Last night we were watching the Olympics with a bunch of family members, one of which is a bit off his nut (c’mon, there’s one in every family). As soon as the Zamboni malfunctioned prior to the last round of speed skating competitions, he was quick to jump to the conclusion that it was “because it was green”. For some reason this has been the reason for failure that everyone has latched onto. Here is what actually happened:
Fact #1: It was an Olympia, Not a Zamboni.
See the Olympia ice resurfacer product page for more. The model in question was the Ice Bear, a battery-powered ice resurfacing machine.
Fact#2: It Ran on an Electric Engine, Which Did not Cause the Malfunction
The Ice Bear Olympia runs on batteries, and the power of its engine was not the issue. The issue was problems with the lever that lowers the blade to resurface the ice and leave it smooth, something that could have happened just as easily on a non-green machine.
In the end, it was the manufacturer’s design that caused the issue, but not because it was “green” but because it was faulty. Public opinion is likely to cause a negative attitude towards green ice resurfacers in the future, unless Zamboni can invent a good one.
Tags: green ice resurfacer, green olympics, green zamboni, ice malfunction Olympics, ice malfunction Richmond
Comments (2)
I am a Facility Operator (aka Zamboni Driver). I say Facility Operator because Zamboni is a brand like kleenex (which is actually tissue paper). I drive an Olympia at work and it is a fine Canadian product. I feel really bad for Resurface Ice the manufacture of the Olympia. Vancouver 2010 Olympics was to be a big Public Relations victory for them, but that went out the window with the speed skating events. The issue with the first machine was operator error from what I understand. The operator activated the safety kill switch by standing up and forget to turn of the water forming a slushy puddle. This happens to every new operator but, normally you have a minor hockey game on the ice not an Olympic event. I think these issues could have been resolved in time, but should have been found before the games. As for why the Zamboni is coming from Calgary? It is the closest Zamboni in the bigger size used for the speed skating ovals. Good product in theory, but needed to be debugged in advance.
Zamboni actually makes an electric ice-resurface machine