Media Numbers
Media outnumbered athletes by more than four times at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
IOC media operations head Anthony Edgar said there were 12,365 accredited media personnel, including 2,803 written and photographic press, 2,540 host broadcasters (from Olympic Broadcasting Services Vancouver) and 7,296 rights holding broadcasters.
The written and photographic press category included 1,636 journalists, 90 support staff, 199 non-rights holding broadcasters, 698 photographers and 180 technicians.
Internet news portal Yahoo was the most visited Olympic news site during the Games. Statistics show 32 million unique visitors went to Yahoo for Olympic news, while ESPN.com and NBCOlympics.com, the Web site of rights-holding broadcaster NBC, both attracted 19 million unique visitors.
Forty million visitors total visited Yahoo’s site during the Games, logging 314 million minutes.
Yahoo also had more traffic than NBC during the Beijing Olympics.
Own the Podium Boost
Own the Podium gets a $22 million annual funding increase in Canada’s federal budget.
Elite summer and winter athletes will get $69 million federally in the next two fiscal years.
Canada had 26 medals at Vancouver 2010, including a record 14 gold for a Winter Games’ host nation. Own the Podium 2010 included $100 million for Olympic athletes and $10 million for Paralympians.
Apologies and Protests
Apologies and protests have followed a column from Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Gil Lebreton’s comparison of the Vancouver Olympics to the 1936 Nazi Games.
Publisher of the Star Telegram Gary Wortel called Lebreton’s comments “insensitive” in an apology. A Facebook group “Hold Gil Lebreton & the Star-Telegram accountable!” had more than 2700 members.
“As publisher of the Star-Telegram, I apologize to readers and all Canadians who were offended by sports columnist Gil LeBreton’s insensitive comparisonof the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games to those that occurred in Berlin in 1936,” Wortel wrote.
“We reacted quickly to the column with an online apology from LeBreton late Monday and an in-paper version the next day.
On Feb. 28, Lebreton said Canadians only focused on Canadians during the Vancouver Games and not enough attention was paid to the rest of the world’s athletes.
“One thing I never saw: a simple flag or shirt with the five Olympic rings” Lebreton’s column read.” Not anywhere. After 15 Olympics, that was a first.
“I didn't attend the '36 Olympics, but I've seen the pictures. Swastikas everywhere.
“No political reference is meant, just an Olympic one. What on earth were the Canadians thinking?”
He ended his column with “Nice party. But so 1936.”
Case of the Missing Stick
Reebok is offering a $10,000 reward for Sidney Crosby’s missing glove and stick.
The scorer of the gold medal-winning goal for Canada’s men’s hockey team on Feb. 28 dropped his gloves and stick in celebration. One glove and the stick could not be located after the game.
Reebok wants to reunite the glove and stick with Crosby, who could decide to display them at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto or Olympic Museum in Lausanne.
Holiday Pushed
An online petition is lobbying Premier Gordon Campbell to remember the 2010 Games with a holiday on the third Monday of February. The Glowing Hearts Day petition is on GoPetition.com and urges B.C. join five other Canadian provinces with a statutory holiday next February.
With reporting from Bob Mackin in Vancouver.
Últimas Noticias
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
