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Originally Posted by _Q_
I want these Olympics to succeed. I really do. But to be quite honest these have been the most amateur Olympics I have ever seen. So much so that I think the IOC will think twice before rewarding the Olympics to Canada again. First death of Nodar in a track that was poorly designed. The debacle of the National Anthem and the Cauldron (both indoor and outdoor), the rain delays and now the malfunctioning Olympia machines. This is truly embarrassing.
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I think we're focusing too much on these things as they're in our own back yard.
As I'm sure was pointed out in the luge thread, the course is not designed by a Canadian or by VANOC, it is a course building expert from Europe and sanctioned by the federation. It really has nothing to do with how the games we organized.
The national anthem is on VANOC but I would doubt anyone besides Canadians and some media really care.
The opening ceremonies torch was disappointing. I don't know if the protection of the torch is any different than other Olympics where the torch would be in a publicly accessible area. Agreed, it would be good if there was a better viewing angle, and hindsight says they should have thought of a better way to provide access. THe opposite though, is imagine how much hue and cry would occur if they allowed access to it and someone vandalized it or got marshmallowed by it.
The ice refinisher is crazy and just sounds like a bunch of bad luck with two machines dying and the third having studded tires.
The weather is a red herring, they've had weather problems in a bunch of Olympics:
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At the 2006 Turin Games, the women's super-G race was pushed back 24 hours, and the combined event was split over two days. The start of Alpine skiing at the 1998 Nagano Olympics was delayed for two days, and they wound up needing to shoehorn nine races into 10 days — even racing more than once in a single day. The men's and women's downhills were both postponed at the 1984 Sarajevo Games.
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...tL7qAD9DRMDOG0
I think all Olympics have problems and at the end of it, they are mostly forgotten after they are done. Nomar's death will be a lasting memory, and rightly so.