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Piece by Piece

Ten years later, two years out, the 2010 Olympic Games are coming together
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Kristjan and Nikolas Rohde pose with Olympic mascots Quatchi, Miga and Sumi at the two-year countdown in Whistler on Feb. 12.

Contents

The 40-year countdown

Local sets sights on site he helped to build

The weather wild card

Janyk family on a mission

Village security — to flow or not to flow?

Under surveillance

Olympic gifts of medical proportions

Where arts and culture shine

Games impact on Whistler’s Sea to Sky neighbours

A destination for athletes

The 40-year countdown

By Clare Ogilvie

It’s been ten years since Whistler decided that the third time would be the charm and it would once again enter the competition to host an Olympics.

Despite passion and support, neither its 1968 nor 1976 bids to host the Winter Games were successful.

But in July 2003 Whistler’s enduring dream came true when it heard the International Olympic Committee announce that Vancouver and Whistler had been chosen to host the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Those were some of the sweetest words long time resident and passionate Olympic supporter Garry Watson has ever heard.

“My view has always been that the Olympic bid was the catalyst in the original concept that created Whistler and in my view we owed it, we had an obligation to the community, the province, and the country to put on the Games,” said Watson who helped in the original bid in the ‘60s and is considered a founder of the resort.

“I have always said that the village itself was the legacy of the 1976 bid, which created the concept of the village, and the province bought into it and incorporated the municipality in 1975. So I feel that the community owed a lot to the concept of the Olympics.”

But for Whistler just wanting to host the Games was not enough. This time around the town would only commit if Games organizers agreed to certain conditions laid out by the municipality. Those discussions led to the formation of thirteen Guiding Principles, which have governed the resort’s partnership with the Games since the beginning. For example, sustainability practices became a cornerstone of the plan.

“After we won the national nomination (in Dec 1998) that is when the community came back and said ‘Who said we wanted the Olympic Games?’” recalled Hugh O’Reilly who was mayor of the resort when the 2010 Games was first proposed.

“That (concern was) where the whole concept of the Guiding Principles came from. We said ‘You are right, but here is a great opportunity. But we don’t know what it means…’

“So creating that document became critical…to managing that opportunity.”

O’Reilly, reached at his Hawaii home, believes Whistler’s 2010 bid was unique because the previous bids had helped guide development into a resort town designed for hosting the world.

“Most people bid for the Games because they want to help themselves develop and mature,” said O’Reilly.

“But Whistler did it the other way around. By losing the first two times we actually planned the right resort and then we said hosting Games and hosting events is what we do — this is that pinnacle of success. So we were able to do it as a mature resort with the Games fitting into a great resort community, and hopefully it will deliver some great benefits as well.”

O’Reilly and wife Patti plan on being here for the Games.

“Patti is planning on registering online to volunteer,” he said.

“She has got some accommodation lined up and I’m planning to attend events in Vancouver and Whistler. We haven’t figured it all out yet though, just like everybody else.”

Volunteering is on Watson’s mind as well. A planner and lawyer by trade, now retired, he was the first person to sign the Volunteer Book for the Games in Whistler during the bid phase and he plans to volunteer in 2010 as well.

“I’m sure I can find something to do,” said Watson who built his first cabin in the resort 45 years ago.

The Vancouver 2010 Organizing Committee for the 2010 Games (VANOC) launched its volunteer drive Feb. 12 to correspond with the two-year countdown to the Games.

For Watson, a VANOC Whistler ambassador, the Games are a chance for the town and the community to shine and be proud of what he and so many others have worked for so long to achieve.

“There is a sense now of commitment and excitement starting to build as people realize what is going to happen,” he said.

“It’s given people a recognition of the worth of what they have got and they are proud to show it to others.

“I think one of the greatest legacies will be people’s own experience. It is a once in a lifetime experience for everybody.”

Mayor Ken Melamed wants that experience to be a positive one. That means making sure that visitor expectations and those of the all the people working to make the Games a success are met.

The pieces of the puzzle to make that happen are coming together but Melamed is still concerned the accommodation fragment is not in place.

“I am not happy about the fact that we haven’t resolved the accommodation issue,” he said.

“From the stories we are hearing the challenge seems to be increasing. The amount of people that are considering turning their employees out for the period of the Games or perhaps the whole winter is troubling.

“There is a lot of uncertainty out there and we wonder what the reality will be.”

At the root of the problem are Whistler homeowners who are being offered tens of thousands of dollars in rent for their homes at Games time. If they take the deal and leave town it also means they can’t work or volunteer in February 2010.

Many of the homes include suites and renting those out for a cash grab compounds the problem.

Without enough employees in the resort the guest experience may suffer and, like a domino effect, this may impact whether visitors see Whistler as a gracious host town offering a fabulous Games experience, which would in turn lead them to come back in the years following the Games.

“It still remains as bit of an elusive hope because it is going to depend on how it gets delivered in the end,” said Melamed.

“But certainly the payback will be the most significant if we can leave that positive impression with people and make us proud Canadians as well as the lucky host mountain resort.”

Perhaps the best way to describe Whistler at this milestone is cautiously confident.

“People ask me: what do you worry about?” mused Melamed.

“Do you worry about the weather? Do you worry about this or that, and I say, ‘No, I don’t worry about that. I worry about the things that we don’t know are going to happen.’

“There is likely to be something like that, but the rest of the stuff is all going to work out. I am incredibly optimistic about how well it is going to go.”

One of the chief concerns for the community has been transportation, but Melamed believes the plan is well in hand and will work smoothly for the resort.

“The transportation stuff I am not concerned about,” he said.

VANOC’s transportation plan will be released this fall said Irene Kerr, vice president of transportation for the organizing committee.

It will include a fleet of 1,500 buses carrying people to and from all Games venues. The idea is to make some of the transportation available to Sea to Sky locals for any trips they may have to make to Vancouver, as well to cut down on cars on the Sea to Sky Highway — itself past the halfway mark for its $600 million upgrade.

“We are planning, with our partner B.C. Transit, a very efficient bus system to ensure that people do have transportation,” said Kerr, adding that discussions are still going on with Whistler about where all the buses will be parked while not in use.

“We understand that people have to be able to move around and we will be able to provide that service for them.”

There is no doubt excitement is building in the resort as the two-year mark is celebrated.

The Cultural Olympiad, which is packing the town with great entertainment and art, is igniting enthusiasm for the Live Sites Program, which will keep the town rocking 24 hours a day during the Games.

And the resort municipality is investigating helping other countries build displays in a Neighbourhood of Nations where visitors can experience the culture of other competing countries.

Said Melamed: “It has been 10 years since we started the process and there has been a lot of talk, a lot of discussion, a lot of scrutiny, and a lot of careful planning.

“I have to say that there is a tremendous amount to be proud of about our participation and our role to date and where we have come.

“In general … we have seen delivery beyond some of the expectations and so it gives great confidence going forward for the next two years in our ability to deliver on the rest of the promises.”

Local sets sights on site he helped build

Steve Delane commutes to Calgary every weekend for skeleton

By Alison Taylor

Local construction worker Steve Delane never imagined he could be a skeleton athlete, bombing down the ice at close to 120-kilometres per hour.

Even as he watched firsthand as a mountainside slope in Whistler was transformed into a concrete roller coaster, rumoured in certain circles to be the fastest and steepest sliding track in the world, Delane never dreamed he could be racing down that track to gold one day.

But it’s funny how dreams can change in an instant.

For Delane, who helped build some of the auxiliary structures at the $105 million Whistler Sliding Centre, it all began with a harmless newspaper ad calling for skeleton tryouts at Simon Fraser University. The decision to go and see what that was all about has changed his life in a few short months.

“My goal is to totally make the Olympics,” said the 30-year-old Delane. And he can’t wait for the day that he can try out the track that he had a hand in creating.

At those Simon Fraser tryouts coaches tested his fitness and sprinting abilities and the avid mountain biker passed the mark. The next stop was skeleton school in Calgary this past October.

His initial class of 20 has now been reduced to three, including Delane. All have made the commitment to pursue their dream, despite the financial burden of travelling to Calgary every weekend, and despite the seemingly long road to the finish line.

Admittedly, it’s been a crazy ride from those first days at skeleton school.

He remembers his first slide at Calgary Olympic Park (COP).

Before he knew it, he was lying on a sled as coaches held his ankles and prepared to let him go.

“It’s one of the scariest things I’ve ever done,” he recalled.

“You have to hang on for 60 seconds.”

And then he was hurtling down the track and hanging on for dear life. Corner 9, however, came up very suddenly and he went in a little sideways.

It was a crash that this mountain bike/snowboardcross competitor will always remember as he bounced from the roof to the bottom wall and back again.

“It shook me up a little bit,” he said a little ruefully.

He got back on the sled that same day, crossed the finish line, and hasn’t looked back since. Every day since he’s gotten better and better.

He’s also become used to black and blue arms and the bruised and tender hipbones.

“It’s awesome,” he said of his newfound passion. “It’s quite the rush.”

Every weekend he’s seeing improvement as his top time at the COP track climbed to 59 seconds. But this is a sport measured in milliseconds where every body movement, every turn, every sprint to the sled, can make or break your time.

Delane believes “anything is possible.”

He hopes to get on a development team or break a track record or stand out in some way that will show coaches at the Alberta Skeleton Association that he’s serious in his goal for the Olympics. It may not happen in 2010 but it may be around the corner in 2014 at Sochi, Russia.

Keep in mind, said Delane, Canadian Duff Gibson brought home the gold in skeleton at the 2006 Torino Games when he was 36 years old.

And as for that Whistler track, fast becoming fabled for its speed and steepness in the sliding world, Delane can’t wait to get on it.

Fitting too, he said, to have a track like that in Whistler.

“I think it’s awesome for Whistler,” he said.

“Everything in Whistler is steeper and faster.”

In the meantime as he pays his way every weekend to Calgary and back, Delane is organizing a fundraiser at Merlin’s on Saturday, Mar. 8 where money raised will go towards buying a new sled.

Skeleton sleds start at $6,000.

There will be a silent auction, live auction, door prizes and a raffle.

To learn more about the Whistler Sliding Centre and how to be a part of it, as a volunteer, official or a competitor, go to www.bcsliding.com .

Stayed tuned to the Pique for more information on Delane’s fundraiser closer to the date. An account at the Whistler branch of the Royal Bank of Canada has been set up in Delane’s name for help getting his sled. The account number is: 5260591.

The weather wild card

By Clare Ogilvie

You can control almost everything in the quest to host the best Olympics ever.

But the one thing you can’t control — the weather — has the potential to wreak havoc on the best-laid plans.

That became crystal clear as 2010 Olympic organizers began to look at the lessons learned from studying the weather in the 2007 Games period from Feb. 12 to 28.

During the mock Games weather study, the men’s Olympic super G was postponed not once but three times.

Added to that, athletes couldn’t get the practice runs they needed, other outdoor events had to be rescheduled, spectators got soaked to the bone at least once, and snow fell faster than it could be removed.

“We had a pretty tough winter last winter in terms of the ability to get those races off,” said Tim Gayda, vice president of sport for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Games (VANOC).

“More or less this has just raised a whole bunch of questions that we will have to address.”

Among the lessons are how to look after spectators at the venues if the weather is cold and wet. In 2007 spectators would have ended up at some venues for up to six hours due to event delays. That means organizers need to look at the provision of different services like food, shelter and entertaining the audience. Of course, extending the day for a spectator means added cost as well.

And in one case 40 centimetres of snow fell in a 24-hour period, putting temporary infrastructures to the test under the incredible weight of snow.

“It might mean that we might provide a different level of service at one venue than another because of the weather,” said Gayda.

The lessons from last year’s mock Olympics are already finding their way into the operations plan and this year will be no different. As the two-year countdown begins, Olympic planners are studying what impact the weather would have if the Games were being held now.

After all, every spectator, worker, athlete and official will wake up each morning and wonder what the weather will be like that day and what impact it will have.

“In sport we know weather…is a challenge in the outdoors and it always will be, and that is the fun of running events outdoors,” said Gayda.

“What we want to do is start highlighting what the impact would be if we did have to move off (an event) to another day.

“Logistically, that is an amazing feat with transportation and ticketing. The contingency planning for that has to be robust.”

That includes all the snow clearing at the venues. With significant snowfall almost every day this season, VANOC’s snow cats have been challenged to keep the alpine and Nordic runs in competition shape.

“Snow clearing is the one (area) where (VANOC’s snow removal department) has had their eyes opened wide this season,” said Gayda.

Earlier this month VANOC’s snow cats were working on the Pontiac GMC Canadian Championships and they will be out in force for the World Cup event in Whistler starting Feb.18.

But anything can happen when it comes to weather. On average Whistler-Blackcomb gets 10 metres of snow a season. Last year several snowfall events were so intense the highway closed for hours as highway crews tried to keep up plowing and traffic accidents.

Since the mountains opened on Nov.17 this year it has snowed on over 60 days and, like last year, the Sea to Sky Highway has seen several closures.

But in 2005 it rained to the top.

The Calgary Winter Olympic Games in 1988 suffered from warm Chinook winds and the Nagano ’98 Winter Games events were interrupted by an earthquake, too much snow, and too much rain at different points in the schedule — events were delayed but the Games were successful by all accounts.

“…If you delay events or postpone them to the next day it has massive implications,” said Gayda, adding that athletes, officials, the media, and the worldwide audience (which is expected to be about three billion) feel the impacts.

That is why getting an accurate weather forecast is so important. For that reason VANOC has partnered with Environment Canada and close to $12 million will be spent by Olympic organizers and the federal government to make sure Olympic forecasts are as accurate as possible. VANOC’s $2.6 million share will come out of the organization’s operating budget.

It’s hoped a new Doppler radar system will be in place in the corridor this year. A vertical wind profiler has already been installed at the Squamish airport. There are also new weather information collection stations on Whistler Mountain, in the Callaghan Valley at Whistler Olympic Park, at the Whistler Sliding Centre on Blackcomb Mountain, at Cypress Mountain, and in various places in southwestern coastal B.C. to help forecasters more reliably predict the weather.

The new Doppler system would allow a team of Olympic-trained forecasters to see up the valley, making predictions more accurate and timely. Officials are looking for weather reports every fifteen minutes at Games time — that’s a lot different than now when weather is usually updated every six hours or so.

In all, there are up to 30 members on the weather team drawn from across Canada. All are receiving training on the unique weather patterns that can be found from the Lower Mainland to Whistler, thanks to a course developed in conjunction with a program from the National Centre of Atmospheric Research in the U.S. Forecasters will take the training every year until the Games.

The forecasters have been rotating in and out of Whistler for the last two seasons and are here again now to get first-hand knowledge of corridor weather patterns.

Getting familiar with the local weather patterns and getting into venues early were lessons taken from both Torino, host of the 2006 Winter Games, and the 2002 Winter Games at Salt Lake City, said Al Wallace, director, Weather Services 2010 Olympics, Environment Canada, Pacific and Yukon Region.

“The experience factor is incredibly important that is why VANOC learned from both Torino and Salt Lake that it is better to prepare early than wait to the last minute,” said Wallace.

“What we are learning is that there is a great amount of variability over short distances and time frames and the elevations have a great impact.

“The weather at the Callaghan Valley is not the same as the weather on Whistler (Mountain) and people need to experience that sometimes to believe it.

“We will have to fine-tune it during the practice events to be able to distinguish between what might be a major snowfall event in the Callaghan Valley but one that doesn’t happen in Whistler, or vice versa.”

In Torino, Wallace also observed how imperceptible wind changes could alter the course of one event — ski jumping. When the wind changed direction the judges started the whole competition again so it was fair to everyone.

The ski jump at the Callaghan Valley is susceptible to the same wind patterns where the direction can change from downhill to uphill. There are wind-measuring instruments at the top, in the middle, and at the bottom so forecasters can give officials just such information said Wallace.

Forecasters have also been learning to work with event officials to better understand what they need during an event.

“They will use our forecast products (as part of their) planning process,” said Wallace.

“It will be in an almost real-time time frame — is it snowing heavily at this moment? Is there going to be a break? Is there a chance we can get the event done? Will the conditions remain consistent through the event? They have to consider all of these so it is fair and equitable for all the competitors.”

Large weather patterns such as La Nina and El Nino will be considered said Wallace, but the focus is really on small scale accurate forecasting.

All the information is already feeding into the forecasting system through the Pacific Storm Prediction Centre.

“We are anticipating a huge legacy in terms of increased knowledge of Pacific weather systems, how alpine weather systems interact with the mountains… and how systems change and evolve,” said Wallace.

There is no doubt the information will be crucial for competition planning, transportation and safety.

“We (took) their expertise into account even when we designed our schedule about what time of day is best to be jumping in the Callaghan,” said Gayda.

“The information is so valuable.

“Our number one risk has always been the alpine (events)… In any Olympic Games it is always the one you are pretty much guaranteed to have a postponement of.

“So there is risk and reward with weather. Is weather your friend or your enemy? With the weather we get, there is always a risk, but it is something we are always planning for. It is just the fun of putting on the Games.”

Janyk family on a mission

By Clare Ogilvie

It’s a dream that has spanned three generations.

And in 2010 Andrée Janyk hopes that the dream will come true when her two children, Britt and Michael, compete on Whistler Mountain in the Olympic Alpine ski events.

“It is unimaginable,” she said, pausing while undoing her ski boot buckle. Her kids may be racing in Europe but Janyk is still volunteering on Whistler Mountain with the Weasel Workers, this time to help get the Pontiac GMC Canadian Championship races off and running.

“I didn’t realize how surreal it was until this year when Britt came home and she and Michael were standing in the room and I looked at them and I all of a sudden saw them differently, and then all of a sudden they were just my kids in my heart, they were just my babies.

“The potential for my children to be on this hill, and that that was a dream of my father’s, brings the most amazing feelings. It gives me goose-bumps.”

Janyk’s father Peter Vajda was a civil engineer by training and a passionate skier, ski coach, and mountain guide who was part of the original bid to bring the Games to Whistler in 1968. He pushed for the Games again in 1976.

The Hungarian immigrant missed going to the Olympics himself as a coach when the Second World War broke out and the event was cancelled. Janyk had that same passion and made it to the national level as a young skier.

Now her kids, 27-year-old Britt and Michael, 25, race on the World Cup circuit. Both have faced challenges in their careers — Michael, who broke the same leg twice when he was 13, is currently dealing with a sore back that has left him on the sidelines for most of this season, and two seasons ago Britt had to pay her own way to compete and earn her status back on the World Cup circuit. She came back in a big way with four fourth places finishes in her first year with the women’s speed team, and won a World Cup title in Aspen in December.

Michael’s sore back will keep him off Whistler for the World Cup on Feb.19-24, but Britt will be racing at home.

“I am excited to get home and excited to have the whole World Cup circuit come to Whistler to see the hill,” said Janyk, who free-skied the upgraded Olympic runs during her Christmas break.

Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains are the Janyk’s home turf. The whole family moved from West Vancouver to Whistler in 1995 so that the kids could pursue their skiing. That meant dad Bill, an accountant, had to change jobs, as did Andrée, an instructor at Capilano College.

Andrée, a dynamo then and now, got involved with the Whistler Mountain Ski Club and never looked back.

But it wasn’t easy as competitive sports aren’t cheap.

“I only had one pair of skis each for them at the beginning,” said Janyk.

“They knew they only had one pair, not two pairs, none of that stuff, and they had the same helmets on from when they were five and six years old. Christmas presents were skiing; it was the club and all those things. It was a marked decision that this was a family thing.”

That was true for little sister Stephanie, who has chosen to study fashion design in New York.

“We blindly kept following this path and of course it got more and more expensive. And yet how could we take something away that we saw they felt so passionately about in their hearts,” said Janyk.

The family skied together throughout Britt and Michael’s childhoods — they were even allowed to skip school to ski as long as they got A’s.

“We started off missing Fridays from school and skiing three days, then that lead into Thursday,” said Michael.

“I just have memories of ripping around the whole mountain with my mom and my sisters and my dad.

“I remember chasing Britt trying to catch her. We used to do these races on the cat track for a hot chocolate at the end. I don’t think I ever beat my sister.”

The two are incredibly close, phoning each other while competing and coming out to watch each other whenever their schedules allow. Mom and Dad do the same thing, too.

As for the success of the Janyk dynamic duo Andrée puts it down to commitment, drive, passion and an incredibly supportive environment. The years of gymnastics, soccer, baseball, and tennis likely didn’t hurt either.

But in the end, said Andrée, “If you focus on the end result you will never be rewarded.”

You have to focus on each small step taken.

“It is all the little things you need to do to be successful. So for tennis it was stroke for stroke, ball for ball, and in skiing it is gate for gate, turn for turn.”

That’s a lesson that reaches back through the Janyk history. Whether it was Andrée’s father taking her with him to Europe as a teenager to buy the first lifts for Grouse Mountain, where she saw great success as a racer, the year over year push to bring the Games to Whistler, or the life-long coaching of Britt and Michael.

“Every step counts in some way,” said Andrée.

“I saw that with my father. I think he knew in his heart that he had done something for Canadian skiing, but he had also done something amazing for his family by bringing his Olympic dream from him all the way to his grandchildren.

“When we did win the bid finally (in 2003) my dad was 92 years old. It was his biggest dream and by then he knew too that Michael and Britt were on the ski team and he smiled at me and said, ‘Your kids will do well. They will do well. My grandchildren will be there.’ He died six months later.

“I’ll be thinking of him in 2010.”

Village Security — to flow or not to flow?

2010 security officials maintain there will be “minimal disruption” for residents

By Alison Taylor

Anyone looking to make a statement or cause trouble during the 2010 Games will have their sights set on Whistler.

“…(For) A person or persons or a group (who) want to disrupt the Games or harm individuals for whatever reason, it would probably be really obvious that the one place they’d want to anchor down is in Whistler,” said Sergeant Pierre Lemaitre, spokesman for the organization handling security for the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit (ISU).

“There’s only one Whistler.

“The mere fact that Whistler is the jewel… it’s certainly of special interest to us and it’s also going to be of special interest to the world during the Olympics. In our wide scope of security planning we’re not going to overlook anything.”

The ISU is considering making the entire village an Olympic venue, and as such providing heightened security measures in town during the Games.

Classifying the village as a venue, however, could change the free-flow of movement in and out of the area significantly.

Official Olympic venues are highly secured areas with checkpoints, guarded perimeters, video monitoring and “mag and bag” entryways, similar to the magnetic devices at any airport.

“Am I going to have free flow into the village? I want to go do my grocery shopping… will I have free access to that? I can’t answer that specifically,” said Inspector Norm McPhail of the Sea to Sky Regional Police Service. “It won’t be status quo like Whistler in summertime and it might not be Whistler status quo when we don’t have a peak event, but if you put in when we have a major event that gives us an idea of what it will be like.”

Already, the village will be home to two official 2010 venues: the Telus Whistler Conference Centre, which will host the world’s media, and Lot 1/9, the soon-to-be-developed Celebration Plaza, which will see the nightly medal ceremonies and celebrations. The rest of the village, however, is set to transform into a massive “live site” space where residents, athletes and international guests can celebrate the spirit of the Games. “Live sites”, like the ones proposed in Vancouver, are not usually secured like official venues.

Lemaitre said the ISU has yet to make a decision about the village as a whole.

“That’s still in the planning stages,” he said. “I think it’s a little early to tell. We’re two years away. If anything does take place there will be a lot of consultation before anything gets put into place.”

And while there is a possibility that ordinary citizens will have to pass through security checks en route to buy groceries, or go to the pharmacy during 2010, the ISU maintains that its goal is to provide “minimal disruption” to Whistler residents in February 2010. And they will be kept up to date as decisions are made in the meantime.

“By involving people in the whole bigger picture it’s a lot easier to make the changes,” said Lemaitre.

There is a marked difference, however, between official venues and the rest of the town.

Municipal employee Kevin McFarland saw that distinction first hand working for Torino’s organizing committee for five and a half weeks in the lead up to the 2006 Winter Games.

Weeks before the Games began in Torino, McFarland was helping put the finishing touches on the athletes’ village.

In particular, he recalls a lone military jeep patrolling the area roughly one month shy of the Games.

In just a few short days, however, a so-called “soft perimeter” of concrete blocks and a chain link fence had been installed, followed by the “hard perimeter” with more substantial fencing.

Specified entry points were established where vehicles and pedestrians could be screened.

“In that short span of time that I was there, there was this remarkable progression from that one lonely little military jeep to just a whole bunch of different polices,” said McFarland. “They (had) multiple police forces there and they all needed to be involved and they all (wore) different uniforms.”

The counter-balance to the large police presence at the village was the plethora of volunteers eagerly welcoming people to the village, he added.

Even outside the official venue, while there were no official security checks to pass through, the police presence in Torino couldn’t be missed.

McFarland recalls seeing a policewoman loading bullets into a machine gun on a city street by the edge of her car.

“In Europe (with) the security people, both the police and security guards… it’s not uncommon to see machine guns,” said McFarland.

Despite the heavy gun presence, which suggested potential threats, he felt safe.

RCMP will be trying to instill that same sense of safety in 2010, without the overpowering presence of guns.

Security will be different from Torino, and different again from the Salt Lake City Games in 2002, held just months after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

“We do have a world reputation (of being) a peaceful, beautiful country,” said Lemaitre. “The ISU has been adamant that the residents of British Columbia, the residents of Whistler, the athletes, international visitors, will not come to these Games and see a police state. That’s part of our Canadian fabric.”

Also part of that Canadian fabric, however, is the democratic right to protest.

“We also have to be prepared for: are there going to be peaceful rights to protest and will there be protest elements?” said McPhail. “And if there is, where will we stage that and how will we allow them to carry on their protest as long as it’s peaceful? So we have to have proper police security in place for that.”

He said Whistler has a distinct advantage to other communities because it’s in the event business and has prepared for these things in the past. And while the Olympics are a far cry from a World Cup or a World Ski and Snowboard Festival, local police are well versed on managing crowds and threats at major events.

“The unique stuff for us, I call it the leg up, is that we do events for a living, so that helps us,” said McPhail.

He also recognizes that the boundaries between official venue and public village space are a little blurry when it comes to Whistler.

“From a policing perspective, we look at the whole package,” he said.

“If there’s an incident… in Whistler over the Olympic Games it’s an Olympic issue. It doesn’t matter whether it’s in a venue or not. If it happens in Whistler, it’s an Olympic issue.”

In fact, said McPhail, the Olympic looking glass is already firmly on Whistler, even now.

The ISU has established a community relations group to ensure Whistler residents have an opportunity for consultation before the police implement any major measures.

“That’s the key thing for residents of Whistler,” said Lemaitre. “Our community relation group has an open door policy and they want to make sure that the residents enjoy the Games as much as the visitors will.”

Under Surveillance

Village security cameras considered for 2010

By Alison Taylor

Police and security officials may be monitoring public spaces in Whistler with closed circuit TV cameras (CCTV) during the 2010 Games, but the technology won’t be sticking around the resort long-term.

“We did meet with council and the possibility of maintaining those after the Games to see if there’s an appetite for it and there really isn’t,” said local RMCP Sergeant Steve Leclair.

Neither the local RCMP, nor the spokesperson for the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit (ISU) could confirm that cameras will be installed de facto to monitor village streets, but they will be a part of every official Olympic venue.

“When it comes to that type of technology or other equipment that we would use to ensure the safety of individuals, I’m sorry to say that we can’t really talk about that because in doing so we would be giving advantage to a person or any group that would want to disrupt the Games and harm either athletes, Canadians or international visitors,” said Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre with the ISU. “So we won’t be getting in to any details of what type of security set-ups we will have there.”

These types of cameras are perhaps best known in Britain where some four million cameras watch the country and privacy advocates complain that a person there is recorded as many as 300 times a day.

Leclair, who researched the pros and cons of installing CCTV cameras long-term in Whistler, said there are legitimate concerns with having public spaces monitored around the clock.

“A lot of people don’t want their privacy invaded,” he said. “They don’t want their images captured all the time when they’re going about their business. And so you balance that with the effectiveness of it as a crime deterrent. And it is a valuable crime deterrent and crime-solving tool.”

Whistler already has several private CCTV cameras installed in bars and other village establishments, which capture portions of public space.

The police have used those cameras to aid in investigations in the past.

But, based on the type of crime in the resort and the frequency, local police don’t believe CCTV cameras are crucial in the long term. There could be other technology that could be more beneficial.

“We don’t have random purse snatchings,” said McPhail.

“Is it necessary (to install CCTV cameras) based on the crime pressures we have? I would say no. We can capture that information through other means.”

One of the things local police are looking at right now is a video technology that ties to a radio system that police officers would carry with them while patrolling the village.

“That may be something that would probably be a more preventative, proactive way of doing things, as opposed to just generally monitoring (through cameras) and all the issues that go with that,” added McPhail.

“We don’t want to play Big Brother but by the same token, maybe there’s other ways we can bring the technology in through our patrols.”

Olympic gifts of medical proportions

Whistler first in line to receive several key healthcare items post Games

By Claire Piech

The Olympics could provide a real boost to Whistler’s health care delivery, thanks to some of the legacies left in town after the Games. The list includes better-trained doctors, world-class medical clinics, and a variety of cutting-edge diagnostic and monitoring equipment.

“Every time we make a move, certainly in medicine, we are thinking about what we can leave when we get this equipment, if we get a donation,” said Dr. Jack Taunton, chief medical officer for the 2010 Games.

One of those medical legacies could even be a piece of medical imaging equipment, such as a computed tomography (CT) scanner or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner, although Taunton was not able to be specific.

“We still have earmarked a piece of equipment to go to Whistler, if at the end of 2010 Whistler needs further imaging,” said Taunton.

“Early on, we were definitely going to leave (Whistler) with an MRI. That meant that Vancouver Coastal Health would have to pick up the cost of the operations, and that has been a bit of an issue, although your legacy group has been looking at how we could fund that.”

Taunton added that if Whistler’s on-going quest to get a CT scanner before the Games is successful, then a different piece of medical equipment could possibly be left in town.

“They may want something else, or we would potentially look down the road at some other areas within Vancouver Coastal Health if Whistler has all its needs met,” he said.

The medical imaging equipment would likely be a donation from Olympic sponsor GE Healthcare, which supplies this type of equipment for the Games.

However, two major players in local health care – Marnie Simon, chair of the Whistler Health Care Foundation and Vivianna Zanocco, senior media relations officer for Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) – said they were not aware of plans to leave equipment post-Games.

Zanocco added that just because the Olympics are in Whistler does not mean that donated medical equipment will not go to other areas of the province.

“I would imagine, but I don’t know, that the equipment that is left over (in Whistler will) probably (be) dispersed to various communities within B.C.,” said Zanocco.

“Whistler can’t be greedy.”

According to Zanocco, an MRI machine in Whistler is not feasible because the town’s population is so small compared to other major provincial centres like Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna.

“I can’t see them leaving an MRI in Whistler, just because we don’t have the critical mass,” said Zanocco.

“You need like ‘X’ amount of people to have an MRI every year, and we don’t have that many people who need one in the corridor.”

Leaving medical equipment at an Olympic host city is historically common. For example, Kodak left behind imaging equipment used for dental and healthcare after the 2006 Winter Games in Torino.

VANOC has already received a large donation of defibrillators and cardiac monitors for the Olympics – including the ones currently housed in the Whistler Sliding Centre, the Whistler Olympic Park and Whistler Creekside.

According to Taunton, some of the defibrillators and monitors will stay in Whistler after the Games and some of the equipment will be dispersed to other areas of the province.

Another medical legacy Whistler will receive from the Olympics will be the plethora of better-trained medical personnel.

A large number of doctors, nurses, emergency responders, ski patrol and others will need to be trained for appropriate health care delivery during the Games.

“We will be training ski patrol, we will be training first responders with our memorandum of understanding with B.C. Ambulance, we will be training staff that will be working during the sport events and the Games time in the Nordic centre, at the Alpine centre and at the Sliding centre,” said Taunton.

He stressed the value of this training, since the knowledge will be left in British Columbia and Whistler even after the Games have finished.

A world-class polyclinic and high performance centre will also be housed in the Athlete’s Village in the Lower Cheakamus area, with as much medical equipment as possible going to Whistler after the Olympics.

The polyclinic is also where the MRI and CT scan equipment from GE Healthcare will be temporarily housed during the Games.

“We would hope to be able to leave them some of our physiotherapy equipment, and some of our sports medicine equipment,” said Taunton.

“Right at this point in time, I can’t tell you that we are going to leave you three bikes and two treatment tables, but I can certainly tell you that it is our objective to support that facility.”

Taunton added that Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Games (VANOC) is working with the designers of the high performance centre to see if a permanent whirlpool could be put in the centre as opposed to a portable one. Final decisions on that have not yet been made.

Things that will not be left in Whistler after 2010 are supplies such as extra bandages, aspirin, and hypodermic needles.

VCH has made a deal with VANOC to buy medical supplies for the organization during Games times. VCH will then buy back all supplies after the Games at a reduced cost.

“Instead of VANOC setting up their whole own purchasing section and supply warehouse, which takes a lot of time to establish, we just said, we buy in such huge numbers, why don’t we contract that out,” said Zanocco.

“It is easier for them, because they don’t have to set up a purchasing arm or a supply chain, and all that kind of bureaucracy themselves.”

Zanocco added that VCH would charge VANOC for this service.

“We are not doing it out of the goodness of our heart,” she said.

Where arts and culture shine

By Nicole Fitzgerald

Celebration 2010 is on the ground and running for the month of February with a new partner this year, the 2010 Cultural Olympiad (a.k.a. the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympics and Paralympic Games or VANOC).

As a result, the Celebration 2010 lineup has begun to grow as more local and regional organizations sign on for their place in the rings.

All of the old favourites are there, including the Out of Bounds photo competition, the Whistler Museum Community Now film series, the Whistler Writers Group’s Literary Leanings, snow sculpting on Whistler Mountain, Whistler Film Festival screenings and MY Millennium Place theatre performances.

New events are expanding the arts-party scene with parades, the building of Canada’s first ice and snow theatre, and Celebrate Live in Whistler, which showcases live concerts in Village Square.

So what will things look like for 2009 and 2010?

“2010 will be very different,” said Doti Niedermayer, executive director of the Whistler Arts Council. “The Olympic Arts Festival will take over and the Live Sites program will be integrated… It will be very driven by VANOC.”

Currently Celebration 2010 is part of the 2008 Cultural Olympiad, a Sea to Sky- and Lower Mainland-wide celebration of arts, culture and heritage. VANOC organizers hope the Cultural Olympiad program will expand Canada-wide for 2009, and in 2010 the Olympic Arts Festival will take over.

Niedermayer broke down Whistler’s involvement in the 2010 arts showcase into two components: developing programming and content for the Live Sites, and local celebrations.

The Whistler Arts Council is heading the design of the Live Sites in cooperation with VANOC officials. Live Sites will host both international and Canadian talent on stages stationed throughout the Whistler Village stroll.

“It will all be free and people will be free to walk through the stroll where a band or theatre performance will be staged,” she said.

Like the Live Sites, local programming will be mainly staged outside, and free and open to the public.

“VANOC will be driving Canadian and international acts while we will work with them to ensure local and regional artists are integrated,” she said.

The effects of Celebration 2010 and now the Cultural Olympiad are already being felt within arts communities as funding and partnership opportunities encourage organizations to expand programming and build capacity.

“It’s not all for 2010, but longer term goals as well,” Niedermayer said.

She cited the Whistler Museum’s Community Now film series, documenting the history of Whistler told by a different age demographic each year, as an example of new programming created out of Celebration 2010.

“The museum is making films now,” she said of the four 30-minute documentaries that will be produced into a feature-length presentation for the Olympic Arts Festival. “Through the film, they’ve had an opportunity to connect with the community. It’s always a full house at MY Millennium Place (when) they screen the films.”

Funding for arts has never been more plentiful thanks to the Games. Submissions for the 2009 Cultural Olympiad and 2010 Olympic Arts Festival are currently being accepted.

The Arts Partners in Creative Development (a partnership of the provincial government, City of Vancouver, Canada Council for the Arts, Vancouver Foundation, VANOC and 2010 Legacies Now) will invest $6.5 million in the arts over three years. The organization awarded $1.7 million in funding for 24 B.C. arts organizations in the last wave of funding this January. Whistler was one of the beneficiaries.

Arts and cultural organizations interested in co-presenting an event, exhibition or installation within the Metro Vancouver and Sea to Sky corridor are invited to apply for the next wave.

Interested non-profit organizations must have a history of presenting, exhibiting and/or producing professional arts and cultural events in a public context. The 2009 Cultural Olympiad deadline is April 30 and 2010 Arts Festival deadline Sept. 30.

Guidelines are available at vancouver2010.com/en/CultureEducation/CulturalOlympiad/OpenCall.

Niedermayer stressed that funding opportunities are not only looking to showcase Whistler’s arts scene for 2010, but beyond the Games.

“In the long term, the (opportunities the Olympics are presenting) are going to affect our ability to work together and create programs for the community in the future,” she said. “After 2010, we will have to work harder to ensure it continues to grow. We need to make sure beyond 2010 that we continue to move in an upward curve rather than flatten out.”

Games impact on Whistler’s Sea to Sky neighbours

By Holly Fraughton

The Olympics promise to bring many things to the host communities in 2010: international prestige, visitors and, well, money. With that money comes a myriad of opportunities for local businesses to capitalize on the Games.

In a town as small as Whistler there are more than enough of these lucrative opportunities to go around, so it’s really no surprise that surrounding communities have stepped up their game and are driven to be involved.

Indirectly, the $600 million Sea to Sky Highway Improvement Project promises an easier commute throughout the corridor for locals and tourists alike, which means existing businesses should see a steadily increasing flow of visitors.

According to the project’s website, the improvements will also create 6,000 new jobs throughout the province, as a result of economic activity generated along the corridor, and see the provincial GDP increase by $300 million from 2010 to 2025.

Margo Dent, president of the Squamish Chamber of Commerce, says these improvements, coupled with the profile of the Games, have really helped to boost the local economy.

“Affordability of homes, as compared to the lower mainland, as well as a safer highway and lifestyle opportunities has brought more families to our community to live, work and play,” she said.

With a population of over 15,000, the “Heart of Sea to Sky country” is growing in leaps and bounds, and many business owners are actively seeking ways to expand using 2010 opportunities.

Silverfoot, a Squamish-based company which manufactures outdoor gear and accessories, has already gotten involved in Olympic business projects, making all of the hats for the Callaghan Valley Local Organizing Committee (CALOC) and helping with the design of ribbons for their medals.

And this is just the beginning.

“I think we’ve only just tipped on what it is that’s going to be available to us over the next two years,” said Silverfoot sales manager Carol Elliott.

Dent says other local companies should also be looking to get involved in Games-related business opportunities.

“We want to stress that the 'event' has already begun and will continue long after 2010,” said Dent.

“The time is now to get engaged in this process.”

Not all of the community’s involvement focuses on moneymaking endeavours – VANOC recently announced Squamish will be home to the 2010 volunteer centre, recruiting, deploying and training an estimated 5,000 volunteers within the Sea to Sky corridor.

CALOC, based out of Squamish, is also working to establish a volunteer legacy for the region that lasts well after 2010. With over 550 volunteers already signed on, they are well on their way to that goal.

Denise Imbeau, managing director of CALOC, explained that the organization’s mandate is to support and grow Nordic sports. Born out of necessity, they are working with VANOC, local governments and sport organizations to unite Nordic clubs throughout Western Canada, while managing and organizing Nordic sporting events at Whistler Olympic Park before and after the 2010 Games.

While Pemberton has a strong agricultural economy, it appears that the upcoming Games may be encouraging local entrepreneurs to explore other avenues of business as well.

Paul Selina, president of the Pemberton Chamber of Commerce, said the Olympics have definitely acted as a catalyst for Pemberton’s current economic growth, but points out that the community has taken their “economic destiny into their own hands,” with the creation of a new position: economic development consultant (EDC).

“A great benefit is (that) with the appointment of an EDC comes an EDC commission, and that commission consists of councillors and private businesses sitting down … and discussing the economic impacts and benefits and how we can leverage the Olympics,” said Selina.

Just three months after the appointment of Alexandra Ross to the position, Pemberton has successfully attracted a number of companies to the area, including Proteus, a temporary buildings company that has erected 82 units in Whistler in preparation for the World Cup.

Selina said companies like Proteus are hiring local construction companies and creating more job opportunities, while empty spaces in the industrial park have been rented, and bed and breakfasts are full.

“With the whole profile of the corridor, and Pemberton being a major part of that, we’re attracting some world class companies, ” he said.

Selina also pointed to the concert that the international music company Live Nation hopes to bring to the area this summer, and the interest international private school company GEMS Education has expressed in establishing a boarding school in Pemberton, as indirect growth as the result of the Games.

“These are all attracted to the area because of the profile of the Olympics and 2010 and we’re getting some really positive spin-offs from it,” he said.

But, added Selina, the longevity of economic growth and the benefits will depend on how Pemberton manages these opportunities.

Some existing facilities, such as the Pemberton Airport, are also looking to piggyback on the opportunity the Games will bring.

The airport has been in operation since 1978 and is currently operating at a loss to the municipality. But with the opportunity of the Games approaching it is now considering expanding to offer regular passenger service. According to a report by Intervistas consultants, the timing couldn’t be better thanks to the Games and government funding being readily available.

The clock is ticking, though, as the corridor reaches the two-year mark to the Games, and the community continues to debate the future of the facility.

Since the Olympics are being held on the traditional lands of the Lil’Wat, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil’Waututn First Nations, these groups have been included in the planning and hosting of the upcoming events.

In 2005, these four host First Nations groups signed a historic agreement with VANOC, assuring inclusion of their culture, history and traditions during the Games. Significantly, however, they were also promised skills development and training, and lasting social, cultural and economic opportunities for Aboriginal communities.

Gary Youngman, consulting director of Aboriginal Participation for VANOC, said the partnerships have been a great success.

“From our perspective, we think there’s been tremendous benefits for them, and they’ve been great partners,” he said. “There are legacies that have gone to both the Lil’Wat and the Squamish Nations, which are fairly substantial, probably in excess of $40 million, and those of course include components that go towards the cultural centre that’s being built up in Whistler.”

Two of the host First Nations partners – Lil’Wat and Squamish – have played a significant role in new construction, partnering with VANOC and the provincial government to create a number of Olympic venues and related projects.

“Joint ventures with Lil’Wat were involved in our original clearing and construction work for the Nordic Centre, and one of the joint ventures with Squamish Nation and Newhaven have built our Day Lodge in the Nordic Valley, so they played an early role in construction and they’ve done a great job,” said Youngman.

“We estimated that there’s over $45 million of contracting opportunities that have gone their way.”

The opportunities won’t stop with the completion of construction.

“Our work with these Nations has been so positive in terms of on-time, on-budget, ahead of schedule… that we continue to provide them with additional work and now we’re also providing work to them related to the operational side now, now that our construction is substantially completed,” said Youngman.

Vanoc is now looking at working with the host First Nation’s companies to provide snow removal, security and food service contracts.

At least one First Nations group is also branching out into partnerships with the private sector. Lil’Wat First Nations and their lead consultant, T’musta7 Aboriginal Consulting Services recently signed a letter of intent with a major Canadian security company, United Protection Services Inc., to provide security services during the Games.

Youngman said partnerships with the host First Nations groups will lead to long-term sustainability and enable them to work on other projects after the Olympics.

“When they have the opportunities, then of course they can invest in training and capacity building for members of their Nation,” he said.

“So… it really has a lot of spin-offs and they’ve said on many occasions that this has really changed their unemployment stats considerably.”

A destination for athletes

By Holly Fraughton

Aside from the obvious boost the 2010 Olympics will bring to the profile of winter sports, the Games are also kicking the door of sport tourism open a little further to communities throughout the province.

In 2004, Premier Gordon Campbell challenged the provincial tourism sector to double revenues over the next ten years, and created a new sport-specific department to help accomplish this goal.

Michelle Collins is manager of sports tourism for 2010 Legacies Now, which is working in partnership with Tourism B.C. and the Ministry of Sport Tourism and the Arts to promote the regions within the province leading up to the Olympics.

While pockets of B.C., like Kamloops and Kelowna, have used sport as a tourism draw before, Collins said the Olympics have created a stage, magnifying the province as a sport tourism destination.

“We have the attention now of those international sport federations and high-profile athletes of belonging to that Olympic family and being able to showcase our facilities and our services,” said Collins.

Ray LeBlond, Tourism B.C.’s director of Corporate Communications, agreed that even before the Games, sport tourism has been a popular draw in many communities within British Columbia. But the idea has gained momentum in many more communities since the announcement of the winning bid in 2003.

“It’s something that’s been happening for years, but it’s just really hit a critical mass now and the whole movement of sport tourism, not only in British Columbia, but throughout the world, is much more … scientific, there’s a much more businesslike approach to it,” said LeBlond.

Tourism B.C. helps communities throughout the province develop sustainable tourism plans and strategies, which may include sport tourism.

“Its something that functions at a local, provincial, national and international level,” LeBlond explained.

“So that being said, what we’ve tried to do is work with Legacies Now to ensure that committees and groups understood how to approach this in a professional way, and ensure they have good strategies for it.”

Pre-Games, VANOC will be holding a number of large-scale sporting events in communities throughout the province, including several official test events, which translates into revenue generated by hotel bookings, meals, and other spin-off sales.

Collins said the training opportunities that come along with these events will also lead to social development, because they let all communities — and not just host cities — experience the Games.

“It also allows that community to identify themselves with something, and so it’s that establishment of being associated with such a world-class event that they can pride themselves on after the fact,” he said.

“It kind of just makes all the sport tourism stakeholders within the community realize that there’s an industry here.”

Pre-Games events will also help communities to build volunteering capacity and raise the profile of individual sports.

To help facilitate these events, 2010 Legacies Now has created a website to match athletes interested in training here with communities within the province that will meet their needs. The site contains an inventory for the National Olympic Committee and national sport federations to book visits.

“It kind of creates that legacy, because with or without the Games, this is going to be a valuable resource to any event rights holder in the future,” said Collins.

Right now, the database only includes winter sport facilities and resorts, but in time it will expand to include summer cross-training opportunities and facilities.

2010 Legacies Now also distributes $550,000 in Hosting B.C. grants to go towards attracting national and international sporting events.

“Since 2004, through the Hosting B.C. grant, we have distributed over $2 million in 144 events in 33 communities in British Columbia,” said Collins, adding that Whistler recently received some of this money to go towards hosting the World Cup from Feb. 18-23.

Whistler is already seeing the economic benefits from pre-Games training opportunities, said Collins, adding that as one of the host cities the resort town will see huge spin-off benefits from the sport tourism opportunities leading up to 2010.

Collins pointed to the success of Sydney and Melbourne, which have used their Olympic opportunities to keep Australia on the map as a sport tourism destination after Sydney hosted the 2000 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games.

While Whistler has already established itself as a world-class destination, the addition of legacy live sites and Games venues will help attract more large-scale sporting events, like World Cups, which will bring spectators, as well as both professional and amateur athletes who may want to return for visits in the future.

“That’s where they’re going to compete,” Collins explained. “When countries are successful and they’re winning their gold medals … they’re going to have a nostalgic feel to returning to Whistler.”

While LeBlond said sport is becoming a popular focus for tourism in B.C., he added that it isn’t the “silver bullet” solution to reaching the Premier’s goals of doubling tourism revenues.

“There are a lot of communities that are putting it as part of one of their planks in their tourism strategies,” he said. “Nobody is hanging their hat exclusively on it, and that’s good.”



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