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Record number of Canadians tune in to Games

The Canadian Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium is releasing daily viewer statistics during the 2010 Games and for the first few days of the Olympics they're reporting huge audiences. The opening ceremonies on Feb.

The Canadian Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium is releasing daily viewer statistics during the 2010 Games and for the first few days of the Olympics they're reporting huge audiences.

The opening ceremonies on Feb. 12 became the most-watched television event in Canadian history with an estimated 13.3 million viewers tuning in for all or most of the three-and-a-half hour show. That's three times the number of Canadians who tuned in for the opening of the Calgary Games in 1988. Only 1.18 million Canadians watched the opening ceremonies for the 2006 Winter Games, which is not that bad when you consider the time difference.

Moreover, about 26 million Canadians watched at least some of the opening ceremonies or coverage during the course of the day, or two out of every three Canadians.

The audience peaked for the entrance of the Canadian athletes, with roughly 15.6 million tuned in.

The television audience was even bigger on Saturday, when Jennifer Heil competed in the moguls event. It's estimated that 27.7 million Canadians tuned in at some point, representing about 83 per cent of the population.

Viewership went down slightly on Sunday with 26.5 million Canadians tuning in, with a peak of 7.3 million watching Alexandre Bilodeau win gold.

 

Vice-president Biden's motorcade in collision

RCMP in Vancouver are investigating after the last vehicle in U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden's motorcade rear-ended the vehicle in front, pushing it ahead into a third vehicle. The accident occurred on Valentine's Day. The vice-president's own vehicle was not involved, and he continued on to his destination.

Two passengers of the middle vehicle sustained injuries. Both were examined and released.

The investigators are looking at road conditions, as well as the possibility that there may have been an oil spill on the road.

 

Arrested protester identified

A march by anti-Olympic protesters on Saturday that deteriorated into a riot of smashing windows and knocking over newspaper boxes in downtown Vancouver resulted in seven arrests and injuries to two RCMP officers.

On Sunday the RCMP identified one of the arrested protesters as American Daniel Frederick Myers, 22. He was charged with possession of a dangerous weapon - a bicycle chain - as well as possession of a prohibited weapon. Two women from Vancouver were charged for assaulting a police officer, but have not been identified.

According to a CBC story, Myers' parents in Seattle say he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and carried the chain as a symbol of environmental protest.

The parents told CBC that Myers, a student at Western Washington University, rode his bike 60 km from Belllingham, Washington to Surrey then took the SkyTrain downtown to participate in an environmental protest of the Games.

Myers has since been released, but as of Monday afternoon was still in the custody of border services.

 

Top figure skater walks home from ceremonies

Figure skater Patrick Chan is used to going in circles, but his journey home after the opening ceremonies in Vancouver was a bit much. Traffic jams last Friday night kept buses in gridlock. After sitting on the bus without moving for a long period of time Chan joined a group of athletes who decided to hoof it back to their digs at the Vancouver athletes' village.

While it was only a few kilometres, he told Canwest that it was a lot after a long day.

"I can see why some athletes wouldn't want to (go to the opening ceremonies). It's tiring."


Cauldron mishap was a mechanical glitch

The final act of the opening ceremonies was the ceremonial lighting of the cauldron. While Canadians debated who would be the last person to handle the torch and light the cauldron at B.C. Place, the organizing committee had a trick up its sleeve. Instead of one cauldron there were four torches, lit by four athletes, which were raised to light a cauldron in the middle.

The torch bearers entered the stadium to thunderous applause: hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, champion speedskater Catriona LeMay Doan, basketball MVP Steve Nash, Canada's female athlete of the 20 th century Nancy Greene Raine and Man In Motion Rick Hansen.

Then confusion took over. Initially the entire assembly failed to lift from the floor of B.C. Place, then one by one the torches began to rise to meet the cauldron. But one torch was missing, the one in front of LeMay Doan. The ceremony continued with just three torches, but millions of viewers around the world were left scratching their heads and wondering what happened.

On Saturday the Vancouver Organizing Committee acknowledged that there was a mechanical malfunction. The event team managed to reprogram the other torches and cauldron to rise despite the malfunction, which was why there was a delay.

The actual cauldron and torches were outside of B.C. Place at Jack Poole Plaza, with Wayne Gretzky doing the final honours. The cauldron was designed to be permanent. The flame will burn during the Olympics and Paralympics.