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Venue completion date holds key to athletes’ success

Site tour on two Whistler Olympic competition facilities reveals scope of work

World champion skeleton athlete Duff Gibson is convinced Canada’s Olympic medal count will be higher in 2010 than in years past.

That was his prediction standing on the site of Whistler’s future bobsled/luge/skeleton track on the side of Blackcomb Mountain last Friday morning. Even though it was just a pile of dirt amid construction machinery, the potential of what it will become was on the minds of some on site, particularly Gibson who has hurtled down his share of icy tracks around the world.

"Canada will win more medals because we have access to this facility a few years in advance," Gibson said with confidence. "Having this facility two years in advance makes a huge difference."

That being said, if Canada is the team to beat in the 2010 Olympics, the local venues must be completed well in advance of the Games.

Gibson’s comments come during a media site tour of two of Whistler’s competition venues, namely the Whistler Sliding Centre and the Whistler Nordic Centre. Combined they will host seven Olympic events – the luge, skeleton and bobsleigh events on the former and, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, Nordic combined and biathlon on the latter. The venues will also host Paralympic events as well.

While the site tour mainly revealed very preliminary construction zones, with more dirt than anything else, they also revealed the importance of getting a tremendous amount of work done in the next few years.

Not only is that important in terms of coming in on budget for the two facilities, which will cost than $150 million collectively, it’s also crucial for Canada’s athletes that they have time to practice on them, to give them that critical home field advantage.

Gibson used the Torino Olympics, fast approaching in February, to illustrate his point. There, Gibson like most other athletes around the world will have had the chance to fly down the Italian track about 30 to 40 times before he goes for Olympic gold. The Italians, he said, will have 300 to 400 runs over them by comparison, giving them a distinct advantage.

It’s a factor that cannot be downplayed said VANOC CEO John Furlong.

"You heard the athletes talking about how disadvantaged they are when they travel to international arenas to compete," he said. "They have to have the advantage (in 2010). It’s expected that they be given the advantage, that they get to train at home and then the world comes to take Canada on and we want them to be ready."

The impression on Friday is that the work is already well underway.

"Our job is to build these venues for the budget we have," reiterated Furlong. "That’s what our team is doing. We’re very focused. The work here is going very well, it’s ahead of schedule."

For some, seeing the work on the ground was a reality check that the 2010 Olympics are not just a far-off dream but are just around the corner.

"What struck me today is it’s no longer just a dream, it’s no longer something that we simply have to imagine, that it is becoming reality right in front of our very eyes at these two venues," said Colin Hansen, B.C.’s minister of economic development and the Olympics.

On the site on the Sliding Centre with imposing views of Rainbow and Sproatt Mountains as a backdrop, Gibson couldn’t quite describe what the $55 million track could look like two years from now. Every track around the world is different he said, each with its own unique corners and quirks. Again, that’s why it’s so important to have the chance to practice on the track.

He likens the skeleton, in which he had a first place finish at the 2004 World Championships, to being on a bike, going as fast as you can with someone hitting you on the head with a baseball bat.

But that shouldn’t dissuade tourists from taking a run down the track after the 2010 Games at much slower speeds.

"It’s like nothing else they will ever do," said Gibson.

Councillor Nick Davies, who was Acting Mayor on Friday, said the bob/luge track could be a huge tourist draw in the future, as people head up into the mountains to experience the thrill of shooting down the track.

"There’s unique potential for this facility," he said.

Further south, the road to the Whistler Nordic Centre winds up into the thickly forested Callaghan Valley. There, in a clearing, work has begun 10 weeks ahead of schedule on the $102 million facility for Nordic sports.

It doesn’t look like much now but it will become a 250 hectare (600 acre) site with 16 kilometres of competition trails built into the forest. The site will hold three sport stadiums with a spectator capacity of 12,000 people each. Last Friday, far off glaciers shimmered in the sun.

"The geography is fantastic," said Furlong at the site. "When this venue was being examined by the experts, the first thing they told us when they came here was that this was setting up as one of the finest sites in the world for these sports. I wasn’t quite sure what that meant at the time but the snow conditions are very, very good in here, the wind conditions are very good (and) the fact that we’re cutting trails into this magnificent forest, the athletes are going to be competing in the most magnificent atmospheric conditions."

The legacies of this site are a key component for VANOC too. To date, First Nations, VANOC and other stakeholders have been working together to realize what they would like to see as legacies on site.

Squamish Chief Gibby Jacob, who was also on the tour, said they received pertinent information in draft form recently which they are reviewing. The goal, he said, is to make sure the Whistler Nordic Centre can be a sustainable facility in the future and he’s confident they will find a way to make that happen.

"We believe that we’ll be able to get an equitable sharing of the (facility)," he said. "Our course, through our legacies agreement… we’re going to be part owner of the venue. Hopefully, (it’ll) make money, a little bit anyways.

"Part of our involvement is to ensure people’s interests are covered, our rights and title are protected and certainly the values for the animals are being looked after."

Where once it was so hard to imagine what Whistler would look like in 2010, it’s getting a little easier now. And that’s exciting said Furlong, adding: "It feels like it’s finally coming to life."