“The work that is being done here by the VANOC team and its partners is of a very high standard and I would like to thank everyone involved in Games preparations for their professionalism and dedication”, said the IOC President during the press conference wrapping up the three days of meetings.

”I am glad to see that athletes are already enjoying brand new sports facilities and are speaking highly about them. Sporting venues will be one of the many legacies that the Games will leave behind and we know that VANOC is doing its best to deliver a strong heritage to local communities,” he added.

“The next two years will be busy but I have no doubt that our friends in Vancouver will keep up the good work to achieve their goal, drawing from the advice and knowledge that the IOC and its very experienced Coordination Commission are putting at their disposal,” Rogge concluded.

The IOC President was able to see the Richmond speed skating oval and the UBC Winter Sports Centre during his visit. He also discovered the Vancouver Olympic Village, where the athletes will live during the Games. The Village will truly be a home away from home for the athletes, creating a true sense of community for all who stay there at Games time. The Village will also be a model for sustainable development with environmental, social and economic principles being taken into consideration across the entire project, becoming a great legacy to the city of Vancouver once the Games are over.

Meetings with local leaders also took place. Rogge met the Premier of British Columbia, Gordon Campbell, and with the mayors of Vancouver, Whistler, and Richmond. He also received strong support from the Chiefs of the Four Host First Nations who symbolically gave him the name of “Spall”, which means Raven – one who is wise, clever and carries messages.

“With under two years to go to the 2010 Winter Games, this visit by the IOC Coordination Commission and President Rogge, are invaluable opportunities to take a pulse check and to make sure we are on track,” said John Furlong, VANOC Chief Executive Officer. “We are honoured to have had the opportunity to host President Rogge and, in particular, to showcase our progress on sustainability and Aboriginal participation.

“It has been a highly productive three days and we are buoyed by the IOC’s feedback as we move into the heavy lifting ahead: testing venues, building up our team, raising the remaining required revenue and exercising discipline in our expenditures. We will be out in the community more than ever before in the coming months, inviting participation and truly engaging Canadians and the world in the project and the endorsement of the IOC of our work to date is a welcome boost.”

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NOTE TO EDITORS:

IOC Coordination Commission
The IOC, as the guardian of the Olympic Games, assists and monitors the work of Organising Committee for the Olympic Games through the work of the Coordination Commission. The Commission visits the host city once a year until four years from the Games, when the visits become twice yearly until the Games are held. The Commission’s full meetings are supplemented by the regular visits of smaller IOC teams involving the Commission Chairman, selected members of the Commission and members of the IOC administration. The next visit of the Coordination Commission to Vancouver is expected to be in October 2008. Please click here for the full list of the Vancouver Commission’s members.

VANCOUVER 2010
Vancouver and Whistler will host the XXI Olympic Winter Games from 12 to 28 February 2010 and the X Paralympic Winter Games from 12 to 21 March 2010.

PHOTO EDITORS (Service provided by VANOC)
Photos, along with video B-roll, are available in high resolution format at ftp://2010ftp.vancouver2010.com . The username is MediaVenueDay and the password is thesc00p. See folder ‘MediaVenueDay’, then ‘20080226-28_IOC_Rogge_CoordinationCommission’.

For further information, please contact the IOC Communications Department, Tel: +41 21 621 60 00, e-mail: pressoffice@olympic.org

Source

Post from: EveryJoe

Press Release | IOC gives high mark to Vancouver’s Games preparations

Apolo Ohno finally won his first Gold at these Winter Games by taking the Men’s 500m Short Track event.

All competitors were so pumped up for the ‘Superbowl’ of the Short Track event that there were two false starts. But as soon as the race started, Apolo clawed his way to an early lead in the first corner and was uncatchable.

It was a close battle for Ohno and the Canadians in the 500m event
(Source: NBC)

Still fresh from the adrenaline-rush in the previous event, Apolo had a decided advantage in the ensuing Men’s Relay Short Track event. Ohno was battling neck-to-neck with Canada first, but soon slipped to third place behind his arch-nemesis South Korea.

The Italians in forth place gave the Americans a run for their money. Leads were change many times between the Americans and Italians. In the last couple of rounds, with America trailing, Apolo closed the deficit with an aggressive burst of energy as he sailed past the Italian skater.

At that point, Canada and South Korea were too far ahead for Ohno to catch.

Canada’s battle with South Korea came down to the wire as the South Korean skater swoop ahead in the final corner to take the Gold.

The South Koreans’ mixed reactions to the victory (Source: NBC)

All 6 of South Korea’s Gold Medals came from Short Track events, thanks to their phenomenal skater and leader, Ahn Hyun-Soo.

Post from: EveryJoe

OHNOmore OHNO Jokes…

Coming in as the Poster Child of the American delegation, Miller exits the game, frustrated, ego-bruised, and empty-handed.

Some Miller would be great for Bode right about now…
(Source: Newsweek Magazine)

This is not a slam on Bode, he is still a great athlete. But looking back, it would have been great had he exercised a little shrewd discretion, a little more caution.

So, what happened really?

Today, at the Slalom event, Bode ’skiied out of bounds’ only 15 seconds into his first run, and thus, ended his medal hunt at these Winter Games (Benjamin Raich of Austria, again, took the Gold at the Slalom event, four days after winning the Giant Slalom event).

Miller’s Medal Hunt ended today (Source: NBC)

Four days ago, Bode skiied his best at the Giant Slalom event, but could only manage a 6th place finish.

Going back even further, at the Super-G (Feb. 19th), the World Champion’s breakneck speed was impressive to watch. But with challenging hairpin turns, Super-G is more like Formula 1 Racing than NASCAR, and as a result, Bode smashed into a gate in true NASCAR fashion and was out of contention.

At the Combined, Bode straddled a gate (i.e. the pole in the snow went between his legs) and was disqualified.

At the Downhill event (Feb. 12th), Bode saw a United Nations of French, Austrian, Swiss, and Norwegian skiers outperformed him.

Undoubtedly, many would be wondering if Bode was skiing WASTED at these Winter Games. I personally doubt it. But right now, some ‘Spirits‘ (pardon the pun) wouldn’t sound too bad at all.

Update: Read Bode’s lighthearted look back at the 2006 Winter Games, Unrepentant Bode: ‘Man, I Rocked Here’

Post from: EveryJoe

B-0-0-0-de’s 0lympics at T0rin0

The Gold Medal Game between Sweden and Finland is tomorrow. DON’T MISS IT!!!

A tough fight for a Bronze Medal Finish (Source: NBC)

Czech Republic beats Russia 3-0

Post from: EveryJoe

Men’s Ice Hockey Bronze Medal Game – Feb. 25

Over the last couple of days, after a tough back-and-forth battle for first place between Sasha Cohen (U.S.) and Irina Slutskaya (Russia), many were stunned when Shizuka Arakawa (Japan) quietly took the Gold away from the two.

Cohen, Arakawa, and Slutskaya performing their programs
(Source: NBC)

Well, perhpas nobody should be stunned considering the fact that both Cohen and Slutskaya fell in their recent programs. Arakawa, on the other hand, skated elegantly and flawlessly.

Emily Hughes, younger sister of the 2002 Figure Skating Gold Medalist, Sarah, managed a 7th place finish. This is impressive result for young Emily who has only limited experience at large scale competitions. Emily, we hope to watch you shine in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games.

This Winter Olympics seemed to be about Dark Horses. We have Enrico Fabris overtaking the heavy favorites Davis and Hedrick to win the Men’s 1,500m Speedskating event.

Over in Men’s Ice Hockey, U.S. and Canada, two powerhouses, were knocked out of Gold contention by Finland and Russia. Both Bode Miller (upset by his own poor performance) and Apolo Ohno (upset by skaters from South Korea) have yet to win a Gold.

Norway’s Ole Einar Bjoerndalen won a total of 5 Gold Medals in the previous two Winter Olympics. He has yet to win one in Torino.

And Lindsey Jacobellis…

No…Lindsey lost because of bad luck. It has nothing to do with her Snowboarding abilities.

Post from: EveryJoe

Arakawa (JPN) Ahead!

After the SHEER, “SCHOCHING” victories of the Schoch Brothers yesterday, Swiss Miss Daniela Meuli took the Gold at the same event today.

Meuli competing at a pre-Olympic event (Source: NBC)

American Rosey Fletcher took the Bronze, vindicating the U.S. Men’s defeat yesterday. By the way, though Tyler Jewell didn’t win the PGS event, his struggles and story of determination is a must-read.

Meuli went head-to-head with Fletcher in the semifinals. The former snowboarded to an easy victory after Fletcher fell. The same thing happened to her competitor, Silver Medalist Amelie Kober (GER), in the finals.

Post from: EveryJoe

An All SWISS Domination at PGS!

The victorious Schoch brothers (Source: NBC)

Older brother Simon was expected to win the event but a mistake on the slalom course handed the Gold to Philipp.

Siegfried Grabner of Austria took the bronze after his French competitor fell on his first run.

In a sport that is practically invented by Americans, the lone U.S. snowboarder, Tyler Jewell, could only manage a ninth place finish.

But despite the premature exit, Jewell’s journey to the Winter Olympics is an incredible story of determinitaion and inspiration for aspiring athletes everywhere.

While training for the event, Jewell had been living out of his car or tent for the last 4 years. And to save money for training and equipment, Jewell had to subsist on nutrition bars and cheap hospital food.

Graceful even in defeat, Jewell said, “Just getting here, everything I had to do financially … to me the coolest thing is I followed my heart through thick and thin and everything worked out.”

And for that, Tyler Jewell, I salute you. I will vote for you as the athlete who best embodies the Olympic Spirit. Good luck in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games.

Post from: EveryJoe

It’s all in the family! And a story of Inspiration.

Sweden (B3) beats Switzerland (A2) 6-2
Finland (A1) beats United States (B4) 4-3
Russia (B2) beats Canada (A3) 2-0
Czech Republic (A4) beats Slovakia (B1) 3-1

So, Finland meets Russia and Sweden meets the Czech Republic in the Men’s Semifinals on Friday (Feb. 24).

Post from: EveryJoe

Men’s Hockey Results – Feb. 22

American Pilot Shauna Rohbock and Braker Valerie Fleming took America’s first ever medal (Silver) at the event. A Silver that feels more like a Gold indeed.

A flying start for the American Women Bobsled Team (Source: NBC)

Italy’s Gerde Weissensteiner and Jennifer Isacco took the Bronze.

There was a scare at the events when the bobsled of Ilse Broeders and Jeannette Pennings of the Netherlands flipped over. The two escaped serious injuries but were out of contention due to the accident.

Post from: EveryJoe

Kiriasis and Schneiderheinze (GER) rode a bullet to victory

Kazakhstan beats Latvia (Group B) 5-2
Italy TIES Switzerland (Group A) 3-3
Finland beats Germany (Group A) 2-0
Canada Czech beats Republic (Group A) 3-2
Slovakia beats Sweden (Group B) 3-0
Russia beats United States (Group B) 5-4

Post from: EveryJoe

Men’s Hockey Results – Feb. 21