I was down in Yaletown when it happened - I'll have a video up later.

Can't believe all the problems the Canadians are giving the Olympics.

They should be banned from holding an event for a few decades.

What do you mean?

Lets see:

• Ice causes major problems for skaters
• Dead athletes 
• Cypress Mountain

I've been watching the olympics since they started. It seems like Canada is doing an awful job.

Then I'm assuming that you also believe that the USA should be banned as well, correct? The things that have happened so far in these Olympics can't be much worse than having spectators killed, the bribery involved in not only obtaining the Salt Lake Olympics, but also during the judging of the mixed pairs figure skating.  There's also the absolutely lopsided refereeing by the American referee in the 2002 Women's Gold Medal game.

To me, the death of spectators and the acceptance of bribes is just as bad as the death of a participant in a dangerous sport and poor racing conditions........but then again, you've been watching the Olympics "since they started" (over 2700 years ago), so who am I to judge? I mean, I've only been watching since 1998.

It's really not Canada's fault that the weather decided to go crazy during the games.

It's the Winter Olympics. Stuff like that happens occasionally.

@Rocketpig -

I understand some issues with the weather. However, from my understanding, they picked simply bad areas to hold some of the games. It wasn't just bad weather, but horrible planning. That is where I have the issue with how they're doing things. Don't get me wrong, these are about the first olympics I've ever really cared about, but seeing all the issues they are having with the actual handling of the contests is pretty bad. I don't think there have been olympics prior to this that have had this many delays or issues from an event standpoint.

And that doesn't change the bad track layout for the luge, or their ice machines breaking down causing athletes to pull out of events, or skew results.

Your talking about events that were well outside of the planning and promotion of the olympics such as the Eric Rudolph bombing. No one knew how that could happen, versus the fact that the Canadians simply planned the entire course wrong.

I was referring to watching these olympics since they started. All I've been watching are constant errors and problems with the olympics. I'm just saying the Canadians have really screwed this one up.

If you want to compare controversy, you could have looked up the various points of contention between '02 and this one to see that there are a few more issues just a few days into the olympics vs. the entirety of 2002 which took years to deal with.

• 2002 winter games (about 3/4s of a page)
• 2010 winter games (about 3+ pages)

Also, I see your from Vancouver. Getting a little defensive, eh? I guess I should expect that. Its just a competition, man. Things happen. The Canadians have been pretty bad about this one. I don't get why you aren't trying to be objective about this, rather than going on the offensive and attacking other games as justification. These olympics are a multi-billion dollar event, and to have so many issues doesn't shine well on Canada or Vancouver. I will gladly admit that '02 was mired in problems due to the bidding, but from an actual standpoint of the races, and quality of the tracks, it would seem that Vancouver was a horrible choice.

am I the only one who yells 'fall!' when other countries are competing? : p

The course, while dangerous, was praised by the FIL - the International Luge Federation. In fact, they stated that the Whistler tracks were an example to future tracks. What occurred was a horrific tragedy, no doubt about that - but if the governing body is fine with the course, then there's nothing really we can say about that - unless you have extensive knowledge of Luge tracks?

Your list of contoversies include such things as billingualism (which is always brought up in any national presentation, by those in Quebec), the spreading of the H1N1 flu (any large gathering allows for the opportunity of the spread of a virus - for example, the Superbowl.......I don't recall hearing any H1N1 concerns during then), Women's ski jumping (a decision made by the IOC 4 years back, which has nothing to do with Vancouver), an intention by the government to monitor the opening ceremony which was shot down rather quickly, and protesting (which happens at every Olympics and in fact, some of these protestors are from the United States) among other things.

I haven't denied that mistakes haven't been made. There have been mistakes, especally with the budget and a choice of some of the venues. I was just questioning you to see if you were consistent on your approach to banning a country from hosting the Olympics, when problems occured.  Considering you believe that shattering the spirit of the Olympic Games is acceptable when compared to technical/electronical errors, combined with the fact that you are from the USA, I can't say I'm surprised.

And your Canadian, so I see no difference :-p