Gilbert Felli, International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Olympic Games Executive Director, said at the halfway point of the Vancouver 2010 Games, “we are very pleased with the smooth running of the Games, so far, and there’s no reason to believe the next eight days won’t run just as smoothly”. Felli said he was impressed by the organizer’s ability to address problems within 24 hours and full of praise for the atmosphere at the Games, reports AFP.
Felli said, “a very positive surprise was to see many people are in the streets wearing Canada shirts. The enthusiasm of the people was quite amazing”.
He added, “we have been working for nine years with VANOC and we are extremely satisfied. Our expectations have been met”.
Meanwhile VANOC vice president David Cobb said, “we’re starting to hear the phrase ‘the best ever’ from our stakeholders groups including from our athletes and our broadcast rights holders. I’ve lived in Vancouver my whole life and I’ve never seen this level of excitement on the streets. It’s a fantastic feeling to see the way the city has responded to these Games”.
Cobb said, “often the biggest challenges for Winter Games are around transportation and we had ours, too. Some of our buses arrived in less-than-ideal condition. That was one of our challenges”.
Another problem has been food and beverage catering for spectators at the Cypress Mountain and Whistler Creekside venues. Cobb said, “the given space isn’t enough to feed people so we’ve done as best we can. We’ve used every square foot we can to provide services. We simply haven’t got space left to feed people as well as we can in other big venues like Pacific Coliseum”.
