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Showing posts with label Rick Hansen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rick Hansen. Show all posts

VANOC's greatest oversight at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics


Rick Hansen and Wayne Gretzky
I had a lovely dinner last night with a few good friends and of course we discussed the Olympics. Everyone had a great time, a really great time. It was how a certain part of the opening ceremonies played out and how most of us didn't even notice that was offputting. It comes not from a technical glitch, but from what happened after the torch was lit and what it meant in the lives of those who lit the torch inside BC Place. It was no fault of the two individuals involved but an oversight by the planning group.
By: David Byrd

Rick Hansen and Wayne Gretzky are both national heros, without a doubt. Does anyone remember how Rick Hansen ended up in a wheel chair? "He was paralyzed at the age of 15 from being in the back of a pickup truck when it crashed into another car." -Wikipedia. So there's Rick Hansen inside BC Place where he finished his 26-month trek of over 40,000 km through 34 countries almost 23 years before and he sits there as Wayne jumps into the back of a pickup truck to take the torch down to the cauldron in Coal Harbour and light it.

The parallel of being in the back of a pickup truck while Rick's message is to always wear a seat belt, don't drink and drive and be safe while driving seemed to me to be the largest oversight of VANOC and no one noticed.What do you think of this? What was the greatest oversight in your opinion?