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Dodging Olympics, 2010 Oscars Return to March
April 16, 2009
(Newser) – Thanks to the Olympics, you’ll have some extra time to see the Best Picture nominees before the 2010 Oscar telecast, the Los Angeles Times reports. The awards ceremony will move to March 7 from late February to avoid competing with the Vancouver Games. “Why have two gigantic, spectacular events happen on the same day, particularly these days?” said the academy president.
The Oscars were traditionally held in March before the 2004 switch to February, an attempt to shorten the costly awards season. The return to March will mean “members have more time to see movies,” said one consultant, calling the move “helpful.” The Grammys will also move out of the way of the Olympics, shifting from February to Jan. 31.
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Ex-North Star to coach Team USA at 2010 Olympics
By PAUL WALSH
April 16, 2009
Former Minnesota North Star Ron Wilson was announced today as head coach of the U.S. men's Olympic hockey team that will play in Vancouver, B.C., in 2010.
Wilson, 53, is currently the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs and a longtime friend of former Edina West High School hockey star Brian Burke, the general manager of the Leafs and Team USA.
"It's no secret that Ron Wilson is one of the best coaches in the game," said Burke in a news release announcing the selection. "He brings passion, energy, and an overall knowledge of the international landscape to the table that is second to none." Wilson's Olympic experience began in 1976, when he made the U.S. team, but grew disillusioned by the constant travel and poor competition. He quit two months before the Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria.
In 1998, he coached the U.S. team at the Olympics in Nagano, Japan. That was the first year that the Olympic hockey tournament included NHL players. The United States left the tournament tagged as the ugly Americans. After managing just one victory, several American players trashed their rooms and them left without apologizing.
Wilson said in reaction at the time that he was embarrassed by the incident and called it inexcusable.
Wilson played 113 of his 177 NHL games with the North Stars, ending his playing days in Minnesota in 1988.
Wilson's NHL coaching career has taken him to Vancouver, Anaheim, Washington, San Jose and now Toronto.
As for quitting the U.S. team in 1976, Wilson said 22 years later, "I just didn't feel that giving up a year of college [Wilson played four years Providence] was worth the experience. But I regret it. I was 20 years old at the time, and looking back, I wasn't mature enough for the whole process."
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Original Buff Provides U.S. Women’s Ski Jumping Team With Custom Buff
with high hopes for inclusion in 2010 winter olympic games
By Kate Slater
April 16, 2009
SANTA ROSA, Calif. — Buff Headwear, known for innovative, versatile and multifunctional headwear, provided the United States Women’s Ski Jumping Team and other women ski jumpers from around the world with custom Original Buff head and neckwear to kick off the FIS Ski Jumping World Championships in February 2009. Additionally, Original Buff looks forward to continue supporting these pioneering athletes to gain inclusion rights from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to compete in future Olympic Winter Games. As it stands currently, ski jumping is the only sport in the Winter Games in which women are excluded.
“We are very proud to sponsor the U.S. Women’s Ski Jumping Team with the custom Original Buff! We stand by their cause and look forward to one day watching the women jump in the Winter Olympics Games with their custom Buff Headwear,” says Shirley Choi Brunetti, U.S. general manager.
“Buff Headwear has built global name recognition for itself as being the perfect baselayer for winter sports because of its wind and snow protection, as well as moisture management properties; never too hot and never too cold,” Shirley continues.
U.S. athletes, as well as thirteen other renowned ski jumpers from around the world have filed a discrimination lawsuit against the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) in the Supreme Court of British Columbia based on the 2006 IOC verdict to not allow women’s ski jumping into the 2010 Olympics. The hearing is set to take place on April 20, 2009.
Please help the U.S. Women’s Ski Jumping Team accomplish their goal by signing the petition here.
“It was a great opportunity to have a Custom Buff made with our message. We are always trying to find new mediums to promote women’s ski jumping, and what better way than on a Buff. We have had our message on T-shirts, hats, scarves, and sweatshirts, but the Buff has been the most versatile. The girls wear the Buff on their heads, on their necks, and around their face when they are training,” says Blair Tomten, former ski jumper and general coordinator for the U.S. Women’s Ski Jumping Team (WSJUSA).
Buff has provided each athlete with a Women’s Ski Jumping Custom Original Buff with the message “Women Not Allowed” in English and German. The Original Buff can be worn over 12 different ways to accommodate different temperatures and offer a custom fit. It is made from microfiber fabric to provide superior moisture wicking and dry comfort properties, as well as to reduce skin temperature and maintain hydration.
All Buff® models, except the new Merino Wool Buff, incorporate Polygiene technology for active odor and sweat control by releasing non-toxic silver ions to break down odor-causing bacteria.
Please visit the Buff Headwear website and Social Media Release webpage for new, featured products, up-to-date company news, video, images, and much more. Also, please join the Buff Facebook fan base.
About Buff Headwear
Original Buff is based outside of Barcelona, Spain, and opened a U.S. sales office in early 2003. Popular for more than a decade in Europe and used since the show’s inception on CBS’s Survivor television series, Buff Headwear is distributed in more than 45 countries. Buff performance headwear is all about versatility and simplicity – one garment serves many functions. Among other uses, a Buff can be worn as a hat, neck gaiter, balaclava, bandana, scarf, hair band, helmet liner, headband, and pirate-style cap or as a sun, wind or dust screen. Designed to offer technical performance and protection from the elements during a wide range of outdoor activities and sports, Buff Headwear is available in hundreds of styles and designs.
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2010 Winter Games need volunteers, but there's an Olympic-sized catch
Nearly 30,000 volunteers are needed to help at the 2010 Winter Olympics, to be held next February in British Columbia. But being accepted could take more than just having the time and ability.
By Jack Broom
April 16, 2009
Do you speak a foreign language? Can you dance? Have you ever helped put on a sporting event?
And by any chance, do you happen to have a condo at Whistler?
Any of those, along with your willingness to contribute time and effort, could help make you a candidate for one of nearly 30,000 volunteer positions at the 2010 Winter Olympics, to be held in February in British Columbia.
"The success of the Games is largely contingent on the volunteers," said Allen Vansen, managing director of workforce operations for the Vancouver Organizing Committee. "The Olympics couldn't happen without them."
Vansen is in charge of recruiting, training and managing an army of 25,000 volunteers to staff sporting events and other venues in the Vancouver and Whistler areas.
An additional 4,500 volunteers will be selected to perform in, or work at, the extravagant opening and closing ceremonies planned at Vancouver's 55,000-seat BC Place stadium.
Volunteers for the Olympics should be motivated by a desire to be part of an epic event, not by the chance to get in free to see their favorite sport.
"No one will get to sit there and watch a whole competition," Vansen said. "They're going to be running around and pretty busy in their own right."
Some volunteers in support roles won't see the actual events, but that hasn't deterred about 60,000 applicants from more than 140 countries who have applied online since the recruitment drive began early last year.
Vansen wants to generate as large a pool of candidates as possible before formally offering volunteer positions, a process set to begin this month.
The biggest obstacle to candidates from outside British Columbia is that nearly all volunteers will be expected to arrange their housing at a time that lodging in Vancouver and Whistler is expected to be pricey and hard to come by.
"Anyone who has their own accommodation, particularly in the Whistler area, would be quite attractive," Vansen said.
Volunteers, who will undergo background checks by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, will perform a vast array of tasks at the Olympics. Many assignments require minimal training, such as taking tickets, working as ushers, picking up litter, serving food and escorting athletes from the fields of play to doping-testing stations.
But highly skilled and specialized workers also are needed, including doctors and nurses to provide medical services and people who have experience officiating at sports events.
To gauge the importance of the Olympics' volunteer corps, consider this: Once the Games are under way, the Vancouver Organizing Committee's volunteers will outnumber paid employees by more than a 5-to-1 ratio.
Most long-term paid jobs on the committee already are filled, but about 2,000 to 3,000 short-term employees, including various technical and support workers, will be added for the course of the Games.
Canadians have first crack at the jobs and the volunteer slots. "These are Canada's Games. That's something we've emphasized fairly strongly," said Vansen, a Newfoundland native who moved west in 2007 to work on preparations for these Olympics.
About 5,000 volunteers already have assisted at sporting events in the past year, which has enabled Games organizers to "test-drive" competition facilities in Vancouver and Whistler. A high percentage of those volunteers likely will be offered positions during the Olympics.
New applicants for volunteer spots enhance their chances of being accepted, Vansen said, if they speak multiple languages. Athletes are coming to the Games from more than 80 countries, and some of the smaller delegations won't be bringing interpreters.
Volunteers will be asked to work at least 13 days during the 17-day run of the Olympics. Candidates are especially desirable if they'll also agree to work the 10-day Paralympic Games for athletes with physical disabilities, which begin about two weeks after the Olympics end.
Before the Games, most volunteers will be required to travel to Vancouver for at least one training schedule and to get uniforms and credentials, but Vansen's crew has also prepared "e-modules" to teach volunteers much of what they need to know online.
A greater time commitment, in the months leading up to the Games, is required of those who'll be in the opening and closing ceremonies. They'll meet in Vancouver for auditions starting next month and for a series of rehearsals beginning in mid-November.
Dancing experience is helpful, but not required, said Suzanne Walters, spokeswoman for the organizing committee. Among the thousands of applicants so far are several dance troupes and an entire women's hockey team.
As massive as it will be, the volunteer corps assembled by the Vancouver host agency won't reflect the full scope of volunteer work at the Olympics. Many of the arriving delegations, including the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC), travel with volunteers of their own.
Bob Condron, spokesman for the USOC, said the U.S. entourage might include nearly 100 volunteers, including team physicians, trainers and support staffers, such as some 20 assistants in the media office.
A few positions are still open, Condron said. Prospective candidates who can travel to the Games on their own and cover their expenses can write to USOC International Games, One Olympic Plaza, Colorado Springs, CO 80919.
"We tell our volunteers that this is an experience they will never forget," Condron said. "They will be part of history and tell their grandkids about 'the 17 days I worked the Olympics in Vancouver way back in 2010.' We have fun, we work hard and laugh a lot."
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