Canada's gold medals might make the rest of the world prone to criticism, but all of the bluster emerging internationally should be ignored entirely.
Typing the search term “Vancouver” into Google these days produces a flood of negative stories which are snowballing far more effectively than the efforts to maintain the white stuff atop a warm and damp Cypress Mountain.
I find it fascinating how the British press are writing a post-mortem on the Games within 2-3 days of the opening. But then again, in typical Limey tabloid fashion, printing first, and thinking and apologizing later, is once again being employed in skewered coverage designed to set the bar as low as possible for the London 2012 games.
To connect the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili to Canada’s “lust for glory” or to blame the difficulties caused by usually warm temperatures is absolutely ridiculous.
And accordingly, most reading such tripe will be able see through these arguments as a tower of cards, shattered with the most innocuous gust of wind – meaning any voice of reason.
Don’t get me wrong…I have always been weary of VANOC’s operations, their modus operandi, and quite frankly, their decision making in running these Games. As an example, when the Mayor of Vancouver, one of the biggest Olympic boosters out there, starts to publicly campaign for the organization to free the flame, you know that the powers that be have been couped up for far to long in their Burnaby headquarters.
But our pride, which is showing through like no other time in our history, should not be halted for all the criticism in the world.
