The Vancouver Manx must be be getting excited. No, not about their 100 years celebration – they had that back in the summer. I mean for the Winter Olympics in 2010.
I wonder if they will invite some of us to be their guests? It would be a friendly thing to do. And friend is the the theme of these games. Just look at their logo.
For centuries, the Inuit people of Canada’s Arctic stacked rocks in human form to create the inukshuk, a guidepost that provided direction across the vast horizons of the North. Over time, the inukshuk has become a symbol of hope and friendship, an eternal expression of the hospitality of a nation that warmly welcomes the people of the world with open arms every day.
The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games emblem is a contemporary interpretation of the inukshuk. It is called Ilanaaq which is the Inuktitut word for friend.
And the other Manx connection? Zoe Gilling from Arbory. She’s a snowboarder (amazing if you know Arbory parish – there’s no snow and few hills) who is ranked 7th in the world and has beaten every other Olympic contender at some time in the last season. She was a silver medalist in Korea — let’s hope she can go for gold come 2010.
