Another headache for the winter Games: the Brits (News Feature)

By Barry Whelan Feb 16, 2010, 23:28 GMT

Vancouver - If a malfunctioning cauldron, missing buses, violent protests and too much rain were not problems enough, Games organizers have another irritation to deal with: the British press.

To the bafflement of organizers in Vancouver and the International Olympic Committee, the winter Games is already being reported by some British media as a disaster just a few days into competition.

The British press was singled out Tuesday for its negative reporting of the Games at a daily briefing by spokespersons for the organizing committee VANOC and the IOC.

'Vancouver Games continue downhill slide from disaster to calamity,' was the headline in the Guardian, and other British broadsheets seemed to be equally dismissive of the Canadian performance two years ahead of the London 2012 summer Games.

'Snowboarding nonsense is the latest fiasco threatening to make these Games the worst in Olympic history,' the Guardian wrote on the refunding of tickets at the Cypress Mountain venue after rain washed away the snow at spectator standing-areas.

The Games have had to cope with the death of a Georgian luger on Friday and VANOC's Renee Smith-Valade has been answering questions on a daily basis relating to a myriad of other minor problems on transport, ticketing, technical issues - and the weather.

The cancellation of 28,000 standing tickets at Cypress Mountain, and a technical problem with an ice resurfacing machine at Richmond Olympic Oval at the speed skating were further problems for the organizers on Tuesday.

'London 2012 can't be worse than the Vancouver Games this winter,' said the Times, while the Daily Telegraph reported: 'Buses, tickets, food, lavatories, even the mountain itself, have become a logistical failure. In a nutshell it is the manual of how not to run an Olympic Games.'

Smith-Valade admitted to being 'shocked' by the coverage.

'We look at it and wonder which city they are reporting from, it doesn't feel like it's here,' she said.

'We say everyone has a different perspective. The perspective we are hearing the most is that people appreciate we are doing our best. We didn't expect for everything to go perfectly smooth ... (but) these will be remembered as great Games.'

IOC's communications director Mark Adams said he found it 'bizarre' to be having to respond to the criticism.

Adams, who is British, said people reading the articles would be left wondering where the reporters had been at the Games.

'What I read in the press, and obviously I read a lot of the British press, bears absolutely no relation to what I have been seeing in the competition. It's been amazing,' he said.

The criticism has not gone unnoticed either in the Canadian media.

'Why are the British so mad at us?' asked the Hamilton Spectator.

The National Post had a theory.

'From the country with a record of excellence in winter sports - step forward, Eddie the Eagle - British journalists covering the Vancouver games are doing what they do best: making things up,' wrote Araminta Wordsworth in a blog.

The fact that Britain has no athletes on the podium 'leaves reporters casting about for something to write about to justify the huge expense' of sending them to the Games.

'Underpinning it all is the schadenfreudesque hope Vancouver will be such a dud it will make the London Olympics look good.'