the past 2 weeks have been unprecedented for our city. hosting the 2010 winter olympics may prove to be the best thing that’s happened to the 604 in a long time, right behind the deluge of asian-style cafes and the opening of vancouver’s first apple store. ok, maybe in front of those.

it was like a giant party descended on us during february 12-28. i didn’t get out that much to be a part of it, but even from what i hear from our friends who did, the experiences around town were all so great, and everyone keeps saying what a great ‘spirit’ has been among us.

here’s some numbers from vancouver2010′s website. i’ve highlighted the ones that especially blow my mind…

• 15 sport disciplines; 9 competition venues
• 86 medal competitions; 615 medals awarded
• 1,055 athlete bouquets presented
• 6,500 athletes and team officials in total; 2,632 registered athletes
• 50,000 workforce members for the Games, including paid, contractor and volunteers; of that total, 18,500 were volunteers; 6,500 volunteers will also work during the Paralympic Winter Games
• 25,000 workforce uniforms distributed
• 10,800 media representatives: 7,000 rights holding broadcasters, 2,800 press reporters and photographers and non-rights holding broadcasters, as well as 1,000 host Olympic Broadcast Service (OBSV) personnel
• 3.5 billion worldwide television viewers are estimated to have tuned into the Games
• Olympic rights holding broadcasters have offered Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games coverage on more than 300 TV stations and on more than 100 websites worldwide
• 47 per cent more global television coverage of the Games than for the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games; this represents approximately 24,000 hours of coverage
• 50,000 hours of total broadcast hours of the Games across all media platforms around the world; 6,000 hours of coverage worldwide on mobile platforms
• As of Day 15, 33.1 million Canadians (99 per cent) have watched coverage
• 1,500 appearances by the Vancouver 2010 mascots: Quatchi, Miga and Sumi by the end of the Games
• 20,567 deliveries made to Olympic venues
• 1.6 million tickets available for the 2010 Winter Games
• More than 3.3 million pairs of Vancouver 2010 Red Mittens sold
• $500-million target for gross retail sales of Vancouver 2010 branded merchandise met by end of Games
• More than 4,000 artists at 600 events, over 60 days in 60 venues are taking part in the Cultural Olympiad
• More than 12,500 volunteer hours clocked for Olympic Closing Ceremony. The thousands of volunteer performers range in age from 10 to 68
• More than 450 racks of costumes, 3,600 metres of elastic, 4,100 pairs of shoes, 18 kilograms of glitter, 10,000 green sequins, 200 giant spheres and balloons, as well as 20 zygote balls were used in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies
• vancouver2010.com was visited 85 million times this month from within Canada and reached more than 70 per cent of Canadians with Internet access and over 50 per cent of the total Canadian population
• 19.1 per cent of North Americans with Internet access visited the website this month; 4.6 per cent of people worldwide with Internet access visited the site this month
• 14,000 followers on Twitter.com/2010Tweets
• More than 1.25 million downloads recorded for the official mobile spectator guide, which for 10 days of the Games was the No. 1 free app in Canada
• 1.1 million Facebook fans, nearly four times the total amount for Beijing at the conclusion of the 2008 Games

what will you remember from it all?

my friend maurice is a talented photographer and has given me permission to share some of his great shots from around town. [thx mo!] lucky bum, he was actually in attendance yesterday at the men’s gold medal game!