HOME AND AWAY JOHN FURLONG: Gavin Cummiskeytalks to the chief executive of the organising committee for the 2010 Winter Olympics

JOHN FURLONG remembers 1974 as a watershed year in his life: the Dublin bombings on May 17th, the death of his father, Jack, and his own departure to Vancouver.

"It was a tough year, but I always thought I'd come back," he says.

He still rises some mornings before dawn to watch the GAA championship or an Irish soccer international on television. Whatever; he is sports obsessed and Ireland is his native land. As chief executive of the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010, the Tipperary native is another of the wild geese to come good.

The quest to land an interview with Furlong began some months ago. Eventually, a PR lady for the Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) offices ceded to this reporter's numerous requests. It is not easy to track down a man with over three-million travel miles.

A window of opportunity opens on a weekday at 8.45am as he drives from Vancouver up to the host mountain resort of Whistler - "one of the foremost alpine ski resorts in North America," according to the official documentation; "an awesome place, man," according to a snow junkie.

Within seconds we effortlessly narrow down the degrees of separation that link Irish people.

"Are you a Dub?"

"Yeah . . . but my mother's from Laois."

"Where?"

"Stradbally."

"Ah, sure I lived in Portlaoise for years . . ."

You get the picture.

VANOC are in the unique position of being on schedule and within their $1.63 billion budget.

To host the Winter Olympics requires infrastructural competence. Every sinew of a city must be pulling in the same direction. It requires strong-minded administrators in tourism, government and sport, all aided by local business and corporate sponsorship.

Dublin possesses a strong soul, but Gay Mitchell's assertion it could raise the five-ring flag seems increasingly delusional after a 45-minute chat with Furlong.

It is an immense logistical challenge. But a mere 18 months ahead of show time, Furlong provides a convincing argument that Vancouver can shoulder the burden.

Even the relentless anti-doping crusader Dick Pound, A VANOC board member, has come around after being an initial critic of awarding Furlong the chief executive's armband (and its $300,000 annual salary).

"Mr Furlong is a perfectly capable person and a nice person, but he doesn't have the experience that you need for this job," Pound said in February 2004, just seven months after Vancouver edged out South Korea at an IOC conference in Prague to choose the host city.

The Canadian federal government, the province of British Columbia, the resort municipality of Whistler and the City of Vancouver disagreed with Pound. As does the VANOC chairman, Jack Poole:

"There have been no scandals. There's been no naughty behaviour. John's instincts are really good. He's surrounded himself with like-minded people. I have never met someone like him, and nobody can turn a room the way he can."

We should provide an introduction to this native son who guides his adopted city in such a mammoth undertaking.

Furlong's was a nomadic upbringing as he followed his father around the Irish penal system: "My father was a senior civil servant so I lived in every jail in Ireland at one stage or another."

The big house in Portlaoise was home for a time as Furlong senior was the chief jailer.

"We were both named John, but he was called Jack. He died soon after the Dublin bombings and I left shortly after that. I honestly thought I'd return and spend the rest of my life in Ireland and pursue my athletic career there."

He played Gaelic football - inspired by Kevin Heffernan's great Dublin team lighting a fuse that burns to this day - and got international recognition in basketball and handball.

But something happened in Vancouver: "This country is somewhat addictive. I'm a proud Canadian, born and raised with Irish values."

Soon after arrival in Canada, Furlong was mauled in his first ever exposure to squash by a lawyer friend, Jack Heinrich. A year later he returned from a trip to Ireland and exacted revenge. By 1986 he was a national champion.

This is a man of relentless drive, evident from the pattern of his career. In 1996 Furlong was a late replacement for John Mills, head of Sports British Columbia, in a television interview touching on Vancouver's outside prospects of hosting the summer Olympics. This proved too vast an undertaking, and anyway, the natural advantage of the Coast Mountains that loom large over the city made the winter Games the obvious target.

"We were like kids in a sandbox, dreaming. The origins of the bid came from sports people in British Columbia. I was a volunteer in the community." By 2001 "the volunteer" was running the Winter Games bid. They "moved a mountain" on July 2nd, 2003, in the Czech Republic capital.

"We celebrated for half an hour and then got back to work. We quickly established that delays in the structural process would lead to a tarnished reputation."

They set goals: "We reduced the complexity and the cost and also looked at getting Canadian athletes used to the venues. I know the advantage to Irish soccer and rugby players of playing in Croke Park.

"We didn't want to be worrying about construction two years before the Games. Some organising committees don't start until the Games are secured. We chose not to let that happen. By the time Beijing passes, there will be no more thoughts of concrete."

He will be present in China, along with his VANOC committee, learning from the daily challenges that cannot be predicted.

Furlong has also drawn on Irish ties for advice: "When we started this process I called up Pat Hickey and got in a room with him. I was trying to demystify it all, ground the process in reality. He brought a logic to it that allowed us focus on what's important.

"People like Pat Hickey helped us to understand we are making sport count in Canada like never before. It's not just about venues and construction."

Plans are already in place for a lasting legacy. The Olympic village is to be turned over to social housing. They intend to make the new residences in Whistler more affordable.

"It started with one employee. We now have 900 and by the opening ceremony (February 12th, 2010) up to 50,000 from 25 countries, speaking 30 languages, will be involved. I feel privileged. It is a very humbling experience."

The sacrifices have been immense. Eight of his nine grandchildren have been born since the bid began. Visits back to Ireland are few, though he did meet President Mary McAleese recently.

"Everything I have done in my life up to now has been like organising my sock drawer in comparison to this job. The world is coming so we must keep our shoulder to the wheel. Complacency would lead to a loss of momentum. We can't let that happen to us."

So far, they are well on track.