Vancouver View -- More Tickets Cancelled; Worst Games Label Denied

Snowboard Cancellation Costs VANOC Cool Million

The cancellation of standing room only tickets at Cypress Mountain will cost VANOC $1 million.

Speaking at VANOC’s daily press, Caley Denton, VANOC VP of Ticketing said the decision to cancel 20,000 tickets was a difficult one.

The issue is a lack of snow covering the hay bales used to build temporary sites for spectators. Denton said VANOC was concerned people might fall into a “very large crack” in between the bales and getting injured.

“We’re extremely disappointed to say that we will be unable to have standing spectators at our remaining event at the snowboard stadium up at Cypress. We spent considerable amount of time up there yesterday. At the end of the day we just came to the conclusion that its too unstable up there, and too unsafe to have people in big numbers walking around the side of the course.

The cancellation impacts parallel giant slalom, ski cross, and snowboard halfpipe.

Ticket holders will receive an automatic refund from VANOC.

Today’s announcement means 28,000 tickets have been cancelled during these Games.

IOC spokesperson Mark Adams noted that around 60,000 tickets were canceled in 1998 in Nagano.

Worst Games Label Denied

Glitches for the Games, such as ice machine failures, transport snafus and the balky cauldron during opening ceremony have provoked critical comments from around the globe, including one British columnist calling these the “worst Olympics”.

VANOC communications chief Renee Smith-Valade said those criticism are off the mark.

“It’s a little bit like lost luggage. It’s not whether your luggage gets lost, it’s how you deal with it. We are dealt the cards we are dealt. We have done everything we could to put in place the very best plans. Sometimes things come up so the most important thing is being creative, responding quickly and coming up with good solutions.”

Where’s Jacques?

IOC President Jacques Rogge will take in speedskating at the Richmond Oval and the opening round of men’s figure skating at Pacific Coliseum.

Biathlon Pursuit Results

German Magdalena Neuner captured her second medal of the Games when she won the women’s biathlon 10km pursuit at the Whistler Olympic Park.

Neuner finished ahead of medalist Anastazia Kuzmina of Slovakia and bronze medalist Marie Laure Brunet of France. Neuner won silver in the 7.5km biathlon sprint last Saturday.

In the men's 12.5 km pursuit, German Michael Greis failed to live up to his nickname "the Biathlon King". Swede Bjorn Ferry won gold, Austrian Christoph Sumann took silver and France's Vincent Jay won his second medal of the Games by taking bronze.

Both the men's and women's pursuits were marred by competitors starting at the wrong time, however judges corrected the errors, and the mistakes did not affect the medal standings.

Written by Ed Hula III.