Red Cross missing at Vancouver Olympics

February 10, 2010, No comments

Only two days to go before the Winter Olympics open, and I think some officials in Vancouver might be rushing out to buy white paint. Not only to cover their blushes, but to paint the right flag on the sign for the medical station. Some bright spark added a flag with square cross in the middle, but got the colours reversed. Instead of a Red Cross, they have the Swiss one.

So it seems that the medical facilities are only available to the Swiss athletes; perhaps that’s how they plan to beat the Austrians, their eternal ski rivals. Then again, as the medical services area is also the doping control station, maybe only Swiss athletes are to be tested? You can see a picture of the sign, with its Swiss flag, in this Swiss paper, on the top right on the double-page spread under the headline ‘Dopingkontolle nur für Schweizer?’

Of course the story’s only there because Swiss readers needed some light relief after reading the one next to it, where Switzerland is predicted a medal total of 13. Five under the Austrians. There’s nothing worse than losing to the Austrians, as I explained in a previous post. The trouble is this prediction comes from Luciano Barra, former Italian IOC member, who was spot on for the Beijing Games. It could be a long Games for the Swiss.