Friday 12 February 2010

Winter Olympics set to begin

February 12, 2010 - a big day for winter sports fans around the world as the Vancouver Winter Olympics get underway, and what's everyone talking about?

Yes, it's the fact that one or two simple stats (first Winter Olympics at sea level, warmest host city etc) are coming back to haunt the organising committee because there's...no snow.

Indeed, Canada's weather reporters are quickly becoming national celebrities as a nation and hundreds of athletes hope for a cold snap. Truck-loads of imported snow as well as a healthy dump of the manufactured stuff are being relied on to ensure that the show goes ahead.

But away from a nation's obsession with the weather, why is the 2010 Winter Olympics so important to  the UK and Scotland?

Well, in the first instance we have a small but proud record to uphold - our women's curling team's gold medal exploits are well known, and 19-year-old skip Eve Muirhead, the youngest ever winner of the Scottish Championships, has been grabbing headlines as a medal hopeful.

And Shelley Rudman (pictured), a silver medallist in the skeleton in 2006, will carry the UK flag at tonight's opening ceremony with some hope that it's not her final high-profile moment of the Games. She'll also act as team captain in Whistler, while Vancouver captain will be men's curling skip, 31-year-old David Murdoch from Lockerbie.


Shelly Rudman hoping for glory. Picture: Getty Images

Elsewhere, Britain will have 52 athletes competing across six sports and 11 disciplines at the Winter Olympics.

And it's also a relevant event because both the UK and Scotland have major competitions of their own to look forward to on the horizon. London 2012 and Glasgow 2014's teams will both be casting an eye towards Vancouver and hoping to learn some clear lessons about organisation, logisitics, handling the media, dealing with ever-changing new media demands, as well as evolving doping and technological conundrums.

But one thing's for sure, there's no doubt that both London and Glasgow will be breathing a relieved sigh that they don't have to hope for snow when it's their turn to grab the international sporting limelight.



 Getty Images: Cypress Mountain's non-competitive runs. Picture: Getty Images

No comments:

Post a Comment