Vancouver 2010: Olympics - John Furlong CTV Interview: Quotes

by Sudha Krishna | February 16, 2010 at 04:19 pm

15565 views | 68 Recommendations | 19 comments

John Furlong, CEO of VANOC, in a wide ranging interview with Brian Williams on CTV defended the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Media, particularly, foreign media have been critical of the Olympic Games in Vancouver.

Here are some quotes from the John Furlong interview as he responds to questions from Brian Williams in on variety of subjects inlcuding; Snowboarding at Cypress Mountain, Ice Conditions at the Richmond Olympic Speed Skating Oval, The Situation With The Luge Event, the Fence Surrounding the Olympic Flame.

John Furlong on Snowboarding At Cypress

He defended the choice of Cyrpess Mountain as a venue for Snowboarding

"We had weather unprecedented in 150 years... We do have additional snow, we may bring in a little more. Last thing we wanted was to give people back their tickets."

John Furlong on Poor Ice Conditions at Richmond Olympic Oval

The problem at the Olympic Oval is not the ice but the machines that clean the ice "The machines were a problem."

John Furlong On the Luge Event

Furlong was attended the memorial for the Gerogian Luger and was Pal Bearer. He said the issue with Luge run is not really VANOC's purvey but the responsibility of the Luge Federation

"The Luge Federation is doing their best...our team is looking after them...at the same time we don't run the sport."

John Furlong on the Fence Around the Olympic Flame

"What we are trying to do is make it safe and secure... What we are going to try to do is put remedies in place so people can take photographs. We heard what people said and we are going to fix it."

0 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend Sign In or Join to post comments

Antony31 (not verified)

at 17:09 on February 16th, 2010

This guy is more teflon than, well... my frying pan. What a jerk. Where did we find this guy?

spiderking (not verified)

at 07:06 on February 17th, 2010

What's your problem with what he said? Elaborate, don't expectorate.

Lindae Thomas (not verified)

at 17:13 on February 16th, 2010

I was able to view the flames from a private suite that looks on to the Convention Centre. Perhaps a raised platform could be put in place so that photograpers can view the Olympic flames without obstruction. Perhaps a portable stage with railings??

Ryan guy from that place (not verified)

at 13:12 on February 17th, 2010

True Canadian Spirit, don't complain about what went wrong just look for a solution, even if not ideal or beautiful, and move on enjoying other aspects of the event.

marianmo

at 19:07 on February 16th, 2010

i saw the interview, mr furlong did an excellent job in the interview...what he said made sense

shabc (not verified)

at 10:57 on February 17th, 2010

Little bit embarrassing to be Canadian at this point. Every one of the problems (save the weather) could have been avoided. Poor planning and execution on the logistics front.hydraulics not working at opening ceremonies, ice machines ruining the oval, i mean seriously guys. you couldn't have foreseen that as being in the realm of possibility?

Dave from Australia (not verified)

at 11:30 on February 17th, 2010

Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} I wonder if Mr Furlong has an answer to the question of why overseas visitors who bought tickets from VANOC approved official agents before arriving in Vancouver had to pay almost double the face value? I can prove it - I have tickets and I have my receipts from the official ticket agents through whom we had to go - we were not allowed to purchase through "Ticketing" on the official web site. Neither does the structure allow us to sell our tickets through the Fan to Fan marketplace at the vastly inflated prices I have seen there. Something, by the way, that is against the law in our country and a practice most other worldwide sports organisations are trying to stamp out. Let's be clear about one thing - we are having a great time and the energy around the place is a delight, and in the end, for us, it's the price we had to pay to be involved. But just now and then I see those slogans "Welcome World" flash up on bus destination screens and I sometimes, quietly, to myself, add a sub text!! Maybe Sudha Krishna might like to take up some of my points because no-one else seems interested, least of all the folks staffing VANOC's Customer Care email enquiries.

Dave from Australia (not verified)

at 11:05 on February 17th, 2010

I wonder if Mr Fulrong has an answer to the question of why overseas visitors who bought tickets from VANOC approved official agents before arriving in Vancouver had to pay almost double the face value? I can prove it - I have tickets and I have my receipts from the official ticket agents through whom we had to go - we were not allowed to purchase through "Ticketing" on the official web site. Neither does the structure allow us to sell our tickets through the Fan to Fan marketplace at the vastly inflated prices I have seen there. Something, by the way, that is against the law in our country and a practice most other worldwide sports organisations are trying to stamp out.Let's be clear about one thing - we are having a great time and the energy around the place is a delight, and in the end, for us, it's the price we had to pay to be involved. But just now and then I see those slogans "Welcome World" flash up on bus destination screens and I sometimes, quietly, to myself, add a sub text!! Maybe Sudha Krishna might like to take up some of my points because no-one else seems interested, least of all the folks staffing VANOC's Customer Care email enquiries.

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 11:15 on February 17th, 2010

Dave from Australia, I really think those points need to be addressed. This is not the kind of reputation, that I want our country to have.

Dave from Australia (not verified)

at 11:32 on February 17th, 2010

Sorry for posting twice folks - it was not my intention - just having a bit of difficulty "driving"' the site.

Caran from Canada (not verified)

at 12:48 on February 17th, 2010

Gee Dave from Australia. Posting twice was NOT your intention? Hmm...maybe some of these "problems" we are having at the Olympics was NOT our intention either.

Dave from Australia (not verified)

at 17:08 on February 18th, 2010

Sorry, Caran - the second posting really was inadvertent - there was no sinister intent

Vancouver_Resident (not verified)

at 12:51 on February 17th, 2010

Tickets were sold at a cheaper price to Canadians than they were to the rest of the world. This is a standard practice is business. The viewing of the torch should have been better thought out. I am pleased that it is now being looked into and being rectified, but I don't understand how it happened in the first place. It is not as if VANOC did not know there would be an outdoor torch. They knew that security would need to be in place around the torch. The fact that the decision was made to use an ugly, and un-photogenic fence around it, is the real problem. I wish that the question would have been asked, as to why it was done this way in the first place.

Dave from Australia (not verified)

at 19:01 on February 18th, 2010

I am sorry Vancouver_Resident - but it is not a business practice we use in Australia. If there is a sports event in Australia, anyone from anywhere in the world can buy a ticket - typically through one of our ticket agencies (Ticketmaster or Ticketek). The price you pay will be the price marked on the ticket - that might sound like a quaint concept - but it's the one we use. I don't know what happens beyond that - Logically one would guess that Tickemaster etc pay a discounted price per ticket to the event promoter from the ticket sales revenue and that's how they make their money. They don't sting one group of people, for whatever reason, to the detriment of another.In the case of the Vancouver 2010, I prefer to think the price charged to Canadians was not cheaper; it was was the face value price - OK so far - the rest of the world had to pay a surcharge. In the meanwhile, since I first contributed to this thread, I have emailed our Olympic Committee (OC) in Australia who have advised me that it is typical for host city organising committees not to engage with the OCs of other nations. Rather, preferring to hand over the ticketing for the other countries to other ticketing agents and allowing them to mark up the price. What I have discovered, it seems, is that CoSport, the ticketing agents VANOC have licenced, are marking up considerably more than they are permitted to. I would have thought VANOC would want to know about this but the Customer Care people do not respond to my emails.One other thing that they (CoSport) have done, and which I did not mention the other day, is to restrict access to certain tickets. Tickets for what we might call glamour events were only available if they were purchased with an accommodation/hospitality package. I planned and paid for my travel accommodation a long time ago - I am fortunate to be staying with friends and so I don't need their damn (pardon my language) package - but, 'Want a ticket for the Figure Skating or Men's Downhill?' - 1000 Australian dollars minimum thank you very much!!Why I wonder could we not all have done our ticket purchasing through the VANOC site - with ticket allocations for each country? This process would, of course, have provided for a greater number of tickets to be available to Canadians. This would be similar to the process used by FIFA for the World Cup. FIFA, by the way, being an organisation that fights tooth and nail against ticket scalping, not always successfully it is true. Interestingly, the only time I have come across the practice of cheaper for the locals is for the World Cup in South Africa. (It may have happened for the Beijing Olympics too but I do not know that). In South Africa there is a category of tickets only available to South Africans. The intention being to make it possible for folks from the townships (Soweto and so on) to attend the games and we know why FIFA is making this gesture. Vancouver, I humbly suggest to you, is not Soweto!!! Dave

Ryan from Edmonton/Toronto (not verified)

at 13:09 on February 17th, 2010

Hey, I look at both sides of the fence and think there are some responsibilities the Canadian VANOC team let down, such as testing the "latest and greatest" ice cleaning machines from the States before the games, or planning how to view the torch afterwards. However, there are other factors which need to be considered too... Weather is weather, you can't change it just talk about it. (Spot on to those above for doing so) but refunding tickets for safety is SMART... would you rather have refunded tickets or hear about how thousands of people were injured. Economic crash and the funding backing out is a real problem, appreciation to the city of Vancouver for stepping in to build the costly village development, with low carbon emissions. Is it because there is no crazy unexpected upsets, or that we would rather critize then applaud the successes these games have such a problem? My question is how come we don't hear about all the extra security needed because of worldly politics. We didn't rip their countries when having issues, why do the same back, espically during a time when we are suppose to "band together" against national identities and show the good of our cultures.

Sudha Krishna

at 13:12 on February 17th, 2010

Sorry Dave i will indeed look into some of your points, stay tuned

LF (not verified)

at 16:00 on February 17th, 2010

I believe the ice machines worked fine for a year and a half before the Games. As for the weather, warmest period in 150 years, and they are still running the events. They should get medals for that alone. The torch fence, they're dealing with, and the luge track is really out of their hands. I worked in Victoria for the Commonwealth games and the international federations tell Games organizers what to do. Maybe something to change though. No reason to have the sport getting faster. And plexiglass hockey style boards would keep even inexperienced participants (not saying the Georgian sledder was though) in the track.