Canada bites back at Olympic criticism

First it was The Guardian, now it's the Daily Mail. Unlikely bedfellows you'd have thought but neither paper has been slow to declare Vancouver's Winter Olympics 2010 a flop.

The media at work in Cypress. Picture: Martin Boyle

And this hasn't gone unnoticed in Canada. Indeed, one Canadian fan, upon hearing my accent at Cypress Mountain today, demanded to know if I worked for the Daily Mail and, if I didn't, did I know where he might find a Mail reporter.

I think his first thought might have been to string the unsuspecting, but undoubtedly churlish, journo from the nearest cablecar tower.

He went on to explain: "I'd love to talk to the guy and just hear where he's getting this stuff from. We're having a great Games, everyone's loving it and we just don't understand where they're coming from or what they're trying to do.

"The Games have been a success. To most people it just looks like they've got an agenda, they're here to criticise and it looks like they're trying to make London look good for the next Olympics.

And, pointing to a sun-kissed and buzzing Cypress, he said: "You'd have to be crazy not to love this, right?

 Ski fans enjoy Cypress Mountain. Picture: Martin Boyle

"The Games have been a success. To most people it just looks like they've got an agenda, they're here to criticise and it looks like they're trying to make London look good for the next Olympics."

IOC Director of Communications Mark Adams followed a similar line, when he said he "did not recognise the Games as portrayed by the British press," adding: "You wonder which city they're reporting from. What they're saying bears absolutely no relation to what I've seen at the competitions. It's been amazing. You wonder where these people have been."

Indeed, with the notable exception of the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili, most of the 'problems' (broken machinery, lost bus drivers, huge crowds, endless queues,mistakes in information and ticketing) are present at many a British football match, far less an event which spans so many variables.

                   BBC's Ed Leigh and Graham Bell interview Ski Cross gold medallist Michael Schmid of Switzerland. Picture: Martin Boyle

Having already met up with several people involved in putting together London 2012 and Glasgow 2014, perhaps one of the lessons that they need to learn is that it's the side issues rather than the sporting action which can transform the overall message presented by the media.

The reality is that day 10 lived up to its 'Super Sunday' billing. The Ski Cross event showed that skiiing is learning from snowboarding, its cooler younger brother, and in its first ever appearance at an Olympics arguably produced the event of the Games so far, with man mountain Michael Schmid in unstoppable form. Canada's hockey clash with the USA, which the States won, added to a Scandanavian sell-out when Sweden met Finland, proved that sports fans are lapping up every minute.

              Michael Schmid celebrates gold. Picture: Martin Boyle