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Olympics will benefit all of B.C., expert says
Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, December 05, 2007
VANCOUVER - The 2010 Winter Games may be coming to the Lower Mainland and Whistler, but that doesn't mean that the rest of the province can't benefit economically and socially.
That's the view of Craig Phillips, the secretary-general for the Australian Olympic Committee, who says communities outside the traditional 604 area code should look for opportunities to host international teams getting ready for the Games.
Phillips, who will tour Kamloops, Vancouver and Prince George this week as part of a speaking engagement for 2010 LegaciesNow, said his own country's Olympic experiences are an example.
Although Australia is strong in summer sports -- it was in the top four in both 2000 in Sydney and 2004 in Athens in gold medals -- its winter sports contingent is small. Australia is looking for suitable facilities outside the Lower Mainland where its athletes, including short-track speed-skaters, can train.
Olympic host countries should realize that national Olympic committees and their athletes need to find facilities where they can train in the buildup to the Games.
"Some communities in B.C. can realize the opportunities that exist in terms of what the national Olympic committees and national federations are looking for their teams, both in the lead-up period and the pre-Games period," he said. "There are some economic benefits, social benefits available. Some communities removed from the Vancouver-Whistler area might not otherwise have any way of touching the Games."
Today Phillips is visiting Kamloops, which became one of the first B.C. communities to land a national team. In 2005, the Austrian national ski team picked Sun Peaks as its local training facility.
On Thursday, Phillips will head to Prince George, which has also successfully lured some athletes.
Virginia Sprangers, the manager of sports for Events Prince George, a government-backed economic development initiative, said the city hosted the Chinese and Korean curling teams last March in the run-up to the world championships in Edmonton.
It also became the temporary home to Chinese short-track speed-skater Li JiaJun, who won a bronze in the 1,500-metre race in Turin in 2006.
Sprangers said the French hockey team will also practice in Prince George for a week prior to the Games in 2010.
Cathy Priestner, Vanoc's executive vice-president of sport, said many teams -- both national and international -- are looking for quiet places to train.
"Many of these teams come from a long ways away and they have to be somewhere in this time zone, preferably, to acclimatize. If they are coming from outside North America, that's very important. Often, they don't want to be in the limelight or smack in the middle things."
Vanoc is working with LegaciesNow and another organization to produce a guide for visiting countries listing training facilities in B.C. and Alberta. Communities benefit not only economically, but also from the experiences the visiting athletes bring, Priestner said.
"I think it is a really great opportunity for our communities to get engaged with the other nations. The athletes work really well in situations like that. They come into the schools, they are really willing to participate in the community," she said.
Phillips will give a noon-hour address today at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver.
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