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Longtime local takes trip down Olympic memory lane

Garry Watson knows exactly what it feels like as the countdown to the Olympic decision creeps closer and closer.

Garry Watson knows exactly what it feels like as the countdown to the Olympic decision creeps closer and closer.

He remembers waiting in the Vancouver Hotel over thirty years ago with bated breath as the International Olympic Committee handed down their decision on who would host the 1976 Olympic Games.

And of course he remembers what it feels like to taste the bitter sting of disappointment when Whistler lost the bid.

That depressing memory isn’t going to keep him away from Village Square on the morning of July 2, however, when the host of the 2010 Olympic Games is announced from Prague.

Then again he has complete confidence in Whistler’s chances this time around.

"I think we really now truly believe in Whistler," he said.

It’s not that he didn’t have faith in the past. But with an insider’s knowledge of former bids, Watson knows how good the bid is for 2010.

"I think it’s a much more realistic belief of success right now because. of course, what is already here in Whistler," he said.

"And, my gosh, this has been incredibly well thought out. The research they’ve done, the kind of people they’ve had involved, the energy they put into it is just enormous."

Watson has been there from day one. He knows more than most how Whistler’s development into a world-class ski resort is intrinsically linked to the Olympic dream.

"The vision of the Olympics … was a great catalyst to proving what could happen in Whistler," said Watson.

The seeds of a plan began to germinate 43 years ago, galvanized by the success of the Squaw Valley Olympics in California in 1960.

A helicopter tour of the Garibaldi area at that time would have shown nothing more than a fishing cabin and a railway line winding along the valley floor.

But a handful of people saw something more. They saw the pristine snow and the huge vertical. Most of all they saw the potential for something grand.

Whistler Mountain, which was on the maps of the day as London Mountain, was earmarked above all others in the area as the best spot to build their dream.

Chief among these visionaries was Sidney Dawes, the founder and first president of the Canadian Olympic Association. He believed this site could measure up to the world’s top athletes competing for the most coveted prize in sport – an Olympic medal.

"Sure it took a fair amount of imagination," grinned Watson who was one those early dreamers involved in the community planning committee of the bid.

"But a lot of people who were involved skied Europe and Eastern Canada and there was quite a core who were very active in the ski community and Olympic athletes from Vancouver. So it caught their imagination."

He added that there was also a healthy dash of that "good old west coast forward thinking" thrown in for good measure.

Though there was no road into the area, the Garibaldi Olympic Development Association got together and decided to gun for the 1968 Olympic Games.

By the next year they were out of the running, having lost out to Banff as Canada’s candidate city for ’68.

The legacy from that bid however lived on. The mountain had been identified and development was already underway.

GODA ploughed on. Out of that Olympic Association, Garibaldi Lifts Limited was formed and by Christmas Day 1965 the lifts opened for the first time on Whistler.

By 1970 they were in the midst of the next big push to host the Games. This time it was the 1976 Winter Games.

At the same time a powerful Montreal lobby was bidding for the summer Olympics in 1976 (the summer and winter games were held at the same time back then) and traditionally the Games were not awarded to the same country in the same year.

Whistler lost.

It was a close decision, recalled Watson thinking back to the Vancouver Hotel.

The legacies of that bid lived on too.

"The bid of ’76...was very, very focused on developing the core of this community," he said.

"The key on that one was the identification of the existing town centre. That was central to the bid. In fact, I’m fond of saying the town centre is really the living legacy resulting from that bid."

They also realized at the time there was potential to develop Blackcomb Mountain.

"(It) really showed that there was a capacity here to grow to a destination resort rather than just being a regional weekend (destination)," said Watson.

There were a few more failed attempts in the meantime both in 1980 and then again in 1988. Then Vancouver-Whistler was back in the spotlight again when shortlisted for 2010.

Looking back, Whistler has come a long way from those early bids.

The major change from the sixties and seventies is in partnering with Vancouver so that there are two major venue areas instead of just one.

"The Olympics were very much smaller in those times," said Watson, thinking back to the ’68 and ‘76 bids where Whistler was the only Host City.

Of course, Whistler has also changed. There’s simply no room here anymore for all the things that the modern day Olympic competition needs.

And a good part of that growth in Whistler can be traced back to Olympic dreams.

From the early days advocates of the Whistler bid realized the interests of the Olympics ran parallel to the interests of community development.

"The focus was very much on ‘well, if we get the Olympics we’d be able to get a sewer system, and rationalize the water systems.’ All of those infrastructure things that were essential for the Olympics obviously were essential for the community," said Watson.

Whistler isn’t the underdeveloped wilderness of yore.

It’s renowned throughout the world as one of the top North American ski resorts. Blackcomb is developed, the town centre is flourishing. There is a solid infrastructure to accommodate guests from around the world.

All the things that could have come with the Olympics in the past, Whistler now has.

This begs the question, ‘does Whistler need the Olympics anymore?’

"Oh yes we do," said Watson emphatically.

He points to a host of legacies from these Games, chief among them an answer to Whistler’s lack of affordable housing.

"Obviously everybody will acknowledge we still have a critical issue of affordable housing in the community and I think the Olympics, this bid, has been very cognizant of that and perhaps presents the only realistic solution."

The highway is also getting an upgrade faster than it would have without the bid which will ultimately save lives as well as help the resort.

The Nordic site will be a huge tourist draw, along with the tremendous media exposure from hosting the games.

"You really have to think in the context of world competition and world tourism so that probably is equally as great if not a greater contribution towards the economic sustainability of Whistler," he said.

There was once an idea to host a games on a mountain with no chair lift. It failed.

But there is no doubt in Watson’s mind where the world will be looking in 2010.

"It’ll be that greater satisfaction, and I guess pride, that we really are on the world stage at that level," said Watson.

"The real fun will be in presenting the Olympics. That’s going to be a marvelous experience for the community."