What London should learn from the Vancouver Olympics is that whilst the Olympics is a very competitive game amalgamation, a party and fun loving atmosphere really set the proceeding alight. The games should not be seen as serious or too empowering. It should be revealed for what it is intended traditionally to be; a form of entertainment. If London can capture the party spirit they will attract more tourists and more spending. It will also give Londoners a light at the end of their tunnel. Quarter after financial quarter we have seen the recession ravage the London job market. A party at6mosphere is what is needed to lift people’s spirits.

At the very least, what we can learn from Canada and their recent Olympic hosting triumph is how to maintain spectators’ interest despite bad weather. Vancouver was expecting snow and all it got was dampening rain. It is not likely to snow during Britain’s summer holdings of the Olympics, but rain is a strong possibility which will not sing sunny summer to the world. It rains 131 days out of 365, and this is not all in the winter and autumn but spreads its self out in the summer as well.^[1] Whilst we cannot avoid the dampening of the lands, we can avoid the dampening of spirits, and we can learn how to do this by looking at how Vancouver managed.

1. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_the_United_Kingdom#England

We are sure to complain about the smallest amount of rain as we are such a weather obsessed people and this is likely to affect perceptions from elsewhere. At least we can take a prepared approach and have lots of coats and umbrellas avaliable.

Whilst Canada has been cited as one of the most successful host countries in their winter Olympics, the nation still feels like it underperformed leaving a feeling of spite and disappointment. Why when they did achieve such a good standing, third by most medals and first by the most golds? Because they had propaganda immersed into their souls stating that they were going to “Own the Podium”, they were going to undermine every other countries chances. Not achieving this target has left the nation feeling beaten despite its success. So to avoid that feeling of disappointment we should avoid overstating our ability to take the Olympics by storm in the medal calculations.

This probably never would have been a problem for Britain. Although we might hype things up a bit we know we are not very good when it comes to sports and rather like to do ourselves down. Any medals would be good!

Despite London not being a large capital the sheer variety of places to go out and party makes it difficult to know where to go even on an ordinary Saturday night. What will people do for the Olympics? If everyone is spread out, or if tourists tend to pocket themselves in certain corners of London then we will not get the multi-national party atmosphere that we want. Instead, we should follow what they did in Vancouver. For the partying, people were advised to go downtown. With this word spreading, this is where tourists and native people started to go. People were able to integrate and not be separated. This centralisation of the partying made the Olympics a whole lot more inclusive and less isolating for tourists. Ultimately what this will result in is more tourists in the future.

The summer and the winter Olympics are two completely different events. The winter Olympics does not have the same prestige as the ordinary Olympics and therefore to try and salvage ideas from the lesser of the two games for the greater of the two games is ridiculous. The attitudes towards the two sets of Olympics are completely different. The types of sports entered into are completely different. To try and learn something from an incomparable is not to be recommended.

Copying is not a bad thing if you can build on it and improve it. The Canadians would be unlikely to object, afterall the experience they had in the vancouver games are unlikely to be able to be used in Canada again for some time as it is unusuall for countries to get to host two Olympic Games in quick sucession. It therefore makes sense for Canada to pass on what it can in terms of its experience to London and to Sochi (the next host of the Winter Games).

Why is there this emphasis on what we should learn from other Olympic events? Why is Britain so obsessed with taking inspiration and ideas from other countries? That is the not the spirit of the Olympics. We should not seek to copy or emulate anything other than British-ness. The public across the world do not want to see working formulae every time they turn on the Olympics. They want to be shown the quirks of the country. They want to see what the country has developed on their own. Taking inspiration from elsewhere will only lead to a loss of the feeling of British-ness.