Vancouver's expensive white elephant
02/10/2007 |
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There is only one reason that the newly-built ski jumping hills will be used after the 2010 Winter Olympic Games - it is too expensive to tear them down!
At the moment two new hills are being raised inside the Whistler Nordic Competition Venue in Callaghan. Machines are preparing the outrun and flat surroundings down under where concrete installations grow with speed to fulfil the inrun towers.
Leading international experts have supervised the construction to make the most modern ski jumping hills in the world. And there are no wind problems wich have been foreseen in many of the world’s other jumping hills. And they will surely be taken for granted by the Worlds ski jumping elite during a week and a half in February 2010 when they fight for Olympic medals. Afterwards they could end up ghost hills without anyone using them for training or competitions.
The problem is lack of interest for ski jumping in Canada and especially in British Columbia where ski jumping never was a sport aimed at developing elite talent. In fact the Vancouver region does not have a single person who dares to jump those big hills.
"The organisers have actually discussed tearing down the hills when the Olympics finish but these constructions are so strong and solid, it would be more expensive to tear them down rather than what was needed to build them,” says John Aalberg, director of Nordic Ski events in the Olympics.
The International Ski Federation advised the Vancouver organizers to use the hills in Calgary built for the 1988 winter games for their own competitions. But the propositions were turned down. Vancouver would make a total Olympic program.
Canada had some excellent ski jumpers a number of years ago. In the early eighties guys like Horst Bulau, Steve Collins and Ron Richards were real opponents for any team in the world and reached the World Cup podium. Bulau was even sixth in the 1982 Worlds. Indeed the team finished 10th at the Worlds on the home track in Thunder Bay in 1995, but not one individual among the 15 best. It seemed like any inspiration failed after that.
"They will prepare the hills for the national teams training and maybe the national championships. A lot of money has been put into the bank to be used for maintenance and running the venue because cross country training and competitions will be made the year around with a service building in full use. But no artificial cover will be made for summer training in jumping,” stated John Aalberg.
(Source: AIPS)
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