The Wrap-Up

Well, the end is near. I'll be heading home tomorrow. Hopefully the airport will be a little less crowded (39,000 people in one day is quite a lot). Are you suffering from Olympics withdrawal yet? I sure am.

The past two weeks have been really surreal. Vancouver and Whistler have been fantastic as always, but when you add in all of the emotion and excitement from the Olympics, it's been a crazy high the whole time.

Things that surprised me:

• the patriotism: we've been gung-ho about Canada in the past, but nothing like this. Everyone in the world must know our anthem by now. I have never in my life seen so much red and white.
  
• the cynicism in the press: okay fine, we didn't exactly work out all the bugs up front, but even when things were going relatively well, the international press was still dumping on us. Should they have moved the Cypress events? It's not like moving your car. They planned for the events to be held there months, maybe years in advance. And really, where would they have moved them? Whistler may be big but to add two more stadiums, rearrange the security and figure out the transportation would have been disastrous. "Worst games ever"? Really? I don't know where that reporter was sitting, but as far as I could tell everyone here was having a great time.
• the recovery: along the same vein, having an athlete die right before the start was somewhat of a PR fiasco. The protest/riot at the beginning was also a pretty big damper. But they figured it out in the end. Being respectful to the athlete and his country, mentioning it from time to time (but not all the time) was a good idea. Whether or not there were other public disturbances, it's hard to say since I heard the media were asked not to publicize it. And thank goodness they worked something out in the closing ceremonies to cover the hydraulic mess from the opening ceremonies. The moment I saw that, all was forgiven (almost...).
  
• the Hollywood quality: how many "made for Hollywood" moments were there? The bronze-winning figure skater whose mother had died days earlier, the nail-biting overtime goal for gold, the formerly blind bobsleigh driver who won gold, the cross-country skier who finished third despite injuring herself during the warm-up, and the list goes on.
• the cheesiness: as I said earlier, the opening ceremonies were slightly disappointing. The closing was good at the beginning, but then sort of degenerated into the same sort of embarrassment as before. I get that we were trying to make fun of ourselves, but I think as Canadians we have a sense of humour that only we understand.

Now that it's all over, there are a few things I hope will happen. I hope that at least part of the enthusiasm that we experienced here will carry over to the Paralympic Games later this month. I hope that city councillor is successful in reopening some of the pavilions and exhibits. I hope the money that was being funnelled into the sports programs over the past 4 years to "own the podium" will continue. I hope, sometime in the near future, we actually will own the podium.

Thanks for following me on my Olympic journey. However, I don't think it's over quite yet. I was at a London Drugs today and my total came to $20.12. No joke.

"Most beautiful place reborn and blown off roof, my view about-face whether great will be done"