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Peter Scrivener

Olympic countdown - 76 - Montreal mayhem


Nadia Comaneci (left) and Alberto Juantorena

I think it's fair to say that the 1976 Olympic Games were not far off being an unmitigated disaster for host nation Canada.

For a start, the Montreal Olympic Stadium was not finished in time for the opening ceremony - the tower and retractable roof were only completed a decade after the Games.

The rising costs of construction meant that Canadians only finished paying the C$1.5bn (£729m) debt in December 2006. Yes, that's right, it took 30 years to pay off the cost of staging the Games.

And in that 30 years, the stadium seemed to lurch from one problem to another.

At the Games themselves, the Olympic torch was extinguished by a downpour, prompting an official to use a cigarette lighter to ignite the flame. Organisers quickly doused the flame again and re-lit it using a backup of the original flame.

More than 20 African nations boycotted and for the first time in Olympic history, the host nation did not win a solitary gold medal.

Thankfully it was not all bad news.

Fourteen-year-old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci provided the story of the Games when she scored the first perfect 10.0 in Olympic history. Comaneci went on to score another six maximums as she secured three gold medals and a silver.

And on the track, Cuba's Alberto Juantorena achieved a unique double in winning the 400m and 800m - the latter in a world-record time.

But Montreal will always be remembered for the stadium, which was dubbed the 'Big Owe' by locals, and Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau's comments that: "The Olympics can no more have a deficit than a man can have a baby."

With all the advertising and television revenue around the Games today, surely Montreal will never be repeated, will it?

Peter Scrivener is a BBC Sport Journalist. Our FAQs should answer any questions you have.


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  • 1. At 3:54pm on 24 May 2008, acanadianguy

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.

  • 2. At 11:37pm on 24 May 2008, acanadianguy wrote:

    As a Canadian I take some offense to this blog. It is innacurate and and belittles what was infact a successful games.

    Politics notwithstanding.

    Perhaps if the writer had gone further than the Wickpedia article for their information, they would have realised it.

    There were no Pre-Olympic boasts about how many medals would be won. There's only one medal Canadians expect to win at any games. The rest is gravy.

    We enjoyed and shared in Nadia's success as much as Juantorena's. And Greg gave us more than a little Joy.

    Canada is a country of winter sports, and any time the writer wants to get "on the ice" with a few Canucks, we'll be more than happy to show them what an unmitigated disaster really looks like.

    We're a Large country with a Small population, not a small country with a large population. Some of it's characters have been larger than life.

    That a politician might be subject to hyperbole isn't unkown and Drapeau was certainly a larger than life character.

    In terms of truthfullness, at least he wasn't making any guarantees about Weapons of Mass Destruction. Now there's a whopper and the world will pay for that one a lot longer.

    As for the Big O, as it has always been referred to here. That is in reference to it's shape and the retractable roof. The concept was fine, technology failed it.

    There are other large round objects to be found in London, which failed both conceptually as well as technologically.

    There's an old line about people who live in glass houses. London 2012 is just around the corner. Hopefully by then you will have learned how to handle the baggage as well as all the people that come with it.

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  • 3. At 11:01am on 25 May 2008, alex_kabanos wrote:

    Hey Canadianguy- you a Montreal native i take it - otherwise you wouldn't give two hoots. The rest of Canada doesn't!

    (I also agree with your "on the ice" reference - Brits have a wonderful way of criticising everyone else without a hint of self reflection.)

    Re 2012 and baggage - if Terminal 5 is anything to go by....

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  • 4. At 10:43pm on 25 May 2008, acanadianguy wrote:

    No Alex I'm not from Montreal, I'm from Canada.

    Having lived at each end of Canada, and driven in between I can say that when you get out to "big sky" country that the sun can get so high and bright that sometimes people are tempted to pull their cowboy hats down so tight they can't see past their feet. So, my little sausage, your hat may be on too tight.

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  • 5. At 11:42am on 27 May 2008, Peter Scrivener - BBC Sport wrote:

    Hi acanadianguy,

    Thanks for your thoughts, but if it's all the same with you, I won't take up your kind offer of meeting the Canucks on the ice!

    I've been ice skating once before and had three instructors on the floor. I think that speaks volumes for my winter games chances.

    I just wanted to point out that Wikipedia was not my only source of information, particularly on the "Big Owe" - ESPN have this article: http://espn.go.com/mlb/s/2003/0422/1542254.html

    And CBC News have this one: http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/05/23/olympic-stadium.html?ref=rss among others I came across.

    To the medal point - I merely stated a fact - it's a unique fact and worthy of mention.

    And yes I know London 2012 is round the corner.

    As a resident of the city I, along with several million other people, am hoping we don't end up paying for it for several decades to come.

    Cheers,
    Peter

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