The Scope

Years back, when I heard Vancouver had won the Olympics Winter Games for 2010, I didn’t take much note. When tickets went on sale to the events, I didn’t put my name in for any. Because sports and I are not exactly best friends. Never have been. As a kid, sports would set me up to be picked last and force me to expose my skinny, pale legs to girls I was trying to impress. (Thanks a lot, sports.)

The Olympics, then, never meant much to me. But one curiosity remained: what’s it like to be in a city as it hosts something this huge?

I was in Vancouver a couple years back and one thing in particular stood out. It was a road sign about a giant hole in the middle of downtown where they were constructing the Canada Line, an addition to their transit system. The sign read: “Construction. Expect delays from 2006-2009.” Yes, expect traffic delays. For three years.

So while the Olympics may only last 16 days, it’s the result of years of building and over a decade of planning. It goes ahead in the face of protests and budgets that spin out of control. People from everywhere come to see it and cram themselves into every corner of the city. The scale of it blows my mind.

And all that, for sports.

Curiously did eventually get the better of me, so today I arrived in Vancouver. I’ll be checking out free concerts, hunting down Newfoundlanders who are attending the games, all while pretending to understand the events. (“Wait, curling is on ice, but they don’t wear skates?”) I’ll be blogging as I go, so check back here to be kept up-to-date about what’s happening at the Olympics. Unless of course you want to know about the sportings, in which case, I dunno, Google it or something.

Here is a picture I took while flying over the Rockies.

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