tripatlas.com/new’s Olympic correspondent, Chris Kinasz, blogs from the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games with the latest updates, news, and going-ons from the Winter Olympic Games taking place in Vancouver, British Columbia.
At the Richmond O Zone, there was plenty of free fun for the whole family. There was a large sound stage on a football field where free concerts were underway. The BCLC Winter Games dome featured a hockey target shooting range, biathlon simulator, and a virtual reality bobsled simulator that included all of the sights, sounds, smells and feelings of a bobsled run delivered through a personal IMAX screen. There was a great ice skating ring with many twists and turns with a fire burning in the middle. Skates and helmets were available for anyone who wished to skate. For the older kids, the highlight of the Richmond O Zone was the Holland Heineken House. Everyone was having a great time. The Richmond O Zone is one of many entertainment sites around Vancouver or Richmond that has free access.
Today, newspapers in the United Kingdom reported on how they feel Vancouver is doing a poor job hosting the Games. They have blamed organizers for their handling of the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili. They seem to believe that the Canadian lust for medals was the cause of the crash and not error on the part of the slider, as was officially reported. Olympic organizers feel terrible about the death of this young man. The fact that they lowered the starting point for the men’s and women’s races shows that organizers recognized that steps needed to be taken to address the luge track issues to make sure that no other luger suffered the same unfortunate fate as Mr. Kumaritashvili.
What critics do not realize is that a lot of care is required to maintain a safe luge course. Not only do they pull down white shades in-between runs to keep the sun off of the ice, they also have a worker walk up and down the course spraying water on the track. Course engineers are putting in tons of work to keep this track safe. You cannot have an excessive amount of lugers descending the track with unlimited training because this would jeopardize the integrity of the ice and render it unsafe. It is just like at the Richmond Oval where they check the ice if a speed skater stumbles to make sure that there is not a hole in the ice that will risk the safety of the next skater. Olympic organizers in Vancouver are not purposely trying to put the safety of athletes at risk.
The media should stop with all of the needless, negative coverage and, instead, try to focus on all of the extremely positive and great things that are happening right now in Vancouver and Whistler.
Despite this insensitivity and critical negativity coming from the British press, Canadians will be compassionate and kind enough to realize that organizers are trying their best to do a good job if something bad happens at the Summer Olympics in London in 2012.
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