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Olympic Blog February 19-27, 2006

Pique Newsmagazine editor Bob Barnett is on the ground and on the mountains with news and photos from Torino, Italy.

Friday, February 24

Business as usual

One of the biggest questions Whistler seems to have about the Olympics is how will the Games affect business, and how should businesses prepare for the Games.

It’s one of those trick questions, for which there is no right answer. The best we can do is observe.

In Torino, all the clothing and shoe stores have “sale” signs in the windows right now. This happens every February, apparently, as room has to be made for the spring fashions from nearby Milan.

In the mountains, change keeps pace with the seasons, rather than ahead of them. Now that the alpine speed events are over parts of Sestriere and San Sicario have re-opened to the public for skiing. There obviously hasn’t been a rush of skiers, however, as powder was still visible on some lower slopes three days after the last snowfall.

Bardonecchia is not Whistler. It’s an alpine town with a few centuries of history that now embraces skiing as a part of its local economy. The population swells on weekends when people from Torino come to stay in their condos and go skiing at one of the three ski areas. During the Olympics, Bardonecchia hosted the snowboard events.

At the foot of Bardonecchia’s main shopping street, Via Medail, is Le Vie Del Gusto, a shop specializing in cheeses, cured meats, wine and grappa, all products the Piedmont area is well known for. “Selezione accurate di prodotti engastrononomici de alta qualita,” the sign says. “Free tasting” is the sub-text that draws visitors in.

Riccardo and Felice are the proprietors; Riccardo is the one who commands the shop, physically and authoritatively. In a friendly, offer-you-can’t-refuse kind of way he suggests you taste samples of the various cheeses and then decide what you want to buy.

Giant wheels of cheese are splayed open behind the glass, some with ugly red and grey splotches in the centre — markings of authenticity, showing that these came from the farms of the surrounding mountains, rather than a factory in a city.

Then it’s on to the cured meats, and samples are again offered.

When the evening’s food has been chosen and Riccardo is wrapping the selections in wax paper, customers wander over to look at the wall of Piedmont wines. Riccardo, who looks a little like Cal Schacter, comes up from behind and puts his arms around the customers’ shoulders.

“Mi amici,” he says solemnly, preparing all of us for an important decision, “lo vino.”

Barolo, si, grande vino. Grande conto, too.

Eventually a Barbera d’Alba is selected.

After making sure the ingredients of our meal are placed carefully in a neat paper bag Riccardo stops us just before we leave, opens the bag and drops in some cookies.

How have the Olympics affected Riccardo’s business? It’s a question that requires a better understanding of the Italian language, and probably another month of evaluation. People came to Bardonecchia for six days of snowboard competitions, but the event venue was a bus ride outside of town. The smallest of the three athletes villages is in Bardonecchia, but national teams have not been conspicuous on Via Medail.

Bardonecchia is a town where Le Vie Del Gusto has probably thrived since long before the Games, and will continue to thrive long after the Games.

But Riccardo, like other business owners in Bardonecchia, also seems to have embraced whatever opportunities the 17 days of the Olympics may have brought. There is a sign on his door welcoming people in six languages, and another thanking people for participating in the XX Olympic Winter Games. They are mass-produced signs, seen on other businesses in Bardonecchia, but they have an impact on visitors.

Riccardo probably hasn’t changed how he does business. He is obviously proud of the food and wine produced in Piedmont and loves to help people from around the world enjoy them.

Has he inflated his prices for the Olympics? It’s impossible to know, but the suspicion is he is going about his business as usual, and residents of Bardonecchia wouldn’t let him do otherwise.

Wednesday, February 22

What’s that smell?

On a crisp mountain morning, with the rising sun turning the peaks of the Milky Way gold and the trees laden with new snow, there’s an air of anticipation — accentuated by sports fans from across Europe scurrying to venues to cheer on their athletes.

Dressed in their nations’ colours, some already in good voice thanks to various throat lubricants, it is a hopeful scene replayed each morning of the Olympics.

But there’s another scent that also hangs heavy in the mountain air each morning, the smell of diesel from the battalion of buses that are the supply line of these Games. The diesel exhaust is to Olympic organizers what napalm was to Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now, the smell of victory.

Or if not victory, at least not defeat.

Many predicted transportation, particularly to and from the nine mountain venues, would be the Achilles’ heel (to borrow a Sea to Sky Highway description) of the Torino Olympics. It certainly hasn’t been perfect, but it hasn’t been a disaster either.

There were a couple of buses that collided on the road up to Sauze d’Oulx during Sunday’s snowstorm. And during the first week there were a few busloads of people traveling from Torino to the mountains who missed events because drivers got lost. But for the most part the bus system has worked.

A total of 1,100 buses were hired for the Olympics, along with 250 vans. It’s difficult to find any two buses painted in the same colours, so it appears they have come from all over Italy, and perhaps all over Europe.

And so have the drivers, which explains some of the confusion the first week.

There are bus drivers who know the roads and villages in these mountains, and there are bus drivers from Montenegro here to make a few bucks during the 17 days of the Games. There are drivers who follow their own paths, oblivious to the designated routes and stops, and drivers who can bring one of the monster buses around a 180-degree corner on the side of a mountain with one hand on the wheel and the other holding a cell phone to their ear.

The transportation system for the Torino Olympics is probably more complicated than it will be for the Vancouver Games, because of the number of mountain venues. But the scope and intricacies of any Olympic transportation system don’t really become apparent until you look at it in detail.

To start with, there are three types of buses: for spectators, for volunteers and for the media/Olympic family. In theory there is a sort of pre-Rosa Parks hierarchy, where spectators aren’t allowed on media or worker buses and members of the media aren’t allowed on worker buses, however workers can get on just about any bus they want. But when an event finishes and there are thousands of people trying to get somewhere the rules fall by the wayside and just about any bus you can squeeze into will do.

And for each of the bus lines there is a corresponding entrance at each event venue. Nine mountain venues, multiplied by three entrances each, multiplied by buses coming from at least two directions, equals confusion or a long walk if your bus drops you at the wrong entrance, even though you may be at the right venue.

You need to get on the right bus.

This detail is critical because the footprint for each venue is far bigger than one would assume. Each venue includes a grandstand capable of holding 5,000-8,000 spectators; all manner of tents to serve those spectators, the media, officials and workers; three entrance points with security; and room for dozens of buses to load and unload all those people.

For 2010, VANOC is currently planning on utilizing 900 buses a day to move people to and from Whistler and the Lower Mainland. The bus system will not be augmented by trains, as the Torino system is.

Once people are in Whistler, however, they will still have to get around by bus.

Whistler has three primary venues — the bobsled track at Base II, the alpine ski finish at the Timing Flats above Creekside and the Nordic events in the Callaghan valley — but in practice may have as many as six. The Nordic events require three complete venues: one for cross-country skiing, one for biathlon and one for ski jumping. If bad weather messes up the schedule for the alpine ski races men’s and women’s events could be held on the same day, effectively doubling the traffic to the Timing Flats.

And unless those 900 buses are converted to hydrogen fuel cells, the smell of diesel will become familiar in Whistler in 2010.

Size and scale

The buses are just one example of the scale of the Winter Olympics and the level of co-ordination that goes into them. Making sure those buses continue to run in the middle of winter requires an army of mechanics and service people.

Construction of the venues is another example of mass co-ordination.

As mentioned, each of the nine mountain venues has grandstand seating for 5,000-8,000 spectators. Scaffolding and staircases for the venues has come from companies in Ireland, Germany and elsewhere in Europe.

The Sestriere grandstands are particularly impressive, as the contract to build them had to be re-tendered just a month before the Games began. They were constructed at 2,000 metres in the middle of January.

Games numbers

Officials anticipate 1 million spectators at the events over the 17 days of the Winter Olympics, although that doesn’t mean 1 million individual people.

There are also 10,000 members of the media; 6,000 guests of sponsors; 2,600 athletes; 2,500 coaches and team officials; 2,300 representatives of the IOC, national Olympic committees and federations; and 650 judges and referees.

Monday, February 20

Blizzard of opportunity

One of the lessons Whistler businesses may take from the XX Games is that a problem for organizers may be an opportunity for them.

A case in point was Sunday’s women’s super G. More than 5,000 spectators and a few hundred journalists were packed into the finish area at San Sicario Fraiteve watching the snow come down and waiting for what seemed an inevitability: the canceling of the race and re-scheduling it to Monday.

When the word finally came down at noon, all those spectators and reporters were free to escape the secured confines of the finish area and the limited food and drink opportunities supplied by the official Olympic sponsors. And the restaurants and bars in San Sicario did well.

Unfortunately some of the retailers missed an opportunity. Many retailers close in the early afternoon while they go and have lunch themselves.

Yabadabadoo

Acceptance of curling as an Olympic sport still has a way to go, at least in Italy.

Since most of the country never sees snow and ice the whole Winter Olympics were kind of off the radar for a lot of Italians. And while it doesn’t take long for people to understand the timed events, like speed skating, alpine and cross-country skiing, it’s a little more difficult to grasp some of the other sports. Curling would be one of those sports.

Apparently told that curling involves throwing rocks, the Italian television network RAI introduced the sport with the theme song from the Flintstones.

Friends in any language

While chugging along, head down, trying to make another bus connection the other day your reporter heard a familiar call.

“Bob?”

“Yeah?” I looked up to see an Italian volunteer I didn’t recognize.

“Freestyle?” he asked.

“Umm…”

“Super G?”

Maybe Roberto would be simpler, I don’t think there are any events with that name.

Sunday, February 19

Safe and secure, so far

Despite the fact that Danish and American flags hang on the balconies outside Pique Newsmagazine’s European bureau in Bardonecchia, there has to date been no fear or hint that the bad guys in the global war on terrorism are anywhere nearby.

Indeed, the only connection between the Olympics and terrorism seen so far in these mountain towns is Steven Spielberg’s Munich, which is playing in several theatres.

Of course the large police presence, the check points for private vehicles on mountain roads and the ubiquitous mag & bag stations at every venue and athletes village may be enough to dampen the enthusiasm of any would-be terrorist.

Or it may be that the outdoor sports of the Winter Olympics are just not of much interest to people other than those who know the sports and the athletes. How much of a political statement would be made by attacking a bunch of cross-country skiers in the woods or a pair of men stacked on top of each other and lying on a sled rocketing down a luge track? And just what is that AWACS plane that is apparently flying overhead looking for, a missile aimed at Bode Miller?

An uneducated guess would be that German authorities will have far more stringent and complicated security matters to deal with when that country hosts the World Cup of soccer this summer.

Perhaps that is the beauty of having all the outdoor sports spread out over nine venues and five mountain towns: there is no one focal point for terrorists. However, there is also no focal point for spectators or people just interested in being part of the Olympics.

As for the police presence, there are a few carabiniari at the train stations and walking the streets but they are armed with no more than a pistol; nothing to make you think the global war on terrorism has escalated.

It’s at the venues themselves that security is tightest, although “tight” seems to be one of those words whose meaning is subject to various regional interpretations in Italy. At one athletes village a Whistlerite managed to wangle his way in despite having no accreditation. At another, a Whistlerite was told he couldn’t even photograph the buildings.

Speaking of athletes villages

If memory serves, one of the reasons the Cheakamus location was chosen for the Whistler athletes village was it was going to be easier to provide security to an isolated compound than it would be to an area like Rainbow, which is right next to Alpine Meadows.

But Vancouver’s athletes village will be in an area that is almost downtown, and the athletes villages in Sestriere and Bardonecchia are right in the hearts of those towns. Mind you, the athletes villages are surrounded by fencing, but it’s nothing more than would protect an inner-city school.

The fencing is also wrapped in Torino 2006 banners and the athletes hang their nation’s flags outside their rooms, so it’s not as though the villages are disguised and no one knows where they are.

And one of the virtues of having the athletes village in the heart of a town, from an athlete’s perspective, is that it’s an easy walk to the bars, clubs and restaurants.

The return of the log person

One of the best characters in David Lynch’s weirdo TV series Twin Peaks was the Log Lady. Her male counterpart is apparently Swiss.

The men’s alpine ski races are some of the signature events of the Winter Olympics, particularly for the nearby countries that share the Alps: Austria, Germany, Switzerland and France. For Saturday’s super G many fans came dressed in the colours and costume of their nation or alpine region. The Germans were decked out in red, yellow and black and furry animal headgear. The Italians sang O Solo Mio while they waited for the race to start. The Norwegians sported Viking helmets with horns.

And one Swiss fellow brought his log.

With a thick beard, an alpine felt hat and a Swiss flag he already looked like a mountain man, but on his back he had a small canvas pack — with a log strapped to the top of it. The hinges on the log suggested the inner contents may have been schnapps rather than wood.