Vancouver’s Mayor Sam Sullivan will accept the Paralympic Flag on behalf of Canada at the Turin Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony Sunday. Whistler Mayor Ken Melamed will then have the honour of bringing the flag back to Canada, where he and Vancouver’s Mayor will participate in a public flag-raising ceremony in Whistler on Friday March 24.
It will be the first time in history that two Mayors from the next host Olympic region have participated in a Paralympic flag handover.
Vancouver 2010’s participation in the Closing Ceremony will begin with the Canadian anthem and the raising of the Canadian flag, followed by the Paralympic Flag handover and entertainment segments, including videos showcasing Canada.
Meanwhile VANOC CEO John Furlong and a team of 21 VANOC staff from all areas of the organization have been participating in 14 observer sessions in Turin ranging in topics from marketing and communications, ticketing and finance, to press operations, sport, venue operations, Paralympic Villages and education.
Furlong said, “our experiences and education at the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games were invaluable and the generous sharing of knowledge by the Torino 2006 Organizing Committee has continued through the Paralympic Winter Games. Both our friends at the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and TOROC have given our team their time, their knowledge and their enthusiasm to assist us in our planning for the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games”.
The provincial government has given the City of Kimberley British Columbia $3.9 million to build a state-of-the-art Paralympic athletic training centre before the 2010 Games begin. It will be the first such facility in Canada and one of only a few in the world.
Kimberley will also upgrade one of the town’s ski runs to Paralympic standards.
According to its Mayor Jim Ogilvie there will also be improvements to bring other local facilities to Paralympic standards for Nordic skiing, sledge hockey and wheelchair curling.
Brochures about the new centre are being distributed at the Turin Paralympic Games and the Mayor says he is already getting positive feedback about it.
Ogilvie expects the new facilities will be completed by 2008.
