SKIREBEL Magazine

With Summer Olympic fever gripping the world, the organizers of the next Winter Games in Vancouver, Richmond and Whistler have released detailed competition schedules of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games .

These hourly accounts of the sport activities taking place over the 17 days of Olympic competition and 10 days of Paralympic competition in 2010 follow the approval of the proposed event schedule by the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Beijing, China. The hourly Paralympic Winter Games Competition Schedule was approved by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) in 2007.

With both schedules now approved and available at www.vancouver2010.com, and just about two months remaining until tickets to the Olympic Winter Games go on sale, on October 3rd, the picture just got much clearer for those planning to attend the Games in 2010.

Notable schedule highlights include: the Opening Ceremony which will launch the XXI Olympic Winter Games, at 6pm on February 12, 2010 at BC Place; the final sport event of the Olympic Winter Games, the men’s gold medal hockey game, on February 28th at 12:15 pm at General Motors Place; the first Paralympic sport event, on March 13th, when the men’s and ladies’ alpine skiing competitions begin at 9:30 am at Whistler Creekside; and the final Paralympic sport event on March 21, the men’s and ladies’ one-kilometre sprint finals in cross-country skiing, beginning at 12:00pm at Whistler Paralympic Park.

This is a major milestone we can share with our sport and broadcast partners who worked closely with us to develop a balanced Games schedule that satisfies the respective International Sport Federations (IFs), television audiences around the world and spectators who will attend the Games,”

said Cathy Priestner Allinger, VANOC’s executive vice president, Sport and Games Operations.

“As with all Games, the schedule will maintain a degree of flexibility in timing. However, now that the
overall schedule has been refined, we know it will be of great interest to spectators so they can plan their activities. But it’s also a key planning document for others. Broadcasters and service providers can begin to hone their plans for 2010. Our team can start finalizing all crucial systems to ensure an exemplary experience for all. And, perhaps most importantly, the world’s greatest winter athletes can further develop their game plans as they prepare to perform on the world’s largest stage in 2010.”
With nine competition venues, 12 stadiums, seven sports, 15 disciplines, 86 medal events for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and 64 medal events for the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games, producing the hourly competition schedules has been a highly complex endeavour. Contingency plans for adverse weather conditions, event sequencing (to allow recovery time for athletes in more than one event), venue operational considerations and complex broadcast logistics (including balancing live global coverage of simultaneous events at different venues) all had to be built into the schedules.
www.vancouver2010.com