Vancouver 2010 Olympics Off to a Great Start!

With the Winter Olympic Games well underway in Vancouver many of us are learning more about sports that we aren’t as familiar with, and learning new facts about our old favourites. Everyone now knows the answer to the question of who was the first Canadian to win gold at a home Games, Alex Bilodeau scored big to win gold in the men’s moguls competition. So how’s your knowledge of the other medaling sports?

Did you know:

• Since results in long track speed skating are given at one one hundredth of a second, radio transponders are used to accurately record time. Antennas are laid in the ice. Each athlete then has a transponder attached to the lace of their boot. Each transponder has a unique ID, so when the athlete goes over the antenna, the transponder is read and the ID is transferred to the results system. Five cameras are also employed to supply photos at the finish line.
• Snowboard cross has been described as the Olympics' version of NASCAR, 80 seconds of pushing, shoving and hurtling down a hill at breakneck speeds. Winning comes through equal parts skill and daring with a dash of luck thrown in.
• If you plan to hit the moguls course, Jen Heil says that having a strong core is the key to being able to react really quickly to the moguls and to allow the body to act as a shock absorber.

SIRC congratulates Canadian medal winners of the past weekend and all Canadian athletes with their Olympic efforts. If you’d like to find out more about the sports profiled at the Olympic Games check out the SIRC resources.

The 2018 Olympic Winter Games City Named in July 2011

In just over seven week’s time, on July 6, 2011, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will choose the host city for the 2018 Olympic Winter and Paralympic Winter Games. The decision will be made at an IOC Session meeting in Durban, South Africa. Three major international cities are currently in the running - Annecy (France), Munich (Germany) and PyeongChang (Korea).

Since 2002, all IOC voting members are no longer allowed to travel to candidate cities and must rely on the bid city presentations. Only the small team that forms the evaluation committee is permitted to visit the cities, so that they can prepare the reports to share with the rest of the IOC members. Yesterday in Switzerland at the IOC Headquarters in Lausanne, each city was required to give a 45-minute technical presentation to 88 IOC members, and then be available to answer questions. Part of putting together a bid/ candidate city committee is making sure each city has the right “star” power to promote each bid. The Annecy bid includes triple Olympic alpine champion Jean-Claude Killy, Munich is led by two-time Olympic gold medalist figure skater Katarina Witt, while PyeongChang has 2010 Olympic figure skating champion Yu-Na Kim.

According to reports following the presentations, there is still no clear front runner, as each city could successfully host an excellent and well executed Winter Games. If Munich were to win, they would become the only city to have ever hosted both the Summer (1972) and Winter Olympic Games, while some of their venues include the 1936 Winter Games host city of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Some of the events in Annecy would include the 1968 host city of Grenoble, while PyeongChang has bid twice losing out to the Games of 2010 (Vancouver) and 2014 (Sochi).

The 2018 Olympic Winter Games are to take place from February 9-24, 2018.

Contact SIRC for more information on winter sports and the Olympic Games.