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The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games, are the next Winter Olympics, scheduled to be celebrated in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 2010. Several venues will also be built in Richmond, the University of British Columbia, Callaghan Valley, West Vancouver, and in the resort community of Whistler. The event is returning to North America eight years after Salt Lake City hosted the games in 2002. The 2010 Winter Olympics will be the third Olympics hosted by Canada, and the first by the province of British Columbia. Previously, Canada was home to the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. The villages of Whistler and Garibaldi bid for the games in 1976 before and failed to win. Also, for the first time ever the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for a Winter Olympics will be held indoors. The Canadian Olympic Committee, as the NOC of the host country, has pledged to obtain the most gold medals of any country at the 2010 Winter Olympics, due to its failures to obtain a gold at both the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. To achieve the goal, a program called Own the Podium - 2010 was launched. For the first time Winter Olympic Games will be held by the sea and some venues, such as the Richmond Olympic Oval are at sea level. Vancouver is also the warmest city ever to host a Winter Olympics•. In February, when the Games will be held, Vancouver has an average temperature of 4.8 degrees Celsius. Per Olympic tradition, current Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan received the Olympic flag during the Closing Ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, which was also attended by the premier of British Columbia, Gordon Campbell, himself a Vancouver native, and Governor General Michaëlle Jean. The flag was raised on Tuesday February 28, 2006 in a Special Flag Raising Ceremony. It will be on display at Vancouver's City Hall until the Opening Ceremony. At the same time, in Ottawa, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement that the Olympic flame had begun its journey to Vancouver. The Olympics will make Vancouver the largest city ever to host a Winter Olympics.
Bidding The Canadian Olympic Association choose Vancouver as the Canadian candidate city over Calgary, which sought to re-host the games and Quebec City, which had lost the 2002 Olympic bid in 1995. On the first round of voting on November 21st 1998, Vancouver-Whistler had 26 votes, Quebec City with 25 and Calgary 21. On December 3rd, 1998 (verify date), the second and final round of voting occurred between the two leading contenders, which saw Vancouver win with 40 votes compared to Quebec City's 32. The win allowed Vancouver to prepare it's bid and begin lobbying efforts internationally. After the bid bribe scandal that took place with Salt Lake City 2002 games (which saw Quebec City asking for compensation (CDN$8 million) for their failed 2002 bid ), 1999 saw many of the rules around the bidding process change. The IOC created the Evaluation Commission which was appointed on October 24, 2002. Prior to the bidding for the 2008 games, often host cities would fly members of the IOC to their city where they toured the city and were provided with gifts from the city. The lack of oversight and transparency often led to allegations of money for votes. Afterward, changes brought forth by the IOC bidding rules were tightened, and more focused on technical aspects of candidate cities. The team analysed the candidate city features and provided it's input back to the IOC. The bid books from the three candidate cities were submitted in January 2003 and inspections occurred before May 2003, when the final report was submitted. Vancouver won the bidding process to host the Olympics by a vote of the International Olympic Committee on July 2, 2003 at the 115th IOC Session held in Prague, Czech Republic. The result was announced by Jacques Rogge, which was his first such announcement as IOC president. Vancouver faced two other finalists shortlisted that same in February: Pyeongchang, South Korea and Salzburg, Austria. Pyeongchang had the most votes of the three cities in the first round of voting, in which Salzburg was eliminated. In the run-off, all but two of the members who had voted for Salzburg voted for Vancouver. Earlier in February, Vancouver's residents were subjected to a referendum accepting the responsibilities of the host city should it win its bid. Sixty-four percent of residents accepted the challenge. In neighbouring Washington state to the south, the state legislature and Governor Gary Locke passed a resolution in support of Vancouver's bid, and sent it to the IOC. Two years earlier, Canada had put in a bid for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Toronto, but lost out to Beijing. Many felt that Toronto's loss helped Vancouver win the bidding process. The bid vote was televised live across Canada. On the CBC, chief correspondent and anchor Peter Mansbridge made it clear that it would be the first time in almost a quarter century that Canada would be hosting an Olympic games. Immediately when Rogge made the announcement, Mansbridge hollered on the air: "The games are coming back to Canada!" Construction The initial challenge Vancouver faced in winning the bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics was fundraising for construction of venues. The committee charged with planning the games received commitments of investment by the federal and provincial governments as well as donations from private corporations and institutions. Such commitments were made enthusiastically as a chance to build on the world prestige Vancouver already gained as host of the 1986 World's Fair and to improve on the technological advances made during that event, like the expansion of the SkyTrain transit system. As of 2004, the cost of the 2010 Winter Olympics is estimated to be in the range of C$1.4 billion. C$620 million is the approximate cost to construct venues throughout Vancouver and Whistler, C$200 million is expected to be spent for security, which the RCMP is expected to be in charge of, and C$600 million will be used to refit the Sea-to-Sky Highway to accommodate increased traffic between Vancouver and Whistler, although this highway upgrade has been over due for more than a decade and will still not meet the basic needs of the corridor. Vancouver and Whistler will maintain an operating budget of about C$2 billion from the provincial and federal governments. Events Fifteen winter sports events have been announced as part of the 2010 Winter Olympics. The eight events categorized as ice sports include: bobsled, luge, skeleton, ice hockey, figure skating, speed skating, short track speed skating, curling. The three sports categorized as alpine, skiing and snowboarding events include: alpine, freestyle and snowboarding. Four sports categorize as nordic events include: biathlon, cross country skiing, ski jumping, nordic combined. The opening and closing ceremonies and the events categorized as "Ice Sports" (excluding bobsleigh, luge and skeleton) will be held in Vancouver and Richmond. The sports categorized as "Nordic Events" will be held in the Callagan Valley located just to the west of Whistler. All Alpine Skiing events will be held on Whistler Mountain (creekside) and sliding events (bobsleigh, luge and skeleton) will be held on Blackcomb Mountain. Cypress Mountain (located in Cypress Provincial park in West Vancouver) will host the 2010 Freestyle Skiing (Aerials and Moguls), and all 2010 Snowboard Events (Half-Pipe, Parallel Giant Slalom, Snowboard Cross). Vancouver 2010 will also be unique in the fact that both mens and women's hockey will be played on smaller (60 x 26 m vs 60 x 30) NHL-sized ice. The games will be played at General Motors Place — home of the NHL's Vancouver Canucks. This change is expected to save $10 million (CAD) in construction costs and allow more than 35,000 more spectators to attend Olympic hockey games. Additional events There are a number of events looking to be included in the 2010 Winter Olympics games. The events include: The decision about which new events to include in the 2010 Winter Olympics will be made by the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee at the end of 2006. Vancouver Richmond West Vancouver Whistler Broadcasting Vancouver 2010 will be broadcast worldwide by a number of television broadcasters. Confirmed broadcasters include: With Bell Globemedia's takeover of CHUM Limited, more stations may be included as well, making probably the largest grouping of TV channels from one country to air Olympic-related live footage. Although not confirmed, free content is also being offered to Radio-Canada, mainly due to its larger reach of francophone viewers. The CTV network alone is promising 22 hours a day in coverage during the games. CTV's studios in their Vancouver bureau is likely to be the broadcast headquarters for the coverage. Trivia Footnotes See also Official Venue Links Community Links | ||||||||
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