Some Winter Olympics issues still need attention

McCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Folks are worried about the weather — too much snow in some places, not enough in others.

There’s a firestorm over an Australian flag with a boxing kangaroo. Shani Davis isn’t following protocol.

It must be time for the Winter Olympics.

The countdown to the Vancouver Games has hit one day, with far less controversy than Beijing faced 11‚Ñ2 years ago in its Olympic coming-out party but a handful of small issues that could steal the spotlight from 2,500-plus athletes, including 216 Americans.

Topping the list of worries before Canada’s third Olympics (Montreal hosted in 1976 and Calgary hosted in 1988) are 50-degree temperatures at Cypress Mountain, where minimal snow is threatening freestyle skiing and snowboarding competitions, and nasty conditions in Whistler, where heavy snow, stiff winds and thick fog are jeopardizing Alpine skiing.

Helicopters have been dumping snow on Cypress every three minutes, and trucks have been doing the same, the result of a January with an average daily temperature of 44.8 degrees, the warmest in Vancouver history. Olympic organizers sliced halfpipe training from five days to three (sorry, Shaun White) with steady rain but no snow in this week’s forecast.

So far, the training schedule has remained the same in Whistler, a mountain-locked resort 80 miles north of Vancouver.

“Everyone is in the exact same boat,” said snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler of Aspen. “The conditions are what they are. The weather is what it is.”

Protests should be limited Friday when more than 60,000 people assemble at BC Place Stadium for the first indoor Opening Ceremony — the culmination of a 106-day Olympic torch relay. No word on whether the red-gloved, cartoon kangaroo in the athletes’ village that drew the ire of the International Olympic Committee will be part of the festivities.

Still, many Canadians are angered over a 17-day Olympics projected to cost $5.6 billion. Vancouver officials forecast roughly $4 billion in benefits from hosting the Olympics — a small fortune, some argue, considering $1.9 billion spent on a light rail line, $825 million on a media center, $748 million on a highway and $580 million on venues.