2010 Winter Paralympics

The 2010 Winter Paralympics (French: Jeux paralympiques d'hiver de 2010), or the tenth Paralympic Winter Games, were held in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia, Canada from March 12 to 21, 2010. The opening ceremony took place in BC Place Stadium in Vancouver and the Closing Ceremony in Whistler Medals Plaza.

X Paralympic Winter Games
Host cityVancouver, Canada
MottoWith Glowing Hearts
(French: Des plus brillants exploits)
Nations44
Athletes506
Events64 in 5 sports
Opening12 March
Closing21 March
Opened by
Governor General Michaëlle Jean
Cauldron
Zach Beaumont
StadiumBC Place
Winter
Summer
2010 Winter Olympics
Paralympic agitos
Part of a series on
2010 Winter Paralympics

This was the first time Canada hosted the Winter Paralympic Games and second time it hosted the Paralympics – the first was the 1976 Summer Paralympics in Toronto.

On June 7, 2006, Prince Edward, as a member of the Canadian Royal Family and patron of the British Paralympic Association, raised the flag of the Paralympic Games outside Vancouver City Hall.[1]

Brian McKeever of Canada became the first athlete to be named in a Winter Paralympics and Winter Olympics team in the same year, although he did not compete in the Olympic Games. (At the 2010 Winter Olympics, he was scheduled to compete in the men's 50 km cross-country race, but the coach replaced him with a skier who did well at an earlier event.)[2][3][4] At the Paralympics, he competed in cross-country skiing and biathlon.

Viviane Forest became the first Paralympian to win a gold in both the Winter and Summer Games, by winning the women's downhill for visually impaired. She had previously won gold in the 2000 and 2004 Summer Paralympics for women's goalball.[5][6] Canadian Lauren Woolstencroft won 5 gold medals in alpine skiing, the most gold medals won by any Canadian Winter Paralympian at a single Games.[7] Also German Verena Bentele won 5 gold medals, in biathlon and cross-country skiing, and with that number they set the gold medal record for the 2010 Games.

Bidding process
Main article: Bids for the 2010 Winter Olympics

As part of a formal agreement between the International Paralympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee first established in 2001, the winner of the bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics was also to host the 2010 Winter Paralympics.[8] Following the second and final round of voting at the 115th IOC Session in Prague, Czech Republic, the right to host the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics were awarded to Vancouver.[9]

2010 Winter Olympics bidding results[10]
City Nation Round 1 Round 2
Vancouver Canada 4056
Pyeongchang South Korea 5153
Salzburg Austria 16—

Development and preparation
See also: Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games

Torch relay
See also: 2010 Winter Paralympics torch relay

The same torch design (silver with Paralympic logo) used for the Olympics was used for the Paralympic Games. On March 3, 2010, the torch began a 10-day journey from Ottawa to Vancouver.[11] The relay involved approximately six hundred runners to carry the torch across ten Canadian cities in three provinces:[12]

Venues
See also: Venues of the 2010 Winter Olympics

Venues for the 2010 Winter Paralympics were shared between Vancouver and Whistler, as with the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Competition venues
Venue Location Sports Capacity Ref.
Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre Vancouver Ice sledge hockey 7,200 [13]
Vancouver Olympic/Paralympic Centre Vancouver Wheelchair curling 6,000 [14]
Whistler Creekside Whistler Alpine skiing 7,600 [15]
Whistler Paralympic Park Whistler Biathlon, cross-country skiing 6,000 [16]
Non-competition venues
Venue Location Purpose Ref.
BC Place Stadium Vancouver Opening ceremonies [17]
International Broadcast Centre Vancouver Media (Broadcaster) Centre [18]
Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Village Vancouver Paralympic Village [19]
Whistler Media Centre Whistler Media centre [20]
Whistler Olympic and Paralympic Village Whistler Paralympic Village [21]
Whistler Olympic Celebration Plaza Whistler Awards and Closing ceremonies [22]

Marketing
See also: 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games mascots

When the mascot, Sumi, an animal guardian spirit with the wings of the Thunderbird and legs of a black bear, was introduced, it was the first time the Olympic and Paralympic mascots were introduced at the same time.

To commemorate the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, 17 Canadian coins were issued for general circulation. Two of the circulation coins honour Paralympic sports: wheelchair curling (released on July 11, 2007) and ice sledge hockey (released on March 18, 2010). The circulation quarters omitted a traditional phrase, Dei Gratia Regina, from their obverse side, making them the first godless coins in circulation since 1911.[23]

Specifications

YearsWeightDiameter/ShapeComposition
2007–present 4.4 g 23.88 mm 94.0% steel, 3.8% copper, 2.2% nickel plating

Details

Date of Issue Sport Artist Mintage
July 11, 2007 Wheelchair curling Glen Green 22,000,000
March 18, 2010 Ice sledge hockey Glen Green 22,000,000

The games

Opening ceremonies

With a theme of "One inspires many," the opening ceremony featured over 5000 local performers. Fifteen-year-old snowboarder Zach Beaumont, who is an amputee, was the final torch bearer and lit the Games Cauldron. The 2 hours live ceremony was produced by Vancouver-based Patrick Roberge Productions Inc.

Participating nations

Forty-four National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) entered athletes at the 2010 Winter Paralympics. This was an increase of five from the 39 represented at the 2006 Winter Paralympics. The number in parentheses indicates the number of participants from each NPC.

A total of 506 athletes participated in the Games. This is an increase from the 476 athletes who participated in 2006.

Argentina and Romania took part in the Winter Paralympic Games for the first time,[32][33] as did Bosnia and Herzegovina.[34] All three have previously participated in several editions of the Summer Paralympics. Serbia also made its Winter Paralympics début as a distinct NPC, following its split with Montenegro.[35]

Despite the overall increase of delegates and athletes, Latvia, which participated in Turin for the 2006 Winter Paralympics, did not send athletes to Vancouver.

Sports

Five sports were on the 2010 program:

Calendar

In the following calendar for the 2010 Winter Paralympic Games, each blue box represents an event competition, such as a qualification round, on that day. The yellow boxes represent days during which gold medal finals for a sport are held.[36]

 ● Opening ceremony    Event competitions  ● Event finals  ● Closing ceremony
March 2010 12th
Fri		 13th
Sat		 14th
Sun		 15th
Mon		 16th
Tue		 17th
Wed		 18th
Thu		 19th
Fri		 20th
Sat		 21st
Sun		 Gold
medals
Alpine skiing ● ●
● ●		 ● ● ● ●
● ●		 ● ● ● ●
● ●
● ●		 ● ●
● ●
● ● 		● ●
● ●
● ● 		30
Biathlon ● ●
● ●
● ●		 ● ●
● ●
● ●		 12
Cross-country skiing ● ● ● ●
● ●		 ● ●
● ●
● ●		 ● ● ● ●
● ●
● ●		 20
Ice sledge hockey ● 1
Wheelchair curling ● 1
Total gold medals 6 6 6 4 8 12 6 10 6 64
Ceremonies ● ●

Medal count
Main article: 2010 Winter Paralympics medal table

The top ten NPCs by number of gold medals are listed below. The host nation, Canada, is highlighted.

RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1 Germany (GER)135624
2 Russia (RUS)12161038
3 Canada (CAN)*105419
4 Slovakia (SVK)62311
5 Ukraine (UKR)58619
6 United States (USA)45413
7 Austria (AUT)34411
8 Japan (JPN)33511
9 Belarus (BLR)2079
10 France (FRA)1416
Totals (10 entries)595250161

Podium sweeps
Date Sport Event NOC Gold Silver Bronze Ref
17 March Biathlon Men's 12.5km Sitting  Russia Irek Zaripov Vladimir Kiselev Roman Petushkov [37]
21 March Cross-country skiing Men's 1 km Sprint Classic Sitting  Russia Sergey Shilov Irek Zaripov Vladimir Kiselev [38]

Broadcasters

In Canada, the games were broadcast by Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium, a joint venture between CTVglobemedia and Rogers Media. The networks aired a greater amount of coverage than what had been shown in previous years, a total of 50 hours of coverage. Coverage included including a daily 90-minute highlight program, and live coverage of select sledge hockey matches (games involving Canada, plus the gold medal game) on CTV. The opening ceremony was broadcast live on CTV's Vancouver station CIVT-TV, followed by an encore aired nationally on CTV and Réseau Info Sports the following afternoon.[39] While not originally planned, CTV and RDS also aired live coverage of the closing ceremony.[40]

The games were aired on Universal Sports in the United States.

Paralympic Sport TV (paralympicsport.tv), the Internet TV channel of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), offered international free online live and recorded coverage of the games, every day from 9:00 to 22:30 PST.[41]

In New Zealand, SKY TV broadcast one hour of highlights each day, and full coverage of New Zealand athletes.[42]

In the United Kingdom, BBC broadcast the Games, but only through the red button and online.[43]

In Europe, Eurosport broadcast live the medal events in biathlon, alpine and cross-country skiing.

In France, France Télévisions provided live coverage on its website.[44]

In Italy, Sky Sport provided record coverage with all games live on five dedicated HD channels.[45]

In Australia, ABC1 broadcast the games.[46]

In Norway, NRK broadcast the games. 30 hours of the Games were broadcast live. NRK-sport were critical to parts of the TV production from Vancouver, an issue they've notified to the EBU. Issues such as showing biathlon without showing the shooting, and in cross-country skiing there were numerous panorama shots of the same mountain area with skiers in the distance, making it hard to follow the progress of the competition. NRK were far more pleased with the production of the ice sledge hockey and wheelchair curling events, which they felt reached the same level as the Olympic Games.[47]

Paralympic media awards

New Zealand's Sky Sport won the best broadcast award for their coverage of the Games. Gary Kingston writing for the Vancouver Sun took the best written category. While Jeff Crow won the best photography category for his picture of Shannon Dallas.[48]

Legacy

In the winter sports season following the games, there was a notable increase in winter disability sports participation throughout British Columbia.[49]

See also

References
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  2. Cernetig, Mirro (February 17, 2010). "Legally blind skier embodies the Olympic ideal". Vancouver Sun. (Reprinted at CheckOrphan.org)
  3. Cohen, Rachel (February 17, 2010). "Canada's McKeever to ski at Olympics, Paralympics". Associated Press. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved March 17, 2010.
  4. Kelley, Steve (February 20, 2010). "Blind Olympian doesn't believe in limits". Boston Herald. Archived from the original on March 3, 2010.
  5. Beamish, Mike (March 18, 2010). "Paralympic para-alpine skiing: Canada's Viviane Forest does the trifecta, wins visually impaired downhill gold". Vancouver Sun. Archived from the original on March 23, 2010.
  6. Korobanik, John (March 11, 2010). "Para-alpine star Viviane Forest has potential for huge Games medal haul". Vancouver Sun. Archived from the original on March 24, 2010.
  7. "Woolstencroft wins fifth gold medal". Vancouver Sun. CanWest News Service. March 21, 2010.
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  28. "www.paralympic.gr". www.paralympic.gr. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
  29. "VANCOUVER 2010, PARALIMPIADI: ITALIA AI GIOCHI CON 35 ATLETI". Sport.repubblica.it. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
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