VANOC's greatest oversight at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics
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| Rick Hansen and Wayne Gretzky |
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| 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?
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No even trying at all to find good music acts for the closing ceremonies, minus Neil Young of course.
ReplyDeleteGood call Greg. It was weird that some of the best Canadian acts performed for the public at free concerts and weren't included in the closing ceremonies at all.
ReplyDeleteYou're not the first person to point out this horrible coincidence to me. Really wasn't necessary to put Wayne Gretzky in the back of a pickup truck. Some kind of souped-up golf cart would have been better.
ReplyDeleteAll in all, though, I don't think this was the worst oversight by VANOC. Many come to mind and I will post them once I've given it some thought.
Wayne's riding in the pickup may actually reinforce Hansen's message. Did you see this distressed look on Wayne's face while riding in the truck? It was one of those OMG I'm going to die kind of looks. It's as if VANOC was using the legend to drive home Hansen's point. Pure brilliance I'd say.
ReplyDelete@Susan Gittins there were definitely biggest gaffes or f-ups but this one seemed like a complete oversight like no one even thought of it.
ReplyDeleteAlso heard today about the guy lying on the floor of the bed of the pickup with the second torch because the first went out.
@anon :-)