by Lisa Ovens
I’ve watched the Summer and Winter Olympics all of my life. However, once you know they are going to happen in your back yard, you start to think about things; things that never crossed your mind before while watching past events. Like when you were munching on potato chips, in the middle of the night watching snowboarding in Nagano, Japan, the following probably never occurred to you...
Notebook entry #2: My cousin Jennifer works in the hotel business. She told me the second Vancouver/ Whistler won the bid; the wheels were already in motion. This makes me think of the people who work for the Olympics, its sponsors and partners. What’s it like to be them?
The Bid people had already been running in the five vertical rings that could easily be mistaken for hamster wheels; now other people would be diving in, and earning their pay cheques too: In some sectors, “olympified” people would be expected to work 24/7/365. (Note: Although the word olympified is not listed at urbandictionary.com, it’s a word that get’s bandied about quite a bit)
The Olympics are the pinnacle of sports entertainment marketing. For the work force involved, the Olympics are something to be tasted, to be inhaled, to be slept with and woken up to, and to be carried around in a stylish messenger bag.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
A Memory: Backing the Bid
by Lisa Ovens
You see this pin? That’s where it all started: a bid to throw the 2010 Winter Olympic Party. I acquired the pin on a city street somewhere. A smiling, happy group of people were handing them out. I thanked them and punctured my purse with it. Then one day I had to put my money where my pin was and vote in a referendum asking Vancouverites if we wanted the Olympics or not.
This vote was for Vancouver city only which probably at the time (Feb 2003) had a population somewhere between 500,000 and 600,000 people. I had plenty of friends and family living outside of city limits seething with jealously that I was a member of this exclusive Olympic voting elite. (Yes, they were seething...I could see it in there eyes.)
On that mild February day I headed over to City Hall and cast my vote, but not before I moved that little pin from my purse’s cell phone pocket up to my lapel. I, along with 134, 764 people voted that day, and 86, 113 of us voted yes. Not the best turn out, but that can happen in Vancouver. Turn outs can be weird. Same with RSVP’ing: people can be so “last minute” here, if they show up at all.
So, this little pin was my very first 2010 Olympic Swag, and if you know me, you will know I am fascinated with sports swag.
Five months later, on July 2nd, 2003, Vancouver/Whistler won the bid, and it was a close race. The 2010 Winter Olympics were all ours. I had stayed up quite late (Canada Day was the day before, and my friend Andrew threw a ripper of a party) and decided to stay up all night to watch the televised Olympic Bid Award Ceremony at 7am. Salzburg, Austria and Peyongchang South Korea looked lovely as the runner ups. I was excited by this news, and that helped get me through the work day. The last thing on my mind that day was logistics, infrastructure, construction, homeless and housing. Oh...and money...can’t forget that!
photo by Lisa Ovens
You see this pin? That’s where it all started: a bid to throw the 2010 Winter Olympic Party. I acquired the pin on a city street somewhere. A smiling, happy group of people were handing them out. I thanked them and punctured my purse with it. Then one day I had to put my money where my pin was and vote in a referendum asking Vancouverites if we wanted the Olympics or not.
This vote was for Vancouver city only which probably at the time (Feb 2003) had a population somewhere between 500,000 and 600,000 people. I had plenty of friends and family living outside of city limits seething with jealously that I was a member of this exclusive Olympic voting elite. (Yes, they were seething...I could see it in there eyes.)
On that mild February day I headed over to City Hall and cast my vote, but not before I moved that little pin from my purse’s cell phone pocket up to my lapel. I, along with 134, 764 people voted that day, and 86, 113 of us voted yes. Not the best turn out, but that can happen in Vancouver. Turn outs can be weird. Same with RSVP’ing: people can be so “last minute” here, if they show up at all.
So, this little pin was my very first 2010 Olympic Swag, and if you know me, you will know I am fascinated with sports swag.
Five months later, on July 2nd, 2003, Vancouver/Whistler won the bid, and it was a close race. The 2010 Winter Olympics were all ours. I had stayed up quite late (Canada Day was the day before, and my friend Andrew threw a ripper of a party) and decided to stay up all night to watch the televised Olympic Bid Award Ceremony at 7am. Salzburg, Austria and Peyongchang South Korea looked lovely as the runner ups. I was excited by this news, and that helped get me through the work day. The last thing on my mind that day was logistics, infrastructure, construction, homeless and housing. Oh...and money...can’t forget that!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
In My Back Yard
by Lisa Ovens
We are six months away from the opening of the 2010 Winter Olympics in my hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia, and I haven't even begun to get in shape for this monumental sporting event. I am way behind schedule on my pre- Olympic workouts, beer drinking and sporty life style shtick.
2010 and High Heels is a spin of Hockeyandhighheels.com, the home of my first baby, Hockey and High Heels- A different kind of hockey book. Because of that book, h&hh.com welcomes visitors from around the world and many of them haven't been to Vancouver. So here are a few things about Vancouver that readers might like to know...
Age
Vancouver is 123 years young. Yeah, we're just a bunch of pups over here...woohooo!
Location
From my own experiences traveling around the world, everyone seems to know where Toronto is, and Vancouver is no where near Toronto. It's a 42 hour drive west of TO according Mapquest. That's 2700 miles (4300 km), if you drive through the United States like Mapquest suggests. Vancouver lies on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, nestled behind a wall of mountains that act as a natural barrier from the rest of Canada. If we have itchy feet and want to visit another country, we only have to drive 30 miles south and we're in the United States.
Inhabitants
Vancouver is Canada's third largest city with it's metropolitan area home to just over 2.3 million people. Because we have the mountains, ocean and the United States border hemming us in, "urban sprall" is a phrase not in our vocabulary. We have lots of high rises, but not too high because people should have at least a little view of the surrounding natural beauty.
Animals that dig the natural beauty: squirrels, raccoons, bears, ducks, sea otters, orcas, seals, sea lions, cougars....those are some of the bigger ones, and a few of them walk by my living room window almost ever night and look in at me, like I'm some sort of zoo exhibit or something.
The Migration of Retail
Vancouver is the first city to have Lululemon, and the last city to get a Sephora (It literally just opened a few weeks ago).
I'll stop there at the subject of retail/ merchandise; a subject that will pop up plenty as I empty the Olympic contents of my mind and closet.
We are six months away from the opening of the 2010 Winter Olympics in my hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia, and I haven't even begun to get in shape for this monumental sporting event. I am way behind schedule on my pre- Olympic workouts, beer drinking and sporty life style shtick.
photos by Lisa Ovens
However, for the last five years I've been taking pictures, writing notes and generally lying around thinking about this five ringed spectacle about to take place in my back yard. This blog is the place for me to unload the material and free my mind of it, finally.
2010 and High Heels is a spin of Hockeyandhighheels.com, the home of my first baby, Hockey and High Heels- A different kind of hockey book. Because of that book, h&hh.com welcomes visitors from around the world and many of them haven't been to Vancouver. So here are a few things about Vancouver that readers might like to know...
Age
Vancouver is 123 years young. Yeah, we're just a bunch of pups over here...woohooo!
Location
From my own experiences traveling around the world, everyone seems to know where Toronto is, and Vancouver is no where near Toronto. It's a 42 hour drive west of TO according Mapquest. That's 2700 miles (4300 km), if you drive through the United States like Mapquest suggests. Vancouver lies on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, nestled behind a wall of mountains that act as a natural barrier from the rest of Canada. If we have itchy feet and want to visit another country, we only have to drive 30 miles south and we're in the United States.
Inhabitants
Vancouver is Canada's third largest city with it's metropolitan area home to just over 2.3 million people. Because we have the mountains, ocean and the United States border hemming us in, "urban sprall" is a phrase not in our vocabulary. We have lots of high rises, but not too high because people should have at least a little view of the surrounding natural beauty.
Animals that dig the natural beauty: squirrels, raccoons, bears, ducks, sea otters, orcas, seals, sea lions, cougars....those are some of the bigger ones, and a few of them walk by my living room window almost ever night and look in at me, like I'm some sort of zoo exhibit or something.
The Migration of Retail
Vancouver is the first city to have Lululemon, and the last city to get a Sephora (It literally just opened a few weeks ago).
I'll stop there at the subject of retail/ merchandise; a subject that will pop up plenty as I empty the Olympic contents of my mind and closet.
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