Vancouver residents' enthusiasm for the Games, leading to venues packed with cheering supporters, was the focus of the most praise, and was contrasted with the damp atmosphere at some events at the Beijing Games in 2008.
"There was an extraordinary embrace of the entire city of the Olympic Games, something I have never seen on this scale before," said IOC president Jacques Rogge. "I've seen some embrace, of course, good embrace, of the Games in Lillehammer [in 1994], but Lillehammer [Norway] is a small city of 20,000. Here we are over one million, so that means that it is totally different. This is something that is unique and it gave a great atmosphere for these games."
The Vancouver organising committee was applauded for its part in this, by clearly getting its ticket policy right. London 2012's Sebastien Coe said the UK capital had lessons to learn from VANOC, and pointed to the success of the Canadian team in raising the spirits of the crowds.
"The stadiums are full and clearly full of people who look like they want to be there, which tells me they've got the ticketing strategy right,” he said.
"The streets have really adopted these Games too ... and of course the sport has been great. Home town wins always help and the volunteer service has been outstanding. So if you get those things right you tend to have a pretty good Games."
The Games began under a cloud with thedeath of Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili , and the unseasonally warm weather which closed viewing areas and forced organisers to truck snow to some venues, damaging the event's 'Green' credentials.
Reuters reported that the Vancouver “changed the mood”, by “the enthusiasm of the crowds, the excellence of the competition, the city's warmth of welcome and the small matter of Canada's 14 gold medals, culminating in the dramatic overtime victory in men's [ice] hockey on the closing day”.
The news agency reported a list of interestig figures from the Games, including:
- Canada's 14 gold medals, a new Olympic record for the highest number won in a single Games.
- The 10.6 million Canadian television audience which watched the home team lose to the USA 5-3 in a group stage match in the men's ice hockey tournament – the most-watched sports programme in Canadian history.
- The Vancouver Games' operating budget of C$1.75 billion, not including the C$900 million security budget, funded mostly by the Canadian government.
- The 5,000 athletes and officials, and 10,000 members of the media, who attended the Games, as well as tens of thousands of spectators.
