2010 Winter Olympics
The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games and also known as Vancouver 2010, were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the surrounding suburbs of Richmond, West Vancouver and the University of British Columbia, and in the nearby resort town of Whistler. It was regarded by the Olympic Committee to be among the most successful Olympic games in history, in both attendance and coverage. Approximately 2,600 athletes from 82 nations participated in 86 events in fifteen disciplines. Both the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games were organized by the Vancouver Organizing Committee, headed by John Furlong. The 2010 Winter Games were the third Olympics to be hosted by Canada, and the first to be held within the province of British Columbia. Canada had hosted the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, and the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta.
Following Olympic tradition, incumbent Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan received the Olympic flag during the closing ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. The flag was raised in a special ceremony on February 28, 2006, and was on display at Vancouver City Hall until the Vancouver opening ceremony. The event was officially opened by Governor General Michaëlle Jean, accompanied by the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge.
Vancouver 2010 was immensely successful, with the official Olympic Committee press release citing "Full venues, record public attendance: Over 97% of the 1.54 million tickets available were sold, with 71% to the Canadian public at an average price of $139. Adding in international public ticket sales, the percentage of ticket sales to the public exceeds 75% of all available tickets." Vancouver 2010 also achieved record global television coverage as per the Olympic Committee, more than double the viewership of the preceding Turin 2006 games and triple the available coverage of Salt Lake City 2002, and is "recognized in numerous post Games reports as being among the most widely viewed and well received Games in Olympic history, both in Canada and internationally." Vancouver 2010's gold medal game between Canada and USA "was the most watched hockey game ever with viewership of 114 million viewers around the world."
For the first time, Canada won gold in an official sport as the host nation of the Olympics, having failed to do so in 1976 and 1988. Canada clinched their first gold medal on the second day of the competition, first topping the gold medal tally on the second-to-last day of competition, and went on to become the first host nation since Norway in 1952 to lead the gold medal count. Canada broke the record for the most gold medals won at a single Winter Olympics, which had been set by the Soviet Union in 1976 and Norway in 2002. The United States won the most medals in total, marking their second time doing so at the Winter Olympics, and broke the record for the most medals won during the Winter Games, a record held until then by Germany in 2002. Athletes from Slovakia and Belarus won the first Winter Olympic gold medals for their nations.
Bid and preparations
When Vancouver was bidding for the games, it proposed different dates.The concept of a bid by Vancouver to host the Winter Olympic Games first appeared at the 1960 Games in Squaw Valley, where the Canadian representative of the International Olympic Committee Sidney Dawes discusses the possibility of hosting a Games in British Columbia if a venue was found near Vancouver. Shortly afterwards, the Garibaldi Olympic Development Association was created in order to prepare a bid to host the Winter Games in the region of Mount Garibaldi, near Whistler. In 1961, GODA considered developing a bid for the 1968 Winter Games, but the Canadian Olympic Committee preferred the cities of Calgary and Banff, in Alberta, as the best opportunity for a Canadian bid to succeed. Calgary's candidacy ultimately failed, and the 1968 Games were awarded to Grenoble.
A development program for the Whistler and Mount Garibaldi region was then launched to host the 1972 Games. It included the development of road infrastructure, electrical network and drinking water, which was still absent in this region. But once again, Banff was chosen to represent Canada as the potential host city for the 1972 Games, which were eventually awarded to Sapporo, Japan. In 1968, the GODA was finally chosen by the Canadian Olympic Committee with the aim of making a joint candidacy with the city of Vancouver for the organization of the 1976 Winter Olympics. However, the chances of Vancouver's candidacy dwindled when Montreal was selected to host the 1976 Summer Olympics, and the Vancouver-Garibaldi candidacy was thus eliminated in the first round of voting. Vancouver was again a candidate for the 1980 Games, but withdrew at the last moment. For the 1988 Winter Olympics, Calgary was chosen as the preferred site for the Canadian bid, and would go on to win the election and thus become the first Canadian city to host the Winter Olympics.
For the 2010 Games, 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. Vancouver had also bid for the 1976 games, which were first awarded to Denver, then to Innsbruck and the 1980 games, which were awarded to Lake Placid.
After the bribery scandal over the candidacy of the Salt Lake City bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics, many of the rules of the bidding process were changed in 1999. The International Olympic Committee 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. Vancouver faced two other finalists shortlisted that same February: Pyeongchang, South Korea, and Salzburg, Austria. Pyeongchang, which later won the rights of hosting both 2018 Winter Olympics and 2024 Winter Youth Olympics 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 spent C$16.6 million on upgrading facilities at Cypress Mountain, which hosted the freestyle 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.
Financials
Operations
In 2004, the operational cost of the 2010 Winter Olympics was estimated to be Canadian $1.354 billion. As of mid-2009 it was projected to be C$1.76 billion, mostly raised from non-government sources, 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.PricewaterhouseCoopers' study estimated a total contribution to the BC economy of $2.3 billion of Gross Domestic Product, and as well creating 45,000 jobs and contributing an additional $463 million to the tourism industry while venue construction by VANOC and 3rd parties added $1.22 billion to the economy, far short of the $10 billion forecast by Premier Gordon Campbell. The study also said that hosting the Olympics was one of many reasons why the provincial debt grew by $24 billion during the decade. Indirect Olympic Games costs totalled in excess of 7 billion. In 2011, the provincial auditor-general declined to conduct a post-Games audit.
Security costs
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 was the lead agency; other government agencies such as the Vancouver Police Department, Canada Border Services Agency, Canadian Forces, and police agencies across Canada. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service 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.Venues
Some venues, including the Richmond Olympic Oval, were at sea level, a rarity for the Winter Games. The 2010 Games were also the first—Winter or Summer—to have had an Opening Ceremony held indoors. Greater Vancouver was the most populous metropolitan area ever to hold the Winter Games. In February, the month when the Games were held, Vancouver has an average temperature of. The average temperature as measured at Vancouver International Airport was for the month of February 2010.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, now known as Rogers Arena, played host to ice hockey events, being renamed Canada Hockey Place for the duration of the Games since corporate sponsorship is not allowed for an Olympic venue. Renovations included the removal of advertising from the ice surface and conversion of some seating to accommodate the media. 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.