| I must say that I have thoroughly enjoyed watching | | | | Sky Highway which was a widening and renovation |
| the likes of Lindsay Von, Bodie Miller, and Apolo | | | | to Highway 99 which links Vancouver and Whistler |
| Anoton Ohno rake in medals at the Olympics in | | | | mountain. I traveled along this gnarly stretch of |
| Vancouver this year. I couldn't help but wonder how | | | | two-lane gristle back in the early 2000s before |
| many of these fantastic, fantastic facilities were new | | | | Vancouver was awarded the Olympics. This was |
| and how much money was thrown into these games | | | | obviously one of the required improvements to British |
| for the construction of new building. I did a little | | | | Columbia in order to facilitate an Olympics. It was |
| research and found loads and loads of information. | | | | nicknamed, "Ski and Die Highway" prior to the |
| But, I couldn't find exactly how much was spent on | | | | improvements so it will most likely benefit BC well |
| construction alone versus how much was spent to | | | | beyond the games. The price-tag on this was $600 |
| operate the games. However, from what I have | | | | million. |
| gathered, I think I can safely say that about $5 billion | | | | Other projects included a $150 million renovation to |
| was spend on construction of new facilities and | | | | the BC Place Stadium which holds the opening and |
| roadways for the Olympics. | | | | closing ceremonies, the $178 million LEED certified |
| Ironically, the most expensive of these projects was | | | | Richmond Olympic Oval hosting speedskating, and the |
| not a facility intended to house Olympic events, but | | | | $40 million LEED certified Vancouver Olympic |
| rather a building, or should I say village, intended to | | | | Paralympic Center hosting only curling, but will be |
| house Olympic athletes, coaches, and officials. The | | | | converted into a community recreation center after |
| Vancouver Olympic Village is a 600,000 square foot | | | | the Olympics. |
| facility with over 600 units will accommodate about | | | | This year's Olympics also got me thinking about when |
| 2500 Olympic participants. And at a price-tag of $1 | | | | the next American winter games will be held. For the |
| billion, it provides some of the finest housing Olympic | | | | past ten years my prediction has been and remains |
| athletes have ever seen. At least according to U.S. | | | | to be....Denver 2022. I wavered for a while about |
| speedskater Chad Hedrick who was quoted in a | | | | whether they will go for an Olympic bid in 2018 or |
| recent Time Magazine article as saying, "It's blown us | | | | 2022, but from what I've read it looks like '022 is the |
| away, to be honest." Of course Vancouver | | | | answer - it has to. Colorado has long been the leader |
| taxpayers had to bail out the private developers who | | | | in winter sports in this country and by now, tempers |
| initially funded the project, but maybe the taxpayer | | | | have settled after their little spat with the IOC back |
| scorn will be alleviated by the fact that the | | | | in the '70s. |
| neigborhood received LEED Platinum certification while | | | | So let's get about $10 billion queued up and get the |
| all the buildings received LEED Gold. | | | | games in Denver for 2022. |
| Another major project in this deal was the Sea to | | | | |