Canada Vancouver
XXI Winter International Olympic Games

The Opening Ceremony was revised by holding a moment of silence to honor the memory of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili who suffered a fatal crash during a training run. Governor General Michaëlle Jean mentioned the deceased athlete in her official address. Kathryn Dawn Lang sang Hallelujah of Leonard Cohen to honor his memory. The Opening Ceremony was attended by the following stars – Neil Young, Nelly Furtado, Bryan Adams, Donald Sutherland, Jacques Villeneuve, “Bobby” Orr and Garou.
A surprizing feature of the ceremony was the absence of any visible Olympic Flame structure in the Stadium. The Flame appeared out of the center of the arena. It looked like a stilized cauldron consisting of four arms. The cauldron was to be lit by several athletes simultaneously – hockey player Wayne Gretzky, skier Nancy Greene, speed skater Catriona Le May Doan and basketball All-Star Steve Nash. However due to a malfunction of the Olympic cauldron’s hydraulic system, only three of the four arms came up before it was lit. Le May Doan’s designated arm of the cauldron had malfunctioned, so she stood by as the other three athletes lit the cauldron at the same time by touching the base of the arms with their respective torches. Finally the malfunction was rectified at the ceremony (in rather funny way) and the cauldron was lit again. Since under the IOC rules, the lighting of the Olympic cauldron must be witnessed by those who stayed outdoors, soon Wayne Gretzky lit a second, outdoor cauldron near the Vancouver Convention Centre that was a replica of the first cauldron (but for one of four arms that failed to come up out of the arena).
The Olympic Programme included 15 disciplines of seven sports. Totally 86 sets of medals had been played for. As compared to the previous Games, two sets of medals were added to the list – for men’s and women’s ski cross that is a part of freestyle skiing.