Vancouver 2010: complete guide to the Winter Olympics

Everything you need to know as the competitors prepare for the 2010 Vancouver
Winter Olympic Games.

By Emily Benammar


Published: 4:15PM GMT 08 Jan 2010

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Lighting the way: Vancouver and Whistler play host to the 21st Winter Olympics
Photo: REUTERS

One to watch: Chemmy Alcott is Britain's best medal hope for Alpine Skiing in Vancouver
Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Second time round: Zoe Gillings will compete in the Snoboard Cross for Great Britain in the discipline's second appearance on the Olympic roster
Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Where:

Vancouver Richmond and Cypress Mountain: opening and closing
ceremonies, ice hockey, curling, figure skating, speed skating, snowboarding
and freestyle skiing.

Whistler:
alpine and cross-country skiing, biathlon, ski jumping, bobsleigh, skeleton
and luge events.

When: Olympic Winter Games: February 12-28, 2010 [full
schedule]

Related Articles

The Brits to watch

• Alpine Skiing guide and schedul
  
  
• 
  

  Short track speed skating guide and schedule
  

• 
  

  Figure skating guide and schedule
  

• 
  
  

  Biathlon guide and schedule
  

• 
  
  

  Nordic combined guide and schedule
  

What:

The Vancouver Games will be the 21st Winter
Olympics, the third to be hosted by Canada and the first by the
province of British Columbia.

Some 5,500 athletes from more than 80 countries are expected to participate in
86 events across 15 sporting disciplines - alpine skiing.
biathlon, bobsleigh, cross-country, curling, figure skating, freestyle
skiing, ice hockey, luge, nordic combined, short track, skeleton,
ski-jumping, snowboarding, speed skating.

Germany topped the medal table at the 2006 Games in Torino after winning 11
gold medals, 12 silver and six bronze. Behind them were the USA and Austria,
third. Great Britain came away from Italian Olympics with one one medal - a silver
won by Shelley Rudman in the women's skeleton.

British hopefuls?

Watch out for the men's curling team whose victory over Canada in the
2009 World Championships suggests they could return with gold. Rudman
could easily go one better this time, while world champions in the two-man
bobsleigh, Nicola Minichiello and Gillian Cooke, are in with a
chance. Siblings Sinead and John Kerr
stand a good chance of a figure-skating gold, 25 years on from the days of
Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean while Zoë
Gillings, ranked fifth in the world, is one to watch in the
snowboard cross.

Venues:

Opening and Closing ceremonies (BC Place Stadium)

• Ice hockey (Canada Hockey Place and UBC Thunderbird Arena)
• Figure skating (Pacific Coliseum)
• Speed skating and short track speed skating (Richmond Olympic Oval and Pacific
  Coliseum)
• Freestyle skiing (Cypress Mountain)
• Snowboard (Cypress Mountain) Curling (Vancouver Olympic Centre)
• Ice sledge hockey (UBC Thunderbird Arena)
• Wheelchair curling (Vancouver Paralympic Centre)

Mascots:

• Miga: a mythical sea bear, part orca and part kermode bear.
• Quatchi: a sasquatch (bigfoot)
• Sumi: an animal guardian spirit who wears the hat of the orca whale,
  flies with the wings of the mighty Thunderbird and runs on the strong
  furry legs of the black bear. Sumi is the mascot for the Paralympic
  Games.
• Mukmuk: a Vancouver Island marmot.

Facts and figures:

• 5,500 - the number of athletes and officials expected in Vancouver
• 1,350 - the number of paralympic athletes expected to compete
• 80 - the number of countries due to be represented
• 40 the number of countries expected to be represented by paralympic athletes
• 1.6 million - the number of spectator tickets available
• 10,000 - number of media representative expected across the Games
• $900 million - the security budget for the Games
• $1.76 billion total cost of the Games
• 4.8 °C average temperature in Vancouver
• Vancouver was voted the world's most liveable city in 2009

Broadcasting:

Events will be aired on BBC and Eurosport

via telegraph.co.uk