By Ron Judd
The Seattle Times
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - They will be remembered as the Games where the fall cometh before pride.
The fall_the horrible, very public death of an athlete_was a hard one, the worst-case scenario for planners who sweat every detail of hosting an Olympics.
Before Canada had officially launched Winter Games XXI, its third Olympics, Nodar Kumaritashvili, a Georgian luge slider who said he would master the world's fastest track at Whistler or die trying, lost control of his sled near the last curve of a training run. He struck an exposed steel support beam and died instantly.
The show had to go on, and did, only hours after Kumaritashvili's death, with an Opening Ceremony that included a crowning failure: one of four large pillars failed to rise from the floor of B.C. Place and triumphantly light the Olympic caldron. The next morning, Vancouverites awoke to find a companion outdoor caldron on the city waterfront encased in chain-link fencing.
Rough start would be an understatement.
Yet Canada_and the spirit of the Games_slowly, inexorably, began to recover. The shock of the early trauma eased, and Canadian athletes, after a slow start, finally began to win medals. Eventually, the 2010 Olympics got a kick in their step that built to a street dance by the triumphant final day, with Canada's hockey gold medal crowned by the Closing Ceremony.
Unfortunately, other problems follow these Games into the history books. Early Canadian expectations to "Own the Podium" looked comically optimistic during the first week as hometown athletes buckled under pressure_while the archrival U.S. team took an early medal lead it never relinquished.
Organizers fought a losing battle against warm temperatures and low snow levels at Cypress Mountain, the freestyle-skiing and snowboard venue just outside Vancouver, causing canceled tickets for 28,000 fans. Games officials, to their credit, got all the events off there.
Before a week had passed, journalists from Europe were raising the specter of "the worst Games ever." It was ridiculous hyperbole, but maybe that's what it took to get the fires fully lit in Maple Leaf nation.
Athletes did their part. In the mountain venues at Whistler, two women on skis, alpine star Anja Paerson of Sweden and cross-country racer Petra Majdic of Slovenia, reminded the world what the Olympics are all about by recovering from devastating crashes to medal.
In Vancouver, America's Evan Lysacek and South Korea's Kim Yu-na won triumphant victories in figure skating.
By the time Canada's true Olympic passion, the hockey tournament, started, the country was fully plugged in to its first Winter Games since Calgary in 1988.
Credit goes to the fans. They came early, cheered loud, and for the most part, filled the stands. An entire nation decked itself out in the red,. white and black of Team Canada, making the 2010 Games one of Canada's greatest retail successes. American fans, too, seized the opportunity to make the short trip north to cheer for U.S. athletes, filling the small gaps in Canada's ticket sales.
They were rewarded with America's greatest Winter Games performance ever, with 37 medals, a Winter Olympic record for any nation. U.S. athletes owned the podium by succeeding in their usual strong sports and several new ones, settling old scores and breaking long droughts.
The U.S. nordic-combined team, which had never won an Olympic medal, charged to four, with Bill Demong of Vermontville, N.Y., winning his nation's first gold medal in an nordic sport. Steve Holcomb of Park City, Utah, and his team won the nation's first bobsled gold medal in 62 years.
The U.S. alpine ski team struck early and often, with unlikely hero Bode Miller skiing to three medals. Olympic poster girl Lindsey Vonn, skiing hurt, medaled twice, as did her teammate and rival, Julia Mancuso. The eight alpine medals blew away the previous record of five from the 1984 Sarajevo Games.
American skaters continued to shine. Speedskater Shani Davis again was dominant on the long track at Richmond Oval, winning gold and silver. Seattle short-track star Apolo Anton Ohno crowned a record career with his sixth, seventh and eighth career medals, making him the most-decorated U.S. Winter Olympian ever. And teammate J.R. Celski of Federal Way won two medals, an amazing recovery from a horrifying slice to his thigh suffered in September.
In the end, Canada also overachieved, winning 14 gold medals_a Games record. Of course, the nation would have traded the other 13 for that cherished, final one, earned in a 3-2 overtime hockey victory over the U.S.
The late onslaught, and resulting fan jubilation, left some Canadian media figures downright giddy. On Saturday night, several on CTV pronounced these Olympics the most successful ever in terms of fan support, surpassing Sydney 2000 and Lillehammer 1994.
Call it irrational homer exuberance. Both of the earlier Games are notable for the unwavering fan support for the Olympics themselves, not just the home team.
Canada's fans clearly were passionate, but there were few occasions when fans braved bad conditions to root for athletes of other nations. That phenomenon put the Sydney and Lillehammer Games on a higher plane that Vancouver, for all its passion, never approached.
There's no question Canada, in the end, embraced these Games and made them their own, turning them into the biggest party the nation had ever thrown for itself.
In the end, the Games that began with tears and anguish ended on an upbeat, celebratory note - "With Glowing Hearts," as the Games slogan said. It was no small feat, and a credit to the strong Olympics ethic that's clearly alive and well to the north.
Only the most vengeful skeptic would call these the worst Games ever. Only the most dreamy, hometown optimist would call them the best.
The host nation should find no shame in settling for something comfortably, competently, and even passionately, in between.