Like many students, junior Dalil Omerovic watched coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games that took place in Vancouver, Canada that took place in February. 

“I wasn’t able to watch the Olympic (games) every day, but I watched whenever I had a chance,” said junior Dalila Omerovic “My favorite sport to watch was the figure skating.”

However, figure skating was only one among many events that athletes competed in.  Other events included bobsled, skiing, and snowboarding.  Whether it was the millions of television viewers or the thousands of people who traveled to Vancouver to watch the games in person, they watched and cheered for their countries, their favorite event or favorite participant. 

“I like watching snowboarding events,” said junior Robert Perez

Traditionally, the Olympics begins with the Torch Relay. The Torch Relay is a tradition that has been followed since 1936 when the first Olympic torch was lit in Olympia, Greece, several month before the opening ceremony. The “Vancouver Torch” traveled 45,000 km and 12,000 torch bearers carried the torch for 106 days. The torch bearers included Steve Nash, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Wayne Gretzky. The 2010 torch relay was the longest one in Olympic history.

The Opening Ceremony followed the Torch Relay.

The Opening Ceremony in Vancouver started with the moment of silence because of the Georgian Luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, who died during a practice run hours before the ceremony. After that the ceremony continued as planned and included the snowboarder who flew through the Olympic rings, the four Host Nations who danced and greeted guests, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Nelly Furtado who sang “Bang The Drum” with Bryan Adams.

2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics ended with the USA winning 37 medals; nine gold, 15 silver and 13 bronze. Germany ran a close second with 10 gold, 13 silver and seven bronze.  Canada came in third with 14 gold, seven silver and six bronze

The US gold medalists were:

-Shani Davis, who competed in Men’s 1000m Speed Skating

-Bill Demong, who competed in Men’s Nordic Combined Individual LH/10 km

-Hannah Kearney, who competed in Ladies Moguls Freestyle Skiing

-Bode Miller, who competed in Men’s Super Combined Alpine Skiing

-Evan Lysacek who competed in Men’s Figure Skating

-Lindsey Vonn, who competed in Ladies’ Downhill Alpine Skiing

-Seth Wescott, who competed in Men’s Snowboard Cross

-Shaun White, who competed in snowboarding Men’s Halfpipe

-The US four-man bobsleigh team

Tickets to attend the Olympic events ranged from $50 for figure skating to $775 for men’s gold metal Hockey event. The Canadians paid nearly $6 billion to host the 2010 Winter Olympics–$900 million of that for security for the 82 nations and 2,629 athletes present for the games.  It was the most expensive than either of the two previous Olympic events hosted by Canada.

The Closing Ceremony was held on February 28 and included music from Nickelback, Avril Lavigne, Simple Plan, Alanis Morissette and other performers.  The next Winter Olympics host city will be held in Sochi, Russia in 2014.

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