Tragedy and triumph: Best and worst of the Vancouver Olympics
Published 10:43 pm Saturday, February 27, 2010
VANCOUVER, B.C. — From soggy to spectacular, from tragedy to triumph, the 2010 Winter Olympics offered a little bit of everything, both good and bad.
And today, for better or worse, Vancouver’s Olympics come to an end with the closing ceremony at BC Place and, oh yeah, one last hockey game.
So before they douse the flame, we look back. Back at the stories that dominated the headlines and the performances that ranged from dominant to heartbreaking.
These were the moments that defined the 2010 Winter Olympics:
A somber start
As the city of Vancouver partied on Feb. 12 in preparation for the opening ceremony, tragedy struck two hours away in Whistler. During a training run at the Whistler Sliding Center, Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, 21, was thrown from his sled into a metal post. He was pronounced dead later that day.
Even before Kumaritashvili’s death, the Whistler track had a reputation for being fast and dangerous, leading to a debate over whether it was safe. Officials cited driver error as the cause of the accident, but questions remain about whether officials should have done more ahead of time to make the track safer.
“One thing I know for sure is that no sports mistake is supposed to lead to a death,” said Mikheil Saakashvili, the president of Georgia.
Hours after Kumaritashvili’s death, the opening ceremony went on, and the show was an appropriate blend of celebration and remembrance. The remaining seven Georgian athletes entered BC Place to a touching standing ovation; IOC president Jacques Rogge and Vancouver Organizing Committee president John Furlong each honored Kumaritashvili while addressing the crowd; and flags were lowered to half staff toward the end of the event.
Weather worries
These Winter Games felt, for the most part, like the Spring Olympics thanks to one of the warmest winters on record in Vancouver. And while a run of warm sunny days was fun in Vancouver — increasing the amount of partying on the streets — rain, fog and a lack of snow wreaked havoc on events in the mountains and spoiled the Olympic experience for thousands of fans.
At Whistler, all the alpine ski races went off eventually, but a series of weather problems early on caused delays in training runs and competition. Many cited the lack of practice time as a factor in the unusually high number of crashes in the women’s downhill.
At Cypress Mountain, just a short drive from Vancouver, snow had to be brought in by the truckload to cover the brown slopes. And while that allowed the Games to go on, Vanoc still had to eliminate 28,000 standing-room-only tickets because melting snow made the area unsafe.
U.S., eh?
Canada was supposed to be the country dominating its home Olympics. The host nation dumped millions into its “Own the Podium” training program only to have that turn into a running joke for U.S. athletes. The Americans dominated the Games early, often at the expense of Canada, then rubbed it in by saying Canada may own the podium, but the U.S. would rent it for the month.
Regardless of what happens in today’s gold-medal hockey game between Canada and the U.S., American athletes are assured of at least 37 medals, more than any country has ever won at a Winter Olympics.
And, oh yeah, about hockey. Team USA wasn’t considered a favorite coming into the tournament — everyone had Canada and Russia pegged as the teams that would meet today — but a young American squad has won all of its games, including an upset of Canada in pool play, and is now one win away from its first men’s hockey gold since 1980.
Alpine excellence
Coming into these Olympics, the U.S. ski team had never won more than five medals in alpine skiing, and earned just two in Turin four years ago. With Lindsey Vonn, the face of Team USA before the Games, expected to win a handful of medals, it seemed likely the U.S. would do better this time around, but nobody saw this coming.
Vonn first made headlines because of a shin injury that threatened to derail her Olympics before they started. She then won a pair of medals, including gold in the downhill, but her teammates ended up stealing a lot of her thunder. Bode Miller, who was expected to win multiple medals in 2006, but instead was shut out and labeled a bust, took home hardware in each of his first three races. His gold medal in the super combined was the first of his career, and with five Olympic medals, Miller now ranks among the top alpine skiers of all time.
Miller said he recaptured the spirit of skiing he once had as a boy growing up in New Hampshire: “When I ski like that, it’s how I used to ski when I was little. You’re not thinking about all the things that old people are supposed to think about.”
Julia Mancuso, a gold medalist in Turin, hadn’t done much since those 2006 Games and was not on the radar as a serious contender in any events, but two years removed from her last World Cup podium, Mancuso took home a pair of silver medals. An even bigger surprise was the bronze medal won by Andrew Weibrecht in the men’s super-G.
The medals stopped at eight, but it was still a record medal haul for the U.S.
Bilodeau breaks the streak
Prior to the Vancouver Games, Canada twice hosted the Olympics, and twice suffered the embarrassment of not winning a single gold medal on its own soil. The pressure was on the Canadians in 2010. That gold medal slump simply had to end.
Fortunately for the hosts, it didn’t take long for the Games to crown their first local hero. On the third day, Alexandre Bilodeau captured gold in men’s moguls, setting off a party both at Cypress Mountain and on the streets of downtown Vancouver.
Later than night, electronic road signs, put in place to provide details of traffic revisions, instead flashed messages of congratulations to Bilodeau.
The humble 22-year-old dedicated the medal to his brother, Frederic, who has cerebral palsy and is Bilodeau’s main source of inspiration.
Canada’s comeback
While Bilodeau was one of the few early success stories for Canada, the host country did start to own the podium as the Games went on. More than a week into the competition, Canada had just eight medals and ranked fifth in the medal count, then the Canadians started winning and haven’t slowed down: Christine Nesbitt (speed skating); Jon Montgomery (skeleton); Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (ice dance); Ashleigh McIvor (freestyle skiing); Charles Hamelin (short track) and the Canadian short track relay team; gold and silver in the women’s bobsled; men’s hockey rebounding from a loss and marching to the gold-medal game. Forget winning their first gold on home tundra, Canadians quickly changed their objective to being the country with the most gold medals.
As of Saturday night, Canada had more golds, 13, than any country and had moved into third in the medal standings. If the men’s hockey team claims gold today, Canadians will no doubt remember these Games as a success even if they fall short of their medal goals.
But for all the gold medals, it was a bronze-medal performance by a Canadian that was one of the most moving moments of these Games. Less than a week before she was scheduled to compete in figure skating, Joannie Rochette learned her mother had passed away unexpectedly after coming to Vancouver to watch her daughter skate.
Rochette somehow brought herself to compete days later and skated a near flawless short program Tuesday night before breaking into tears at center ice. That performance put her in third, and she maintained that position after the free skate to honor her late mother with a medal.
Ohno’s final Games?
Federal Way’s Apolo Anton Ohno came back for a third Olympics and took home three medals to bring his career total to eight, two more than any other U.S. Winter Olympian has won.
Despite not capturing a gold medal, Ohno called the Vancouver Games, “The best experience of my life. … For me this has been my best Olympic Games of all time.”
Ohno hinted throughout his two weeks that these Games would be his last, but did not definitely rule out the possibility of one more Olympics.
