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2010 Countdown

Whistler in the media spotlight

By Clare Ogilvie

In typical Whistler fashion residents and visitors alike gathered Monday to groove to Sea to Sky corridor musicians and eat cake to mark the three-year countdown to the start of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

“It is very exciting,” said Whistler Councillor Gord McKeever,

“There is a lot to get done and three years is going to go by very quickly but I am very excited. It is going to be a wonderful event.”

As countdown party-goers enjoyed the scene outside the Whistler 2010 Information Centre, complete with ice sculptures, CBC News, Global TV, CTV and a host of other media outlets used the festive backdrop to anchor news shows and reports as Canada marked the occasion.

It’s something the town will have to get used to, said McKeever of the large number of media.

“I think at the end of the day it is a very positive thing for Whistler, and as long as we can be positive in our messaging and more importantly deliver the goods, then it is going to be really worthwhile,” he said.

“This is a resort economy and at the end of the day people hearing about us in a good context is a positive thing.”

It was hearing about Whistler in the media that brought the Goochs to the resort from Raleigh, North Carolina.

“When I heard the Olympics were going to be here I wanted to come just to say I had been there,” said Gary Gooch who was celebrating his 50 th birthday with the trip.

“Plus I have heard so many good things about the area.”

Said wife Ann: “I think people are excited about the Games. The west coast of Canada has always been so receptive of multicultural experiences so it will be great.”

For the Vancouver Organizing Committee’s director for community relations Whistler, Maureen Douglas, the bringing together of travellers and locals alike for the countdown celebration is part of the whole Games experience.

“We always talk about how it is a chance to celebrate for locals and visitors alike and it adds to the appeal of Whistler,” she said before heading on the celebration stage to emcee the event.

“I think it creates a brand new curiosity about what a community like this is like even before (the Games), what does it feel like getting ready for this day.

“At the heart of Whistler it really is a small town and I think it is a very special experience to share small town enthusiasm if you happen to be a visitor during a celebration.”

Whistler will host all the alpine, Nordic and sliding events for the 17 days of the Games which run Feb. 12 to 28 in 2010. Vancouver will host the balance of the events including hockey, skating, speed skating, freestyle skiing and snowboarding.

Whistler will also host the majority of the Paralympic events, which run March 12 through 21.

Officials with the International Parlaympic Committee toured the venue sites this week but were unavailable for comment.

Long time local Keith Auchinachie, who stopped by to see the celebration, still has some grave reservations about the mega event.

“Three years out from the Games, and we are still waiting for the legacies to materialize,” he said. “We don’t have a train to Whistler, employee housing is late, and we don’t have an ice hockey rink. That went to Vancouver.”

Throughout the bid phase of the Games and beyond it was envisioned that all the Paralympic events would be held in Whistler and that would mean a new ice arena for the town. But due to huge increases in the cost to build the facility Whistler council, with VANOC’s endorsement, turned down the opportunity to build the facility.

But for Morley Stall the Games are a milestone event.

“I was in Calgary in 1988 (for the Winter Olympics) and it was one of the reasons I moved here,” he said. “I believe in it very strongly.

“There will be a lot of legacies, things that you don’t realize at this point.

  “In (Calgary) I think we showed the world how it could be done.

“…It shows what we can do as Canadians. We need to have a little pride in who we are and what we are and we will show the world and it will be good, it will be excellent.”

In Vancouver the countdown was marked with the unveiling of a six-metre high sculpture-clock based on the Ilanaaq emblem for the 2010 Games.

The event was interrupted after two protesters stormed the stage and grabbed the microphone. They were quickly removed by security.

The protesters wanted to call attention to the plight of the homeless in Vancouver which they say is being made worse by Olympic-fuelled gentrification and speculation on the downtown eastside.

Some members of the group unveiled their own countdown clock, which claimed that by the 2010 Games 6,000 people would be homeless in Vancouver.

Later police said the rowdy group of protesters carried paint-filled balloons and rocks wrapped in papier mâché as well as eggs.

  Seven protesters were arrested; charges were laid against four.