Olympic Torch Protests

As I am sure you have seen there has been a considerable amount of protests and disruption for the Olympic torch relay across the globe. The first significant rally was in London, where over 30 people were arrested, this continued the next day in Paris with a similar amount arrested. In fact the torch had to be taken on to a bus to avoid further disruptions. With the arrival of the torch in San Francisco for it's North American journey, there were again mass protests and a large number of disruptions. The organizers did get around the mealy that happened in Paris and London by changing the route at the last minute.

Is this a protest against the Olympics in general? No, I think the Olympics are more of lightening rod, and a platform for protesters to raise the level of awareness about human rights in China.

Vancouver 2010 Venues- Cypress Mountain

Between the two major centre's of activity Vancouver and Whistler, lies Cypress Mountain. Cypress as it is commonly known will be home to the Free Style Skiing and Snowboarding events, all in all 12 different competitions. As with Nat Bailey and the Richmond Oval, this will be a great location to see Canada capture some medals. The Free style skiing is broken down into three major categories:

• Aerials- This is where the skiers use no poles and go down the hill and launch themselves off of quarter pipe into the air and perform a multitude of twists and turns.
• Moguls- This is the most most traditional form of skiing for Freestyle and it involves skiing down and very steep run with huge mounds of hard pack snow, each run also has the added feature of two big jumps.
• Ski- Cross- This is a dead heat of skiers who races all at the same time in a very close circuit. The first one down hill wins. It is extremely entertaining and exciting to watch

The snowboarding part of the games is also broken down into three categories:

• Gaint Slalom- Again this is a very traditional event, with snowboards racing down the hill passing through gates.
• Halfpipe- This events take after the skateboarding halfpipe, snowboarders go down a halfpipe built out of snow performing tricks as they go up and down the sides of the pipe
• Snowboard Cross- This again is similar to the ski cross, a group of snowboarders starts at the top of the run and the first person down the hill and across the line wins. Very Cool!
  

Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010- Inukshuk photo

Here is a great picture from English Bay, it is a near exact replica of the same Inukshuk used in the Vancouver Olympic Logo which you can see above. Joe Cashman has taken a great shot, check him out on Flickr

Vancouver 2010 Venues- Richmond Oval

The Richmond Oval is located about 20 minutes south of the Olympic, lying in the city of Richmond which is also home to the Vancouver International Airport. The Richmond Oval is a new venue and it will host the Long Track Speed Skating events, please see below for a list of all the competitions. This is first major speed skating venue in Canada since the Calgary venue in 1988.

List of Speed Skating Events

• Men’s 500 m
  Ladies’ 500 m
  Men’s 1,000 m
  Ladies’ 1,000 m
  Men’s 1,500 m
  Ladies’ 1,500 m
  Ladies’ 3,000 m
  Men’s 5,000 m
  Ladies’ 5,000 m
  Men’s 10,000 m
  Men’s Team Pursuit
  Ladies’ Team Pursuit

Now I have watched both the long track speed skating and the short track, which is hosted by the Pacific Coliseum and I much prefer the Short track speed skating. I find the pace much quicker and it seems to be more "interactive" physical. Nevertheless, I do give a lot of credit to the long track skaters, they are skating huge distances and it is very impress to see.

As mentioned in other posts this is anoter venue to watch and try and get to tickets if you want to see Canadian medals. Both the Mens' and Womens' team have been very successful in the past.

Vancouver 2010 Venues- Nat Bailey Stadium Park

This is the last Vancouver area venue in our series on the competition venues for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. The Nat Bailey Stadium Park is the only truly new venue in the Vancouver area, the other venues(GM Place, Pacific Coloseum & UBC Winter Sports Centre) have either existed already or are having additions built on to them. The Nat Bailey Park will host three events: Men's Curling, Women's curling and the Mixed Wheel Chair Curling. The Park is located in beautiful Queen Elizabeth Park which is in the centre of Vancouver. There is easy access both via the new Canada line Sky train route which will provide quick and safe access from Richmond all the way to downtown Waterfront station. The site will also have bus service. For you fans who are looking to watch Canada win a medal is the perfect venue to try and get tickets too. Canada is always a heavy favorite in international competitions for both the Men's and Women's event.

• Capacity- 6,000
• Distance from Olympic Village- 4 km
  

Vancouver 2010 Venues- UBC Winter Sports Centre

This venue will be a major upgrade to the current arena and a part of the legacy the games leave behind in Vancouver. Located on the Point Grey campus of UBC the venue will host two events Ice Hockey (also be hosted at GM Place) and Sledge hockey. Seating capacity will only be 7,000, which for some of hockey games will be a tight squeeze.

• Capacity- 7,200
• Distance from Olympic Village- 12 km
  

Vancouver 2010 Venues- GM Place

This is the second in a series of post on the venues of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics games. The first post cover the Pacific Coliseum which will be hosting the Figure Skating and Short track speed skating. The arena for the games will be General Motors Place or commonly known as GM Place, currently the home of the NHL's Vancouver Canucks and many music performances. This is a new modern building in the heart of Vancouver. It will provide lots of capacity to for the large crowds that are expected for the event it will be holding which is Ice Hockey (Men's and Women's). Tickets to the ice hockey event will be some of the most sot after, as it is Canada's game. One of the most interesting things about hosting the event at GM Place is that fact that the ice surface is not the standard international size, it is the North American size which is 13 feet narrower and 4 feet shorter, now this does not seem like a big difference however, it is and should play into the favor of both the Canadian and American Olympic hockey teams who play a physical game compared to the European teams.

• Capacity- 18,630
• Distance from Olympic Village- 2 km
  

Vancouver 2010 Venues- Pacific Coliseum

This is a first in a series of posts about Vancouver 2010 Olympic venues. There are nine official competition venues. We will start the previews off with oldest venue. The Pacific Coliseum, which is located on the grounds of the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE). The Coliseum opened in 1968 and was primarily the home of the Vancouver Canucks until they moved to GM place in Central Vancouver. Currently the Coliseum is home to the Vancouver Giants of the Western Hockey League. Olympics events that will be taking place here are the following:

• Figure Skating
• Individual Ladies
• Individual Men
• Ice Dancing Mixed
• Pairs Mixed
  

• Short Track Speed Skating
• 1,000 m Men
• 1,000 m Ladies
• 1,500 m Men
• 1,500 m Ladies
• 3,000 m Relay Ladies
• 5,000 m Relay Men
• 500 m Men
• 500 m Ladies

I am not a fan of the figure skating, however a great sport that never gets enough attention is the short track speed, this is also great event to watch if you want to see Canada wins some medals, in the past we have been dominant in the short track speed skating arena and I know the team will be gearing up for a great performance at home

• Capacity- 14,239
• Distance from Olympic Village- 6 km
  

Vancouver 2010 Olympic Volunteers

The Vancouver Olympics kicked off their volunteer recruitment campaign earlier in February. Their goal is to recruit over 20,000 volunteers from around the world. I find this amazing that it takes this many people to help assist with the Olympics games. The Vancouver 2010 website has a number of different volunteer categories from Pre-game, Game Time and Sport event volunteers. I think I am going to go for the Sport event Volunteer group, I think it is the best chance to see a hockey game.

Pre-Games Volunteer

Games- Time Volunteer

Sport Event Volunteer

Vancouver 2010 Olympics Video

If you don't remember or would like a refresh of what started it all check out the original bid video submitted to the Olympic International Olympic committee.