The Olympic flame for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver has been lit.

The sun shone just enough over the fallen temples at the birthplace of the ancient Olympics on Thursday for a Greek actress in a pagan priestess’ white gown and sandals to focus its rays on a silver torch using a concave mirror.

The flame will burn at the Vancouver Games in February, following a torch relay across Canada and a shorter run in Greece.

Bad weather disrupted the ceremony for the 2000 Sydney Summer Games, and the past three Winter Olympics — in Turin in 2006, Salt Lake City in 2002 and Nagano in 1998.

http://www.vancouver2010.com/

The Vancouver Olympics torch-lighting ceremony in ancient Olympia will see none of the protests that tarnished the Beijing Games event.

The Vancouver 2010 Olympics torch-lighting ceremony in ancient Olympia next week will see none of the protests that tarnished the Beijing Games event two years ago, the Greek Olympic Committee have said.

Human rights activists disrupted the globally televised ceremony in the ancient Olympic stadium in south-western Greece in 2008, triggering a chain reaction of protests which followed the Beijing torch relay on its journey before the Games.

Snowboarder Lesley McKenna has finally revealed her intentions to compete at her third Winter Olympics next year despite initially insisting she may not.

Earlier in the year McKenna who saw her funding cut after the Turin Games in 2006 admitted travelling to Vancouver in February was the last thing on her mind.

However after much deliberation McKenna Britain’s most successful snowboarder having competed at two Olympics and picked up six World Cup podium finishes admitted Vancouver is now at the top of her agenda.

Italian skier Peter Fill has ruled himself out of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in February after rupturing tendons in a training accident.

The silver medallist in the Super-G at last season’s World Championships had surgery in September and was expected to return in time for the Games but he now says there is no chance.

“I have it in my head, it’s the most important competition but I can’t allow myself to race. My fitness definitely won’t be ready,” he told Italian daily Gazzetta dello Sport.

http://www.peter-fill.com/

The Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad, presented by Bell, is adding more international flair to its impressive lineup of music, theatre, visual arts, dance, and digital programming in its largest announcement of 2010 projects to date — more than 70, including hardcore troubadour Steve Earle, an inspiring Ugandan dance troupe and an all-star lineup of emerging Canadian talent brought together by an American music producer, often called the inventor of the modern tribute album, saluting the godfather of grunge: Neil Young.

Skydivers parachuting in from above, top regional musical performers, giant puppets, a dazzling light show, foot stomping Acadian fiddlin’, towering snow and ice sculptures, a huge tepee, as well as a kazoo band: that is just a sampling of the unique local flavour almost 200 torch relay celebration communities plan on showcasing when they welcome the Olympic Flame and potentially the world to their part of the country.

Looking for a chance to create lifetime memories as part of a huge international event with thousands watching live and millions more tuning in around the world? Five thousand spots are available starting today for volunteers wanting to be a part of the breathtaking and inspiring Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games.

“Vancouver is ready for 2010”, said the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Coordination Commission for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games through its Chairman, René Fasel. For its ninth and final visit (25 – 26 August) to the next Olympic and Paralympic Host City, the Commission was joined by representatives of the Olympic Winter International Federations, who were able to bring their expertise to bear in the discussions with the Vancouver Organising Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) relating to the sporting elements of the Games, as well as by observers from the Sochi 2014 Organising Committee.