The 2010 Winter Olympics logo, named Ilanaaq the Inukshuk. |
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Host city | Vancouver, BC, Canada |
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Motto | With glowing hearts/ Des plus brillants exploits |
Nations participating | 82 |
Athletes participating | 2,566[1] |
Events | 86 in 15 sports |
Opening ceremony | February 12 |
Closing ceremony | February 28 |
Officially opened by | Governor General Michaëlle Jean[2] |
Athlete's Oath | Hayley Wickenheiser |
Judge's Oath | Michel Verrault |
Olympic Torch | Catriona LeMay-Doan, Steve Nash, Nancy Greene, Wayne Gretzky |
Stadium | BC Place Stadium |
2010 Winter Olympics |
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IOC · COC · VANOC |
The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially the XXI Olympic Winter Games or the 21st Winter Olympics, were a major international multi-sport event held from February 12–28, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the suburbs of Richmond, West Vancouver and the University Endowment Lands, and in the resort town of Whistler. Approximately 2,600 athletes from 82 nations participated in 86 events in fifteen disciplines. Both the Olympic and Paralympic Games were being organized by the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC). The 2010 Winter Olympics were the third Olympics hosted by Canada and the first by the province of British Columbia. Previously, Canada hosted the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec and the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta.
Following Olympic tradition, then-Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan received the Olympic flag during the closing ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. The flag was raised on February 28, 2006 in a special ceremony and was on display at Vancouver City Hall until the Olympic opening ceremony. The event was officially opened by Governor General Michaëlle Jean.[2]
For the first time, Canada won gold in an "official" sport at an Olympic Games hosted at home, having failed to do so at both the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary (although Canada won a gold medal in the "demonstration-sport" of curling in Calgary).
Canada clinched first overall in gold medals on the second to last day of competition and became the first host nation since Norway in 1952 to lead the gold medal count.[3] With 14, Canada broke the record for the most gold medals won at a single Winter Olympics, which was 13, set by the former Soviet Union in 1976 and Norway in 2002.[4] The United States won the most medals in total, their second time doing so at the Winter Olympics, and broke the record for the most medals won at a single Winter Olympics, with 37, which was previously held by Germany in 2002 at 36 medals.[3] Athletes from Slovakia[5] and Belarus[6] won the first Winter Olympic gold medals for their nations.
Contents |
2010 Winter Olympics bidding results[7] | |||||
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City | Nation | Round 1 | Round 2 | ||
Vancouver | Canada | 40 | 56 | ||
Pyeongchang | South Korea | 51 | 53 | ||
Salzburg | Austria | 16 | — |
The Canadian Olympic Association chose 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 21, 1998, Vancouver-Whistler had 26 votes, Quebec City had 25 and Calgary had 21. On December 3, 1998, 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 votes.
After the bribery scandal over the candidacy of the Salt Lake City bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics (which resulted in Quebec City asking for compensation (C$8 million) for its unsuccessful bid),[8] many of the rules of the bidding process were changed in 1999. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) created the Evaluation Commission, which was appointed on October 24, 2002. Prior to the bidding for the 2008 Summer Olympics, host cities would often fly members of the IOC to their city where they toured the city and were provided with gifts. 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 analyzed the candidate city features and provided its input back to the IOC.
Vancouver won the bid 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 IOC President Jacques Rogge.[9] Vancouver faced two other finalists shortlisted that same 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. It was the closest vote by the IOC since Sydney, Australia beat Beijing for the 2000 Summer Olympics by two votes. Vancouver's victory came almost two years after Toronto's 2008 Summer Olympic bid was defeated by Beijing in a landslide vote.
The Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) spent C$16.6 million on upgrading facilities at Cypress Mountain, which hosted the freestyle (aerials, moguls, ski cross) and snowboarding events. With the opening in February 2009 of the C$40 million Vancouver Olympic/Paralympic Centre at Hillcrest Park, which hosted curling, every sports venue for the 2010 Games was completed on time and at least one year prior to the Games.[10][11]
In 2004, the operational cost of the 2010 Winter Olympics was estimated to be Canadian $1.354 billion (about £828,499,787, €975,033,598 or US$1,314,307,896). As of mid-2009 it was projected to be C$1.76 billion,[12] mostly raised from non-government sources,[12] primarily through sponsorships and the auction of national broadcasting rights. C$580 million was the taxpayer-supported budget to construct or renovate venues throughout Vancouver and Whistler. A final audit conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers released in December 2010 revealed total operation cost to have been $1.84 billion and came in on budget resulting in neither surplus nor deficit. Construction of venues also came on budget with a total cost of $603 million.[13]
PricewaterhouseCoopers' study estimated a total contribution to the BC economy of $2.5 billion of Gross Domestic Product, and as well created 45,000 jobs and contributed an additional $463 million to the tourism industry while venue construction by VANOC and 3rd parties added $1.22 billion to the economy.
C$200 million was expected to be spent for security, which was organized through a special body, the Integrated Security Unit, of which the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) was the lead agency; other government agencies such as the Vancouver Police Department, Canada Border Services Agency, Canadian Forces, police agencies across Canada, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) also played a role. That number was later revealed to be in the region of C$1 billion, an amount in excess of five times what was originally estimated.[14]
Some venues, including the Richmond Olympic Oval, were at sea level, a rarity for the Winter Games.[15] The 2010 Games were also the first—Winter or Summer—to have had an Opening Ceremony held indoors.[16] Vancouver was the most populous city ever to hold the Winter Games.[17] In February, the month when the Games were held, Vancouver has an average temperature of 4.8 °C (40.6 °F).[18] Indeed, the average temperature as measured at Vancouver International Airport was 7.1 °C (44.8 °F) for the month of February 2010.[19]
The opening and closing ceremonies were held at BC Place Stadium, which received over C$150 million in major renovations. Competition venues in Greater Vancouver included the Pacific Coliseum, the Vancouver Olympic/Paralympic Centre, the UBC Winter Sports Centre, the Richmond Olympic Oval and Cypress Mountain. GM Place, home of the NHL's Vancouver Canucks, played host to ice hockey events, but because corporate sponsorship is not allowed for an Olympic venue, it was renamed Canada Hockey Place for the duration of the Games.[20] Renovations included the removal of advertising from the ice surface and conversion of some seating to accommodate the media.[20] The 2010 Winter Olympics marked the first time an Olympic hockey game was played on a rink sized according to NHL rules instead of international specifications. Competition venues in Whistler included Whistler Creekside at the Whistler Blackcomb ski resort, the Whistler Olympic Park, The Whistler Celebration Plaza and The Whistler Sliding Centre.
The 2010 Winter Games marked the first time that the energy consumption of the Olympic venues was tracked in real time and made available to the public. Energy data was collected from the metering and building automation systems of nine of the Olympic venues and was displayed online through the Venue Energy Tracker project.[21]
Leo Obstbaum (1969–2009), the late director of design for the 2010 Winter Olympics, oversaw and designed many of the main symbols of the Games, including the mascots, medals and the design of the Olympic torches.[22]
The 2010 Winter Olympics logo was unveiled on April 23, 2005, and is named Ilanaaq the Inunnguaq. Ilanaaq is the Inuktitut word for friend. The logo was based on the Inukshuk (stone landmark or cairn) built for the Northwest Territories Pavilion at Expo 86 and donated to the City of Vancouver after the event. It is now used as a landmark on English Bay Beach.
The mascots for the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games were designed by Vicki Wong and Michael C. Murphy of Meomi Design and introduced on November 27, 2007.[23] Inspired by traditional First Nations creatures, the mascots include:
The Royal Canadian Mint is producing a series of commemorative coins celebrating the 2010 Games,[24] and in partnership with CTV is also allowing users to vote on the Top 10 Canadian Olympic Winter Moments; where designs honouring the top three will be added to the series of coins.[25]
Canada Post released many stamps to commemorate the Vancouver Games including, one for each of the mascots and one to celebrate the first Gold won in Canada. Many countries' postal services have also released stamps, such as the US,[26] Germany,[27] Australia,[28] Austria,[29] Belarus,[30] Croatia,[31] Czech Republic,[32] Estonia,[33] France,[34] Italy,[35] Liechtenstein,[36] Lithuania,[37] Poland,[38] Switzerland,[39] Turkey[40] and Ukraine.[41]
Two official video games have been released to commemorate the Games: Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games was released for Wii and Nintendo DS in October 2009, while Vancouver 2010 was released in January 2010 for Xbox 360, Windows and PlayStation 3. The official theme songs for the 2010 Winter Games used by the Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium (commonly known as CTV Olympics) were "I Believe" performed by Nikki Yanofsky and "J'imagine" performed by Annie Villeneuve.
Three albums, Canada's Hockey Anthems: Sounds of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, Sounds of Vancouver 2010: Opening Ceremony Commemorative Album, and Sounds of Vancouver 2010: Closing Ceremony Commemorative Album, composed, arranged and produced by Dave Pierce, were released to accompany the Games.[42] Pierce's Music Direction for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies led him to win the Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Music Direction" in 2010.[43]
The Olympic Games in Vancouver were broadcast worldwide by a number of television broadcasters. As rights for the 2010 Games have been packaged with those for the 2012 Summer Olympics, broadcasters will be largely identical for both events.
The host broadcaster was Olympic Broadcasting Services Vancouver, a subsidiary of the IOC's new in-house broadcasting unit Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS). The 2010 Olympics marked the first Games where the host broadcasting facilities were provided solely by OBS.[44] The executive director of Olympic Broadcasting Services Vancouver was Nancy Lee, a former producer and executive for CBC Sports.[45]
In Canada, the Games were the first Olympic Games broadcast by a new Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium led by CTVglobemedia and Rogers Media, displacing previous broadcaster CBC Sports. Main English-language coverage was shown on the CTV Television Network, while supplementary programming was mainly shown on TSN and Rogers Sportsnet. Main French-language coverage was shown on V and RDS.[46]
In the United States, Associated Press (AP) announced that it would send 120 reporters, photographers, editors and videographers to cover the Games on behalf of the country's news media.[47] The cost of their Olympics coverage prompted AP to make a "real departure for the wire service's online coverage". Rather than simply providing content, it partnered with more than 900 newspapers and broadcasters who split the ad revenue generated from an AP-produced multi-media package of video, photos, statistics, stories and a daily Webcast.[47] AP's coverage included a microsite with web widgets facilitating integration with social networking and bookmarking services.[48] On NBC, Bob Costas hosted the primetime telecast, while Al Michaels did so during the day. Together they co-hosted the Closing Ceremony.
In France, the Games were covered by France Télévisions, which included continuous live coverage on its website.[49]
The official broadcast theme for the Olympic Broadcasting Services host broadcast was a piece called 'City Of Ice' composed by Rob May and Simon Hill.[50]
The Olympic Torch Relay is the transfer of the Olympic flame from Ancient Olympia, Greece — where the first Olympic Games were held thousands of years ago — to the stadium of the city hosting the current Olympic Games. The flame arrives just in time for the Opening Ceremony.
For the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, the flame was lit in Olympia on October 22, 2009.[51] It then traveled from Greece, over the North Pole to Canada's High Arctic and on to the West Coast and Vancouver. The relay started its long Canada journey from the British Columbia capital of Victoria. In Canada, the torch traveled approximately 45,000 kilometres (28,000 mi) over 106 days, making it the longest relay route within one country in Olympic history. The Olympic Torch was carried by approximately 12,000 Canadians and reached over 1,000 communities.[52][53]
Celebrity torchbearers included Arnold Schwarzenegger,[54] Steve Nash,[55] Matt Lauer,[56] Justin Morneau,[57] Michael Bublé,[58] Bob Costas,[59] Shania Twain,[60] and hockey greats including Sidney Crosby,[61] Wayne Gretzky,[62] and the captains of the two Vancouver Canucks teams that went to the Stanley Cup Finals: Trevor Linden (1994)[63] and Stan Smyl (1982).[64]
82 National Olympic Committees (NOC) entered teams in the 2010 Winter Olympics.[65] Cayman Islands, Colombia, Ghana, Montenegro, Pakistan, Peru and Serbia made their winter Olympic debuts. Also Jamaica, Mexico and Morocco returned to the Games after missing the Turin Games. Tonga sought to make its Winter Olympic debut by entering a single competitor in luge, attracting some media attention, but he crashed in the final round of qualifying.[66] Luxembourg qualified two athletes[67] but did not participate because one did not reach the criteria set by the NOC[68] and the other was injured[69] before the Games. Below is a map of the participating nations and a list of the nations with the number of competitors indicated in brackets.[70]
The following nations which competed at the previous Winter Games in Turin did not participate in Vancouver:
Fifteen winter sports events were included in the 2010 Winter Olympics. The eight sports categorized as ice sports were: bobsled, luge, skeleton, ice hockey, figure skating, speed skating, short track speed skating and curling. The three sports categorized as alpine skiing and snowboarding events were: alpine, freestyle and snowboarding. The four sports categorized as Nordic events were: biathlon, cross-country skiing, ski jumping and Nordic combined.
Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of medal events contested in each sport.
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The opening and closing ceremonies and the events categorized as ice sports (excluding bobsleigh, luge and skeleton) were held in Vancouver and Richmond. The sports categorized as "Nordic events" were held in the Callaghan Valley located just to the west of Whistler. All alpine skiing events were held on Whistler Mountain (Creekside) and sliding events (bobsleigh, luge and skeleton) were held on Blackcomb Mountain. Cypress Mountain (located in Cypress Provincial Park in West Vancouver) hosted the freestyle skiing (aerials, moguls and ski cross), and all snowboard events (half-pipe, parallel giant slalom, snowboard cross).
Vancouver 2010 was also the first winter Olympics in which both men's and women's hockey were played on a narrower, NHL-sized ice rink,[94] measuring 200 ft × 85 ft (61 m × 26 m), instead of the international size of 200 ft × 98.5 ft (61 m × 30 m). The games were played at General Motors Place, home of the NHL's Vancouver Canucks, which was temporarily renamed Canada Hockey Place for the duration of the Olympics. This change saved $10 million in construction costs and allowed an additional 35,000 spectators to attend Olympic hockey games.[94] However, some European countries expressed concern over this decision, worried that it might give North American players an advantage since they grew up playing on the smaller NHL-sized rinks.[95]
There were a number of events that were proposed to be included in the 2010 Winter Olympics.[96] On November 28, 2006, the IOC Executive Board at their meeting in Kuwait voted to include ski cross in the official program.[97] The Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) subsequently approved the event to officially be part of the Games program.[98]
Events proposed for inclusion but ultimately rejected included:[99]
The issue over women's ski jumping being excluded ended up in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver during April 21–24, 2009, with a verdict on July 10 excluding women's ski jumping from the 2010 Games.[100] A request to appeal that verdict to the Supreme Court of Canada was subsequently denied on December 22 – a decision that marked the end of any hopes that the event would be held during Vancouver 2010.[101] To alleviate the exclusion, VANOC organizers invited women from all over Canada to participate at Whistler Olympic Park, including Continental Cup in January 2009.[100] There is now an effort to include women's ski jumping for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.[102]
In the following calendar for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, each blue box indicates that an event competition, such as a qualification round, was held on that day. The yellow boxes represent days during which medal-awarding finals for a sport were held with the number in these boxes representing the number of finals that were contested on that day.[103]
OC | Opening ceremony | ● | Event competitions | 1 | Event finals | EG | Exhibition gala | CC | Closing ceremony |
February | 12th Fri |
13th Sat |
14th Sun |
15th Mon |
16th Tue |
17th Wed |
18th Thu |
19th Fri |
20th Sat |
21st Sun |
22nd Mon |
23rd Tue |
24th Wed |
25th Thu |
26th Fri |
27th Sat |
28th Sun |
Events | |
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Ceremonies | OC | CC | |||||||||||||||||
Alpine skiing | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ● | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 | |||||||
Biathlon | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 10 | |||||||||||
Bobsleigh | ● | 1 | ● | 1 | ● | 1 | 3 | ||||||||||||
Cross country skiing | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | |||||||||
Curling | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||||
Figure skating | ● | 1 | ● | 1 | ● | ● | 1 | ● | 1 | EG | 4 | ||||||||
Freestyle skiing | 1 | 1 | ● | 1 | ● | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | ||||||||||
Ice hockey | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | 1 | ● | ● | 1 | 2 | ||
Luge | ● | 1 | ● | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||||||||||||
Nordic combined | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||||||||||||||
Short track speed skating | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 8 | |||||||||||||
Skeleton | ● | 2 | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
Ski jumping | ● | 1 | ● | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||||||||||||
Snowboarding | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | ||||||||||||
Speed skating | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ● | 2 | 12 | ||||||
Total events | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 86 | ||
Cumulative total | 5 | 10 | 16 | 21 | 28 | 34 | 38 | 44 | 50 | 54 | 59 | 64 | 70 | 77 | 84 | 86 | |||
BC Place | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | |||||||
Whistler Medal Plaza | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ||||
February | 12th Fri |
13th Sat |
14th Sun |
15th Mon |
16th Tue |
17th Wed |
18th Thu |
19th Fri |
20th Sat |
21st Sun |
22nd Mon |
23rd Tue |
24th Wed |
25th Thu |
26th Fri |
27th Sat |
28th Sun |
Events |
The top ten listed NOCs by number of gold medals are listed below. The host nation, Canada, is highlighted.
Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
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1 | Canada (CAN) | 14 | 7 | 5 | 26 |
2 | Germany (GER) | 10 | 13 | 7 | 30 |
3 | United States (USA) | 9 | 15 | 13 | 37 |
4 | Norway (NOR) | 9 | 8 | 6 | 23 |
5 | South Korea (KOR) | 6 | 6 | 2 | 14 |
6 | Switzerland (SUI) | 6 | 0 | 3 | 9 |
7 | China (CHN) | 5 | 2 | 4 | 11 |
7 | Sweden (SWE) | 5 | 2 | 4 | 11 |
9 | Austria (AUT) | 4 | 6 | 6 | 16 |
10 | Netherlands (NED) | 4 | 1 | 3 | 8 |
Initial organized opposition to the games began in 2006 with the creation of No Games 2010[104] as outlined in Chris Shaw's book Five Ring Circus published in 2008.[104][105] The book has been widely reviewed and has been a touchstone for critics of the Vancouver Games.[106][107][108]
Before the Games began and as they commenced, a number of concerns and controversies surfaced and received media attention. Hours before the opening ceremony, Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed during a training run, intensifying questions about the safety of the course and prompting[109] organizers to implement quick modifications. However, officials concluded that it was an athlete error rather than a track deficiency.[110] The International Luge Federation called an emergency meeting after the accident, and all other training runs were cancelled for the day.[111]
One critic questioned the choice of Cypress Mountain[112] as a venue because of its frequent lack of snow due to El Niño. Because of this possibility, organizers had a contingency plan to truck in snow from Manning Park, about 250 kilometres (160 mi) to the east of the city. This allowed events to proceed as planned.[113]
Political decisions involving cancellation of promised low-income housing and the creation of a community of mixed economic backgrounds for post-Games use of the athletes' village was criticized.[114]
Opening ceremonies were stalled while organizers dealt with mechanical problems during the cauldron lighting ceremony.[115] Speed skating events were delayed due to breakdowns of the ice resurfacers supplied by Olympia, an official sponsor of the Games.[116]
Thousands of tickets were voided by organizers when weather conditions made standing-room-only areas unsafe.[117] Visitors were also upset that, as in previous Olympics, medal ceremonies required separate admission[117] and that blocks of VIP tickets reserved for sponsors and dignitaries were unused at events.[118] Other glitches and complaints have included confusion by race officials at the start of the February 16 men's and women's biathlon pursuit races, and restricted access to the Olympic flame cauldron on the Vancouver waterfront.[119][120]
Opposition to the Olympic Games was expressed by activists and politicians, including Lower Mainland mayors Derek Corrigan[121] and Richard Walton.[122] Many of the public pre-Olympic events held in Vancouver were attended by protesters.[123]
On Saturday, February 13, as part of a week-long Anti-Olympic Convergence, protesters smashed windows of the Downtown Vancouver location of The Bay department store.[124][125] Protesters later argued that the owner of The Bay, the Hudson's Bay Company, "has been a symbol of colonial oppression for centuries" as well as a major sponsor of the 2010 Olympics.[126]
There were several other reasons for the opposition, some of which are outlined in Helen Jefferson Lenskyj's books Olympic Industry Resistance (2007) and Inside the Olympic Industry (2000).[127] These issues include:
Although the Aboriginal governments of the Squamish, Musqueam, Lil'wat and Tsleil-Waututh (the "Four Host First Nations"), on whose traditional territory the Games are being held, signed a protocol in 2004[135] in support of the games,[136] there was opposition to the Olympics from some indigenous groups and supporters. Although the Lil'wat branch of the St'at'imc Nation is a co-host of the Games, a splinter group from the Seton band known as the St’at’imc of Sutikalh, who have also opposed the Cayoosh Ski Resort, fear the Olympics will bring unwanted tourism and real estate sales to their territory.[137][138] Local aboriginal people, as well as Canadian Inuit, initially expressed concern over the choice of an inukshuk as the symbol of the Games, with some Inuit leaders such as former Nunavut Commissioner Peter Irniq stating that the inukshuk is a culturally important symbol to them. He said that the "Inuit never build inuksuit with head, legs and arms. I have seen inuksuit [built] more recently, 100 years maybe by non-Inuit in Nunavut, with head, legs and arms. These are not called inuksuit. These are called inunguat, imitation of man."[139] Local aboriginal groups also expressed annoyance that the design did not reflect the Coast Salish and Interior Salish native culture from the region the Games are being held in, but rather that of the Inuit, who are indigenous to the Arctic far from Vancouver.
On March 11, 2010, it was reported that the Polish cross country skier Kornelia Marek was tested positive for EPO by the Polish Olympic Committee. If found guilty of doping by the International Olympic Committee, Marek and the relay teams would be disqualified and stripped of their Vancouver results. She would also be banned from the next Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in 2014.
Marek denied taking any banned substances, but the backup "B" sample from the Vancouver doping lab confirmed the "A" sample.[140]
The massive celebratory crowds in downtown Vancouver were highly praised by the IOC. Jacques Rogge, the president of IOC, indicated that "the way Vancouver embraced these Games was extraordinary. This is really something unique and has given a great atmosphere for these Games."[141][142] Only a very few members of the media (mostly, and particularly the British media) criticized the Own the Podium and criticized the celebrations as having been somewhat nationalistic,[143][144] but this was not an opinion shared by many.[145] The atmosphere surrounding the Olympics, and its inclusion of foreign delegates and guests, was also praised, with many seasoned Winter Olympic observers putting the games at, or near, the top of the list of best ever Winter Olympics.[146] They were also the best watched Winter Olympics since the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer.[147] They are also mentioned alongside the Sydney Summer games in regards to the best atmosphere. A large part is credited to the citizens of Vancouver and Canada.[148]
Directly as a result of Canada's medal performance at the 2010 Olympics, the Government of Canada announced in the 2010 Federal Budget, a new commitment of $34 million over the next two years towards programs for athletes planning to compete in future Olympics.[149] This is in addition to the $11 million per year federal government commitment to the Own the Podium program.
Also, as a result of hosting the 2010 Olympics, the British Columbia government pledged to restore funding for sports programs and athlete development to 2008 levels, which amounts to $30 million over three years.[150]
Book: 2010 Winter Olympics | |
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print. |
Preceded by Turin |
Winter Olympics Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games (2010) |
Succeeded by Sochi |
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