Olympic Updates

Vancouver's Olympic organizers will mark the two-year countdown to the 2010 Games next month buoyed by having come a long way from the ridicule they endured at the Turin closing ceremony in 2006.

Back then, organizing committee VANOC came under fire for its handling of the eight-minute promotional show which left British Columbia premier Gordon Campbell angry that the ice-fishing spectacle had too many banal stereotypes of Canada.

"I've heard a lot of people who don't think it was an OK start," Campbell told the Vancouver Sun newspaper.

"I thought there were lots of stereotypes that are not what the new Canada is. There's lots we can do and we'll improve."

Organizers say things are different now and point to the fact that three of the nine venues for the 2010 Games have already been completed. (...more)