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Championship Skiers, Bound as Rivals and Friends
By NATE PETERSON
November 30, 2009
ASPEN, Colo. — Lindsey Vonn talks about her friendship with Maria Riesch in simple terms.
The two have led “pretty much the same life” for most of the past decade, Vonn said. They have similar interests, whether it is playing tennis in the summer, spending time with family, shopping or lying on a beach in Mexico.
Listening to Vonn talk about Riesch is like listening to anyone talk about her best friend. But the ordinariness ends there.
Vonn and Riesch, both 25, are the two best women’s Alpine skiers in the world, having finished 1-2 in the World Cup overall standings last season while also claiming three world championships between them (Vonn in downhill and super G, Riesch in slalom). They have picked up where they left off, with Riesch claiming the season-opening World Cup slalom earlier this month in Levi, Finland, and Vonn taking second after winning the same race last year. The two sit 2-3 in the overall standings heading into this weekend’s races in Aspen, the only United States stop on the women’s Alpine tour.
Both five-discipline skiers will also be competing for the same medals, for different countries, in February at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Their drive to win is perhaps matched only by their commitment to friendship and sportsmanship.
Both hate to lose, but readily admit that if one cannot be the winner, they would rather it be the other.
“If I didn’t have a good run, and I can’t win on that day, I hope that she can,” said Vonn, a native Minnesotan who moved to the Colorado resort of Vail to pursue her skiing promise as a teenager. “That’s our way of thinking. We’re for ourselves, but we support each other 100 percent.”
“It’s always supportive,” said Riesch, who is from the German mountain town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. “Sometimes it’s hard to get beaten, like Lindsey beating me last year all the time in downhill. But it has nothing to do with the friendship. I accept and respect her performance and work to do as good as she does. And probably she thinks the same way as well.”
The two first met nearly nine years ago while competing at the Junior World Championships in Quebec. After becoming friends, they really bonded six years ago, during the summer off-season, when Vonn invited Riesch to her parents’ home in the suburbs of Minneapolis.
Vonn took Riesch shopping at the Mall of America, and to a Cubs game in Chicago. There was also a trip to Vonn’s grandparent’s house in Wisconsin. Since then, Riesch has reciprocated by hosting Vonn and her husband, Thomas, for Christmas at the Riesch’s family home in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. This past spring, Riesch and Vonn vacationed together with family in Mexico.
While it is normal on the World Cup circuit for teammates from the same country to grow close, Vonn said her relationship with Riesch grew out of similar circumstances. Their careers have taken similar trajectories, with both rounding out their skills in all five World Cup disciplines.
Vonn first came to success in the speed events of downhill and super G before honing her slalom skills to earn her World Cup titles. Riesch has grown from a technical specialist (especially in slalom) into a bona-fide contender in all five disciplines.
“People always ask what our interests are,” Vonn said. “The truth is, we don’t have time really for anything else other than skiing. That’s what we can relate to each other best about. Just our life.”
Especially in an Olympic year. Vonn and Riesch acknowledge that support and perspective are crucial when the pressure to win can feel overwhelming. Each skier represent the Olympic hopes of her country, a mantle that can be tough to carry in a sport as fickle as ski racing.
Although Vonn will get the Michael Phelps treatment heading into Vancouver, she is well aware that ski races are not held in controlled environments like Olympic-size pools. One tiny mistake, or even something out of her control, like a gust of wind or changing light on course, can be the difference between winning a medal or finishing out of the running.
She also knows that Americans want to see a winner (see Bode Miller), which is why they will expect her to deliver on expectations — unrealistic as they may be — in February. It is the same situation Riesch will face from her compatriots and the German news media. Both already got a dose of similar scrutiny last year at the Alpine World Championships in Val d’Isère, France.
“For us, even though we’re our greatest competitors on the course, we can benefit from each other so much,” Vonn said. “We can share those experiences. We calm each other down. We’re like, don’t worry about it, just ski your best.”
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Vanoc converting 2010 venues
By Jeff Lee
November 30, 2009
In another signal that the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics are just around the corner, the new Richmond oval will close to the public Tuesday to allow for Games-time conversion.
The closure of the $178-million facility is the latest in a phased shutdown of venues in Vancouver, Whistler and Cypress Bowl to allow the Vancouver Organizing Committee to undertake a complex conversion.
At the oval, workers will string lights, install cabling to support large scoreboards, erect extra seating and install temporary washrooms to handle the sellout crowds expected for the 17 days of speed skating competitions.
It comes on the same day Vanoc will begin to gussy up the mountain venues with its so-called “look of the Games,” hanging banners and other colour-schemed material. It will start employing the “look” in the city starting Jan. 1.
But already there are visible signs in Vancouver and elsewhere that the Games are close. At the Vancouver Convention Centre, temporary security screening and accreditation tents have been erected to process many of the 10,000 journalists expected to attend the Games.
Portions of Cypress Mountain, the site of snowboarding and freestyle skiing, and all of Whistler Olympic Park, the site of ski jumping, cross-country and biathlon, have come under Vanoc’s control for overlay purposes.
In Whistler, Vanoc has also erected a number of temporary structures, including a massive dining hall for athletes, warming huts and media facilities. During the summer it had installed temporary servicing and concrete pads for stands and other equipment at all of the outdoor venues.
Overall, Vanoc will spend $200 million on Olympic imagery and conversion to Games-time use. Of that, about $135 million will go for overlay.
Ted Townsend, a spokesman for Richmond, said the city will mark the looming closure of the oval with a public skate on Sunday. The oval has operated since last December, offering public skating sessions and a variety of fitness programs. All of those will be suspended until April 1, when Vanoc will return the oval to Richmond’s control. Some staff, notably icemakers, will remain at the venue but others, including administration, will move out to allow Vanoc to take over complete control.
The only venues not yet directly under Vanoc’s control are Vancouver’s three civic ice arenas, which will shut down in mid-January, and GM Place. Even the athletes’ villages in Whistler and Vancouver have been turned over for conversion, and Vanoc already has use of the Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Centre, the curling facility at Hillcrest.
At Cypress Mountain, an unexpectedly early snowfall may help dampen the financial impact the company faces for the five weeks the mountain is closed to public skiing. Cypress has been open for daytime public skiing since Nov. 13, nearly a month earlier than usual, said Kent Rideout, a Cypress spokesman.
“We’re trying to keep our business as normal as possible,” Rideout said. “We opened nearly a month early and we have a base of 180 cm. It’s making all the skiers and riders exceptionally happy. That’s good for us.”
Vanoc has taken control of two parking lots and the new freestyle skiing venue, which was never open to the public. It will take over total control of Cypress on Feb. 1.
Two weeks ago, Vanoc chief executive John Furlong gave reporters an idea of the size and scope of the overlay program, noting that the spectator stands at Cypress were 14 storeys tall.
“They’re certainly impressive to see,” said Rideout.
Vanoc is also doing overlay work at Whistler Blackcomb’s Creekside facility, the site of the downhill events. Blackcomb says the first run closures will take place on Jan. 25, with Vanoc taking over lifts on Feb. 1.
Vancouver’s busy community arenas at Trout Lake, Killarney and Britannia Community Centres will close mid-January. But because they are all designated practice facilities for figure skating, short track speed skating and ice hockey, they won’t need major amounts of overlay. Most of the work will entail security and perimeter fencing.
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Olympic marketing pushes 'brand Canada' to (almost) the top of tourism list
By Daphne Bramham
November 27, 2009
India’s newspapers, its bloggers and the huge overseas diaspora have been abuzz for weeks about Bollywood mega-star Akshay Kumar carrying the Olympic torch in Toronto on Dec. 17.
Kumar has millions of fans and might best be described as Bruce Lee, Patrick Swayze and Brad Pitt rolled into one. Wealthy Indians pay up to $1 million US to have him dance at their weddings. So, it didn’t take much convincing to get Prime Minister Stephen Harper to hand-deliver Kumar’s torch.
For Canada to get that much attention in the world’s second most-populous country is amazing. That it’s because of the Winter Olympics is extraordinary since India has never won a medal on ice or snow and is expected to send only one athlete — luger Shiva Keshavan, who had India’s best-ever winter result, 25th, in Turin in 2006 — to the 2010 Games.
Convincing Vanoc to allow Kumar and 13 other international stars to run with the torch was the work of the Canadian Tourism Commission. It’s just one example of how the CTC is using the Vancouver Games to entice tourists to come after the Olympics are over.
With an estimated three billion people expected to be watching this February, it’s a rare advertising opportunity for Vancouver, British Columbia and all of Canada.
As a result, the Canadian Tourism Commission has set an ambitious goal of $100 billion in tourism receipts between next year and 2015. That’s a 30-per-cent increase. The B.C. government’s goal is equally ambitious for the post-Games period.
What never materialized was the bump that a 2002 Intervistas Consulting report predicted would come in the two years leading up to the Olympics. In fact, B.C. tourism revenue has declined and is now below the levels recorded five years ago.
It may be part of the reason, as my colleague Bruce Constantineau reported last week, that the government stunned the industry by firing Tourism BC’s president and announcing that the Crown corporation would be wound down after the Games and returned to a government ministry.
CTC chief executive Michele McKenzie never expected a pre-Olympic tourism rush.
“That’s not been the experience that’s been seen anywhere else,” she said in an interview. “No other Olympic destination has attracted a lot of visitors in advance.”
As a result, CTC has focused all of its efforts and all of the additional $28 million it has to spend over the next five years on the Games and post-Olympic period.
Almost all of that effort is focused abroad in 11 high-yield countries — Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Mexico, South Korea, China, Japan, Australia, India and Brazil. Domestic marketing is left primarily to individual provinces, territories and cities.
Not only is CTC targeting specific countries, it’s zeroing in on specific travellers — high-end travellers, who spend the most time and money once they get here.
Using work done by the polling firm Environics, it has developed a quiz that further segments those travellers by their social values into groups such as cultural explorers, authentic experiencers and free spirits. (Take the quiz at http://tinyurl.com/ye4sfzs)
From there, McKenzie and her staff have spent the past two years fleshing out what Canada is selling as a tourism product. It’s not moose, mountains and Mounties. People know Canada is beautiful.
What people aren’t likely to know is that Canada is interesting, widely varied from region to region, has vibrant cities and a unique culture (which, by the way, isn’t multiculturalism because McKenzie says that idea frightens some people and keeps them away).
CTC is obviously doing something right.
“Canada continues to do an exceptional job with its branding,” said the experts at FutureBrand. “It promotes the experience of adventure, friendly people, diverse culture and beautiful landscapes.”
Those experts bounced Canada to No. 2 from No. 12 in this years’ ranking of countries. The U.S. topped the list on the strength of Barack Obama’s winning the presidency. Australia is No. 3.
Using the Olympics as a springboard, Canada appears well-placed to remain at the top. Here’s why:
If FutureBrand is correct in its future trend predictions that tourists are looking for destinations that are safe, stress-free and exotic — with friendly locals, ecotourism and environmentally sustainable properties and attractions — Canada has that. It is ranked first as people’s choice of where they would most want to live. Canada also ranks first for political freedom, safety, family travel and variety of lodgings.
Canada just needs to get the word out about some of the other stuff and the best way to do that, according to FutureBrand, is to use the Web and social media.
On that score, Akshay Kumar was a homerun.
CTC’s first social media success was when Obama visited Canada earlier this year. It hired a reporter and a camera crew to do streeters with people in Ottawa, asking them what Obama needed to know about the country. The answers ranged from practical to outrageous. They were edited down to three minutes and posted on CTC’s website media centre.
CNN put the clip on its website, then broadcast it on the network. It did a two-minute lead-in, claimed CTC’s reporter as its own and showed another two minutes afterwards.
It asked viewers to e-mail what they thought of Canada and Canadians, which resulted in another piece on Canada.
It would have taken a big chunk of CTC’s annual budget to buy that kind of advertising.
It was a CTC video that ran during last year’s Super Bowl on NBC. It was CTC’s “beauty shots” video of Whistler that ran on the final episode of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen.
South Korean networks took advantage of the video CTC posted of South Korean speed skater Lee Kyung Chun running with the Olympic torch in Tofino. And just wait until Kumar gets to Toronto. The CTC-supplied video and images are expected to go viral.
The city of Richmond managed a similar coup when comedian Stephen Colbert slagged Canadians, calling us syrup-suckers and cheaters for not allowing American speed skaters more practise time at the Olympic Oval.
Richmond’s communications director Ted Townsend responded in kind as the chief syrup-sucker and offered Colbert the job of Oval Ombudsman and the “uniform” of a “girl-pink” toque.
Tourism BC’s printed material available at information kiosks is also Olympic-branded. Its website is populated with video that’s also on YouTube. It’s up on Twitter. But it’s a more practical site that allows visitors to: book accommodation; download discount coupons; buy tickets to museums, galleries and shows; order the printed visitors’ guides; and even link to restaurants that can be sorted by cuisine or location.
It links to tourism websites for Vancouver, Richmond and Whistler.
What Tourism Vancouver’s website has are more videos, featured stories and even a “Foodie’s Fantasy Sweepstakes.” The prize includes a round-trip ticket from any North American airport to Vancouver, four nights accommodation, a floatplane sightseeing trip, Gulf Island winery tour and a cooking class.
What CTC did with Kumar and Hell’s Kitchen are harbingers of the kind of coverage tourism industry officials are hoping for during the Games.
CTC has already prepped hundreds of hours of video that will support the strategy of selling Canada as an exciting and exotic place to visit. A place that includes wilderness, but also great restaurants, nightlife and culture.
Some of the video comes complete with story lines that the 13,000 Olympic-accredited media and the several thousand unaccredited media can use. There are vignettes about specific locations.
There are also lots of “beauty shots” that networks, bloggers and others are already using and which can be used during the Olympics if an event is delayed or if, God forbid, clouds obscure the view of the north shore mountains from the International Broadcast Centre.
This is all great prep work to make sure that three billion people get an enticing glimpse of Canada. But the real and challenging job is ensuring that they come to see it for themselves.
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Vancouver to change bylaws for Olympics
Canwest News Service
November 30, 2009
The City of Vancouver will consider a strengthened 2010 Winter Games bylaw that aims to protect the public's freedom of expression rights and crack down on illegal commercial signs during the Games.
The bylaw, initially approved in July, will see temporary adjustments to 10 bylaws, including relaxing noise and liquor-service hours and removing graffiti more quickly during the Games.
Under the proposals, city staff will have the power to quickly remove illegal commercial signs from property as long they have the owners' consent or a court warrant.
This is aimed at keeping the city clean to as well as prohibiting people from profiting from the Games, Coun. Geoff Meggs said.
"Someone can make a lot of money selling advertising for five days during the Games," he said. "We want to make sure they won't profit."
The city has also reduced the size of some of the security zones in downtown core but is adding new restrictions around Robson Square, which will be the provincial government's official venue.
David Eby, executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Society, said he's pleased with the changes although he's concerned about the potential impact on street vendors along Hastings Street, which has been dubbed an Olympic zone.
The new bylaw will go to council on Tuesday.
In other Olympic news, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service will "augment" its B.C. resources substantially during the Olympics, B.C. office operations manager Alan Budde said this week.
CSIS employs about 2,600 people across Canada and in foreign offices and, while Budde wouldn't say how many of those employees would have a presence in Vancouver or Whistler during the Olympics, he said the Winter Games are one of CSIS's top priorities.
The intelligence agency's basic Olympic duties will include processing accreditations, producing threat assessments and giving advice to the federal government.
Budde said CSIS cannot investigate lawful protest or dissent, unless those activities are carried out with specific threats to national security. "So if you don't want the Olympics to be here and you intend to carry a placard, we won't be bothering you."
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