History: 2010 Winter Olympics
| XXI Olympic Winter Games | |
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The 2010 Winter Olympics logo was unveiled |
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.
The Games are being organized by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC). It is responsible, through a range of legal agreements and protocols with several city governments, and the BC and Canadian governments, as well as the International Olympic Committee, for a range of specific activities.
VANOC is also building, or contributing to the cost of constructing, several venues in Richmond, the University of British Columbia, West Vancouver, and in the resort community of Whistler and the Callaghan Valley near 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 (40.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
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.
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