian figure skaters Kim Yu-na and Mao Asada. Root for, or against, a star-studded Canadian men’s hockey team that knows anything less than gold will crush the home-country fans whose passion for a triumphant Olympics grows by the day.

Odds are high that it will rain at times in Vancouver during the Feb. 12-28 run of the games. On Cypress Mountain, in West Vancouver, crews are combatting unseasonably warm, wet weather by trucking in snow to cover the freestyle skiing/snowboarding venue.

But further north, at the vast ski resort of Whistler, snow abounds on the Alpine courses, and the towering mountains there combine with high-rise, harborside Vancouver to offer perhaps the most stunning mix of scenery ever for a Winter Olympics.

Many of the venues have successfully hosted world-class events over the past few years; the new bobsled/luge track at Whistler has been described as perhaps the fastest in the world.

Canada’s Olympic athletes have had full access to the venues for training, part of the Own the Podium initiative that has set the bold goal for the host country to win the most medals at the games. Germany and the United States, which finished 1-2 in Turin four years ago, would love to thwart that goal.

Asked what would make these games special for visitors, the CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee, stressed the excitement and sense of unity that they are kindling among Canadians.

“Let the world see what good Canadians can do if they work hard and pull together,” John Furlong said. “It’s really a coming out event for Canada.”

Few if any other host cities have faced such an overwhelming and unexpected crisis as VANOC did the past two years in the form of the global recession.

“We never thought we’d be confronted with an economy that went over a cliff,” Furlong said. “We took the company, turned it upside down, shook it, and everything that didn’t matter we left out.”

Despite staggering financial woes for some of the corporate sponsors, VANOC managed to keep its own budget in order. Ticket sales have been robust, with most events sold out; even the most-hard hit sponsors — including General Motors of Canada — kept their commitments; and the International Olympic Committee has promised to help cover any post-games deficit that might emerge.

One of the biggest victims of the meltdown may turn out to be NBC, which has the U.S. television rights to the games. It expects to lose an estimated $200 million, with advertising revenue not matching the high bid price of $820 million that it committed to in 2003.

The fiscal crisis forced VANOC to become more creative as it trimmed some staff and operational costs without scaling back on the events, festivities and amenities being offered to the Olympic family and the public.

“We had to pay attention to every single tiny thing we were doing,” Furlong said. “We didn’t lose anything that anyone else will notice.”

Now, on the eve of the games, VANOC has declared itself ready to welcome 5,500 athletes and a projected 350,000 visitors. Trendy restaurants and bars in Whistler and Vancouver’s Gastown district will be bustling; official entertainment acts include DEVO, Usher and Buffy Sainte-Marie.

The influx of visitors will mean some inconveniences. For example, access to Whistler for Alpine events will be strictly controlled, and private cars without parking permits will be stopped at a checkpoint along the 90-mile Sea-to-Sky Highway.

For all events, authorities are advising spectators to arrive at least two hours early to allow time for the screening process.

The security budget for the games, initially projected at $175 million, quintupled to more than $900 million. Personnel will include about 4,500 members of the Canadian military; more than 6,000 police officers, mostly from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police but also scores of other Canadian jurisdictions; and 5,000 screeners hired by a private security consortium to conduct searches, under RCMP supervision, of people entering Olympic venues.

“We want to do this in Canadian style — we’re subtle but we’re ready,” said RCMP Cpl. Bert Paquet, a spokesman for the security task force.