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Olympic Legacy

It’s been a year since the 2010 Winter Games invigorated Vancouver, but their spirit lives on

By Sheri Radford

The Richmond Olympic Oval. Photo by KK Law

Even though the 2010 Winter Games are long over, ways to relive the experience abound.

Visit the Olympic Cauldron downtown, which was lit on the opening night of the Games by hockey legend Wayne Gretzky. A picturesque reflecting pool now surrounds the cauldron. It is situated next to the west building of the Vancouver Convention Centre, which was completed in time for the Games and was used throughout as the main media centre. This eco-friendly building and its green roof (complete with four beehives and a full-time beekeeper) have won several awards for design.

Hop on the Canada Line SkyTrain, which was also completed just prior to the Games and which whisks visitors from the airport to downtown in 26 minutes. While in Richmond, visit the Richmond Olympic Oval, where speed skaters competed during the Games. This stunning, environmentally friendly building now houses an array of fitness facilities.

Pull on a pair of Olympic red mittens. If yours have worn out—or you weren’t lucky enough to snag any during Games fever—pick up a similar pair of maple-leaf-adorned mittens at The Bay. Proceeds go to the Canadian Olympic Foundation.

Olympic Cauldron in Jack Poole Plaza. Photo by Sheri Radford

If you’re searching for the perfect Quatchi, Miga, Mukmuk or Sumi souvenir, you’ll find the mascots’ smiling faces in Gastown’s many souvenir shops. To complete your Olympic coin collection—or catch a glimpse of some Olympic medals—visit the Royal Canadian Mint pop-up shop downtown on Granville Street. It’s only here until the end of February, but don’t worry: line-ups are shorter than the eight-hour waits common during the Games.

Olympic fever in Vancouver? It still burns on.

15 Things We Love About Vancouver: April

Vancouver's gorgeous cherry blossoms paint the sky pink. Photo by Tom Ryan courtesy Tourism BC

1 Cherry blossoms. Nothing says “springtime” quite like the cheerful pink blossoms.
2 Using our noodle…for a quick, cheap meal at the West End’s Kintaro Ramen, Legendary Noodle or Hon’s Wun-Tun House.
3 Rogers’ Chocolates, which celebrates its 125th anniversary this year. Chocolate lovers choose the irresistible Victoria Creams—with fillings ranging from coffee, ginger and orange to vanilla, strawberry and always-patriotic maple.
4 Walking or biking along the seawall on a blustery day.
5 The annual Chutzpah! Festival (to Apr. 8).
6 Sipping a hot cuppa coffee while perusing the designer shops along bustling Robson Street.
7 The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
8 Tasting the very best of British Columbia at Edible BC, including organic jam, wild pacific salmon and local honey.
9 Grinder and Coola, two orphaned bears who reside on Grouse Mountain. They usually come out of hibernation in April.
10 Lingering over dessert at Lupo.
11 The larger-than-life art installations located throughout the city during the Biennale.
12 South Granville Street—aka Gallery Row—for its never-ending selection of art galleries.

Eye-pleasing confections at Lupo Restaurant & Vinoteca. Photo by KK Law

13 Dim sum, or any quick-to-eat Chinese food, such as take-out barbecue pork, from Chinatown.
14 Cheering for the Vancouver Canucks.
15 The Richmond Olympic Oval, which reopens to the public this month. It was the official speed skating venue for the 2010 Winter Games.

Building the Games

The athletes may be the stars of the 2010 Winter Games, but the backdrops for their amazing feats are these equally impressive venues

by Sheri Radford // Photos by KK Law

The twin domes of BC Place (left) and Canada Hockey Place (right)

CANADA HOCKEY PLACE
Ice Hockey
Though it has a new moniker during the Games, GM Place is still the same arena Vancouverites know and love. Completed in 1995, downtown’s 19,300-seat venue serves as home ice for the Vancouver Canucks during hockey season and hosts big-name concerts ranging from Britney Spears to The Police. Its NHL-sized ice, which is smaller than international-sized ice, is being used during the 2010 Winter Games, marking a first in Olympic history.

UBC THUNDERBIRD ARENA
Ice Hockey, Ice Sledge Hockey
This 6,800-seat arena on the University of British Columbia (UBC) campus opened in 2008. You might call UBC the birthplace of Canada’s Olympic hockey dreams: in 1963 at UBC, in preparation for the 1964 Olympic Winter Games in Austria, Bob Hindmarch and Rev. Father David Bauer established Canada’s first national hockey team. The newborn team almost scored bronze.

VANCOUVER OLYMPIC/PARALYMPIC CENTRE
Curling, Wheelchair Curling
This eco-friendly building, completed in 2009, recycles energy and minimizes water use. Post-Games, it will become a community centre housing a curling rink, ice arena, aquatic centre and library.

PACIFIC COLISEUM
Figure Skating, Short Track Speed Skating
The newly renovated home of the Vancouver Giants hockey team has been used for everything from concerts and basketball games to ice shows and circuses. Opened in 1968, this 14,200-seat arena was home ice for the Vancouver Canucks until GM Place was completed in 1995.

The award-winning Richmond Olympic Oval

RICHMOND OLYMPIC OVAL
Speed Skating
Named the 2010 Winter Games’s “sexiest” venue by Omega Lifetime magazine, this new building on the Fraser River keeps racking up awards for its stunning design and eco-friendly building practices. The extraordinary 2.6-hectare (6.5-acre) roof, made from pine-beetle-damaged wood, collects and funnels rainwater, while energy required to make the speed-skating ice is captured and used elsewhere in the building. During the Games, you might notice 13 million cranberries floating in the shapes of a maple leaf and the Olympic rings in the river outside the Oval; this is a tribute to Richmond’s iconic berry. Post-Games, the Oval will house fitness and sports medicine centres, as well as ice rinks, hardwood courts and running tracks.

WHISTLER CREEKSIDE
Alpine Skiing
After several unsuccessful attempts over four decades, Whistler (in partnership with Vancouver) finally won the bid to host the Winter Games. Now Whistler Mountain’s original base, which opened in 1966, has undergone more than $30 million in upgrades to prepare for the monumental event. Men’s alpine skiing events take place on the black-diamond Dave Murray Downhill, the world’s second-longest downhill course, while Franz’s Run hosts the women’s Olympic and all Paralympic alpine events.

WHISTLER OLYMPIC/PARALYMPIC PARK
Biathlon, Cross-Country Skiing, Nordic Combined, Ski Jumping
Opened in 2008, after years of work and $120 million spent, this sprawling park in the picturesque Callaghan Valley hosts a third of all the Olympic events and half of all the Paralympic events. The park’s elevation ranges between 840 and 930 m (2,756 and 3,051 ft).

THE WHISTLER SLIDING CENTRE
Bobsleigh, Luge, Skeleton
Completed in 2007, this slick new venue is part of an extremely elite club: there are just 15 international-competition sliding tracks in the world. And if the secret to a building’s success is location, location, location, then it has a bright future, indeed. It sits on an area of Blackcomb Mountain called Wild Spirit Place (Kwekwayex Kwelh7aynexw) by the Squamish people and Spirited Ground (A7x7ulmecw) by the Lil’wat people.

CYPRESS MOUNTAIN
Freestyle Skiing, Snowboard
A 30-minute drive from downtown Vancouver, this area is popular with locals for

The Olympic and Paralympic Village Vancouver, on False Creek

skiing, snowboarding, tubing and snowshoeing. In case of mild weather, a snowmaking system (complete with 35 snow guns) guarantees a winter wonderland.

OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC VILLAGE VANCOUVER
Forget about the cost overruns and financing snafus: this billion-dollar village is a wonder to behold. Located on the waterfront in False Creek, with a view of downtown, the low- and mid-rise apartment buildings are housing 3,000 athletes and officials in style during the Games. After, they will be sold as eco-friendly condos.

OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC VILLAGE WHISTLER
In the gorgeous Cheakamus Valley, bordered by forests and the Cheakamus River, this mix of apartments, townhomes and hostels comprises the home-away-from-home for more than 4,000 athletes and officials during the Games.

BC PLACE
For the first time ever, the Winter Games’s opening and closing ceremonies are being held indoors. The nightly victory ceremonies, featuring a stellar line-up of musical acts, also take place inside downtown Vancouver’s 55,000-seat domed stadium, which opened in 1983. Better take a snapshot of the venue’s marshmallow-like roof, since it won’t be around much longer: a state-of-the-art retractable roof will replace it next year.

WHISTLER MEDALS PLAZA
After the Games’s medal presentations and nightly concerts are a mere memory, this outdoor venue’s amphitheatre, children’s play area and performance spaces will still attract locals.

WHISTLER MEDIA CENTRE
Journalists lucky enough to be assigned to Whistler are headquartered in the

The newly expanded Vancouver Convention Centre is the Main Media Centre during the Games

Whistler Conference Centre, which underwent a huge renovation in 2003. The building is now larger—and kinder to the environment.

MAIN MEDIA CENTRE
Media assigned to Vancouver are in for a treat at the newly expanded Vancouver Convention Centre. Its east building, which showed off the city to the world during the Expo ‘86 World’s Fair, and its brand new west building now cover 111,500 sq m (1.2 million sq ft), or four city blocks. Approximately 40% of the west building juts out over the ocean. Its interior walls, made from renewable Vancouver Island and Sunshine Coast hemlock, resemble artfully stacked lumber. And its 2.5-hectare (6-acre) living roof—complete with four beehives, a bee-keeper and 400,000 plants—helps the environment.

The Faces of the Games

Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls have big dreams

By Lucas Aykroyd

Competing at home in front of family and friends in the Winter Games is a dream come true for Canadian athletes. Yet it also means pressure. Only once before has this scenario unfolded, at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta. There, Canadians such as figure skater Elizabeth Manley and alpine skier Karen Percy achieved memorable medals, but none were gold. Will Canada’s brightest stars end the gold drought during the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and Whistler?

Joannie Rochette

Figure Skating

Jumping is something figure skaters do every day, but Joannie Rochette now wants

Photo by Brett Barden courtesy Skate Canada

to make the biggest leap of her career. The 24-year-old Montrealer has been a perennial Canadian champ since 2005 and claimed silver at the 2009 Worlds. In her second Winter Games, she’ll look to do what no Canadian woman has done since Barbara Ann Scott in 1948: land on top of the Olympic podium for singles figure skating.
Facing stiff competition from rivals such as South Korea’s Kim Yu-Na and America’s Sasha Cohen, Rochette has had mixed results in the 2009-10 season, including lower-than-desired finishes in competitions in Asia. Yet the petite blonde realizes that a fine showing in Vancouver is what people will remember, and she’s consistently shone on home ice.
“I know the key is for me to do a lot of run-throughs, and a lot of repetitions [in training], so that when I get to competition, I have confidence,” she says.

Jean Labonté

Ice Sledge Hockey

Defending Canada’s 2006 ice sledge hockey title won’t be easy, but Jean Labonté has

Photo courtesy HockeyCanada.ca

faced and overcome even greater challenges. Despite losing his left leg to bone cancer in 1990, the native of Hull, Quebec didn’t lose his passion for sports. He made the national sledge hockey team in 1996 and is now team captain.
The defenseman has targeted the opponents Canada must beat to repeat: “Right now, the U.S. is world champion. They have a young, talented team. Norway is our eternal rival, with lots of experience and smarts. The Japanese have a shot at the podium, too.”
Paralympic sports don’t always get the attention they deserve, but Labonté hopes to change that and gain new participants in 2010. “This is the opportunity of a lifetime,” Labonté says. “We want to show people that this is a great sport: hitting, skating, hard shots. It’s hockey.”
Beyond the action at the 6,800-capacity UBC Thunderbird Arena, Labonté looks forward to soaking up Vancouver’s beauty. “I love seeing the mountains everywhere,” he says. “In 1986, I came to Vancouver to participate in Rescue ’86, the world lifeguarding championships. That was the first time I’d been so far from home, and it brings back great memories every time I return.”

Regan Lauscher

Luge

“At my first Olympics in 2002, all I wanted to do was get there and have a great

Photo courtesy Canadian Luge Association

race,” notes this feisty Calgarian, now heading into her third Winter Games. “In 2006, I was considered to be in the top group. For 2010, my challenge is that I’ve been on the ice about half as much as everybody else in the last four years.”
Regan Lauscher, Canada’s most experienced female luger, suffered a bad concussion in Germany in 2007 and underwent surgery on both shoulders in 2008. Lauscher would love to improve on her 10th-place finish in Turin four years ago. But her main goal now, as she puts it, is to “walk away from my Olympic race saying that’s the best I could do, whatever the outcome.”
She’s done the necessary work. Even in the summer, national luge-team members train twice daily—everything from cardio and strength circuit training to rowing and sport-specific, on-ice exercises geared to generate fast starts. Every millisecond counts at the Whistler Sliding Centre, where female lugers can exceed 140 km/h (87 mi/h).
“The payoff is the moment they clear the track and you know there’s 1,200 m (3,390 ft) of ice waiting for you,” Lauscher says. “It’s the adrenalin and the mental challenge. No two runs are ever the same.”

Jeremy Wotherspoon

Speed Skating

Excelling in both the 500-m and 1000-m sprints, Jeremy Wotherspoon

Photo by Jeff Bough

unequivocally ranks among speed skating’s legends. The 33-year-old, who grew up in Red Deer, Alberta, is the winningest World Cup speed skater of all time, and is also a four-time world sprint champion. In November 2007, he powered his way to a new 500-m world record of 34.03 seconds.
But he still hungers for the ultimate prize of Olympic gold, having claimed silver in Nagano in 1998. There would be no sweeter place to get it done than at the Richmond Olympic Oval. Coming back from a broken arm, Wotherspoon plans to retire after the current season.
“Everyone I know who has competed in the Olympics in their country has said it’s an incredible experience,” Wotherspoon says. “It’ll be a great way to culminate my career.”

Britt Janyk

Alpine Skiing

Britt Janyk is one of the Canadian “Speed Queens” who’s aiming to follow in the

Photo copyright ACA/Pentaphoto

tracks of Olympic champs such as Nancy Greene and Kerrin Lee-Gartner. But the 29-year-old Whistler resident, who ranked third overall in the 2008 World Cup downhill standings and won gold that year in Aspen, hasn’t always ruled with ease.
“A couple of years ago, I had to requalify for the team,” Janyk recalls. “I was struggling, and I’d lost my confidence.” While her favourite event remains the super giant slalom, with its speed and technical flair, making the podium in downhill got her career back on track. “It gave me confidence that I can work through things when it gets tough,” she says.
Janyk isn’t discounting home-mountain advantage, with female Olympians competing on Franz’s Run at Whistler Creekside. “We’ve trained quite a bit on the race hill, and we’re really familiar with it,” she says. “I grew up skiing on Whistler Mountain, and it just feels like home.” In her downtime, she shops at Lululemon or grabs breakfast at the Wild Wood Cafe.
Janyk’s grandfather Peter, mother Andrée and brother Michael (a fellow Olympic hopeful) all have fine international ski resumes. She’s raced with fellow “Speed Queen” Emily Brydon since age 12, fostering good team chemistry. No wonder Janyk hopes her 2010 Olympic debut will be her crowning glory.

Fast Track to Gold

BC speed skater Denny Morrison is poised to be a top contender at the 2010 Winter Games

By Kristina Urquhart

The eco-friendly roof at Richmond Olympic Oval. Photo by KK Law

Under a magnificent domed roof, the cavernous arena echoes with the sound of the starting bell, of the first moment a sharp skate blade touches the pristine rink, of 8,000 spectators cheering wildly.

This is the Richmond Olympic Oval (see “Fast Facts,” below) just one month from now, when it will host the long-track speed skating events during the 2010 Winter Games. This is where Denny Morrison, Canadian speed skater and Olympic silver medallist, will vie for the gold.

Unlike many athletes who only recently discovered whether they’d be competing in sport’s biggest contest, the 24-year-old Morrison has known since his stellar race results last winter.

“I’m really excited,” he says. “I have good feelings about Richmond. The oval is pretty spectacular.”

Morrison now calls Fort St. John, BC home, but he was born in the tiny town of Chetwynd where there was no hockey league. Eager to skate, a three-year-old Morrison started speed skating lessons. The rest is, as they say, history.

No stranger to the podium, Morrison brought home a silver medal in the team pursuit race

Denny Morrison will skate for gold at Richmond Olympic Oval. Photo by Ewan Nicholson

at the Torino 2006 Winter Games. This year alone, Morrison won the bronze in three events at two ISU World Cup events. He is also pictured on the packages of Wrigley’s Excel Polar Ice chewing gum—a portion of the proceeds goes to the Canadian Olympic team.

Morrison’s busy training and competition schedule doesn’t offer much down time, but he likes to try new restaurants, including Chop for both its innovative cuisine and its proximity to the Richmond Olympic Oval, where he trained last year.

Watch Morrison on Jan. 16 and 17 in the World Championship Sprint in Obihiro, Japan, and tune in during the 2010 Winter Games to see him race the 5,000 m (Feb. 13), the 500 m (Feb. 15), the 1,000 m (Feb. 17), the 1,500 m (Feb. 20), the 10,000 m (Feb. 23) and the team pursuit qualification (Feb. 26) and finals (Feb. 27). Whether or not Morrison ascends to the podium, he is sure to make Canada proud.

FAST FACTS