Olympic Rings Vancouver by Adrian8_8
Vancouver and Whistler residents benefitted from the 2010 Olympic Winter Games heritage.
Both cities have enjoyed improvements in tourism, economy, employment, infrastructure and other aspects before, during and after hosting the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, according to a long-term impact study by the University of British Columbia.
For Rob VanWynsberghe, the UBC professor who conducted the research, one thing in particular stands out among all the good things brought by hosting the games. “The biggest positive benefitted I would say was the infrastructure … the highway, the Olympic line and the community centres. They are just amazing.”
The Canada Line and Sea-to-Sky highway were and continue to be popular with residents. According to the study, with the Canada Line, “100,000 rides per day is a milestone that was reached sooner than originally projected.”
The research also shows that Vancouver has done a great job administrating the facilities built for the Olympic games, which differs from other host cities such as Beijing, where many construction projects were not properly managed or were abandoned after the events.
“In terms of the infrastructure, I think the key was that the city was able to leverage a lot of money from different levels of governments, which is good politics,” said VanWynsberghe, explaining why Vancouver has been successful.
VanWynsberghe emphasized that for the infrastructure projects, taxpayers only paid $1 for each $12 spent by the different levels of governments.
Canadians in general believe that the Paralympic Games, specifically, “increased awareness of acceptance of people with disabilities.” The Games “encouraged people with disabilities to participate in sports than to have increased their access to sports and recreational activities.”
This first Olympic Games Impact (OGI) study was divided in four different series that captured a 12-year period, from 2001 (two years before host city selection) to 2013 (three years after the games).
The OGI was created by International Olympic Committee to evaluate the impact of the Olympic games in each host city.
