Testing wraps up at women’s ice hockey sport event; medal round games mark final competitions of 18 sport events in 2008-2009 to test VANOC operational readiness

VANCOUVER, BC – As the final pucks drop today for the medal round games of the women’s ice hockey sport event at General Motors Place, the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) will complete  its testing of Games-time operations. The sport event has featured the top four ranked countries in women’s ice hockey and is the last of 18 sport events in the 2008-2009 winter season where VANOC has conducted operational testing in preparation for the Games.

During the hockey tournament’s seven days of training and competition, VANOC focused on training Games-time volunteers and testing both field of play and venue operations. Approximately 28,000 spectators attended the tournament overall, including the medal round games.

“We’re thrilled with the performance of our workforce. The teamwork and collaboration with the GM Place workforce has been outstanding, too, and gives us great confidence that we have the right people in the right place for Games-time,” said Denis Hainault, VANOC’s general manager for the venue, which is known at Games time as Canada Hockey Place. “We’ve learned more about the venue, our workforce and the technology that we’ll be putting into place next February and the tournament has been a great momentum builder for 2010.” 

During the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games,  five women’s ice hockey games will be played at Canada Hockey Place, including the medal round matches, with the remaining 15 games played at the University of British Columbia’s Thunderbird Arena, also known as the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre. Twenty-eight men’s ice hockey games will be played at Canada Hockey Place, with two played at UBC. Remaining tickets for men’s and women’s matches will go on sale later this fall at www.vancouver2010.com

“Canada’s a hockey country, so I am very honoured to play here,” said Team Finland’s assistant captain Saara Tuominen, commenting on her team’s experience at the tournament. “It’s really helpful and important mentally to know the facility. It builds confidence for our team to come here and play in the building; to learn the bounce off the boards, the layout of the building, the dressing rooms, and the people. When we come back for the Games we’ll feel more comfortable.”

This is the second sport event held with Hockey Canada in a Games venue this year. In March, a Hockey Canada Cup for ice sledge hockey was held at UBC Thunderbird Arena involving four countries.

“Our impression from this sport event is overwhelmingly positive,” said IIHF Sports Director and technical delegate Dave Fitzpatrick. “The facilities are high quality and all the testing was successful. The team responsible for the ice hockey venues has done an excellent job and we are very confident that this will lead to a perfect implementation of Olympic ice hockey events at both UBC Thunderbird Arena and Canada Hockey Place.”

Workforce

By the end of the tournament, approximately 280 workforce, including 180 volunteers from across Canada, will have participated in more than 1,600 shifts. VANOC also worked with 100 Canucks Sports & Entertainment staff that will also be part of the venue team during the Games.

Field of Play

Adjustments to the dasher board system were made to expand the penalty boxes for players and officials to follow the IIHF Games-time protocol. The installation was successful and met with the approval of the IIHF. VANOC worked closely with GM Place staff to learn more about the building’s air handling and refrigeration systems to ensure optimum ice conditions. 

Venue Operations

General venue operations were tested, including spectator services, workforce and athlete flows and overall spectator accessibility. A temporary wall was constructed on the P1 level of the arena’s underground parking garage, providing valuable information for the future construction of 35 temporary rooms at Games-time. VANOC also successfully tested a newly installed bolting system that allows for a quick change-out of 2,000 spectator seats, which will be critical to the smooth execution of adapting the venue to its Games-time configuration in January 2010.

Press Operations

Approximately 75 accredited media were hosted at the Venue Media Centre. Photo positions, media access control processes, athlete mixed zone operations, the Virtual LAN or VLAN system, hockey net cameras for media, and WiFi capabilities for photography were tested positive results.  The Olympic News Service, which collects and distributes sport event news to the media, trained 20 Games-time volunteers. 

Timing, scoring and results

Timing, scoring, results and television graphics were tested simultaneously between UBC Thunderbird Arena and GM Place. Working with worldwide Olympic partner Omega, VANOC was able to successfully integrate its technology platform with GM Place’s existing state-of-the-art video scoreboard. The women’s ice hockey sport event also enabled VANOC, Atos Origin and Omega to successfully integrate technology, processes and workforce in a real-time environment, test all Games-time applications and train 75 volunteers from across Canada and the United States.

Anti-Doping

Eleven volunteers, including six chaperones and five doping control officers, worked with VANOC to learn about the flow of competition and conduct in-competition urine tests. All four women’s hockey teams had access to an anti-doping athlete outreach booth at their hotel to learn more about the World Anti-Doping Agency and the Vancouver 2010 Anti-Doping Program.

Consistent with previous sport events, VANOC also tested its sport production and medical services functions, with the medical team further refining its medical protocol for on ice incident and spectator care during Games-time.

Summary of Sport event testing and next steps in venue preparations

Since February 2008, VANOC has conducted operational testing at 18 sport events staged with an overall budget of $16.1 million. Each event has resulted in key learnings and refinements to VANOC’s plans for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games and valuable feedback from international sport federations. Equally important, the events have given media, officials and athletes a chance to experience their Games-time environment.

For spectators, the 18 sport events have offered a chance to enjoy the sport disciplines that will be showcased at the Games and become familiar with the world's best winter sport athletes likely to compete in 2010. For many, it has been a chance to experience for the first time the newly built or renovated sport venues that will host the athletes and remain long after the Games as legacy facilities for both high performance and recreational use.

Over the course of the 18 events, the Games host region has welcomed over 2,500 athletes from more than 30 countries, with an average of 120 accredited media covering each event (domestic and international) and a total estimated on-site spectator attendance of approximately 98,000.

The next stage in preparing the venues for the Games is the complex task of making them competition ready by installing temporary items such as additional seating, lighting, banners, cables, timing and scoring equipment, signage, and scaffolding for camera positions. This process has already started at some venues and will be ongoing at all venues until Games time. Public access during this critical final phase will be extremely limited.

About VANOC
VANOC is responsible for the planning, organizing, financing and staging of the XXI Olympic Winter Games and the X Paralympic Winter Games in 2010. The 2010 Olympic Winter Games will be staged in Vancouver and Whistler from February 12 to 28, 2010. Vancouver and Whistler will host the Paralympic Winter Games from March 12 to 21, 2010. Visit www.vancouver2010.com.

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