Vancouver should bid for the Gold...
Mar. 1st, 2006 01:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jawnbcSeveral years ago I wrote an op-ed piece for out here in Vancouver. I was proposing we bid to host a Winter Olympic Games. I came across it yesterday while searching for something else, so I'll take that as the Universe saying "share! share!". No, not "Cher! Cher!".
Vancouver should bid for the gold (The Province, 24 August 1994), by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jawnbc
The International Olympic Committee is considering several bids to host the 2002 Winter Olympics, including a submission from Quebec City. Why didn't anyone submit a bid for Vancouver/Whistler?
Vancouver now stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the world's great cities. Visitors are awestruck by our beautiful waters and towering mountains. Our infrastructure can manage an event of this magnitude. We proved it with EXPO '86.
Whistler is uniformly ranked as one of the two best Alpine ski destinations in North America. It has world-class downhill ski runs. Wouldn't it be great to have Cary Mullen, Kate Pace, and the rest of the Cracy Canucks win gold in our own back yard?
At the Games in Lillehammer Norway this year, most spectators stayed in Oslo--about three hours away--and travelled via a special rail link. A rapid rail link between Vancouver and Whistler would be an asset to our region long after the Olympic flame was extinguished.
Nordic skiing eents could be held Whistler, or perhaps at Hollyburn Ridge or Mount Seymour. Wouldn't it be nice for Miram Bedard to win her next two biathlon gold medals on Canadian snow? Grouse Mountain could be used for freestyle skiing, while hockey, figure skating, and speed skating events could be held at our two local stadiums.
This is not to say it wouldn't be a challenge to mount the Games: we would need to build housing for athletes and officials (Squamish? False Creek South?). Such units could be used as low-income housing or sold as condominiums to help defray costs after the Games. Ski jumps and bobsleigh runs would have to be built, perhaps somewhere between Vancouver and Whistler. Any major construction projects should be designed for long-term use with as little impact on the environment as possible. They did it in Norway, we can do it too! There has been talk of further development north of Whistler, which also could be tied to a Games bid. We have many of the necessary facilities in place. With financial support from both the public and private sectors, our strong BC economy could support an Olympics bid. Such an undertaking seems perfectly suited to Prime Minister Jean Chretien's as well as Mike Harcourt's capital project.
In 1986 we showed the world how beautiful Vancouver is in summertime--let's show 'em southern BC in all its snow-capped glory. The various levels of government involved should strike a committee as soon as possible to prepare a bid. Let the Games begin!
FYI, about 2/3 of these ideas are in the plan that won the bid for 2010. So they should totally give me a job, eh?
Vancouver should bid for the gold (The Province, 24 August 1994), by
jawnbc The International Olympic Committee is considering several bids to host the 2002 Winter Olympics, including a submission from Quebec City. Why didn't anyone submit a bid for Vancouver/Whistler?
Vancouver now stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the world's great cities. Visitors are awestruck by our beautiful waters and towering mountains. Our infrastructure can manage an event of this magnitude. We proved it with EXPO '86.
Whistler is uniformly ranked as one of the two best Alpine ski destinations in North America. It has world-class downhill ski runs. Wouldn't it be great to have Cary Mullen, Kate Pace, and the rest of the Cracy Canucks win gold in our own back yard?
At the Games in Lillehammer Norway this year, most spectators stayed in Oslo--about three hours away--and travelled via a special rail link. A rapid rail link between Vancouver and Whistler would be an asset to our region long after the Olympic flame was extinguished.
Nordic skiing eents could be held Whistler, or perhaps at Hollyburn Ridge or Mount Seymour. Wouldn't it be nice for Miram Bedard to win her next two biathlon gold medals on Canadian snow? Grouse Mountain could be used for freestyle skiing, while hockey, figure skating, and speed skating events could be held at our two local stadiums.
This is not to say it wouldn't be a challenge to mount the Games: we would need to build housing for athletes and officials (Squamish? False Creek South?). Such units could be used as low-income housing or sold as condominiums to help defray costs after the Games. Ski jumps and bobsleigh runs would have to be built, perhaps somewhere between Vancouver and Whistler. Any major construction projects should be designed for long-term use with as little impact on the environment as possible. They did it in Norway, we can do it too! There has been talk of further development north of Whistler, which also could be tied to a Games bid. We have many of the necessary facilities in place. With financial support from both the public and private sectors, our strong BC economy could support an Olympics bid. Such an undertaking seems perfectly suited to Prime Minister Jean Chretien's as well as Mike Harcourt's capital project.
In 1986 we showed the world how beautiful Vancouver is in summertime--let's show 'em southern BC in all its snow-capped glory. The various levels of government involved should strike a committee as soon as possible to prepare a bid. Let the Games begin!
FYI, about 2/3 of these ideas are in the plan that won the bid for 2010. So they should totally give me a job, eh?
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Date: 2006-03-02 02:17 am (UTC)