Anger as Olympic flame fenced off

VANCOUVER–They came by the thousands to get a photo with the Olympic flame. They had to settle for a shot of the Olympic fence.

The chain-link wall keeping the unwashed away from the outdoor Olympic cauldron is a menacing doozy, maybe 10 feet high and peaked with sharp prongs. It's more North Korea than West Coast Canada, but there it is, fronting a demilitarized zone the size of a football field that separates the flame from the public's closest vantage point.

Winter Olympics Open Friday in Vancouver

And I'm Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the Winter Olympic Games that open February twelfth in Vancouver, Canada.

About five thousand men and women from more than eighty countries will compete for seventeen days at the Vancouver Olympics. They will compete in more than eighty separate medal events in fifteen sports. The games are about sportsmanship, hard work, and national pride. The athletes share a common goal -- to do their best and win a gold medal.

Our Winter Olympics coverage

While many in the UK have spent the past month hoping for less snow, in unseasonably warm British Columbia they want the opposite.

Not that the organising commitee are letting a lack of the white stuff worry them. Their planning continues apace and in our own way, so does ours as the BBC prepares to cover the Winter Olympics, which takes place 12-28 February in Vancouver, for the 14th time.

So what can you expect from us? Well, Vancouver is eight hours behind GMT, so if you are watching in the UK, your live TV coverage will start most evenings at around 7pm and continue through to the early morning UK time.

BBC Two will dedicate approximately 160 hours to the event over the 17 days, plus 2,000 hours of interactive coverage from BBC Red Button.

Viewers with digital TV can access up to six additional streams of coverage to see extended coverage of the 86 individual events. In addition BBC Red Button and BBC iPlayer will carry a 30-minute Highlights show - available everyday from 0600 on the red button and around 0800 on iPlayer, encapsulating all the day's action.

There will be a catch up show every lunchtime on BBC Two featuring the best of the overnight action.

Cuche still hopeful on Olympics despite thumb injury

(AFP) – 2 days ago

KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia — Swiss veteran Didier Cuche still expects to compete at next month's Winter Games in Vancouver despite fracturing his right thumb in a fall in Friday's giant slalom at Kranjska Gora.

Cuche will have surgery on Saturday in Zurich but expects to make a swift recovery to keep his Olympic dream alive.

"The Olympics are still on. We will see how the operation goes and how (the injury) can be protected," said the super-G world champion, who last week produced a double downhill-super G triumph on the Streif at Kitzbuehel to take his season win tally to four and career total to 13.

Cuche, 35, will be operated on by Dr Walter Frey at Zurich's Schulthess clinic after he suffered the injury in clipping the third last gate "pretty hard".

The veteran has already been racing through the pain barrier in recent weeks after he fractured a rib six weeks ago at Val d'Isere, a problem which took three weeks to clear up.

Vancouver Olympics 2010: American snow boarding hopes a win

Vancouver Olympics 2010: American snow boarding hopes a win

2010 Olympic Torch returns to B.C.

KICKING HORSE PASS, on the B.C.-Alta border — At exactly 4:27 p.m. Alberta time, with about 200 loudly cheering people huddled on the side of the highway, the Olympic torch was passed by former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed to B.C. Lions coach Wally Buono.

With a spectacular backdrop of mountains that would be the envy of any Hollywood producer, the two former football players touched their torches together and Lougheed passed the flame on.

"I shouldn't be puffing like this, should I?" said the smiling 81-year-old Lougheed.

‘Lethal force’ an option in Olympic Games airspace: Norad

“lethal force” in a worst-case scenario to defend new airspace-security restrictions being imposed during the 2010 Olympic Games.

Lieut. David Lavallee, spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defence Command, told The Vancouver Sun on Tuesday that the response to a violation of flight restrictions could range from simple radio contact with the pilot to the use of Canadian military CF-18 fighter jets and Griffon helicopters.

“There are many facets to a situation like that,” he said. “Suffice it to say we will have aircraft and people ready to respond to violations of the restricted airspace. Norad has a graduated response that can, if necessary, culminate in the use of lethal force.”