Olympics Notebook: Vancouver 2010

Thanks Vancouver, the Games were a blast

If it wasn’t magic from Sidney Crosby, what was it? A flick of the wrist from the world’s best hockey player, the dreams of 33 million Canadians were made real and the Winter Olympics ended with the flourish they deserved.

 El Sid, The Next One, Sid the Kid, #87 … If anyone was going to find a way past Ryan Miller in overtime, and give Canada gold number 14, somehow you knew it was going to him.

The Games are over, after a closing ceremony full of deliciously funny Canadian self-deprecation. As chief organiser John Furlong said, the hockey win over the U.S. will live on for generations in Canada. For the rest of the world, I think the Games as a whole will be remembered pretty fondly too.

Here are a few things I will treasure from my time in Vancouver:

1. The warmth of the welcome from the people of this city blew me away. Vancouver is as laid back as a Californian snowboarder, and if I occasionally found myself spitting feathers at how it could take five minutes — FIVE MINUTES — to prepare a cup of coffee, or how two beers — TWO BEERS — could possibly cost 20 dollars, including two types of sales tax and tip, well, you know, that probably said more about me than The Couver.

2. Hockey. Who knew that 200 feet of ice could be the stage for such an electrifying occasion, and I don’t just meant the final against the United States. Hockey has that mix of athleticism, skill and spite all great sports need and if it wasn’t for the terrible music they play at the slightest provocation — I mean, the Banana Boat Song? Ob La Di Ob la Da? Please … — I could really get into it.

3. Snowdudes. The various types of snowboarding and freestyle skiing seem intent on outdoing each other not only in the gravity-defying invention of the jumps and the organised mayhem of their races, but also in just how casual the athletes can be in their reaction to triumph or disaster. ”Awesome” is about all they say when they win, while spectacular falls and lost medals are greeted with a shrug of the shoulder. Totally sick, man. Ill.

Olympic ice hockey final, closing ceremony — live

We’re at rinkside in Vancouver to bring you live coverage of the Winter Olympics ice hockey final between Canada and the United States. And join us later for the closing ceremony of these Games.

Winter Games, day 14 — live

The men’s ice hockey semi-finals pitting the United States against Finland and Canada against Slovakia are the highlights of the day … but with the mayhem of short track speed skating and the women’s curling final there’s plenty of other action to shout about… Join us here today and every day of the Games.

Winter Games, day 12 — live

Lindsey Vonn goes for gold again in the women’s Alpine skiing giant slalom and we’ll be here to follow that and all the action, including some spectacular freestyle skiing late on, on day 12 of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

The other event not to be missed is Russia v Canada in the men’s ice hockey quarter-finals, starting at 1630 local time, 1930 ET and 0030 GMT. Can the hosts overcome the Red Machine and keep their golden dream alive? If not, there are going to be a lot of glum faced Canadians on the streets of Vancouver.

A crush that led to Olympic gold

Canadians basking in the warm glow of Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue’s gold medal winning performance in the ice dancing were all asking the same question on Tuesday … Are they as close off the ice as they are on it?

Turns out the answer is no, but things might have turned out diffrerently, as Allan Dowd reports…

“I know I had a crush on Scott, that’s for sure, but I wasn’t alone there,” she told reporters.

“That’s certainly changed,” Moir shot back.

And no, they are certainly not dating now.

“Just on the ice for seven minutes every time we do the program,” Moir joked.

Canadians own the streets, if not the podium

Own the podium has proved a fraught and at times disappointing venture for Canada at these Olympic games, with would-be stars crashing out of the races, like ski cross star Christopher Delbosco did spectacularly on Saturday.

But it’s a different story when it comes to owning the streets, where there’s a sea of red and white just about everywhere you look, both in Vancouver and on the mountain venues of Whistler and Cypress.

The low-tier patriotism starts with a tiny Canadian pin, or a discrete temporary tattoo showing the red-white Maple Leaf flag. But the styles run right up to a full routine of hat, scarf, jacket, shirt, tattoos and a large flag pinned to the shoulders like Superman’s cape. Canada jackets come in red, white, yellow and discrete black, and t-shirts are mostly red, with splashes of other colour.

One t-shirt caught my eye: At first sight it read “I’m American” in big black letters on a white background. Look closer, and the red blotch above the two words is actually a little Maple Leaf, with “not” in small white letters.

Click the video above (or the picture and then the video, if you are on the home page) for a series of photographs by Chris Helgren.

Olympics Hockey Super Sunday — live

We’re running a live blog on the mouth-watering line up of hockey on Sunday, featuring Russia v Czech Republic in Group B, Canada v United States in Group A and Sweden v Finland in Group C.

We’ll be talking hockey all day so please feel free to dip in. The fun starts Sunday. Early.

Winter Olympics live blog — day seven

Our live blog on the day’s events at the Winter Olympics is up and running… The men’s Super-G is the big event of the morning, at 1130 local, 1430 ET and 1930 GMT, but there’s exciting action too in the skeleton, ski jumping and ice dancing.

We’ll be here all day and every day, with expert comment from our team of reporters at the Games, so please feel free to dip in and out…

Winter Games: picture of the day

Paul Barker writes on Tuesday:

I spent much of the day editing the women’s 500 metre speed skating race, looking at many very good pictures. Jerry Lampen’s frame of Annette Gerritsen of the Netherlands crashing as Nao Kodaira of Japan speeds past was the image of the day from that event.

Winter Olympics — day four

Our live blog on the Winter Olympics is up and running. Follow it in this window (or by clicking on the headline) and follow the main medal action, with on-the-spot comments from our team of reporters.