Gotta go with Vancouver. It could mean a new, outdoor stadium for the Lions and the Whitecaps. Fantabulous.
Although I'd automatically say Salzburg - simply for being a top-notch place in a generally nice area, the 2006 Olympics are being held in Italy which maybe a little too close for everyone. My vote depends on the time differences between each of the other 2 places and Britain. The Korean one means a similar time frame to the WC, so first thing in the morning is the time to watch - not great. And Vancouver means err.... what? Western Canada, that's got to be about 9 hours difference right? Which means live evening viewing for me. Vancouver gets it.
yeah go Vancouver gets my vote. I enjoyed staying up till like 3am at the last winter games watching 3 diffrent ice hockey games on BBC interactive.
Will this decision be in the near future? Some logical aspects would speak for Pyeongchang - 2006 Turin (close to Salzburg), 2002 Salt Lake City ("close" to Salt Lake City) and 1998 Nagano, so it might be Asia again. Nagano were chaos games though and this might speak against Pyeongchang, although I don't know about their region and their bid in particular. Salzburg is well liked by tourists, but a few hundred kilometres between 2006 and 2010 is making their bid really impossible. Vancouver is a great city, also Canada is often standing a bit in the shadow of the USA if it comes to hosting major events ("North America? No, USA just had it" can be heard year after year somewhere) - and that's why my sympathy is with them. I'll miss staying up at night to watch the hockey games though as in 2010 I won't be student anymore and won't find time for that.
vancouver will have a referendum on hosting the games Feb 22. This was promised by the incoming Vancouver city council. Most of them belong to a group that opposes the games. The final decision by the IOC is supposed to be in early March.
For the skiing events, I like Austria to win it. Either them or Norway. For Hockey, I like Canada to repeat. For all the "X-Games" events, I'll take the Americans. Those sports, afterall, were invented so the home team could get a high medal count in Utah.
Speaking of Britain and the Winter Olympics, what was the deal with that Scottish guy that won the bronze in slalom at SLC? I remember he got drug tested and there was some controversy, but did he end up keeping his medal or not? Alex
Alain Baxter was the chap you mean. His claim that he had mistakenly taken a banned substance (by means of a Vicks inhaler - very similar packaging however the US version has the added ingredient methamphetamine. Lovely.) was upheld by the powers that be. This meant basically, an honourable discharge. He was cleared of doing anything deliberately and as such doesn't recieve a ban - but still had to relinquish his bronze medal. Which Benjamin Raich of Austria accepted, like they don't have enough medals already. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/2327251.stm