2010 WINTER OLYMPICS:After two weeks of controversy, celebrations and surprising thrills, Lawrence Doneganlooks back at the games
OVERALL BEST
World-class athletes competing against other world-class athletes is never less than compelling, even if their sport does not at first appear to be a heart-pumping thrill ride. Witness the final of the women’s curling, which inevitably came down to the very last shot. Could Canada’s skipper, Cheryl Bernard, still her nerves and make a straightforward double to beat the Swedes? Could she hell.
After Beijing’s orderly and creepy celebration of itself and the Chinese talent for mass organisation, Vancouver’s approach was a bit more haphazard and a lot more likeable. So what if parts of the opening ceremony did not quite go as planned, it was the spirit that counted.
WORST
The choice of Cypress Mountain to host the snowboarding and freestyle skiing events was the great gamble that did not pay off. No snow and lots of rain left the venue looking more like a Glastonbury mud bath than a winter wonderland. Still, there was enough snow for the boarders to strut their stuff, most memorably Shaun White, whose gold-medal performance in the men’s half-pipe proved that, sometimes, you really do need to believe the hype. It was just a shame the 28,000 people who had their tickets cancelled because of safety concerns were not able to witness such highlights.
The death of the Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili during a training run on the morning of the opening ceremony cast a pall over the Games. It also raised wide-ranging questions about the safety of the Whistler sliding track and where responsibility for the accident lay. Two weeks, numerous bobsleigh crashes and endless buck-passing (between the Games organisers, the Georgian government and the International Luge Federation) later no one really knows where the answers lie.
THE SPORTS
BEST
Ski cross, new to the Olympics and irresistibly simple. Four skiers start at the top of a hill. First to the bottom wins. It is fast, it looks great on television and there don’t appear to be any rules (except no tripping and no poking the competition in the eye with your ski pole). What could be more appealing?
WORST
Snowboard parallel giant slalom, in which two boarders race down the mountain on parallel runs. Sounds good in theory. In practice it packed about as much drama and visual spectacle as an IOC cocktail party.
PERFORMANCES
BEST
South Korean figure skater Kim Yu-na arrived in Canada carrying the hopes of an entire nation and a reputation for perfection.
She let no one down, not South Korea and not those who seek perfection, with a free programme performance destined to be remembered for as long as Torvill’s and Dean’s famous Bolero in 1984.
For the UK, Amy Williams’s gold in the women’s skeleton turned out to be the only medal won by the Great Britain team.
On a sliding track that left many of her fellow competitors befuddled or plain scared Williams barrelled down with ease, setting track records and leaving the rest heading to the judges hut to register mean-spirited protests about her racing helmet.
WORST
A difficult choice, with so many candidates. Snowboarder Lesley McKenna, who fell twice in her two qualifying runs in the half-pipe at Turin in 2006 and did the same again here, made a strong bid.
But in the end even McKenna’s risible effort was beaten out by the men’s curling team which arrived in Vancouver as world champions and departed without even making it to the semi-finals.
Not a great return on the £1.1 million invested in curling over the past four years.
AND THE QUOTES...
US snowboarder Scotty Lago was sent home before the closing ceremony after being photographed in a bar with his bronze medal hanging below the belt as it was being kissed by a female admirer. “Keeping my medal in a safe spot for now, ha ha,” the less than repentant Lago Tweeted when he got home.
“My name is Odd-Bjoern Hjelmeset. I skied the second lap and I f*** up today. I think I have seen too much porn in the last 14 days. I have the room next to Petter Northug and every day there is noise in there. So I think that is the reason . . . By the way Tiger Woods is a really good man,” said Norwegian cross-country skier Odd-Bjoern Hjelmeset, when asked about his silver-medal performance in the men’s cross-country relay.
Guardian service
