Olympic Bits and Bites
With so much information available, this week’s post is a collection of news, spectator information and interesting facts about the 2010 Olympic Games period:
1. If you are attending an Olympics athletic event, your event ticket gives you unlimited access to all of TransLink’s transit services for the day of that event, right through to the end of service the following morning. Otherwise, TransLink’s regular transit fares apply.
2. One of the downtown core’s greatest Christmas light displays, at St Paul’s Hospital, will stay plugged in until March 27th this year thanks to the Olympics.
3. Coca-Cola will be unveiling a new soft drink and a new bottle during the 2010 Olympics that will be referred to as the PlantBottle. The bottle is made up of 30% plant based waste material and is 100% recyclable. Richmond will house one of the two Canadian sites for bottling of the new product.
4. This Wednesday, December 2nd marked the 100 day countdown to the start of the Paralympic Games.
5. There are 86 medal events on the 2010 Olympic Program, an increase of two (men’s and women’s ski cross) from the 2006 Torino Games.
6. Female ski jumpers who have lost their case to jump in the 2010 Winter Olympics at every level of court so far announced on Tuesday, December 1st that they want to take their case to the Supreme Court of Canada.
7. From 6:00 am to 6:00 pm, from February 11th to 28th, only vehicles with a checkpoint permit (that also serves as confirmation of parking) will be allowed to proceed up the highway past the checkpoint north of Squamish at the Alice Lake turnoff. Two permits per household have been mailed by VANOC to Whistler residential property owners. Permits are not required for Southbound travel or outside of the 6:00 am to 6:00 pm peak hours.
8. The Vancouver Sun has created three Olympic collector pins around the theme of ski run trail signs; a green circle for easy, blue square for medium and black diamond for hard. The series is called ‘Deep Snow’ after the famous Deep Throat source. In this case green represents Olympic memories, blue news tips and black diamond for a true deep source. The only way to get one of the pins is to submit a compelling memory of an Olympic event or athlete, write in when you are the first to see a news story about the preparations for the 2010 Games or to submit something for which you’re blowing the whistle. Send your memories, tips and brown-paper envelopes to [email protected].
9. The Pin Trading Center will open on January 2nd in the Bay’s Downtown Olympic Superstore.
10. At the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino Russia took home the most medals with 13 gold,13 silver and 7 bronze for a total of 33. The Ukraine was next with 25. Canada finished the Torino Games with 13 medals one ahead of the United States.
Trivia:
- Number of times Canada has hosted an Olympics prior to 2010 – TWO, 1976 Summer Games in Montreal and 1988 Winter Games in Calgary.
- Number of gold medals won by Canada in Montreal and Calgary – ZERO.
The ‘Own the Podium’ campaign is coming to a shopping center or public place near you. Canadian Olympic and Paralympic athletes will be appearing across the country starting in Quebec. There are three planned stops for the ‘Get behind our Athletes’ mall display in Vancouver; Richmond Center, Jan 28 – 31, The Station, Feb 2 – 4 and Pacific Center, Jan 6 – 10.
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