The Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
On July 2nd, 2003 Vancouver was chosen as the host city for the XXI Olympic Winter Games in 2010.
Vancouver is located at sea level and is surrounded by mountains including 3 ski hills within 15km of downtown. This will be the first Olympic Winter Games held at sea level hence the adopted name, “The Sea to Sky Games.” The highway that joins Vancouver to Whistler is often referred to as The Sea to Sky Highway. This highway is already under re-construction and is being expanded specifically for the XXI Olympic Winter Games in 2010.
The famous ski resort, Whistler, will share the Olympic Game events with Vancouver.
Another major difference with the Winter Games is that the opening and closing ceremonies are scheduled to take place indoors at BC Place Stadium, in the heart of downtown Vancouver, it has seating capacity of 60,000 people. This will mark the first time that the opening and closing ceremonies are held inside.
Dates:
Olympic Winter Games: February 12 – 28, 2010
Paralympics Winter Games: March 12 – 21, 2010
Sports held in Vancouver:
Freestyle, Snowboarding and all Ice sports: Hockey, Figure Skating, Curling, Speed Skating, and Short Track Speed Skating
Sports held in Whistler:
Alpine Skiing, Nordic Sports (Cross Country Skiing, Ski Jumping and Biathlon), Sliding Sports (Bobsleigh, Luge and Skeleton) and Paralympics Sports
Tickets:
1.8 million tickets will be available for the XXI Olympic Winter Games various sporting events. Another 900,000 tickets will be available for opening and closing ceremonies, festivals and medal presentations.
Social Service Agencies will have 50,000 tickets to distribute to the under-privileged, and to make the XXI Olympic Winter Games more accessible to everyone, 70,000 tickets will cost less than $50 CAD and 530,000 tickets will cost under $100 CAD.
Tickets will go on sale 12 – 18 months prior to the start of the games in February 2010.
Photo Credits: Olympics Game Web Site, Pacific Metropolis, Rockies Guide
10 Comments
Man, our Canadian ice hockey team is going to be phenomenal in 2010. I might have to make the trip out there just to see one of their games.
Canada should have a great team. Though I have to admit that I am missing the old days when you could not be a professional player, only amateur players were eligible to play.
Yeah, I agree with you 100% on that, although this is the first time I’ve actually been excited about watching a Team Canada with pros play at the olympics. I wasn’t excited about any of the 98, 02 and 06 teams, but I am excited about just the prospect of the one coming up.
I would appreciate information on the XXI Olympic Games. I attended Calgary Olympic Games in 1988. A perfect time and I hope to attend Vancouver Games as well
I will apprecicate information and updates
Daniel
Daniel,
Hi there, thank you for your post. I will keep you up to date as best I can. There is a newsletter for the 2010 Winter games which you can sign up for here,
http://www.vancouver2010.com
KennyG
I must say that I like that the pros play ice hockey in the Olympics. It’s supposed to be the best players in the world so why not?
Team USA tearing up the Nagano dorms though-not so cool!!
Yes not so cool with the destruction, especially since you are there in representing your country. But those things happen I suppose.
I understand your position concering the status of the players, but when one is a professional, one is not always the best. There were a large number of amateur players played hard then the pro’s since they had nothing to loose…the pro’s have the big contracts and afraid of hurting themselves and loose income vice, playin with all their heart and soul for their country.
THank you for your comments.
Ken
It is certainly ironic that the very same people that were screaming the loudest (not necessarily anyone here, but just a general observation) about allowing pros to play are now the ones that are least keen on the idea.
I’ve never really been a big fan of watching the pros play for the simple reason that I like watching amateur hockey and I don’t really get the chance to do it enough, and the olympics used to be an (albeit brief) opportunity to do that. So, my reasons are entirely selfish!
Economically speaking though, I imagine the olympics gets a lot more viewership to ice hockey now than it did before and they probably don’t want to go back.
Having grown up in Vancouver (Richmond really) I’d love to be at the 2010 Olympics. But I’ll bet plane tickets to the area will be pretty hard to come by.
Any idea how a guy living abroad (Jerusalem, Israel) can expect to get there without paying an arm and a leg? Do you think flying to Seattle or Victoria or something might be a good bet? I guess it’s a little early, but it’s always good to think ahead.
-Gilan of The Beatles Invasion
Gilan,
Hello and thank you for the comment. I just returned to Canada from a bunch of traveling around Asia, and I used http://www.flightnetwork.com
I found this to be the cheapest place to purchase plane tickets.
Let me know if it works out for you.
Ken