In less than 37 days the Olympic Games will began in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The world will be watching the athletes in Vancouver area on February 12, 2010 for the beginning of the XXI Winter Olympic Games. The Olympic Games in Vancouver will have the opening and closing ceremony’s at BC Place Stadium on February 12. Most of the metal presentations will be at the stadium. All Whistler based sports will have the metal ceremonies at Whistler metal plaza. This venue is outdoors and Can hold 8,000 people and is in the center of the town of Whistler. Curling, figure skating and hockey will have the metal ceremonies at the event venue. The metal ceremony’s have many bands playing, such as, the Barenaked lady’s, Trooper, Burton Cummings, Nelly Furtado, Hedley and many more.

The 2010 Winter Olympics logo was revealed to everyone on April 23, 2005 and is called Inunnguaq. IIanaaq is the Inukitut word for friend. The logo is based on the Inukshuk (stone landmark) built for the Expo 86 and donated to the City of Vancouver. The mascots of the XXI Olympic Games are Miga the killer Whale, Quatchi the Sasquatch, and Sumi another spiritual being from the mountain region of British Columbia. Miga is part orca and part Kermode bear. Quatchi is from the aboriginal myth creature and Sumi wears the hat of a orca, flies with wings of the thunderbird and runs on legs of the black bear. Sumi is the mascot for the Paralympics games. These were all inspired by the legends of the Pacific Northwest First Nations. These lovable furry creatures will be a big hit with the children at the Olympic Games.

The costs of the XXI Olympics are much larger than originally anticipated. The three main centres cost $580 million, 23% higher than the original estimate. The cost to operate the games was estimated at $1.354 billion in 2004. The price was moved up to$1.76 billion by mid 2009. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police will be the main security for the games and the cost was estimated at $200 million and is going to be five times what was forecast ed. The final costs of these XXI Olympic Games could be even higher once the final numbers are all calculated. The 1976 Montreal summer Olympics were also over budget and finally paid off in 2006. It took 30 years to pay the debt, mainly, due to the costs of the “Big O”, or the nickname “Big Owe”.

Image by Herman Beun via Flickr

The 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics were said to have made a profit of $90-150 million dollars, but after an independent audit was done in 1993, the original profit did not include $461 million subsidies

given to the games from all government levels. The Calgary games committee tried to show a profit and did not want a huge deficit for the city of Calgary after what happened to Montreal in 1976.

The XXI Winter Olympics will see over 80 countries involved and the final tally will not be known until all athletes have finished qualifying. Some country’s returning to the Winter Olympics are Jamaica, Mexico and the Philippines. There will be 6 countries making their Winter Olympic debut; they are Ghana, Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Columbia, Montenegro and Serbia. Tonga is showing interest in attending the Games. There will be 86 winter sport events.

These games  have concerns to worry organizers; this is the warmest climate of any city to host the winter Olympics. The Vancouver area receives rain more than they do snow, but, near Whistler, Blackcomb and Cypress mountain the snow fall can be large amounts and also could be mild and above seasonal temperatures. Organizers are crossing their fingers and will not rely on Mother Nature for the snow base they need. They will use the snow machines to get the snow base they need and will keep using them until the beginning of the games. The Olympics in Calgary had delays on every outdoor event because of weather conditions and were still able to finish the games. Another change this year at the Olympics is hockey which will be played on NHL size rinks instead of the international size ice surface. The Olympic torch relay is also traveling the furthest it has ever traveled in one country prior to the start of the Olympic Games: 45,000 kilometres over 106 day period and will be carried by 12,000 Canadians. The H1N1 flu pandemic is a concern for organizers this year and all Canadian athletes and volunteers have been vaccinated and all athletes

from other countries are to be administered the vaccine by their own country. Organizers have plenty of vaccine available just in case.

The Modern Olympics have quite a history; there were some problems to contend with: war, violence, boycotts, and performance enhancing drugs were some of the issues facing the Olympics. Here is a little information about the games and some of the incidents that happenedover the years. The Winter Olympic Games have been around since 1924, at least, the modern Olympics. The Ancient Olympics, from the 8th century BC to the 5th century AD were always held in Olympia Greece. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), is the governing body for the Olympics and makes decisions on what events and where the games will be held and follow the Olympic Charter. Each Country has a National Olympic Committee (NOC). The NOC may receive more than one city wanting to host the Olympics, but the NOC can only submit one ballot and must decide which city will send in a ballot to the IOC. The IOC Committee receives ballots from cities who want to hostthe games and the IOC reviews the cities information. The IOC has tough guidelines and criteria and based on what the cities have to offer for event facility’s, athletes living quarters, and public transportation are just a few of the important items the IOC look at before granting the Olympics to a city. Host cities need to show the IOC that the games will make a profit. Canada has hosted two Olympics. Montreal in1976 hosted the summer and Calgary in 1988 had the winter Olympics. The IOC has been criticized for their life time memberships of committee members and also for some members being accused of racisms, anti-Semitism, and corruption. In 1988 controversy continued to follow the IOC when members were found to have taken bribes from Salt Lake City committee members. The investigation led to four members of the IOC resigning and six being expelled. This incident led to more reform to the procedure on how host cities were selected to ensure this kind of scandal would not happen again. The games have evolved since the first modern Olympics in 1896. The Olympics were originally summer and winter events in the same year and as more winter events were introduced the winter Olympics were changed in 1924 to have its own host city. The 1992 Barcelona Olympics was the last time summer and winter events were together in the same year. In 1994 Lillehammer, Norway held the XVII winter Olympics. After only 2 years, and would be every 4 years from this point on. There would be either summer or winter games every two years.

The games have been used as a political platform. Hitler tried to promote the Nationalist Socialist Party and the Aryan race, in 1936 when Berlin hosted the Olympic Games, but was not successful due to Jesse Owens winning 4 gold medals. Jesse owens 1936 olympics adolf hitler

The Soviet Union did not participate until 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. The Soviets had their own games and did not agree with the Olympic ideology stating it was a Capitalistic format. The Olympic Games have been boycotted by many countries because of events happening in the world at that time. The first games boycotted were in 1956 Melbourne, Australia. The Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland refused to attend because of the repression of the

Hungarian uprising by the Soviet Union. Cambodia, Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon boycotted the games because of the Suez Canal. There have been many other Olympic games boycotted because of animosity or ideology issues between countries. The latest was the 2008 Beijing games and how China was dealing with their human rights of Tibet. The government of Georgia has already threatened to boycott the 2014 Olympic Winter games in Sochi, Russia because of the 2008 South Ossetia war. The IOC replied the Georgia Government should not make a haste judgement on

events now, when the games are four years away.

The Olympic Games have also had to deal with performance enhancing drugs. The first know incident came in 1904 when a marathon runner was found to have taken strychnine and brandy. The only death related to doping was a Danish cyclist at the 1960 Rome games and the autopsy showed he was taking amphetamines. In 1967 the IOC started testing athletes for drug use and the first positive test was a Swedish pentathlete at the 1968 Summer Olympics, who lost his bronze medal due to alcohol use.  The most popular drug scandal happened at the 1988 Seoul, Korea, Summer Games where Canadian Sprint Ben Johnson lost his gold medal for taking stanozolol. His was stripped of his gold medal and it was given to Carl Lewis of the UnitedStates who was the runner-up. Carl Lewis had prior to the Olympics failed a drug test for a banned substance.

The Olympic Games were cancelled in 1916 due to WWI and also in 1940 and 1944 because of WWII. Unfortunately, Violence has been part of the Olympic Games. The war between Russia and Georgia began on the opening day of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Terrorism has also been a part of the Games. In 1972, when the Summer Olympics were held in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage by the terrorist group Black September. That event is now known as the Munich Massacre.

CBC Archives: Massacre at Munich Olympics, 1972

Image by janusz l via Flickr

A failed rescue attempt ended in nine of the Israeli athletes, five terrorists, and one Germany Policeman dead. The Summer Olympics in 1996 in Atlanta had a bomb kill 2 and injure 111 people at the Centennial Olympic Park. The bomber is currently serving a life sentence for the bombing.

The XXI Winter Olympic games in Vancouver are ready and set to go. The venues are ready. The organizers are prepared to show the world how Canada and their volunteers can be the best at hosting the winter games. Will these games make money? I believe from past experience they will not make money, but will inject much needed money for the area’s economy. Hopefully, the Olympics will not leave the taxpayers holding the bill for over budgeted projects. The games will have some delays, problems, or controversy. It always does, but we can only hope Mother Nature cooperates. The athletes do not care about budgets, weather, or political differences, they are there to win. All they want is to stand on the top podium waving their gold metal to show the world their hard work has paid off. What better way to show pride in your country than to win a metal. That is what it is all about.

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