2010 Winter Olympics: Olympic organizers tout comeback from early woes

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — With four days left for the unexpected to happen, organizers say the Vancouver Games have recovered from a shaky start to succeed on many fronts, from combating doping to strengthening Canadian national unity.

Even with the return of rain after a welcome stretch of good weather, leaders of the Vancouver Organizing Committee told reporters Wednesday they were proud of their resilience in the face of multiple glitches and harsh criticism early in the games.

"We have tried very hard to look at every day through a critical lens," said VANOC's CEO, John Furlong. "If there's the slightest imperfection, we're trying to attack it and make improvements."

The most welcome surprise, Furlong said, has been the enthusiastic response of people who live in the area, who had conveyed some ambivalence about hosting the Olympics in pre-games opinion polls. Downtown sidewalks and public gathering areas are packed with upbeat crowds, and locals and visitors alike line up for hours to get into prime attractions.

"They have chosen not to be spectators," Furlong said. "They have chosen to live this with us. ... There's a prevailing atmosphere in the city of trying to help and contribute."

Olympic enthusiasm seems to have spread far beyond British Columbia, Furlong said, bringing together at least for now a country challenged by linguistic, ethnic and geographic divides.

The games have been "a nation-builder," he said. "I hope we are a stronger Canada."

Among other accomplishments cited by VANOC leaders:

—As of Wednesday, there had been no positive doping results from the hundreds of tests conducted on Olympic athletes.

"We have a state-of-the-art, very sophisticated anti-doping program," said VANOC's vice president for sport, Cathy Priestner Allinger. "It doesn't get better than what we've built here."

—An Olympic cauldron on the downtown Vancouver waterfront — which drew criticism last week because it was inaccessibly guarded by a chain-link fence — has become a photogenic and hugely popular attraction since VANOC arranged to open a nearby rooftop as a public viewing area.

It's an Olympic first, said Furlong. "You can actually feel the heat on your face."