VANCOUVER, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Vancouver greeted the one month countdown to the Winter Games with a shrug on Tuesday while Olympic organisers confronted their two biggest potential headaches—transportation and weather.

BC Place - Site of the Olympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies and the Paralympic Opening Ceremony Vancouver 2010

While it was business as usual on drizzly Vancouver streets, inside the VANOC headquarters the sprint to the finish was on as organisers raced towards their Feb. 12 deadline and the 2010 Winter Games opening ceremony.

“It’s all moving very fast,” VANOC chief John Furlong told reporters. “We were reminding ourselves that although we have been working on this since the mid-90s we still really haven’t done anything yet.

“The biggest thing is we are in a period of time where the work we are doing today, is work we couldn’t do until now and there is a lot of it.

“People are excited, they sort of feel we are almost home but we’re not home, we have three or four weeks of significant work to do.”

A good part of that time will be spent dressing up the Olympic city, which so far has offered few hints that one of the world’s biggest sporting events is on its way.

The colourful banners and billboards designed to help generate an Olympic buzz have yet to appear, leaving Vancouverites as blase as the dreary weather about the Games.

The mood was much the same in Whistler, the Olympic venue for alpine skiing, cross-country and sliding events.

Watching workmen take down Christmas decorations, American tourist Howard Mair said that until two days ago he would not have known the Olympics were going to happen.

Furlong, however, promised that Vancouver and Whistler would have the look and feel of an Olympic host, and deliver a Winter Games Canadians will be proud of.

“The enthusiasm is in great shape,” assured Furlong. “We were never going to apply the look of the Games until the last minute because the last thing we need is a situation that looks tired and worn.

“What we’re trying to do is to make sure the look that is applied is as fresh and as beautiful as it can be.

“The venues look great, they will look spectacular when the look is applied.”

Despite a noticeable lack of excitement, there are undeniable signs that the Olympics are fast approaching.

DRIVING RESTRICTIONS

Security fencing continues to spring up around downtown venues while local officials have cautioned residents to prepare for the implementation of driving restrictions what will be part of the Games transportation plan.

Olympic organisers announced more road closures on Tuesday sparking fears of gridlock and long queues for public transport.

City officials have pleaded with residents who live or work in the downtown core where many of the events will be staged, to walk, bike or use public transit during the Games.

The only way for most spectators to reach events in Whistler will be on the Olympic Bus Network but only 40 percent of ticket holders have so far purchased seats leaving the potential for transportation chaos.

“If people arrive at the park-and-ride near the end of the departure times, we’re just not going to be able to get them to the venue on time and through security,” warned VANOC vice-president Terry Wright.

“We don’t want people to be disappointed.”

The unseasonably warm temperatures and heavy rains that have lashed Vancouver this week have also reminded organisers of the type of havoc Mother Nature is capable of inflicting on a Winter Games.

The warm weather front, known by locals as a “Pineapple Express”, has helped pin-point potential trouble areas, forcing the closure of Cypress Mountain, venue for snowboarding and freestyle skiing events.

“Weather has always been at the forefront of our planning,” said Tim Gayda, VANOC’s vice president of sport. “We’re doing everything we can to ensure that, even if this warm weather stays around, we have enough snow at Cypress Mountain to do what we need to do.

“From a field of play perspective we are ecstatic with where things are at in Whistler but obviously we have our work to do up in Cypress.”

By Steve Keating
Reuters
January 12, 2010

Vancouver organizers close slopes to preserve snow

WEST VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP)—Vancouver Olympic organizers are closing Cypress Mountain early to preserve the snow for the games that begin in 30 days.

The organizing committee says the site for snowboarding and freestyle skiing on Vancouver’s North Shore is being closed to the public immediately to protect the condition of the courses following several days of rain and warm weather.

The decision to close the mountain two and a half weeks earlier than planned will allow organizers to begin last-minute preparations that weren’t slated to begin until Feb. 1.

Warming tents, fencing, signs and banners will be set up, and snowmaking will resume as soon as the temperature drops.

The Olympic flame will be lit at the opening ceremonies on Feb. 12.

AP, January 13, 2010

Despite 4,000 volunteers, opening ceremony still a secret

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- Almost no one knows what's going to happen at the opening ceremony for the Winter Olympics.

The executive producer of the 4,000-person extravaganza couldn't be happier.

"I have to say I'm very chuffed about that," said David Atkins, who staged the opening of the 2000 Sydney Summer Games.

In one month, the world will be officially welcomed to Vancouver in a multimillion-dollar opening ceremony taking place indoors for the first time.

Atkins is working 20 hours day pulling together everything from logistics to administration, rehearsals with the cast have gone so well that some of them have been canceled.

"They've been great, they've been diligent, punctual and they're, I have to say, probably the most enjoyable bunch of volunteers I've ever worked with," he said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

"I think people have really bought into the fact that they don't want to ruin the surprise. This is something that everyone is waiting for and if they know what it is, that is going to really diminish the experience for everyone."

Atkins won't confirm any details, but he did decide what would be in the ceremonies in part through consultations with 160 people in the cultural community, as well as First Nations. Atkins, an Australian, used the focus groups to determine what people did and did not want reflected in the spectacle.

"We've been quite ambitious about what we're trying to do," Atkins said. "So it hasn't always been something that was readily assimilated by the audiences that we were proposing it to in the sense that it's not a traditional ceremony."

The head of the local organizing committee would only say it's coming together the way they want.

"On February 12 you'll be able to turn on your television at six o'clock and something pretty special is going to happen," John Furlong told reporters at a news conference to mark the one-month countdown to the Games.

The only rules the International Olympic Committee places on an opening ceremony are those involving protocol -- the march of athletes into the stadium, the release of doves, and the phrase: "Let the Games begin."

Associated Press
Tuesday January 12, 2010