The Torch Is Passed

Au revoir, CBC. Bonjour TSN, Rogers Sportsnet and CTV.
Tucked among the many retrospectives aired tonight during CBC's final telecast from the Beijing Games was a tribute to CBC's Olympic coverage over the years. With images from Tokyo 1964 all the way to this week, it almost played like a farewell concerto.
As most of you no doubt know, CBC's grip on Olympic rights ended this evening. When the five-ring circus opens for business again in less than 18 months — yes, Vancouver, that's how close the 2010 Winter Games are now — you'll see broadcast coverage presented by a CTV Globemedia/Rogers consortium that most prominently features TSN, CTV and Sportsnet. They'll be back two years later to do it all over again in London for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
We've said it before but it bears repeating once more. While many across our land have lobbed bombs (and justifiably so, at times) in the CBC's direction for some of its bungles in recent years, its Olympic work is generally worthy of our acclaim. They took it to a new level in Beijing, presenting the first full high-definition Games and offering Canadians a wealth of viewing options online.
Tonight's tribute video featured a number of CBC voices we've come to know so well over the years including, interestingly enough, Brian Williams and Chris Cuthbert, now CBC alumni who will be back on the Olympic job in Vancouver. Maybe their appearance was a subtle way of passing the broadcast torch to their competition.
Beijing 2008 introduced us to some new Olympic TV faces, including Diana Swain and Ian Hanomansing — two anchors brought over from CBC's news side who acquitted themselves admirably. It'll be interesting to see if some of the CBC talent, both new and old, employed at the Olympics over the years might find a home with the other guys from now on.
The word is CBC intends to push hard to regain Olympic rights in 2014, the next Games still available (in Sochi, Russia). If Chicago wins the 2016 Summer Olympics, those broadcast rights figure to become much more pricey.
That's a story that still remains to be told. For the CBC, though, it's farewell to the Games.
We'll see soon enough how much they'll be missed. And if and when they'll be back.

So What Else Is New?

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know this is CBC's Olympics swan song. Until 2014 at the earliest, that is.
A CTV Globemedia/Rogers Consortium (primarily CTV, TSN and Sportsnet) moves onto centre stage for the next two Games — the highly anticipated Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, followed by the next Summer Olympics in London in 2012.
No surprise, really, seeing the CBC bashers of the world (and they are legion) chortling with glee about the impending turn of events. The Hockey Night in Canada theme song fiasco, the curling mess of a few years back, the end of its hold on the Grey Cup after more than half a century ... yep, those bitter folks have had plenty of ammo in recent years (and, they might also remind you, how come we're not hearing Brian Williams or Chris Cuthbert from Beijing?).
At times, it's been like shooting fish in a barrel, it's been so easy.
In this case, at least, I find that whole tone humorous. You see, it wasn't all that many years ago the Canadians from coast-to-coast were cheering loudly when CBC got its hands back on the Olympic rings for the 1996 Atlanta Games. This was after CTV efforts in Barcelona 1992 and Lillehammer 1994 that were received rather coolly, to put it kindly, by the viewers and the critics back at home.
So what's the lesson here?
That's easy. Canadians like to bitch about what they see on television, no matter what the game is or who's showing it to them. You'd almost think it's a national sport. Some of them actually know what they're talking about, too (everyone's an armchair expert, right?).
In other words, be forewarned TSN and Sportsnet. While we trust the next two Games will be in good hands, someone out there figures to disagree. And they won't be shy about telling you so.
Hey, it's the Canadian way.

When We Were One

The book hasn't been opened in who knows how long.
But there it sits on a shelf in my living room, the three words in its title a tangible reminder of a remarkable two weeks 20 years ago, when Canada proudly opened its door to the world perhaps like never before.
Calgary 1988. It was our first try at being Winter Olympics hosts (we'd done the Summer Games thing 12 years earlier in Montreal) and did those warm Albertans ever pull it off just right. Those Olympics raised the bar to new heights and, if you ask the fortunate folks who go to these things on a regular basis, maybe only Lillehammer 1994 has surpassed it since.
Think of those Games and names like Katarina Witt, Alberto Tomba, Brian Boitano and Canadian heroes Brian Orser, Liz Manley, Karen Percy and Tracy Wilson and Rob McCall rush to mind. And, oh yes, who could forget the likes of Eddie the Eagle and the Jamaican bobsled team?
The Olympics, though, is also about a spirit, one that unites the world as one like perhaps nothing else. If you have been or ever aspire to be an Olympian, you know of what I speak. And nothing symbolizes that spirit much more than the flame that is lit the signify the launch of the Games and isn't extinguished — always with a sense of sadness — when they come to a conclusion.
That flame is something Canadians from coast-to-coast embraced in the days and weeks leading up to Calgary '88. The torch relay became such a rallying point for a nation, even esteemed ABC commentator Jim McKay said he had never seen anything like it from an Olympic host country.
Rarely have I been prouder to say that I am Canadian.
No doubt, those feelings will spring forth once more in less than two years time, when Vancouver becomes the third municipality in the Great White North to become an "Olympic city." All of which serves as an introduction to the blog you're reading now.
During my years in the newspaper business, I was intimately involved in the coverage of many an Olympic Games. Always from the "home front," mind you, but the connection was clearly there. During my time at the Ottawa Sun, I profiled a number of Ottawa-area athletes who traversed all parts of the globe to realize the dream of a lifetime. Since Atlanta 1996, my commentary on the television coverage of the Games became a regular Sun feature (yes, I got paid to watch it all on TV).
Now that my career has taken a different turn, though, I felt a little bit like Brian Williams — all dressed up but without an Olympics to cover (Williams, you no doubt know, will sit out CBC's coverage of Beijing 2008 but will be CTV/TSN/Sportsnet's prime-time anchor for Vancouver 2010).
This blog, I hope, will fill a bit of that void.
Oh, and the name of that book?
It's the title of this blog.
Now you know why.