Last coordination commission visit to VANCOUVER

The IOC’s Coordination Commission will pay its ninth and last visit to the next Olympic host city of Vancouver this week. The Commission, led by its Chairman René Fasel, will spend two days – 25 to 26 August – hearing from the Vancouver 2010 Organising Committee (VANOC) about its progress, as it looks to stage spectacular Olympic Winter Games. This visit will also see the participation of representatives of the Olympic Winter International Federations, who will be able to bring their wealth of experience to the table, as they look at the final details around the sports on the 2010 programme.

Key Themes
With a little under six months to the Games, the IOC’s Coordination Commission will be working with VANOC to make sure that the Games stakeholders, such as the athletes, National Olympic Committees, International Federations, rights-holding broadcasters, media and spectators are going to be happy with the services that VANOC plans to deliver for them at Games time. As it is the final meeting of the Commission, they will also be looking at where the project is globally and examining in detail a number of areas such as transport, access to venues and ticketing, which will be key to ensuring a great Games-time experience for athletes and spectators.

Venues
With VANOC’s competition venues now completed and the two Olympic Villages in Vancouver and Whistler well on their way to being handed over to VANOC for use at Games time, some members of the Commission will also tour a selection of Vancouver’s Olympic venues. This will allow the members to see the Olympic venues finalised after following their progress over the past six years during their construction.

VANCOUVER 2010
Vancouver and Whistler will host the XXI Olympic Winter Games from 12 to 28 February 2010 and the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games from 12 to 21 March 2010. The seven Winter Olympic sports that will be on show in Vancouver are Luge, Skiing, Skating, Ice Hockey, Biathlon, Bobsleigh and Curling.