The 21st Winter Olympics will be in Vancouver, British Columbia in 2010. The opening ceremony is scheduled to begin on February 12, at 6:00. The 17 day competition will end on February 28, with the men’s gold medal hockey game. 25,000 volunteers are expected to help with Vancouver’s endeavors to produce a successful Olympic games. Winning the bid over PyeongChang, South Korea, and Salzburg, Austria, Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan received the Olympic flag at the close of the 2006 Winter games in Torin, Italy. The flag is currently displayed at Vancouver’s city hall.

This is Canada’s third Winter Olympic games the first to being held in Montreal (’76) and Calgary (’88). The 2010 games will be spread around the surrounding area of Vancouver and will include events in Richmond, and Whistler. Vancouver is currently undergoing the expensive changes that every host city accepts as part of its transformation into an Olympic wonderland. Vancouver expects to put money into a new SkyTrain transit system, a rapid transit system link between the airport at Richmond and downtown Vancouver, as well as a Sea-to-Sky Highway between Whistler and Vancouver. The famous Royal Canadian Mounted Police is also expected to be expanded for the purpose of security.

Vancouver is the first sea-side city to host an Olympic game and is also the first games to be held NHL market since the league allowed its players to participate in 1998. As a first in Olympic history, the opening ceremonies will be held indoors. Of the 86 sporting events, the most popular are ice sports, which include figure skating, ice hockey, bobsled, and speed skating; alpine, skiing and snowboarding, and Nordic events. The ice sports will be held in Vancouver and Richmond, while the alpine skiing events will be on Whistler Mountain. Sliding events like bob sleigh, luge, and skeleton will be held on Blackcomb Mountain, while Cypress Mountain will host freestyle skiing. Hockey will be in the General Motors Place, which is home to the NHL Vancouver Canucks. The Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre will become the Media Center.

The logo of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics is a symbol called Ilanaaq which means “friend.” The symbol that stands as a landmark on English Bay Beach, is based on the Inukshuk built for the Northwest Territories Pavillion. It was donated to Vancouver after the Expo 86.