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New Report on Legacy of Winter Games in N. Am.

MONDAY, 30 APRIL 2007

Olympic Winter Games in North America are generally highly successful and leave a multitude of lasting legacies in their host communities, according to a new report commissioned by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC). The report, which includes a chapter on each of the three previous North American Olympic Winter Games, will be released over the next month as part of a host of activities to mark the 1,000 day countdown on May 19 to the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

The Legacies of North American Olympic Winter Games report, prepared by an independent researcher, documents and illustrates the possible social and economic trends that result from hosting Olympic Winter Games in North America and the lasting impacts of hosting the Olympic Winter Games on a specific community and region.

The report examines the legacies of the three Olympic Winter Games held in North America since 1980: in Lake Placid, Calgary and Salt Lake City. Research sources include previous official Games reports, Games senior leaders, studies, books, newspaper and magazine analyses, and original interviews with individuals who have witnessed firsthand the effects of hosting the Games in their communities. "Social and economic trends are often left unidentified until the facts are pulled together and analyzed in one place, through a common lens," said VANOC's Chief Executive Officer John Furlong. "This report, summarizing the legacies of previous North American Olympic Winter Games, outlines trends that should be encouraging to all British Columbians, all Canadians and other North American cities considering bidding for the Olympic Winter Games," he said.

All three of the previous North American Olympic Winter Games examined in the report were deemed a success in their time. The report shows how these host communities continue to:

increase tourism in their regions
remind the world of their attractions at subsequent international competition hosted there
build sports participation
be national hubs for recreational and competitive sport
help the country's top high performance athletes achieve their full potential
attract major sports companies to locate there
encourage local children to excel in sport and other areas of life

"The best model for understanding the potential legacies of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games is analysis of other Winter Games held within the North American continent," said Furlong. "This report offers a frank look back on the experiences of previous North American Olympic Winter Games hosts. While each Games was unique with its own story, the findings clearly indicate a pattern of positive opportunity."

Due to the significant volume of each report, they will be released at vancouver2010.com on a staggered timeline: Lake Placid on April 30, Calgary on May 7 and Salt Lake on May 14.

The legacy of Winter Games can perhaps be easiest seen through high performance sport. Lake Placid has hosted the Olympic Winter Games twice (1932 and 1980), and has produced 125 local medal-winners since the Olympic Winter Games' inception in 1924. After Salt Lake staged the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, 69 of the 211 athletes on the U.S. team in Torino in 2006 had trained at the Olympic Games facilities in Salt Lake. At the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino, more than 25 per cent of the 196-member Canadian team was from the Calgary area and trained on legacy facilities from the 1988 Olympic Winter Games.

Calgary, the only Canadian city that has hosted an Olympic Winter Games, has a strong post-Games legacy. The Calgary Olympic Development Association (CODA) is responsible for a financial legacy that makes it the largest private funder of Olympic winter sport in Canada. Canada Olympic Park (COP) is a multi-venue sports complex that is the second-largest tourist draw in Alberta, attracting one million visitors a year – nearly 20 years after Calgary hosted the Olympic Winter Games. Plans are well underway to further develop COP.

The report shows a similar success story regarding New York State's Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA). In the 2004-2005 fiscal year, a quarter century after the 1980 Lake Placid Olympic Winter Games, the overall economic impact of ORDA's operations to the village and the counties surrounding it was an estimated $323.7 million USD.

The Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC) decided after the 2002 Games to use its $100 million USD profit to turn Salt Lake City and Utah into "an elite sports capital of the world." Since 2002, the Utah Sports Commission (USC) has hosted almost 200 major sports events. In 2006 alone, the economic impact of the events the USC helped organize was between $500-600 million USD. The state has also enticed more than 10 major sports equipment companies to call it home.

"The Legacies report shows that on a continent where enthusiasm for recreational and high performance winter sport is widespread, hosting a successful Winter Games can have numerous, multi-faceted benefits, many of which last for generations," said Furlong.

"VANOC is determined to continue this impressive trend, delivering an outstanding Games experience in 2010 and legacies that continue to benefit the community for many years into the future," he concluded.

This article is courtesy of the 2010 Olympic Committee.

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