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Furlong speaks to Canadian municipalities about Games

VANOC CEO offers rare glimpse of private life
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Hundreds of municipal leaders left Whistler this week with a new understanding of what hosting the 2010 Games means to Canada.

They went on tours of the Whistler sporting venues and saw firsthand the legacies the Games will leave behind both for sport and community infrastructure.

But they also glimpsed the passion the Games can bring to a nation - a legacy that can't be touched, only felt.

"This project is about touching lives," John Furlong, CEO of the 2010 Vancouver Organizing committee (VANOC) told over 1,700 delegates to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference this week at the event's closing breakfast.

"If you can (inspire) a child with Olympic values of respect, decency, fair play, how to win and how to lose, and introduce them to athletics there is simply no accounting for the type of person they could become; the leader they could become, the great good they will do in the country going forward.

"This is what a project like this brings to a country - a chance to touch and change every life."

Furlong admitted that the job of putting together a successful Games is one of the most complex in the world.

By Games time there will be 50,000 people working at the event, both volunteer and paid. There will 250 Olympic sites for sports and support services, and three billion people watching the event unfold on television.

With the conference's theme in mind, Partnering for Success, Furlong went on to offer a rare insight into how he has helped keep the organization on even footing for the last 14 years, from the early days of the bidding process.

Furlong is the first CEO of an Olympic organizing committee to work at the top from start to finish.

He credited two main platforms for the organization's success: having a strong vision about the Games uniting the country and making it stronger, and adopting a set of values which help guide the organization.

"I am one of those individuals that believes that without values you have nothing," said Furlong.

Top of the list at VANOC is teamwork.

"Teamwork to me is to put a champion in every job." He said. "Put a champion at every desk. Find great people with great character who wouldn't dare quit and give them responsibility, and just watch what they can do, give them permission to be great."

Team members have to be trustworthy, they have to aspire to be excellent, they must be creative, and they must work in a sustainable manner.

For Furlong, sustainability is about doing the right thing every time.

In illustrating how important this value is, Furlong, by reputation a very private person, offered a rare glimpse into his life by telling a rapt audience about is father, the top civil servant in the Irish prison system.

"I grew up in a family where there were rules and you had to behave yourselves, and the consequences for not behaving properly were significant," he said chuckling as he added that he "never got shoved behind bars."

"My father was always a giver of lessons and he believed very much in trying to be the inspiration in the room, to try to stand up for the person who can't stand up for themselves."

In a shocking turn of events Furlong's father died at 63 but even in death he had a lesson to share, for in his will he told his family to send the Irish government a cheque for five hundred pounds to pay for any pens, paper and erasers he might have taken in his career.

"It was stunning moment," said Furlong.

"The point of this was my father didn't take any paper, or pens, or anything else from anybody ever, he did no harm. This was his final lesson to his children to live a good life; don't take it if it is not yours, fix it if it is broken, behave yourself everyday, be an inspiration... and I think in life when you fill your organization with this culture of honour you can't go wrong.

"To me this is sustainability. This is the way forward - always trying to do the right thing.

"Bar nothing else it has protected this organization for all these years. It has given us a chance to be successful and I believe it is at the heart of why the 2010 Games may go down as being one of the great adventures in all time for our country, and we hope be viewed as (hosting) the best Olympics ever staged."

Furlong also appealed to the delegates to support Canada's athletes through the Own the Podium program.

"We know we can win, we know we can, and I appeal to you to go home to your home communities and say, 'we have to play a part in this and be part owner of this team and give them that push,'" said Furlong.

With Canada's silver medal in world championship hockey recently Canada is now the nation with the most World Cup medals in winter sports in the world.

"By getting involved with Own the Podium, getting involved with this team, you won't be just cheering you will own the team," said Furlong.

This is the most significant time in Canada's sport history said Furlong because if Canada comes home with gold in 2010 it will be very difficult for those who pay the bills to cut the budget.

"...If we achieve what we set out to achieve than it will be very difficult for those that fund the sport system in the future to say we are not going to do this anymore," he said.

"How can you say you are not going to do this anymore when you are the best in the world because you did it?"

Furlong saw the conference as a unique way to reach leaders from across the country at the same time.

With less than 250 days to go until Games time he said plans were growing ever more complicated.

"Every day is more complicated," said Furlong.

"It is a long day, there is more going on, there are more people, more decisions have to be made and so the complexity is up."

To get involved with Own the Podium, a national sport technical initiative designed to help Canada's winter athletes win the most number of medals, people can contribute directly or become partners. For more information go to www.ownthepodium2010.com .