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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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]

Mascots

The mascot of the 2010 Winter Paralympics is Sumi, who has the wings of a thunderbird and the legs of a black bear, accompanied by his marmot sidekick, Mukmuk.

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

  1. ↑ Joyce, Greg (June 8, 2006). "Edward, Sophie raise Paralympics flag, Royal couple rings in 2010 Winter Olympics outside city hall". Vancouver Sun. Canadian Press. Archived from the original on March 11, 2007. (Reprinted at Canada.com)
  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.
  8. ↑ "Paralympics 2012: London to host 'first truly global Games'". BBC Sport. Retrieved August 1, 2012.
  9. ↑ "Vancouver to host 2010 Winter Olympics". CBBC Newsround. July 2, 2003. Archived from the original on January 31, 2009. Retrieved January 7, 2009.
  10. ↑ "Past Olympic Host City Election Results". GameBids.com. Archived from the original on January 24, 2011. Retrieved June 9, 2015.
  11. ↑ "Paralympic torch relay begins 10 day journey". Ctvolympics.ca. November 20, 2013. Archived from the original on March 12, 2010. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
  12. ↑ "Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Torch Relay starting point, torch design, uniform and emblem revealed". Vancouver2010.com. Archived from the original on April 8, 2010. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
  13. ↑ "Venues–UBC Thunderbird Arena". Vancouver Organizing Committee. Archived from the original on February 6, 2009. Retrieved February 13, 2009.
  14. ↑ "Venues–Vancouver Olympic/Paralympic Centre". Vancouver Organizing Committee. Archived from the original on February 6, 2009. Retrieved February 13, 2009.
  15. ↑ "Venues–Whistler Creekside". Vancouver Organizing Committee. Archived from the original on January 30, 2009. Retrieved February 13, 2009.
  16. ↑ "Venues–Whistler Olympic/Paralympic Park". Vancouver Organizing Committee. Archived from the original on February 21, 2009. Retrieved February 13, 2009.
  17. ↑ "Venues–BC Place". Vancouver Organizing Committee. Archived from the original on February 15, 2009. Retrieved February 13, 2009.
  18. ↑ "Venues–Main Media Centre". Vancouver Organizing Committee. Archived from the original on February 15, 2009. Retrieved February 13, 2009.
  19. ↑ "Venues–Olympic and Paralympic Village Vancouver". Vancouver Organizing Committee. Archived from the original on February 24, 2009. Retrieved February 13, 2009.
  20. ↑ "Venues–Whistler Media Centre". Vancouver Organizing Committee. Archived from the original on February 25, 2009. Retrieved February 13, 2009.
  21. ↑ "Venues–Olympic and Paralympic Village Whistler". Vancouver Organizing Committee. Archived from the original on February 25, 2009. Retrieved February 13, 2009.
  22. ↑ "Venues–Whistler Olympic Celebration Plaza". Vancouver Organizing Committee. Archived from the original on March 26, 2009. Retrieved February 13, 2009.
  23. ↑ "14 circulating coins included in 2010 Olympic program", Bret Evans, Canadian Coin News, January 23 to February 5, 2007, issue of Canadian Coin News
  24. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 Athletes: Vancouver 2010 Winter Paralympics Archived December 25, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, The Official Website of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
  25. ↑ "Vancouver 2010 Team Canada". Canadian Paralympic Committee. Archived from the original on March 4, 2010. Retrieved March 13, 2009.
  26. 1 2 3 4 "Sledge Masters: Previewing the 2010 Paralympic Sledge Hockey Tournament", CBS Sports
  27. ↑ "Munich Counting Down to Vancouver 2010 – With an Eye to 2018!", Canada International (Canadian government website) Archived July 24, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  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.
  30. ↑ "Reprezentacja Polski na X Zimowe Igrzyska Paraolimpijskie VANCOUVER 2010" Archived February 27, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Polski Komitet Paraolimpijski
  31. ↑ "Vail skier qualifies for Paralympics" Archived March 8, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Vail Daily, February 17, 2010
  32. ↑ Argentina at the Paralympics, International Paralympic Committee
  33. ↑ Andriev, Lucretia (March 13, 2010). "Vancouver 2010 Au inceput Jocurile Paralimpice/ Romania, reprezentata de o singura sportiva: Laura Valeanu". sport.hotnews.ro (in Romanian). Retrieved June 26, 2023.
  34. ↑ Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Paralympics, International Paralympic Committee
  35. ↑ Serbia at the Paralympics, International Paralympic Committee
  36. ↑ "Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Competition Schedule" (PDF). International Paralympic Committee. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 6, 2009. Retrieved August 9, 2008.
  37. ↑ OFFICIAL RESULTS / RÉSULTATS OFFICIELS Archived May 15, 2010, at the Wayback Machine(Google Quick view), The Official site for the 2010 Winter Paralympics
  38. ↑ "Cross-Country Skiing Schedule and Results". The official website of the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver. Archived from the original on August 23, 2010. Retrieved March 16, 2010.
  39. ↑ "Record hours of coverage for Paralympic Games". CTVOlympics.ca. June 16, 2009. Archived from the original on January 30, 2010.
  40. ↑ "Closing Ceremony of 2010 Paralympic Winter Games To Air Live on CTV and RDS, This Sunday" (Press release). Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium. March 16, 2010. Archived from the original on July 19, 2011.
  41. ↑ "An Overview Of the Paralympic Games". Wheelchair. 2010.
  42. ↑ "Paralympics New Zealand Newsletter" (PDF). Paralympics New Zealand. May 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 17, 2011.
  43. ↑ "BBC criticised over Winter Paralympics TV plans". Bhfederation.org.uk. February 19, 2010. Archived from the original on March 4, 2012.
  44. ↑ "Paralympiques2010". France Télévisions. 2010. Archived from the original on April 10, 2010.
  45. ↑ "Paralimpiadi on SKY". June 9, 2009. Archived from the original on February 15, 2010.
  46. ↑ "ABC1 to broadcast Sochi 2014 Paralympics". IPC. February 27, 2014.
  47. ↑ "Oppgitt over elendig Paralympics-produksjon". Harstad Tidende (in Norwegian). March 25, 2010. Archived from the original on September 15, 2012.
  48. ↑ "IPC Honours Good and Great at Paralympic Awards Gala in Beijing". International Paralympic Committee. December 10, 2011.
  49. ↑ Kingston, Gary (March 11, 2011). "Participation in disabled sport jumps 10 per cent in B.C." The Vancouver Sun. Archived from the original on January 5, 2016. (Reprinted at Canada.com)
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