77 Days

Yesterday's post had sort of a negative vibe, what with (potential) Olympians not displaying the behavior that is supposed to go along with the spirit of the Olympics. So today, I want to get this countdown back on track, by highlighting an athlete whose actions do accurately portray that of the ideal Olympian. The first athlete who comes to mind is Olympic champion, speed-skater Joey Cheek. Cheek is a three time Olympic medalist from Greensboro, N.C. (Shout-out to Greensboro!) At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turino, Italy, the U.S. Olympic Committee decided to award money to any American athlete who won a medal. Cheek medaled in two events and donated his $25,000 gold medal bonus and his $15,000 silver medal bonus to charity and urged other athletes to do the same. He was thus elected by the entire U.S. Olympic team to carry the American flag for the closing ceremonies. Since then, Joey Cheek has gone on to do a lot of charity work with regard to the war in Darfur. There, I feel better now.

The Vancouver airport is expecting March 1, the day after the closing ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics, to be their busiest day ever. Over 77,000 pieces of luggage are estimated to depart the airport that day (as well as 39,000 people). Air Canada has also added extra domestic flights throughout the Olympics. Who wants to pick the over/under number for percentage of suitcases that get lost?
http://www.justtheflight.co.uk/news/19466351-vancouver-airport-preparing-for-busiest-ever-day.html

$77 million worth of tickets to the 2010 Winter Games were sold in the first phase of ticket sales, from Nov. '08 through Jan '09. That's over a year before the Olympics are even set to take place.

YouTube bought the rights to stream highlights of the 2008 Summer Olympics to 77 territories where digital rights had not been sold, primarily in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The clips were blocked to everyone outside the 77 territories. This reflected the first time the Olympics could be viewed globally.