Vancouver View: Broadcasters Meet, Chefs Savor Blue Skies

Broadcasters meeting in Vancouver will hear reports on TV operations at the test events. (ATR) World Broadcasters Meeting

Representatives from dozens of broadcast companies around the world which hold the rights to the 2010 Olympics begin a week of meetings in Vancouver. It’s the third and last of the World Broadcasters Meeting, held on an annual basis in the lead-up to the Games.

European broadcasters form the biggest group at the meeting, reflecting the continent’s high interest in winter sports. These will be the final Winter Games for a while for the Europeans under the umbrella of the European Broadcast Union, which lost out on the rights to the 2014 and 2016 Olympics.

Joining the broadcasters meeting for a first time will be a team from Australia’s Nine Network, which takes over as the rightsholder from the Seven Network.

Blue Skies for Chefs

Chefs de mission from 72 NOCs enjoyed blue skies during their Feb. 17-21 meetings with VANOC, the time corresponding to the second week of the Games next year.

The team leaders toured venues and received operations and logistics briefings from VANOC at the Westin Bayshore.

The meetings coincided with the City of Vancouver takeover of Olympic Village financing, headline-grabbing gunplay among warring Vancouver drug gangs and uncertainty over an overdue Games transportation plan.

But the chefs don’t seem worried.

“I wouldn’t have any reason to think they’re not ready to go by November, said U.S. Olympic Committee chef de mission Mike Plant.

Plant, who has attended 14 Games, said: “There isn’t a single Olympic games where you don’t try to scare the heck out of everybody about traffic and security. Next February, the safest place in the world to be? Vancouver, Canada.”

Plant said the U.S. delegation next February would number around 450, including 240 athletes, and will gather directly in Vancouver for pre-Games processing before checking-in to the Olympic Villages.

British Olympic Association representative Mike England said transportation for Vancouver 2010 would “be significantly less complex than the movement of people and equipment between Turin and Sestriere”.

“If you had to put your finger on something, that’s one area that you’d want to take a close look at.”

The BOA delegation will include 50 athletes and a like number of coaches and support staff. Most teams will gather Mike Plant is chef de mission for the U.S. (ATR/B.Mackin)for pre-Games training in Calgary, site of the 1988 Games and training camp host for Team Great Britain before the Salt Lake 2002 Games.

England said the chef de mission would be named in March.

Olympic Council of Ireland CEO Stephen Martin said Ireland will have six athletes, including two cross-country skiers, two in women’s bobsleigh, one in skeleton and one in skicross. Like the BOA, the OCI is engaging the local Irish consul general and expatriate businesspeople and students.

Luge Record Set for Whistler

German luger Felix Loch set the Whistler Sliding Centre record when he was clocked at 153.937 km-h during a 46.808-second run in the Feb. 21 world cup season finale.

VANOC reported sell-out crowds of 3,000 people daily during both Felix Loch sets a speed record for the luge last week at the Whistler Sliding Centre. (Getty Images)luge and bobsleigh/skeleton world cups and said athletes took more than 2,818 runs over four weeks.

“My technical delegate told me this week that the Games could start tomorrow and the track would be ready,” said FIL president Josef Fendt in a prepared statement.

Wheelchair Curlers Test Venue

The world wheelchair curling championship preliminaries continue through Thursday. Semifinals and medal games are Saturday at the new Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Curling Centre. The complex, which opened Feb. 19, becomes a community centre with hockey, curling and swimming facilities after the Games.

Hockey Schedule Released

Canada and the United States are in the same division for men’s Olympic hockey, according to the schedule released Feb. 20.

There will be five days of tripleheaders beginning Feb. 16, 2010 and two games on Feb. 21 before Feb. 23 playoffs and Feb. 24 quarterfinals. Losers of the Feb. 26 semifinals meet for the bronze medal at 7 p.m. Feb. 27.

The gold medal will be decided at 12:15 p.m. on Feb. 28 as the last sport event before the closing ceremony. Most men’s games are at General Motors Place, which will be known during the Games as Canada Hockey Place.

Defending women’s champion Canada opens against Slovakia on Feb. 13. Most women's games are at Thunderbird Arena. Feb. 22 semifinals and Feb. 25 medal games are at GM Place.

With reporting from Bob Mackin in Vancouver.

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