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How the world sees the Games

Whistler and Vancouver took a drubbing in the world's media last week.

Whistler and Vancouver took a drubbing in the world's media last week.

Successive articles published in the UK's Guardian newspaper alternately pre-judged the Olympic Games a financial disaster and a catalyst for the dispersal of Vancouver's homeless population.

This week was a little kinder. The Canadian Press published a glowing story about the flame's arrival in Whistler Village, describing in brief its journey through the Olympic venues, along the highway and finally to Whistler Mountain, where Julia Murray handed it to Crazy Canuck Steve Podborski.

The story, however, stopped just short of covering the whole event. It ended with Podborski being handed the flame and that was that. Podborski's torch lit Tyler Allison's torch and Allison lit the cauldron in Whistler.

Other news saw the Australian Olympic Team in a head-to-head battle with the International Olympic Committee over a "boxing kangaroo" banner hanging from their balcony at Vancouver's Olympic Athletes' Village, a tradition at every Olympic Games.

The IOC ordered that it be taken down because it's a registered trademark until Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson interjected and said he wanted to see the banner flying somewhere in the city, although he left the decision up to the IOC. The committee later relented and allowed the banner to keep flying, provided the boxing kangaroo logo be adopted by the Australian Olympic Committee.

Twitter, meanwhile, was a-flutter with talk of the dress rehearsals for the 2010 Opening Ceremonies. It's believed that 27,000 people attended a Feb. 8 rehearsal at B.C. Place Stadium. The details of the ceremonies have been kept secret for months but little pieces slowly came out via leaky Tweets.

First Nations are believed to play a big part in the ceremony. The world is allegedly welcomed to Vancouver by a couple of ice-like Totem poles at centre stage. And like at most opening ceremonies, fireworks will light up the sky around the stadium.

The leaks came despite reports of a non-disclosure agreement in which every attendee had to agree not to spill the beans on the massive show, which happens for real Friday.

In other news, California Gubernator Arnold Schwarzenegger will carry the Olympic Torch through Vancouver's Stanley Park at 8 a.m. on Friday. He'll hand the flame off to Sebastian Coe, chair of the London 2012 Organizing Committee. Other torch-runners that day include Walter Gretzky, Stan Smyl, Bob Lenarduzzi and Lui Passaglia.

Elsewhere in the world, BBC has begun running promos for its Olympic coverage. One of the latest has an Inuit man wandering a perilous black-and-white landscape on a snowboard, skis and skeleton sled, dodging hungry wolves before he comes to an ice wall that he shatters with a throw of a curling stone.

 

Orange wave sweeps Richmond

Anyone who has ever been to Amsterdam or The Netherlands can see a vibrant, fanatical bike culture that is the envy of other Western cities. Bikes are everywhere, and if you don't have your own you can borrow one to get around.

In the spirit of Olympic sustainability, The Netherlands have brought a fleet of 400 bikes to Richmond for the 2010 Games that can be used by the public to travel between Olympic venues and will be used by Heineken House staff. The fleet hit the road on Saturday in an Orange wave, the Dutch colours, to showcase the Go Green, Go Dutch, Go Bike Program.

There were some initial hang-ups to the Dutch donation, as Canada threatened to impose import duties and taxes on the bikes that would have effectively doubled the cost of the bike donation. However, this was partially averted by an agreement that 25 bikes would be donated by sponsors at Dutch Rail to low income citizens after the Games. The remainder of the bikes would have been donated as well, but instead will be shipped back to Holland to avoid paying the additional costs.

 

NBC coverage under fire

Last week NBC announced that it would likely lose in the range of $200 million while broadcasting the 2010 Games, the result of steep broadcast rights fees and the economic downturn's impact on advertisers. NBC has exclusive rights to broadcast the Olympics through the London Games in 2012. After the London Olympics the contract will come up again.

But NBC's coverage is also coming under fire as a result of a decision to package broadcasts for three-hour prime time slots - 8 p.m. in every time zone - instead of showing events live during the day. Some events will be broadcast live during the day, but the bulk of the network's Olympic coverage will be packaged for the evenings.

 

Google gets into the Games

While they're not an official Olympic sponsor, Google has invested in the 2010 Games by creating a special portal for news and results, links to Google Street View images of the Games, amalgamated search results that include Olympic tweets and blogs and social networking sites like Facebook, Olympic photo galleries on Picasa, guide books from local experts (including former Olympians living in Vancouver) and more.

The portal for that information is www.google.com/games10.

There is also a transit trip planner for Vancouver, Whistler and Richmond that uses Google Maps that's available at www.google.com/transit.

More details on Google's Olympic efforts are at http://googleblog.blogspot.com, while you can find images and video at http://sites.pressatgoogle.com/games.

 

Forbes releases list of best-paid Olympic athletes

While the Olympics are considered an amateur sporting event, there's no denying that some of the athletes make a very nice living.

This week Forbes released a list of the top-earning athletes of the 2010 Olympics, leaving out hockey players that are earning seven and sometimes eight digit salaries. All figures are in U.S. dollars, which is appropriate given the fact that eight out of 10 athletes on the list are American.

Topping the list is halfpipe star Shaun White, the reigning Olympic champion who earned an estimated $8 million last season in prize money and endorsements from Burton, Target, Red Bull, Oakley, Ubisoft and AT&T.

However, White is in a virtual tie with South Korean figure skater Kim Yu-Na, who has earned the unfortunate nickname of "The Ice Queen." She also earned an estimated $8 million in 2009. mostly through sponsorships from Korean companies like Hyundai Motors, Kookim Bank, Samsung, LG H&H, and international sponsors like Nike, Procter & Gamble, J. Estina, Tous Les Jours and Universal Music and Maeil Dairy.

American skier Lindsey Vonn is a distant third with an estimated $3 million in 2009 for dominating her sport and winning back-to-back overall World Cup titles. She is sponsored by Head, Red Bull, Under Armor, Procter & Gamble and Rolex.

American skier Ted Ligety is fourth with $2 million in earnings in 2009. Part of his revenues come from his own goggle company Shred, as well as sponsors at Rossignol, Booster, Slytech, Komperdell and Audi.

American speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno earned an estimated $1.5 million in 2009, and is poised to tie the U.S. Winter Olympics record of six medals held by Bonnie Blair with just one more podium appearance. His sponsors include Coca-Cola, Alaska Airlines, AT&T, Procter & Gamble, Nestle, and for the last few months The Colbert Nation/Colbert Report on The Comedy Network.

Bode Miller may be having a tough time finding the podium this season, but that didn't stop the colourful American skier from earning an estimated $1.3 million last season. Sponsors include Nike, Head, Superfund, Pagnella Ski Resort, Hublot, Hot Gear and Madhouse Munchies.

There's a four-way tie for the seventh spot, each earning an estimated $1 million in 2009.

First up is U.S. snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler, who earned a silver medal in the 2006 Games and recently won gold in halfpipe at the X Games. She is sponsored by Coca-Cola, K2, Oakley, Nike, Aspen Snowmass, AT&T, Giro, Mission Skincare and 24 Hour Fitness.

Next up is snowboardcross racer Lindsey Jacobellis, who is sponsored by Under Armor, Bolle, Bern, Procter & Gamble, Sprint, Paul Mitchell, Airwalk, Sims and Go World.

Halfpipe star Hannah Teter also made the list with sponsorship from Burton, Amp, Anon, Gravis, Go211.com and Samsung. She has pledged half of her winnings to the ongoing relief efforts in Haiti. She also has a Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavour, Hannah Teter's Maple Blondie.

Last but not least is German alpine racer Maria Riesch, who is favoured to medal in her first Olympic appearance. She is sponsored by Lange, Head, Betty Barclay, Garmin, Dainese, Leki, Mika and Rodenhouse.