No ring-rustiness here

Back in the UK, there’ll be the usual IOC-sating BBC coverage, weather-worn clips of Sarajevo ’84 and (if we’re lucky) yet another Cool Runnings repeat.

Not so here in Canada, where our first sighting of the famous five rings was in the queue at the customs desk. That’s right, it’s so big they won’t even let you in the country without your loyal acknowledgement.

Of course, the fact that the proceedings will be played out in Vancouver (where an unusually mild winter is causing officials to store extra supplies of snow – yes, you read that correctly) is a contributing factor, but it merely adds fuel to the quadrennial hype-furnace in a nation which has long referred to ‘the summer Olympics’ and ‘the Olympics’.

And there’s no question which event is the most written-about, argued over and anticipated with religious fervour. Indeed, the single gold medal up for grabs in the ice hockey tournament may as well be a championship in itself. Imagine the Olympic football tournament allowing full-strength squads and having no World Cup to rival it and you’re perhaps about halfway there.

I was here in December 2005 when the country practically came to a standstill. For the squad announcement.

Naturally, no marketing department with their wits about them can afford to miss out on such an opportunity and Coca-Cola have duly obliged in cinemas with this admittedly brilliant encapsulation of the pre-eminent place in Canadian culture of the good old hockey game. Believe me, I saw it pre-Avatar the other week and at least one person I know shed a tear...