Vancouver 2010

With life pretty much back to normal in Vancouver, the 2010 Winter Olympics are now fading into memory, albeit the special sector of memory reserved for the very best of moments.  In our household, Vancouver 2010 will always have a special meaning.  These Olympics resulted in a huge life change for the Bailey family, one that has now provided the reward we had hoped for when we agonized over the decision to leave North Bay over two years ago.  True, we didn’t move to Vancouver for the Olympics.  We moved for a great job opportunity at a time when storm clouds were brewing in the railway industry in Northern Ontario.  But that new job opportunity was created by the need to build infrastructure for the Olympics, and the decision to take the job was largely influenced by the opportunity to experience an Olympic games first hand.  So in many ways, the 2010 Olympics have played a huge role in every aspect of our current life, and certainly altered the course of our young son’s youth.

There is not much I can write about Vancouver 2010 that hasn’t already been written.  There were the early glitches that had everyone wondering.  As a person who wanted to feel proud of our Olympics, I too had moments of anxiety.  The death of the Georgian luger, the lack of snow, the fourth leg of the Olympic cauldron that refused to rise at the most important moment of the opening ceremonies.  Realizing that something was wrong as I watched our great torchbearers wait for the cauldron to complete itself, a feeling of sickness descended over me.  Perhaps I identified with the engineers and technicians that must have gone through hell in those crucial moments, or perhaps I feared the consequences of a similar system failure on the Canada Line, which by that time was already handling over 200,000 passengers per day.  Whatever the case, I went to bed that night feeling pretty apprehensive. 

On Saturday February 13^th we commenced our Olympic experience by heading downtown to check out the festivities.  First stop was the Olympic cauldron at the waterfront where we were greeted by that ugly fence that reminded us of a construction site.  How could this be?  What were they thinking?  Then it was off to Granville Street where we went into the Vogue Theatre to watch the woman’s freestyle skiing event on the big screen. 

Jennifer Heil was favoured to win the country’s first Olympic gold medal on home soil and we watched her ski an almost perfect run, only to be outdone by American Hannah Kearney who inched her out of the top spot for gold.  It was at that moment that I wondered whether the laws of statistics, the probability of three hundred million versus 30 million would prevail throughout these Olympics.  I hoped in my heart that things would get better.  And boy, things certainly did get better.

For me, the turning point was when I received a phone call from my excited wife telling me that Alexandre Bilodeau had just won gold.  Rushing home to watch the highlights on CTV, and seeing the expression of sheer joy on Alexandre’s brother’s face was enough to erase any apprehension that may have existed.  The party had begun.  A few days later a huge ridge of high pressure descended on Vancouver providing solid blue skies for the next week.  I have always said that when the sun is shining in Vancouver, it is truly one of the most beautiful cities in the world.  People started to come out to the streets in droves.  At the Canada Line we watched incredulously as our passenger volumes grew daily.  A record 287,379 passengers were handled on Friday, February 19^th alone.  We had to implement what we called our “Armageddon” train schedule, one that put every single train and resource at our disposal into service.  And what is amazing is how well behaved, friendly, and most of all happy all of these passengers were.  It quickly became apparent that something special was happening in Vancouver.  The city was being transformed by a once in a lifetime event that permeated every aspect of life, both for locals and visitors. 

Throughout the entire duration of the games, the Canada Line and its employees continued to perform flawlessly.  It is amazing to note that just short of four million passengers were handled by the Canada Line during the Olympics and there was virtually no damage to trains, no graffiti, and no violence.  Under what circumstances has something like that ever happened?

We took advantage of every opportunity to experience the games.  We were lucky enough to get tickets to some of the early sporting events, we took in one of the nightly Victory Ceremonies at BC Place, and we saw Blue Rodeo play at the Yaletown live site on the second last night of the games. 

One of the most powerful experiences was watching the stunning fireworks that followed the Blue Rodeo show orchestrated to K’naan’s inspirational song “Wavin’Flag”.  Just awesome! 

But most frequently, we just wandered around the streets of the downtown to experience the mass of humanity.  We could sense that whatever was going on would not be repeated anytime soon, if ever again in our lifetime.

As for the sporting competitions, there was a time following some of the initial Canadian victories when things got slow.  In typical fashion the press started to question Canada’s sporting programs.  The reality was that it didn’t really matter.  By this time the mood of the city and patriotism of the people couldn’t be dampened.  In the final days of the games, the medals started to come fast and furious.  The end of the Vancouver Winter Olympics couldn’t have been scripted any better. 

I don’t need to describe the final game or its outcome as it was the most watched event in Canadian history.  The closing ceremonies went off without a hitch and the fourth leg of the Olympic cauldron worked just as it was designed, with a touch of Canadian humour thrown in to recover from the opening ceremony failure.  For me, watching Neil Young alone with his acoustic guitar and harmonica on the floor of BC Place capped off the ceremonies.  No lip syncing with this performer.  An international Canadian icon just fitting for the close of a great event!

Well done Vancouver, well done Canada.  The move from North Bay was certainly worth it.