Omega's Olympic Dream

Omega certainly thought so when it signed on as official timekeeper for Vancouver 2010. Its giant ads – showcasing a new red-and-white limited edition Seamaster Professional alongside an artfully photographed four-man bobsled  - tout “the valiant attempts of the young men and women of the world to go faster, higher, stronger.” Boilerplate stuff in terms of Olympic testimonials, but then this is as safe a bet as Lindsey Vonn in the downhill. Why mess it up by doing something wild.

And yet, just a few days into the competition, Vancouver is already being billed as a sporting disaster for the ages. The tragic death in training of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili before the games even opened was immediately billed as a tragic accident but now questions are swirling about the safety of the track.

Since then, the litany of snafus, glitches and misfortunes has lengthened numbingly: mechanical failures threw an embarassing spanner into the opening ceremony; electrical faults closed down concessions stands on Cypress Mountain; the transport system is in chaos; police are struggling to control anti-Games rioting on the streets; and, most unlucky of all for a winter games, there is not enough snow.

Trucks loaded with the white stuff were to be spotted making their way up the mountain for days before the start to fill in the gaps. But since then races have been postponed and courses altered because of bad weather. Rain washed away what little snow there was on Cypress the other day and 4,000 tickets had to be refunded because it was unsafe to build viewing stands for the snowboarding. Even Lindsey Vonn has been hit by the curse, her dead-cert ride to glory put in doubt by a nagging ankle injury.

As far as Omega is concerned, all this proves is that when it comes to sponsorship and marketing tie-ins there are no dead certs. As much as anything, success or failure can come down to pure, dumb luck.