Vancouver View: Media See Whistler, Move Indoors

World Press Briefing delegates will hear details about the services being provided by VANOC organizers. (ATR/B.Mackin)World Press Briefing Goes Indoors

Media delegates attending the World Press Briefing for the Vancouver Olympics will hear more today about the services to be provided for the press during the Games.

More than 200 representatives of media organizations, who will be credentialed for the 2010 Games, have been in Vancouver since Monday.

On Tuesday, the group toured venues in the Vancouver area. Wednesday, the group travelled to Whistler, site of ski and sledge events.

Today, staff from VANOC will present details of the accommodation plan, transport, credentials, results and other logistical needs for the media. It’s the next to last day for the World Press Briefing.

Whistler’s Olympic Plans

The Vancouver 2010 World Press Briefing shifted to Whistler on Wednesday where the locals were waiting for snow-bearing clouds to replace the blue skies and brilliant sunshine.

Whistler Olympic Park, the Nordic centre for the 2010 Games, is gearing up for its first full winter. Snow machines creating a base at the end of the normal hill for Olympic ski jumping were activated Wednesday to take advantage of freezing temperatures. Whistler and Blackcomb are scheduled to open for skiing and snowboarding Nov. 27.

Whistler’s 2010 Olympic journey will be the culmination of 50 years of work inspired by the 1960 Squaw Valley Games.

The resort, 78 kilometers (48.36 miles) north of Vancouver, was conceived in 1960 when the Garibaldi Olympic Development Association was formed to build a ski area on London Mountain in the community of Alta Lake, B.C. The goal was to attract the Olympic Games.

Whistler, as the community became known, had five unsuccessful bids before the IOC picked the joint Vancouver-Whistler proposal for the 2010 Games in 2003.

Whistler's World Cup Plaza below the Creekside Olympic run. (ATR/B. Mackin)Mayor Ken Melamed, who won a second term in Saturday’s municipal election, said the 17-day Games offer the community the opportunity to plan 17 years ahead.

“Everything we have done has had that long-term view so that we can take the Games and use them as a leverage point to be successful in the future,” Melamed said.

Construction on the Mount

The Creekside track for men’s and women’s alpine ski racing is complete but awaits a new chairlift to connect the original Whistler village site at Creekside with the run.

Mayor Ken Melamed literally donned his tour guide cap and showed off the village, including the site where Celebration Plaza is being constructed to host nightly medals ceremonies and concerts during the Games. The plaza is not without controversy. It was known formerly as Lot 1/8 before a small forest was chopped down. It was originally to be the site of the Paralympic sledge hockey arena, but prices tripled and Whistler scrapped the project.

Whistler averages 2 million visitors annually, but Melamed said a 5 to 12 percent decline is expected this winter because of the global economic crisis. He said only 45 percent of Whistler accommodation has been reserved by VANOC for Games-time.

“There is still inventory left for visitors, the question is going to be at what price and how available,” he said.

Meanwhile, Whistler’s Steve Podborski greeted world press briefing delegates at Dusty’s Bar and Grill in Creekside. Podborski was the first North American male downhill ski medalist in an Olympics. He won bronze at Lake Placid 1980 and was part of the famed “Crazy Canucks.”

B.C. Place Stadium: More Roof Troubles

World Press Briefing delegates saw a busy B.C. Place Stadium on Tuesday where work is under way on a $65 million pre-Olympic renovation. Delegates were not informed, but rapid pressure drops happened before midnight Sunday and twice Monday morning. However, stadium general manager Howard Crosley downplayed the incidents. He said the 300 pascal to 228 pascal drop did not put the dome in danger.

“It was not significant enough to activate our roof alarm, which only happens at 180 pascal,” Crosley said.

A relief damper electronic panel has been shut down for repairs. Relief dampers are working in manual mode, he said.

The roof, which ripped Snow-making machines at the Callaghan Valley's Olympic ski jumps were activated Wednesday, a day before a much-anticipated snowfall. Ski and snowboard season is expected to begin Nov. 27 at Whistler and Blackcomb. (ATR/B.Mackin)and collapsed under snow, ice and slush on Jan. 5, 2007, will be replaced with a German retractable system by 2011.

Possible Torch Relay Sites Emerge

The Vancouver 2010 torch relay route will be unveiled by 10:30 a.m. Friday morning, but documents released under public disclosure laws offer hints about how the federal government wants the relay run.

Some of the possibilities include the hometowns of Canadian Olympians Barbara Ann Scott (Ottawa) and Wayne Gretzky (Brantford, Ont.), and during established winter festivals like the Quebec Winter Carnival, Ottawa Winterlude and Festival du sucre d’erable in Nanaimo, B.C.

Other candidates are national historic sites like Banff National Park, Alta., and gold rush capital Dawson City, Yukon and world heritage sites like Haida Gwaii, B.C. and Nahanni National Park, N.W.T.

Set to begin in early November 2009 in Olympia, Greece, the Olympic flame will travel 35,000 kilometers (21,700 miles) over 100 days and be carried by 12,000 people through 350 communities representing 80 percent of Canada’s population.

VANOC originally budgeted $30.8 million but got a $25 million federal government grant in February after being turned down a year earlier.

The documents offer hints about where the torch will stop, such as The City of Vancouver asked VANOC to run the torch through each of Vancouver’s 23 neighborhoods, including the Downtown Eastside ghetto, before the opening ceremony.

RCMP Homeless?

The RCMP Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit is without accommodation for most of the Games security force. Last June, the RCMP awarded Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Cruise Connections a $37.5 million deal to provide two cruise ships for 5,000 police and soldiers during the Games. RCMP has announced that the deal has collapsed. No backup plan has been disclosed, but the Olympic security squad remains confident it will house its personnel.

With reporting from

Bob Mackin in Vancouver.

For general comments or questions,

click here Your best source of news about the Olympics is HYPERLINK "http://www.aroundtherings.com" www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only.