WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES, VANCOUVER
Date of issue: 5 February 2010
The high-ranking 2010 sport event is to be held between 12-28 February in Vancouver – Canada’s third largest city and one of its most important ports – and in Whistler, Canada’s most famous and largest ski resort, located 125 kilometres to the north of the city. Vancouver won the right to hold the 21st Winter Olympic Games at the 115th meeting of the IOC in Prague on 3 July 2003. Preliminarily the review committee found four cities suitable for holding the games. Bern withdrew its application, then in the first round of the voting the Austrian city Salzburg was eliminated from the competition and in the second round it was Vancouver that was finally chosen over the South Korean Pyeongchang. The Olympic Games will be held at a total of 9 locations in the region, of these 3 will be within the Whistler ski resort. During the Games in Vancouver medals will be awarded in fifteen different sports (Alpine skiing, biathlon, bobsled, curling, Nordic combined, speed skating, ice hockey, figure skating, short track speed skating, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, skeleton, snowboarding, freestyle skiing, luge), including forty-five men’s events, thirty-eight women’s events and three mixed. The opening and closing ceremonies will be held in the BC Place Stadium in Vancouver. The facility was constructed in 1983 to serve as one of the main venues of the 1986 World Expo, which was opened by Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada on 2 May 1986. A special feature of the arena is that when it was completed it was the largest air-supported stadium in the world. In 2008 renovation work was started at the BC Place to a cost of 150 million dollars to comply with the expectations of the Olympic Games. The stamp image includes a skiing figure expressing the joy of victory and the Vancouver Olympic logo on the upper right-hand side. The first day cover of the stamp depicts winter sports and the graphic of the special cancellation stamp shows a stylised drawing of spectators.
Order item number: 2010020010011 (stamp) 2010020060012 (FDC)
Perforation size: 40 x 40 mm, 50 stamps/sheet
Number issued: 300,000
Printing press: Pénzjegynyomda
Date of issue: 5 February 2010
Designer: Zsolt Vidák
