On July 2nd, 2003 Vancouver was chosen as the host city for the XXI Olympic Winter Games in the year 2010. The games are only 1458 days away!

The famous ski resort, Whistler, will share the events with Vancouver. It will be the first winter games held in a large metropolis city as most of the previous games have taken place in smaller resort towns. (2002 Salt Lake City, USA - 1998 Nagano, JPN - 1994 Lillehammer, NOR - 1992 Albertville, FRA)

Vancouver has a population of 2,000,000 people. Also, Vancouver is located at sea level and is surrounded by mountains including 3 ski hills within 15km of downtown. This will be the first game held at sea level hence the adopted name, "The Sea to Sky Games." The highway that joins Vancouver to Whistler is often referred to as The Sea to Sky Highway. This highway is already under construction and is being expanded specifically for the XXI Olympic Winter Games in 2010.

The other major difference with the Vancouver games is that the opening and closing ceremonies are scheduled to take place indoors at BC Place which is a domed stadium in the heart of downtown with a seating capacity of 60,000 people. This will mark the first time that the opening and closing ceremonies are held inside.

Dates
Olympic Winter Games: February 12-28, 2010
Paralympic Winter Games: March 12-21, 2010
 

Sports held in Vancouver
Freestyle, Snowboarding and all the Ice sports: hockey, figure skating, curling, speed skating, short track speed skating

Sports held in Whistler (100 km North of Vancouver)
Alpine Skiing, Nordic Sports (Cross Country Skiing, Ski Jumping and Biathlon), Sliding Sports (Bobsleigh, Luge and Skeleton) and Paralympic Sports

Tickets
1.8 million tickets will be available for the games various sporting events combined. Another 900,000 tickets will be available for opening and closing ceremonies, festivals and medal presentations.

50,000 tickets will be available for social service agencies to distribute to the under-privileged. 470,000 tickets will cost less than $50 CAD and 530,000 tickets will cost under $100 CAD.

Tickets will go on sale 12-18 months prior to the start of the games on February 12th, 2010.

Cost of the Vancouver XXI Olympic Winter Games
The games are going to cost an estimated 1.3 Billion Dollars. Television revenues are expected to yield 670 million and are 67% higher than originally estimated and budgeted. 50% of revenues will come from broadcasting, 40% from corporate sponsorship, 8% from ticket sales and 2% from licensing.