14th August 2008, 7:45 WST
While the world is still in an Olympic mood, the City of Vancouver would like to remind you that it’s next in line to be host, and as of September 1 there’ll be just 529 days until the 21st Winter Games.
Vancouver will share the honour with the popular resort town of Whistler, in the Garibaldi Mountains 120km to the north, from February 12-28, 2010, followed by the Winter Paralympic Games in both centres from March 12-21.
The opening ceremony will be at BC Place Stadium, a covered arena, starting at 6pm local time (noon (AEST) on February 13); medal ceremonies will be held in both Vancouver and Whistler.
It will be the first time in modern Games history that the Olympic flame will be lit indoors - after the torch is carried from Olympia in Greece over the North Pole and through the Arctic down Canada’s West Coast to Vancouver.
The Games website for details of the program, background, tickets and accommodation is www.vancouver2010.com
Tickets will go on sale from this October, through Tickets.com in Canada and through the national Olympic committees of other countries.
Vancouver is the second Canadian city to host the Winter Olympics, after Calgary, Alberta, in 1988. The summer Olympics were held in Montreal in 1976 then Toronto was outvoted in favour of Beijing in 2008.
Vancouver’s Olympic Village will be in the waterfront southeastern False Creek district, an area being developed for residential and commercial buildings. In Whistler it will be in the nearby Cheakamus Valley.
