REVIEW: Vancouver 2010 transforms Canada and Olympics

By John Bagratuni Mar 1, 2010, 3:26 GMT

Vancouver - The Vancouver Olympics overcame early tragedy with the help of an enthusiastic and successful host nation against which future Games will be measured.

The party atmosphere in Vancouver, the mountain venue of Whistler, and across the whole of Canada was nothing short of remarkable and sparked the home team to an Olympic record gold medal haul completed in style by the men's ice hockey team on Sunday.

But the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili just hours before the opening ceremony two weeks ago also forces future organizers and the International Olympic Committee to put safety first in the future instead of further testing the limits.

IOC president Jacques Rogge said Kumaritashvili's death will never be forgotten and that he has written to Sochi 2014 organizers to make sure that their sliding track is safe.

Organizers were also bogged down with other problems early on - a technical hitch at the lighting of cauldron (which they made up for in light-hearted fashion at the closing ceremony), bad weather playing havoc with the alpine schedule, transportation problems etc.

But once the sun set on midway through the first week, and Canada had finally won its first home gold from freestyle skier Alexandre Bilodeau, there was no way to stop the party which changed a nation.

'I said to the mayor (Gregor Robertson) 'You can have your city back but I don't know what you're going to do with it because it's changed',' organizing committee (VANOC) boss John Furlong, who named the fans 'the wind beneath our wings.'

Rogge named the Games 'excellent and very friendly' as he closed the Games on Sunday. The IOC boss earlier praised 'this extraordinary embrace of the entire city of the Olympic Games, something I have never seen on this scale before.'

Like the Germans discovered at the 2006 football World Cup that they can party, Canadians found out that they are not only warm-hearted hosts but can win as well.

And how they won!

The 14 golds marked an Olympic winter record, and who will ever forget Jon Montgomery parading through Whistler with a pitcher of beer in his hand after his skeleton gold, Jasey-Jay Anderson's snowboard giant slalom title and of course the men's and women's ice hockey golds.

'We have come on strong and we thought we had the right plan. But I don't think in our wildest dreams we thought we'd get this many gold medals,' said Canadian Olympic Committee chief executive Chris Rudge.

Furlong said at the closing ceremony amid a roar which echoed from coast to coast: 'Alex (Bilodeau), your first gold gave us permission to feel and behave like champions. Our last one will be remembered by generations.'

Canada won the medal table with a 14-7-5 haul, but the following nations Germany (10-13-7) and the US (9-15-13) garnered more medals, with the US haul of 37 also a winter Games record.

Norway overcame its 2006 disaster of just two golds with nine in the final tally, and provided the most successful athlete of the Games in cross-country skier Marit Bjoergen, who took home three gold, one silver and one bronze.

'To go home with five medals feels great ... It will take a while to understand what I have done at the Olympics,' said Bjoergen.

Wang Meg also won three gold medals as China swept the women's short track events and Nordic combined skier Bill Demong gave the US a first ever gold in a Nordic event.

The whole of South Korea delighted in Kim Yu Na's historic women's figure skating gold and a second large and normal double gave Swiss ski-jumper Simon Ammann an unrivalled four individual golds in the sport.

Bode Miller made peace with the Olympics when he got an alpine gold at last (in the super combined), plus a silver and bronze.

But team-mate Lindsey Vonn only managed downhill gold and a super-g bronze in the wake of the shin injury, crashing out in the other races. Her biggest rival and best friend Maria Riesch upstaged her with two golds.

Elsewhere, Swedish biathlon leader Helena Jonsson cracked badly under pressure in her first Olympics and returned empty-handed, while Norway's Ole Einar Bjoerndalen is the second most successful winter Olympian after getting his sixth gold in the men's relay.

Bjoerndalen also had to swallow a humiliating defeat in the mass start race, but that was nothing compared to the disaster that struck Dutch speed skater Bert Kramer whose coach sent him into the wrong lane which resulted in disqualification instead of gold.

Slovenian cross country skier Petra Majdic defied four broken ribs and a lung damage to get sprint bronze and Canadian figure skater Joannie Rochette got bronze four after her mother's death.

The Cypress Mountain venue overcame snow problems to highlight that freestyle - which saw the exciting debut of ski cross - and snowboard have their big share in making the Olympics more youthful.

This trend must continue in the future with the help of further new events. Medal ceremonies followed by rock concerts have also played an important role, just as the embracing of the digital era with tweeting athletes and the Olympics on Facebook and other social media.

Whether or not there was really no positive doping case (apart from reprimands for two ice hockey players) among the 2,621 athletes from 82 countries only the future will tell, as all samples are kept for possible retesting.