The Whistler Question reports on the issue of home-fieled advantage at the 2010 Olympics.
Whistler – Coach Geret Coyne and the Canadian biathlon team spend most of their time during the winter in Europe, living out of suitcases while competing on the World Cup circuit. Their European rivals are often just a few hours from home, and normally, the “home” teams gets plenty of perks beyond just having the home crowd on their side.
So when the biggest competition to come down the pike every four years — the Olympic Games —are staged in Canada next February, you might expect that the Canadians would get a few of those less-obvious perks, such as the best location for a facility at which to wax and grind their ski bases before and during the event.
No such luck — so far, at least. Coyne, the Canmore, Alta.-based biathlon coach who was visiting Whistler Olympic Park (WOP) this week for some dryland training with the women’s team, is just a mite perturbed with Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic organizers (VANOC) over issues related to access to WOP and neighbouring sites.
Dave Wood, team leader for Cross Country Canada, has similar concerns, though his tune has mellowed somewhat since he and Canadian cross-country skiing veteran Sara Renner went public with their issues in a Toronto Star article on June 19.
Read the full article from the Whistler Question:
VANOC too ‘squeaky fair,’ coach says
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