2010 Winter Olympics: History and Background

The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games (French: XXIes Jeux olympiques d'hiver) and also known as Vancouver 2010 (Squamish: K'emk'emeláy̓ 2010), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, Canada, with some events held in the surrounding suburbs of Richmond, West Vancouver and the University of British Columbia, and in the nearby resort town of Whistler. It was regarded by the Olympic Committee to be among the most successful Olympic games in history, in both attendance and coverage. Approximately 2,600 athletes from 82 nations participated in 86 events in fifteen disciplines. Both the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games were organized by the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC), headed by John Furlong. The 2010 Winter Games were the third Olympics to be hosted by Canada, and the first to be held within the province of British Columbia. Canada had hosted the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, and the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta.

Following Olympic tradition, incumbent Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan received the Olympic flag during the closing ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. The flag was raised in a special ceremony on February 28, 2006, and was on display at Vancouver City Hall until the Vancouver opening ceremony. The event was officially opened by Governor General Michaëlle Jean, accompanied by the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge.

Vancouver was selected to host the 2010 Winter Olympics on July 2, 2003, at the 115th IOC Session held in Prague, Czech Republic. The final host city selection was determined by a secret ballot of the active members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), led by the organization's President, Jacques Rogge. Vancouver secured the hosting rights in the second round of voting, narrowly defeating the bid from Pyeongchang, South Korea, by a margin of 56 to 53 votes, after Salzburg, Austria, was eliminated in the opening round.

Vancouver 2010 was immensely successful, with the official Olympic Committee press release citing "Full venues, record public attendance: Over 97% of the 1.54 million tickets available were sold, with 71% to the Canadian public at an average price of $139. Adding in international public ticket sales, the percentage of ticket sales to the public exceeds 75% of all available tickets." Vancouver 2010 also achieved record global television coverage as per the Olympic Committee, more than double the viewership of the preceding Turin 2006 games and triple the available coverage of Salt Lake City 2002, and is "recognized in numerous post Games reports as being among the most widely viewed and well received Games in Olympic history, both in Canada and internationally." Vancouver 2010's gold medal game between Canada and USA "was the most watched hockey game ever with viewership of 114 million viewers around the world."

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