Top 5 reasons Vancouver Games should be moved to Utah

By Andrew Pridgen

02/09/10 - 10:58 AM

Top 5 reasons Vancouver Games should be moved to Utah

As Canada scrambles to bring snow one truckload at a time to its Mount Cypress venue in West Vancouver (DC volunteered its three fresh feet, actually), here in our backyard — Olympians and podium hopefuls stick closer to their home slopes to make some last-minute practice turns before heading up to the not-so-frozen north.

So we say, why not just move 'em on down here and put Strange Brew on a loop on Canadian TV — they'll never know the difference.

Here then, five reasons Park City should be the last-minute venue for the '10 games.

5. Out of a student body of only 3,000, 14 Westminster students are Olympians... so it makes sense that the kids stay near campus — you know, it's almost midterms.

4. We've got the gnome, we've got the gnome (According to SkiUtah, the Travelocity Roaming Gnome arrived in Utah late last week to pose for pictures and participate in some of the most popular activities that Utah ski resorts have to offer, including skiing, ice skating, snowmobiling and snow tubing. As with all celebrities, he had a "personal assistant" accompany him along the way. He buzzed around Park City-area slopes Friday, working off Thursday night's Deer Valley Seafood Buffet before moving on to the Cottonwood Canyons over the weekend.)

3. The athletes (we love) are already here (Again, according to SkiUtah: the U.S. Olympic Alpine Speed Ski Team spent last week slaying the gates on the 2002 Olympic GS hill at Utah's Park City Mountain Resort for its final training camp on snow before heading to Vancouver. The camp included 2002 double silver medalist Bode Miller, 2006 gold medalist Ted Ligety, Steven Nyman, Marco Sullivan, Andrew Weibrecht, Erik Fisher and Will Brandenburg. "It's nice to be here in Park City, training in my hometown, it's not often I can do that. It's cool to be here on CB's. It's an awesome hill, a hill I grew up on," Ligety said.

2. Canadian figure skaters have all the luck in SLC (Jamie Sale and David Pelletier getting jobbed by the Russians but taking home the gold anyway....)

1. Still have plenty of Roots berets to go around ...Nooooo!