Vancouver: Despite a trouble-strewn start to the Vancouver Olympics rocked by the death of a Georgian luger, the International Olympic Committee said it was satisfied with the progress at the halfway mark.
"You cannot be happy if an athlete dies," IOC President Jacques Rogge told reporters. "But apart from that, after a couple of glitches at the start the Games are absolutely good. They are going very well."
The Games got off to a nightmare start when hours prior to the opening ceremony, Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, 21, died at a training run when he crashed into a steel pillar.
A lack of snow in the mountain venues, especially in Cypress Mountain, forced organisers to fly and truck in snow to salvage their competition schedule.
They were also forced to cancel 28,000 tickets due to safety concerns following the melting of snow at standing room areas.
Further mishaps involving the breakdown of ice resurfacers, competition timing errors and the fenced-off downtown Olympic cauldron, seriously threatened to derail the Olympics.
Eight days into the competitions the Vancouver Olympics have recovered, with the city bursting at the seams and tourism officials estimating a quarter of a million, mainly Canadian, visitors to flow into the city for the duration of the Games.
"We are very pleased with the smooth running of the Games so far," IOC Executive Director for the Games Gilbert Felli told reporters.
"We have fantastic competition, all of the athletes are rating the Games very highly, the fields of play are great and all the services the athletes need in order to perform well are of a very high level," Felli said.
Felli said initial problems were quickly resolved by organisers who were now "delivering the Games according to expectation".
"We have very, very little issues on the operational side of the Games. What surprised me was the quality of the response of VANOC. Most of the issues have been solved in 24 hours."
"We are pleased after eight days. Of course there are eight days left but there is no reason to believe that those eight days will not continue as normal," Felli said.
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, February 21, 2010, 09:26