2010 Olympic hockey schedule released

The Canadian women will begin their quest for a third straight Olympic hockey gold on Feb. 13 at the 2010 Vancouver Games, with the Canadian men scheduled to play their first game three days later.

The newly released Olympic hockey schedule, which still may be changed around slightly, has these Team Canada openers at GM Place, dubbed Canada Hockey Place for the Games: the women's side plays Slovakia, while the men will face Norway.

The women's team plays its other two preliminary games Feb. 15 against Switzerland and Feb. 17 against Sweden, at the University of British Columbia.

All three of the men's preliminary games will be played in the mid-afternoon at local time. Canada plays Switzerland on Feb. 18 and the Americans on Feb. 21.

The men's gold-medal game will be played at 12:15 p.m. local time on the final day of the Olympic Games, Feb. 28. The women's final will be played Feb. 25.

The Canadian men, who won gold at the 2002 Games, were left out of the medals at the 2006 Olympics in Italy.

The International Ice Hockey Federation expects only minor changes to the overall schedule

2010 Winter Ice Hockey Gold Medal Event

2010 Winter Games: Ice Hockey - Mens Gold Medal Event (IH050) Tickets


Men's ice hockey is generally considered the most exciting and most anticipated Winter Olympic sport out there and is sure to be a must-see event in Vancouver.

Hockey is without a doubt the most popular sport at the Winter Olympics among Americans even though it is considered a distant fourth in terms of most popular sports in the United States.

It is worth noting that the popularity of the NHL has grown in recent years in the United States, recovering from a long-term strike that decimated the league.

Speaking of the United States, they were never really among the favorites to win the gold medal until they decided to start sending professional players to the Olympics.

Since that time, the United States has held their own at the Olympics, although they have come up short in their quest for a gold medal.

For the most part, Canada and several European teams are the favorites to win medals at the Olympics. Finland, Sweden and Russia are just some of the teams that posted a threat to medal.

There isn't much else more exciting than watching Olympic hockey, so make sure you tune in or grab tickets and check out the games live if you are somehow so lucky to make it to Vancouver
If you are looking for tickets click here -
Men's ice hockey is generally considered the most exciting and most anticipated Winter Olympic sport out there and is sure to be a must-see event in Vancouver.

Hockey is without a doubt the most popular sport at the Winter Olympics among Americans even though it is considered a distant fourth in terms of most popular sports in the United States.

It is worth noting that the popularity of the NHL has grown in recent years in the United States, recovering from a long-term strike that decimated the league.

Speaking of the United States, they were never really among the favorites to win the gold medal until they decided to start sending professional players to the Olympics.

Since that time, the United States has held their own at the Olympics, although they have come up short in their quest for a gold medal.

For the most part, Canada and several European teams are the favorites to win medals at the Olympics. Finland, Sweden and Russia are just some of the teams that posted a threat to medal.

There isn't much else more exciting than watching Olympic hockey, so make sure you tune in or grab tickets and check out the games live if you are somehow so lucky to make it to Vancouver


2010 Winter Games: Ice Hockey - Mens Gold Medal Event (IH050) Tickets

FOR TICKETS CLICK HERE <<<<<<<<<<<

2010 Opening Ceremony at BC Place -

On February 12, 2010, the world will turn its attention to Vancouver’s BC Place Stadium for the Opening Ceremonies of the XXI Olympic Winter Games.

For the first time in Olympic history, the Opening Ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Games will be held indoors. The ceremony will welcome the Olympic family and visitors to Canada and give Canadians a chance to present who they are in front of 60 000 live spectators and a worldwide television audience of three billion.

The Government of Canada has announced $20 million (CAD) for the Olympic Opening Ceremony, which is sure to be a truly memorable and historic event for the Games. BC Place Stadium is the ideal location to realize this goal as it is equipped with state-of-the-art sound, lighting, projection, and special effects technologies.

The Olympic Games are mandated by the International Olympic Committee to promote international understanding, to honour the world’s greatest athletes, and to celebrate humanity.

The Opening Ceremony for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games will be a living representation of this nation’s diversity and highlight Canada’s linguistic duality as well as Canadian Aboriginal culture. Drawing on a wealth of symbols, stories, and themes which represent Canada, the Opening Ceremony will feature a rich tapestry of both national and international talent.

In order to maintain the element of surprise traditionally associated with the Opening Ceremonies, the program will not be released prior to the Games. As such, all Olympic spectators will be able to share in their awe and excitement as a global community.

The Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games will be held on March 12, 2010, also at BC Place Stadium and is guaranteed to be a dazzling spectacle of pageantry and colourful performances.

Olympics-Opening ceremonies unthinkable without music

LONDON, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Imagine the Olympics Games void of music - the raising of the Olympic flag without the Olympic hymn, the parade of nations in a hushed stadium and synchronized swimming to the sounds of silence.

Music has helped turn the Olympics opening ceremony into one of sport's great occasions and Beijing organisers have already released pre-Olympic jingles, including the theme song for the 100-day countdown celebration featuring vocals by Hong Kong film hero Jackie Chan.

The musical lineup for the Beijing Games, which start on Friday, remains secret although the Olympics Cultural Festival, from June 23 to Sept. 17, will include a performance by British soprano Sarah Brightman.

The founding father of the modern Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, felt the Games needed to integrate sport and the arts and his zeal led to the creation of competitions in music, sculpture, painting, literature and architecture in 1912.

Winners of the so-called "Pentathlon of the muses" were, like their athletic counterparts, awarded gold, silver and bronze medals.

"He wanted (to include) the arts pretty much from the start and this was all part of his vision," said Olympic historian Phillip Barker.

"It was a nice idea to try and make out that everybody wasn't just a muddied oaf."

The competitions suffered, however, because judges deemed many of the entries substandard and refusing to award medals.

Another sticking point was the amateur rule that forbade professionals from participating in the Games, thereby preventing contributions from the artistic elite.

After 1948, the arts competitions were abandoned, and the host cities focused instead on the cultural festival held in the run-up to and throughout the Games.

Music has been especially prominent at the opening and closing ceremonies.

"In the opening ceremonies you have a lot of prescribed music. The Olympic hymn has to be sung ... and the national anthem of the host country," said the author of "100 Years of Olympic Music", William Guegold.

Increasingly though, host cities have integrated top class music acts into these ceremonies. Some of them have provided one fo the Games' highlights and given worldwide fame to the artists



Winter Games Opening Ceremonies Tickets February 12 2010

2010 Opening Ceremony Tickets

Image via Wikipedia

Well, 2010 olympics is just around the corner , the opening ceremonies are geared up to be completely amazing. You can still Buy Winter Games Opening Ceremonies Tickets for BC Place Stadium in Vancouver BC on February 12 2010

Winter Games Opening Ceremonies Tickets February 12 2010






Winter Games Opening Ceremonies Tickets February 12 2010

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Alberta helping produce 2010 opening Ceremonies

Three Albertans will take lead roles in producing the opening and closing ceremonies at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Well-known Alberta Ballet artistic director Jean Grand-Maitre has been named the choreography director for the ceremonies, while Calgary composer Dave Pierce -- whose work is regularly featured at the Calgary Stampede's grandstand show --will be the show's musical director.

Theatre designer Leslie Frankish, born in Camrose and raised in Edmonton, will be one of two designers of the show.

For the talented Grand-Maitre, tackling the opening and closing Olympic ceremonies made a certain amount of sense. After all, his company, Alberta Ballet, will perform The Fiddle and the Drum, its internationally acclaimed collaboration with musical legend Joni Mitchell, as one of the star attractions of the 2010 Vancouver Cultural Olympiad.

"It is very, very exciting," Grand-Maitre said from Vancouver. "I'm working with a fantastic team and a lot of people involved from all over the world. It's just something I never thought I'd be doing, so it's a lot of fun."

He will spend a week a month commuting to Vancouver, and the rest in Calgary, where he will spend the summer creating a new ballet featuring the music of Elton John.

Frankish's work has graced theatre and opera mainstages across the country. Now based in Niagara-on-the-Lake, she specializes in the elaborate, big-cast, large-scale stage repertoire. Her resume includes some of the Shaw Festival's biggest productions. And she's the designer with whom Citadel Theatre artistic director Bob Baker has worked with more than any other, from early days at Edmonton's Phoenix Theatre.

During the decade Baker has been at the helm of Edmonton's largest playhouse, Frankish has spent a great deal of time at the Citadel, making magic happen in the company's biggest, most intricate shows, including A Christmas Carol, Peter Pan and Beauty and the Beast. She is currently designing the season finale, The Wizard of Oz, opening April 23.

Pierce, who composed music for a national tour of the Broadway musical Movin' Out, has been angling for the Olympics ever since he attended them in Calgary.

"I stood on the sidelines of the (19)88 Games, the closing ceremonies," he says. "As I watched there, I made a promise to myself: the next time Canada hosted the Olympics, I wanted to be the guy that was doing the music. Twenty-two years ago I set that dream in motion and the single criteria of every job I've had between then and now has been, does this get me one step closer to being capable of doing the Olympics?"

"The interesting thing is you're creating a show here that has to be as interesting for television audiences around the world as it is for the 55,000 spectators in the stadium," Grand-Maitre says. "It's very complex--much more than what I usually do, because you're working with complex lighting designs, (and) complicated scenery movements. It's going to be very, very sophisticated."

© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal

2010 Olympics are around the corner !

Is anyone getting as super excited about the 2010 Vancouver Olympics as I am ? I can not beleive that 2010 is just around the corner. I personally live in Vancouver so I have already seen so much preparation even though its more than a year away.However, many of the details are being kept secret so that the world may be delighted and surprised when they see the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.
Tickets, if you can get them, cost between $185 and $2,000.
There are a few details emerging about the Opening Ceremony. It will be called "To Inspire the World", and volunteers are now being recruited, according to an article in the Vancouver Sun. Since they are recruiting 4,500 dancers, athletes and performers, the Ceremonies will be on a grand scale. Purchase your 2010 Vancouver Tickets now! Vancouver will host the 2010 Winter Games from 12 to 28 February 2010
The 2010 Winter Olympics will be the third Olympics hosted by Canada, and the first by the province of British Columbia. Previously, Canada was home to the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. The villages of Whistler and Garibaldi bid for the games in 1976 before and failed to win. Also, for the first time since 1984 the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for a Winter Olympics will be held indoors.
It's Gonna be amazing !