Flashback: Feb. 16, 2010

Ricker rides to historic gold
Bob Mackin, QMI Agency

WEST VANCOUVER: The fog lifted at Cypress Mountain Tuesday and Maelle Ricker became the first Canadian woman and first British Columbian to win Olympic gold at home.

Ricker, a 31-year-old from Squamish, B.C., beat Deborah Anthonioz of France and Olivia Nobs of Switzerland in the women’s snowboardcross final. World champion Helen Olafsen of Norway crashed midway.

"I tried to explode out of the gate, I really wanted to get out of that gate as fast as I can,” said Ricker. "It was really, really hard today to get a clean run all the way down the course, but I just held on and did my best."

The North Vancouver native who grew up near Cypress was the undisputed favourite after winning three of five world cup races this season and placing third in another.

Ricker’s win was the biggest snowboarding victory for Canada since Ross Rebagliati took the Olympic gold medal in giant slalom at Nagano 1998. Ricker also made her Olympic debut at Nagano, finishing fifth in halfpipe. Tuesday’s win was redemption for Turin 2006 where Ricker finished fourth in snowboardcross despite crashing before the finish line.

“Turin was such a motivator for me, it just made me work that much harder and just go for it for today,” Ricker said.

Ricker’s American rival Lindsey Jacobellis, the Turin silver medallist, was eliminated from contention in the semifinal. The two appeared to make contact early in the race. Jacobellis was the consolation final winner.

“I don’t think we clipped, we were definitely really close right out of the start, and I don’t know what happened to her,” Ricker said. “I don’t know where she went down, I just tried to stay on my line and focus on what I was doing.”

Turin bronze medallist Dominique Maltais of Petite-Riviere-St-Francois, Que., was eliminated after she crashed in both qualifying runs.

Cypress is Canada’s most lucrative venue of the 2010 Games. Montreal moguls skier Alexandre Bilodeau captured Canada’s historic first home-won gold medal on Sunday at Cypress. On Monday, Mike Robertson of Edmonton got silver in the men’s snowboardcross.

The West Vancouver resort has also provided the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee, known as VANOC, with its biggest weather challenges. Warm and wet El Nino-influenced weather wiped snow off the slopes in January. More than 350 truckloads of snow were brought 160 kilometres from Allison Pass in Manning Provincial Park to salvage competitions.

Allison Pass, coincidentally, is named for John Fall Allison, a B.C. gold rush pioneer in the 19th century.

Flashback: Feb. 12, 2010

Coroners service shuts sliding centre
Bob Mackin, QMI Agency

VANCOUVER: The Whistler Sliding Centre is closed while officials from the British Columbia Coroners Service investigate the death of a Georgian luger who died Friday morning in a training session.

Nodar Kumaritashvili, 21, crashed in the final training session Friday morning. The Whistler Sliding Centre is the fastest sledding track in the world.

“The facility is currently closed for the purpose of this investigation,” BCCS provincial director Jeff Dolan told QMI. “Once the coroner or other investigators determine it’s safe to reopen the track, they will do so.”
Dolan said the luger’s fatal injuries will be examined, the equipment and track will be inspected and a detailed account of the
incident will be compiled.

The death was the most noteworthy sports event tragedy in the region since Molson Indy Vancouver track worker Jean Patrick Hein was struck by the racecar driven by Willy T. Ribbs on Sept. 2, 1990 near B.C. Place Stadium.

Vancouver 2010: more to come

This has been an extraordinary year for Canadian sport.

But the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics were not just about sport. That is what I have sought to convey in this blog and will continue to do so as long as there are readers like you interested in the stories I have to tell.

Canada's Games. The Sea-to-Sky Games. The Games of the Great Recession. The Bailout Games. Whatever you call it, Vancouver 2010 will continue to have ripple effects from coast-to-coast-to-coast in 2011 and beyond. The costs, the legacies, the behind-the-scenes secrets. Three words: More to come. The first anniversary is rapidly approaching on Feb. 12, 2011.

The biggest, most-expensive event in Canadian history was also about politics, economics, security and culture. Will Canadian athletes remain a force to be reckoned with in winter sports or become contenders in summer sports? Is Vancouver a better place, after having held the Games? Will the city's poverty and homelessness ever be solved? What were the real costs to taxpayers? Was it all worth it?

The event ended when the cauldron was extinguished, but not the questions. Thanks again for reading and interacting.

May 2011 be a year of less fear, less greed, more peace and more fair play.

Happy New Year.

* * * * *
On the last day of 2010, I am dedicating my posts on this blog this year to Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, Minnesota bus driver Dale Roberge and my family dog, Lucky.

Kumaritashvili, 21, lost his life on Feb. 12, 2010, the opening day of the Games, during a luge training run at the Whistler Sliding Centre. Roberge, 71, died Feb. 22, 2010 while working in the Vancouver Olympic Bus Network. Lucky succumbed to liver failure Dec. 20, 2010. It was a difficult Christmas without her, but I am thankful for the kind words of friends. She was called Lucky, but I was among the lucky ones who shared 14 years with the world's friendliest dog. Consider donating to the SPCA.

With Glowing Hearts, they'll take out the trash

In the news business, we call Friday "Take Out the Trash Day".

Governments have a nasty habit of releasing information that's destined to be unpopular or controversial on a Friday.

Government propaganda departments think that a Friday news release or news conference means unflattering information has little time to be digested and debated before the diversion of the weekend when news demand goes down.

Dubious and dastardly? Absolutely.

It's a common tactic that was explored by National Public Radio in 2005. It's employed by the British Columbia government under Liberal Premier Gordon Campbell.

B.C. Place Stadium's $365 million renovations were announced Jan. 9, 2009 in a news release. That was a Friday. So was Oct. 23, 2009 when the price was hiked to $458 million.

March 26, 2010 was when the government announced the province's biggest casino would be built west of B.C. Place Stadium. If you guessed that was a Friday, then jackpot!

Premier Gordon Campbell and finance minister Colin Hansen announced the Harmonized Sales Tax on Friday, July 23, 2009. The public uproar over the lack of public consultation was slow to begin, but did it ever snowball!

In Ottawa on Friday, Nov. 5, 2010, the federal Conservative minority government unleashed hundreds of documents showing the $860 million cost of the G8 and G20 summits in Ontario.

The latest to employ the "Take Out the Trash" strategy is VANOC.

The Vancouver Olympic committee held a post-board meeting media teleconference Nov. 17, 2010 (which was a Wednesday). Chairman Rusty Goepel, CEO John Furlong and CFO John McLaughlin (see above photo) refused to answer any substantial questions about dollars or numbers. That's because they delayed the release of the post-Games financial report yet again. Remember, this is an agent of the government whose fiscal year ended July 31.

So mark Dec. 17 on your calendar. Guess which day of the week that is?

Yep, it's a Friday.

VANOC was battered by a recession after pretending a recession of any magnitude would not happen. Now it's going way beyond overtime to clean up the books and trying to claim that they're just double-checking numbers and letting auditors audit. Truth be told, it's a bigger job than they anticipated and the costs much greater. By comparison, Salt Lake 2002 issued a financial report in June 2002.

Not only is Dec. 17 a Friday, but it's the last important business Friday of 2010.

They could have decided to "Take Out the Trash" on Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve, but that would have entailed one of the few remaining VANOC staffers to actual work.

Shh! Torch and motto OK, but still secret

The International Olympic Committee executive board approved the motto and torch design for the 2010 Games on June 5 in Athens.

"We are not at a stage where we can share them publicly," said VANOC CEO John Furlong in a prepared statement.

Hints are already out there. Such as the Celebrate the Possible slogan VANOC has employed for two years. Or the Richmond Oval art plan document, which called the traditional Musqueam First Nation canoe paddle "a strong candidate for the basic form of the 2010 Olympic torch."

Meanwhile, VANOC did finally reveal that Garrett Metal Detectors would supply 550 walk-through and 1,100 wand units for the Games' airport-style security checkpoints at venues. 

Garrett vice-president Henry Tellez told me in April that the equipment is worth $4 million.