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The competition for 2010

A look at Salzburg and Kitzbuhel, Vancouver-Whistler’s main rival for the Olympics

A current topic for discussion at an Internet travel writer’s forum I visit is what compels us to travel. For my part, it’s as much the chance to discover what others are thinking as it is the beauty of where they live. Perhaps the most surprising discovery during a trip to Austria in January to assess the differences and similarities between Vancouver and its contender for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, Salzburg (as well as a stop in Kitzbuhel, Whistler’s counterpart in the bid war), were the echoes of concerns voiced here at home.

For example, although none of the highways that link Kitzbuhel with Salzburg proved as intimidating to drive as the Sea to Sky route, traffic at peak times was equally congested as visitors from Salzburg, as well as elsewhere in Austria, neighbouring Germany and beyond, crawled along predominantly two-lane roadways.

Traffic bottlenecks proved as much a sticking point in the minds of Austrians as on B.C.’s West Coast. But all Salzburg-Kitzbuhel residents need do is look to their Tyrolean neighbours in St. Anton, site of the 2001 World Ski Championships, for evidence of the benefits such competitions bring. In the lead-up to that event, which drew 100,000 spectators, part of the highway to St. Anton was tunnelled and twinned. In addition, railway tracks were relocated to the far side of the narrow valley – and covered! – to ensure a quieter environment for residents and visitors alike.

Not to say that public opinion among Austrians was anywhere near unanimous. As Manfred Hofer, a small business operator in Kitzbuhel, explained, "People here are split over the need to host the Games, but most of us realize we need a new impulse to attract visitors." In a country where one in five jobs is linked to snow sports, that became on oft-heard mantra.

Just as Canadians view sharing a border with the U.S. with mixed emotions, Austrians proved equally sensitive about living next to Europe’s most populous nation, especially as Germany, with over 80 million inhabitants, is the 8-million strong nation’s main trading partner. As a consequence of a prolonged recession in the German economy, cross-border trade has dropped. In 2002, the Austrian government ran a small deficit.

This downturn was mirrored in Kitzbuhel, a rural town with 8,000 permanent residents that originally proposed hosting the Games on its own. Only when that approach proved financially unfeasible did the elegant resort (where fur coats outnumber fleece by a wide margin) begin courting Salzburg, a city of 145,500 located 80 kilometres to the northeast.

The Salzburg-Kitzbuhel partnership proved more a marriage of convenience than a match made in heaven. Kitzbuhel residents said they would more naturally have paired with their Tyrolean neighbours to the west in Innsbruck, a city whose only drawback is that it has already hosted two Winter Olympics, in 1964 and again in 1976. (Innsbruck stepped into the breach when the citizens of Denver, Colorado, which had originally been awarded the 1976 Games, forfeited the events after a civic plebiscite over the use of public funds was defeated.)

Given the number of winter resorts in Austria that compete among themselves for visitors, let alone a rucksack of destinations within several hours drive of the border in Italy (home to the 1956 Winter Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo and site of the 2006 Games in Turin), Germany (site of the 1936 Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen), and Switzerland (site of the 1928 and 1948 Games in St. Moritz), it’s not surprising that many entrepreneurs like Hofer felt that Kitzbuhel definitely needed to host the 2010 Olympics. Much like every European questioned, the 30-something proprietor of Tandem Flight Paraski readily acknowledged the benefits that accrue to Olympic host cities. Hofer’s company flies skiers aloft from the top of Kitzbuhel’s busy Hahnenkamm (elevation 1,660 metres). With a decade of experience behind him, he cited a number of post-games rewards he anticipated, starting with a better transportation system and more low-cost housing.

"Kitzbuhel (whose Grand Hotel first welcomed tourists in 1902, little more than a decade before Rainbow Lodge opened in Whistler) needs upgrading. The Olympics will give us a kick in the ass."

In many respects Kitzbuhel seemed to run quite efficiently as it was. A stream of passenger trains deposit visitors in the heart of town, just boot steps from the Hahnenkammbahn, one of three gondola stations that service peaks on either side of the valley. Conveniently, this lift climbs one of the most hallowed hills in skidom, the Hahnenkamm, or "rooster’s crest," where for the past 70 years racers have plummeted down the Steifl run that locals compare to a frisky spring bock, or gaemse . (Colourful sculptures of the short-horned ibex dot Kitzbuhel’s winding streets, as ubiquitous as the wooden belfries, or glockenstuhl , that adorn almost every roof in this part of Tyrol.)

Whistler resident Steve Podborski, who won the Hahnenkamm in 1981 and 1982, set a World Cup speed record on the Stiefl. Together with teammates Ken Read, who won in 1980, and Todd Brooker, winner in 1983, Canadians once held a headlock on this most prestigious contest. In tribute, their names, as well as those of other winners, adorn Hahnenkammbahn gondolas. Such glory surrounds the Hahnenkamm (which was bereft of snow when I stood in the downhill start hut) that there’s even a bright, shrine-y museum at the bergstation , the equivalent of the Roundhouse (which sits below the Schwarzkogel, a round-top mountain whose name, somewhat ironically, translates as "black dome.")

A major concern voiced on the streets of Salzburg was the extent of government involvement in organizing the Games. Many were only in favour of hosting the Olympics if their government left management to the private sector. Thus it wasn’t surprising to find that the $23 million athletes village in Kitzbuhel would be built by private partners who plan to convert it to a hotel after the Games. Four facilities – a $25 million speed skating oval as well as two $40 million arenas in Salzburg, plus a $24 million curling rink in Kitzbuhel – would all be funded by the private sector. (In addition to an existing curling rink, Kitzbuhel already boasts facilities for, among other things, winter polo. And, contrary to reports I heard before arriving, the town hosts both men’s and women’s professional hockey action.)

Salzburg struck me in the same way as seeing the Mona Lisa. It was... diminutive. I found myself falling into a Philistine trap. After a quick inspection, I wondered what Salzburg had on Vancouver anyway, other than a 17th-century cathedral originally intended to outdo St. Peter’s in Rome. Such churlish thoughts crossed my mind as I jostled with crowds of predominantly Italian tourists in the narrow streets of the Old City, which in 1997 was designated a UNESCO world cultural heritage site. Given the confines of the downtown core that sits hemmed between the flanks of the foothills of the Alps and the banks of the green Salzach River, it was hard to imagine where the opening and closing ceremonies, which have become so central to the Games, could possibly be located. It was only after it was explained to me that artificial islands would be built in the river to act as the stage that a light bulb came on in my mind. With the fortress-like Hohensalzburg castle looming above, this would be a fairy-tale setting, a living cultural tableau. I suddenly felt a little humbler.

Ever generous, Austrians appeared generally interested in the Vancouver-Whistler bid and wished Canadians well, even if many of them did think Vancouver was near Toronto. That common misconception was illuminating enough in itself, and gave new reason to welcome the Games, should we be so lucky.