Here it is

Where were you 345 weeks ago?

General Motors Place and Whistler Village were abuzz bright and early on a spectacular day after Canada Day when the International Olympic Committee chose Vancouver to host the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Now it’s almost here.

For 17 days Vancouver will be the world’s sport and media capital. It will be memorable and it will be costly. The Vancouver Games will be the least-successful since Montreal 1976 once the Games are over and the bills tallied.

It will be a Games of contrasts.

The world will find out how rich and poor the city is, with peaks of opulent wealth and valleys of poverty just blocks apart in downtown. Many First Nations people will feel a sense of pride and belonging like never before; others will feel greatly disenfranchised.

Locals will wonder where their Olympic payday is. The security overkill and transportation tie-ups will deter visits to downtown and some businesses will struggle to stay open.

The most-anticipated non-sporting event of the Games won’t be the parties at Holland Heineken House, Club Bud at the Commodore or Molson Canadian Hockey House, but the Feb. 19 auction of Whistler Blackcomb-owner Intrawest.

The VANOC transportation plan will become apparent as the weakest link of its planning. Order will come from the chaos in the second week.

The Wall Street media will be watching with an eagle-eye to make sure sponsors spend responsibly amid the continuing economic malaise that has greatly curtailed sponsor spending and caused governments to buck up even more than anticipated.

There will be no Barack Obama or “London Liz” on stolen native land. Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean will become the world’s most famous native of Haiti and John Furlong will trump Bono as the most famous Irishman with a microphone.

The Olympics are a decade of politics and economics and 17 days of sport. The agony of defeat and thrill of victory will make new stars.

American skier Lindsay Vonn is driving for five gold medals. The headline is already written: Vonn-couver. Canadian cross-country skier Brian McKeever is aiming to be the first to compete in both the Winter Olympics and Paralympics. Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, the Snow Leopard from Ghana via Scotland, will be the Vancouver equivalent of Eddie the Eagle. He won’t win gold, but the broadcaster who can pronounce his name flawlessly more than once could.

The success and failure of the $110 million Own the Podium program will be gauged daily when Canadians analyze the medals standings.

Canada could win every gold medal available but if one of them isn’t men’s hockey, then the Games could be deemed a puckin’ failure.