Erstellt am: 13. 2. 2010 - 12:25 Uhr
The Olympics: An Increasingly Dangerous Affair
Yesterday morning, I went out at just past five in the morning with the ORF Television Sports team, to try and capture an interview with the most famous living Austrian, the Californian Governator.
Apparently I was not the only person to have this idea.
A little backstory for those who don't know: along with astronaut Julie Payette, Steve Nash, Sebastian Coe, and approximately 12,000 Canadians, Arnold Schwarzenegger signed on to bear the Olympic Torch 300 metres during the relay. He was one of the final ones to do so, walking with it three hundred metres that morning in Vancouver's Stanley Park.
I came there with a naïve expectation that because he was doing it so ultra-early in the morning (7 a.m.), the crowds would not be too intense.
So did the police. The closer I got to the lighthouse where Schwarzenegger was to pass over the torch to the next torchbearer, the clearer it became that the crowds were larger than local authorities were prepared for.
The Press Mosh Pit
When I got to the usually comfortable fenced-in press area, there may have not been any room to move, but my fellow reporters, technicians, and cameramen were still behaving civilly to one another. As soon as Arnold appeared around the corner, however, all pretenses evaporated.
"This is a mob scene like I have never seen in my life," declared the CTV reporter on site, shortly before she and I were both knocked over (and very nearly crushed) by several camera-wielding internationals.
To avoid actually getting stepped on, at one point I had to grab onto a cameraman in front of me, and climb up as if he were a tree. This would have been a very silly photograph I think, and I'm hoping it doesn't exist.
A Tragic Olympic First
And, of course, it was only a couple hours later that luge competitor Nodar Kumaritashvili, one of nine Georgians competing, died in a tragic accident on one of the tracks at Whistler.
"This is a very sad day," declared International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge shortly thereafter. "The IOC is in deep mourning. Here you have a young athlete who lost his life in pursuing his passion, he had a dream to participate in the Olympic games, he trained hard, and he had this fatal accident. I have no words to say what we feel. [...] This tragedy casts a shadow over these Games."
It was also a historic first, the only time in 86 years of Winter Olympics, that a competitor has died during an event. The only occasion that even came close was (oddly enough) in Austria, during the 1964 Winter Games in Innsbruck. On that occasion, two participants died during training and practice, a couple of weeks before the events.
Crowd Control
Still, the show must go on. Last night, the Opening Ceremonies did so with much pomp and flair, featuring fantastically-outfitted traditional dancing from the Four Host Nations, and a slightly over-the-top rendition of the National Anthem. Other live performances came from Sarah McLauchlan, k.d. lang and Bryan Adams, and quite a few others.
There were a few embarrassing errors, including a column which simply did not rise when it was supposed to, leaving one of four torchbearers (speedskater Catriona LeMay Doan) with nothing to do while the other three (notably Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky) lit the final Olympic torch.
I must admit, I was a little uneasy when Gretzky went out to light the external cauldron at Coal Harbour, and rode in the back of a VANOC pick-up truck while crowds surged around him, apparently uncontrolled. I was reminded of the Schwarzenegger Torch Relay: the police presence seemed to me once again frightfully ill-prepared.
Over the course of Gretzky's journey, rowdy members of the crowd came nearly close enough to touch him. Nothing serious happened, but I found it troubling.
In other news, officials have declared the Whistler luge track safe enough as it is, so today's luge competition will carry on as planned.
My only hope is that any further issues will be more of the embarrassing sort, rather than dangerous or fatal.
Listen to the Arnold Schwarzenegger Olympic Torch Relay here.
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