Oh, Canada

s an American citizen who was actually pulling for Team

Canada, the world’s best hockey team, to win gold, all I

can say is that despite the horrible luck which seemed to follow these games, Canadians should be proud of how they’ve handled the rather sad situation [of the U.S. beating Canada in men’s hockey].

You can take comfort in the fact that we Americans would

not have handled it with such class. Don’t worry, you're still (generally speaking, and like the Brits) better than us.

Perceptively yours, William Burrus Prescott, Arizona

[Editor’s note: this letter was received after the U.S. beat Canada

in the preliminary round of men’s hockey. Looks like our “sad situation” had a happy ending!]

HARD SUDOKU Solution on pg. 22 Sle Hie

til Ml.

© 2008 PageFiller Ltd and Associates www.pagefiller.com

LETTITOR

Worst. Games. Ever.

Liam Britten editor in chief

ell, Vancouver, we sure

screwed this one up.

Despite our best efforts and years of planning, we’ve given the world the worst Olympics. Ever. In the history of man.

At least that’s what the entire foreign

press has to say. The Guardian in the U.K. wrote a scathing article three days into the games entitled “Vancouver Games continue downhill slide from disaster to calamity,” in which Lawrence Donegan writes that in the 2010 Games, “every nugget of good news has been followed by the hard rock of bad news.” He opines that the tag “worst Games ever’ is fitting for Vancouver’s effort, and that the problems faced at these Games overshadowed the problems of the 1976 Olympics that financially ruined Montreal and the over-the-top commercialism of the Atlanta Games in 1996.

Do writers like Donegan have any sense of

_ perspective at all? The only problems that

Vancouver encountered werepoor weather, some protestors, that stupid rising pillar in the opening ceremony and the tragic death of Nodar Kumaritashvili during training.

I think we can all agree that Kumaritashvili’s death was a horrible, sickening occurrence (especially when TSN showed his graphic death again and again on television), but it should also be remembered that fatal training accidents are

not unprecedented in the Olympics; he’s the fourth to die in such a way since 1964. Accidents will happen, as will bad weather, technical problems and civil disobedience (at least in a democracy). No Games can expect to be perfect.

Think of it this way; was there a terrorist bombing in Vancouver? No, so that means these Olympics weren’t as bad as Atlanta. Were athletes murdered by terrorists?

No, so that means ours weren’t as bad as Munich... and the less said about the 1936 Games in Berlin, the better.

Let’s try and keep a little perspective about these Olympics and what Vancouver could reasonably be expected to pull off. Sure, we could’ve tried to create a spectacle on the level of Beijing, but does anyone want to spend money on that level for a show? Hell, the bill for this “cut-rate” Olympics is going to be bad enough. We can’t control the weather, we can’t shut down dissent, and try as we might, accidents are unavoidable. From an organizational perspective, well done; in fact, dare I say, best Games ever! Now let’s get ready for 40 years of debt repayment!

Your friend in high fidelity, Liam Britten

Editor in chief

The Other Press

PS. And to top it all off, we beat the U.S. in hockey... twice. Therefore, these Games are a success by default!

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