Countries Tout Tickets

In a rather amusing development, the IOC has all but accused four (albeit unnamed) countries of touting tickets for the recent Vancouver Winter games.

National Olympic Committees (NOCs) receive a quota of tickets that they can sell to the public in their home country. However, some NOCs have been in the habit of passing the tickets on to touts for profit.

Gilbert Felli, an IOC director, has stated that four countries would be punished (they will receive a reduced ticket allocation for the London games) for the way in which the sales of their Vancouver allocation were handled.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Vancouver Winter Olympics Ends On A High

A crowd of 60,000 attended Sunday's closing ceremony for the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Canadians celebrated a record haul of 14 gold medals, Canada ranked number one in the medal league table.

Attention now turns to London, and the games scheduled for August 2012. Organisers are hoping that lessons can be learned from Vancouver wrt eg; traffic management, technical glitches, safety issues and winning medals.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Stuffy

The IOC seems to have reacted a tad stuffily by complaining about the Canadian Women's Ice Hockey team celebrating their victory by drinking a few beers and champagne in the rink after the match.

Doesn't the IOC have more pressing issues to worry about?

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Britain Wins Gold Medal

Britain seems to have won one gold medal at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, that at least is the view of ctvolympics.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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An Object Lesson

The shambles of the Vancouver Winter Olympics is providing a valuable object lesson for the organisers of the London 2012 Olympics.

The trouble is that the London Olympics are already massively over budget (£12BN against an initial budget of around £3BN), and have a much derided logo (Lisa Simpson giving head).

One wonders what other disasters can befall the London Olympics?

Lots actually, most especially those relating to our third world transportation system.

Even Tess Jowell, Olympics Minister, seems to have realised this. She told the Evening Standard:

"There are certainly lessons we can learn. We need to trial getting people to and from the venues so we are absolutely clear about the stress on the transport system and we can anticipate any problems."

Good luck with that then!

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Vancouver - Worst Olympics Ever?

The Guardian is of the view that the Vancouver Winter Olympics are turning into the worst Olympics ever, even beating the financially ruinous games held in Montreal in 1976.

For why?

The paper lists a number of "indicators" of failure:

- The faulty hydraulics on the torch bowl in the opening event.

- Lousy transportation infrastructure that caused the Premier of British Columbia, Gordon Campbell, and the chiefs of the four host First Nations to miss the singing of the Canadian anthem at Friday's opening ceremony.

- Safety issues over the Whistler sliding centre.

- The faulty wiring on the Cypress mountain, which blew a fuse at the weekend and closed the concession stands.

- Rain that has washed away snow on Cypress mountain, making it impossible to build spectator viewing areas that would be safe.

All in all a damning indictment of failure.

What else will go wrong I wonder?

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Rent A Mob

An anti Olympic march in Vancouver on Saturday turned ugly, when some protesters started smashing windows.

Quite what smashing windows and general thuggery has got to do with protesting against the winter Olympics is beyond me.

Certain groups/individuals seemingly use any excuse for mindless vandalism.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Winter Olympics 2010

Good luck to the citizens of Canada/Vancouver, as they will end up footing the "mere" £3.6BN bill for the 2010 Winter Olympics which have kicked off in Vancouver.

It took decades for Canada to pay off the cost of the 1976 Montreal summer Olympic Games.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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A Jolly Junket To A Winter Wonderland

I see that the London Olympics organisers are sending a delegation to Vancouver for the Winter Games next week, on a fact finding mission.

They want to learn all the "learnable" about the issues, pitfalls and "opportunities" arising from hosting an Olympics.

Three small points:

1 They have already done this at the Beijing Olympics.

2 They are sending a massive delegation of 50 people (I wonder that that will cost the British taxpayer?). Why so many?

3 The Canadian infrastructure budget was originally £350M, it is now expected to rise to almost £3.5BN. Do we really want to follow Canada's example?

This junket seems to be a remarkable waste of our money.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Irregular Betting

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), in an attempt to eliminate irregular betting, is to set up a new system to monitor corrupt betting practices linked to Olympic competitions.

International Sports Monitoring, based in Switzerland, will monitor the 2010 Vancouver winter games and then the London 2012 games.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Dopes

The International Olympic Committee President, Jacques Rogge, has reaffirmed that the IOC will continue its fight against doping.

Quote:

"I would like to reiterate the IOC's total commitment to the fight against doping."

The IOC will adopt a law that would see athletes who had served a doping ban of six months or more, being banned from the Olympic Games.

Quote:

"This measure will be accepted at the next IOC congress in Beijing in August, just before the Games, meaning it will come into effect in time for the 2010 winter Games in Vancouver and the 2012 summer Games in London."

Why do the athletes damage their bodies in this manner?