Olympic Updates

Vancouver has had its share of glitches during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games but one oddity is that the public viewing of the Olympic Flame has been fenced off from the public.

The issue of putting up a chain link fence around the cauldron has garnered criticism as visitors had to stand far away to view it or take pictures.

This weekend marked the opening up of the flame when a new barrier made of a concrete base with a Plexiglas top allowed the public to get closer to the Olympic Flame.

One of the common criticisms of an Olympics, its organizing committee and indeed the International Olympic Committee is they have all of the power, and none of the accountability, of a government. As Kam Kiland, director of the Calgary speedskating oval, remarked when 2010 organizers had a Zamboni plucked from his facility and dispatched to Vancouver at a moment’s notice: “When VANOC wants something, they get it.”

But sometimes when people want something from the Olympics, they get it too.

The hideous chain-link fence, the ruiner of thousands of photos, has come down from in front of the Olympic cauldron. It’s been replaced by Plexiglass atop a concrete barrier, the finale of a series of improvements organizers made to make the most accessible symbol of the Games, well, more accessible. (...continue reading....)