Vancouver 2010, maybe not the best but nowhere near the worst

Vancouver 2010Winter Sports

Posted: Sunday 28th February 2010 | 1:18

BEFORE departing for Vancouver the British Olympic Association kindly issued all travelling journalists with a snug fleece, perfect for chilly evenings up in the mountains.

FRENZIED: Canada discovered a love of winning at the Winter Olympics – but they didn’t have much time for British journalists (Getty Images)

It was emblazoned with the words “Team GB Media”. They would have been better off providing a flak jacket.

Criticism of Canada’s Games from some members of Fleet Street’s finest has prompted the normally welcoming locals to turn a little nasty.

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Poet Shane Koyczan told an audience of billions during the opening ceremony that: ‘some say what defines us (Canadians) is something as simple as please and thank you’.

Colleagues refused drinks in bar – yes they were sober(ish) – or sniped at on buses, would probably beg to differ.

On more than one occasion I have feigned an Australian accent for fearing of being refused a taxi ride back to the hotel. 

I even told a waitress I was from New Zealand, only for her to declare she’d lived there as a girl – a difficult and embarrassing exchange followed as I tried to bluff my way onto safer ground.

However, it pays to be thick-skinned in this business and maybe some of this abuse was just a little deserved, I’ve met some of those it was aimed at.

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As a wise hack once told me: “In journalism you meet a lot of bastards. And nine times out of ten they are other journalists.”

However, after more than three weeks in Vancouver, it’s only now that the time is right to pass sensible and reflective judgement on these Olympics.