2010 Winter Olympics

The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games, are the next Winter Olympics, scheduled to be held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 2010. Several venues will also be built in Richmond, the University of British Columbia, Callaghan Valley, West Vancouver, and in the resort community of Whistler. The games are returning to North America just eight years after Salt Lake City hosted the games in 2002.

The 2010 Winter Olympics will be the third Olympics hosted by Canada, and the first by the province of British Columbia. Previously, Canada was home to the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. The villages of Whistler and Garibaldi bid for the games in 1976 before and failed to win. Also, for the first time since 1984 the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for a Winter Olympics will be held indoors.

The Canadian Olympic Committee, as the NOC of the host country, has pledged to obtain the most gold medals of any country at the 2010 Winter Olympics, due to its failures to obtain a gold at both the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. To achieve the goal, a program called Own the Podium - 2010 was launched.

For the first time Winter Olympic Games will be held by the sea and some venues, such as the Richmond Olympic Oval are at sea level.

Vancouver is also the warmest city ever to host a Winter Olympics. In February, when the Games will be held, Vancouver has an average temperature of 4.8 degrees Celsius. That's a higher average temperature than in any city that has ever hosted the Winter Olympics before.

Per Olympic tradition, current Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan received the Olympic flag during the Closing Ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, which was also attended by the premier of British Columbia, Gordon Campbell, himself a Vancouver native, and Governor General Michaëlle Jean. The flag was raised on Tuesday February 28, 2006 in an Special Flag Raising Ceremony. It will be on display at Vancouver's City Hall until the Opening Ceremony. At the same time, in Ottawa, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, himself from Calgary, said in a statement that the Olympic flame had begun its journey to Vancouver.

The Olympics will make Vancouver the largest city ever to host a Winter Olympics.