The Vancouver Olympic Games have been an unmitigated disaster. The endless laundry list of blunders on the part of Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) and the underachievement of many favoured Canadian athletes have disappointed hearts domestically, and dominated headlines internationally.

What exactly has gone wrong?

1. Before the Games opened, Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed on the new sledding track, to be relocated to Canada’s Wonderland after the Games. The track is the fastest in history, and has prompted the International Luge Federation to place restrictions on future designs to "ensure that this never happens again." VANOC then inexplicably blamed the deceased competitor’s lack of driving experience and not the track, meanwhile they moved the start gate almost one-quarter down the track to reduce rider speeds. But it wasn’t the track…

2. The Opening Ceremonies were plagued with missteps, firstly with one of the flames suffering erectile dysfunction, followed by the parading of a terrified Wayne Gretzky through the rain and thousands of enthusiasts to light the official Olympic Cauldron - in the back of an empty pick-up truck.

3. At the Richmond Olympic Oval, home to long-track speed skating and the crown jewel of the Vancouver’s proposal, the ice-resurfacing machine repeatedly malfunctioned, spilling liters of hot water onto the ice, leading to numerous delays in competition. Perhaps, investing in a back-up Zamboni would have helped.

4. VANOC’s “Own the Podium” Campaign. This national embarrassment, designed to provide Canadian athletes with the funding and training required to win the medal count at Vancouver, has done two things; created staunchly unrealistic expectations of Canadian athletes requiring them to shoulder inordinate amounts of additional pressure, and pissed off every other competing nation as they were denied pre-Games access to the Vancouver sites.

The first rule of Sports Psychology: Don’t give your opponent a reason to loathe you. The result – while the $20 psychics at the Vancouver Sun predicted 39 Canadian medals – we currently hold 11 at the three-quarter mark of the Games.

The international media, in particular, the Brits (who have little more than a curling team in Vancouver, but who host the 2012 Summer Games) have sniped at the overall games, on day four, calling them “the worst in history”, amongst other extremist offerings.

The Canadian media fully engaged in the cat-fight, defending the games with headlines such as The Star’s, “Why This Olympics is Already a Winner”. One national journalist even employed the argument that compared to the misfortunes of other Games, such as the terrorist attacks of ’72 Munich, the Centennial Olympic Park bombing of the ’96 Atlanta Games, and the black air of Beijing; the blunders of the Vancouver Games should be somehow overlooked.

While the sentiment of defending our Games is appreciated, the argument just isn't there. Errors of gross mismanagement by an Olympic organizing committee cannot be compared to terrorist attacks and poor environmental conditions. The former is easily remedied with plain ol’ competence, the latter, is unpredictable and controlled by forces external to the Games themselves.

Coming into these Games, I cared about two things. How would we showcase our great country on the international stage? And how would our athletes perform? Both have disappointed.

With my rant behind us, Vancouver's mistakes, aside from the Kumaritashvili tragedy, can be forgotten in the coming days. You see, there are classically two ways by which the Olympic champion nation is determined, total medal count, and gold medal count. And while we trail the U.S.A. 26-12 in the total medal count, we are behind by only one, single gold medal after Ashleigh McIvor’s win in women’s ski-cross Tuesday afternoon. We have men’s and women’s curling and hockey that have a combined win-loss record of 24-2 thus far. We also have team-event speed skating. These teams are all capable of mining more gold.

If, at the end of these Games, Canada can say, “We won the most events at the Olympics”, while we could not claim to “Own the [entire] Podium”, we could claim the top of it. And that would instantly transform these Games into an unmitigated success.