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Bleiler wins, clinches Olympic bid in Mammoth
Final spot for women's olympic snowboard team to be decided in Park City, Utah
By Ryan Slabaugh
January 10, 2010
MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN, Calif. — What did Gretchen Bleiler do after she won the third Grand Prix of the season Saturday at Mammoth Mountain and earned a bid to the 2010 Winter Olympics?
She hugged one friend. Then another. Then Danny Kass, two-time silver medalist, picked her up and carried her through the crowd on his shoulders.
"It feels good to have so many people happy for me," said Aspen's Bleiler, after climbing down. "And I won with a run I've never done before. That always feels good, too."
Bleiler's winning run, her first of two, started with a huge 900 and followed with a pair of 700s and a straight air.
South Lake Tahoe's Elena Hight finished second. Hannah Teter, who was on the 2006 Olympic team, finished third. Kelly Clark, who earned her spot on the Olympic team Wednesday, finished fourth.
For Clark, the podium finish was anti-climactic on some level, having qualified prior to Saturday's final for her third Olympics. But the wise veteran of the sport and two-time medalis said she was proud.
"You know, I think going into the qualifying this year, I had a lot better idea of what I was going into," Clark said.
Teter found the podium with a mix of 540s, a cab 7 and a frontside 7, but said after six straight days of competition, she was satisfied.
"It was hard today," she said. "I'm beat."
The final Olympic qualifier is in two weeks in Park City, Utah, where a number of athletes are close enough to compete for that third and final spot.
Saturday's finals
1.Gretchen Bleiler, 44.10
2. Elena Hight, 43.40
3. Hannah Teter, 42.80
4. Kelly Clark, 41.80
5. E. Hollingsworth, 41.60
6. Holly Crawford, 33.30
7. Clair Bidez, 26.50
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2010 Winter Olympics News Index
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Winter Olympics 2010 Vancouver Details
By Scott G
January 10, 2009
The Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010 will take place from February 12 to February 28, 2010. It will be the 21st Winter Olympics and the 3rd to be hosted by Canada. It would be the first to be hosted by the Province of British Columbia.
The Vancouver Winter Games 2010 will have around 5,500 athletes from more than 80 countries. There would be 86 different evetns across 15 sporting games like alpine skiing, biathlon, bobsleigh, cross-country, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, ice hockey, luge, nordic combined, short track, skeleton, ski-jumping, snowboarding, speed skating.
In the 2006 Games in Torino, Germany topped the table with as many as 11 gold medals, 12 silver and 6 bronze. USA were placed 2nd and Austria 3rd.
The list of Venues is metioned below. The opening and the closing ceremony will be held at the BC Place Stadium.
The other venues are:
Ice hockey (Canada Hockey Place and UBC Thunderbird Arena)
Figure skating (Pacific Coliseum)
Speed skating and short track speed skating (Richmond Olympic Oval and Pacific Coliseum)
Freestyle skiing (Cypress Mountain)
Snowboard (Cypress Mountain) Curling (Vancouver Olympic Centre)
Ice sledge hockey (UBC Thunderbird Arena)
Wheelchair curling (Vancouver Paralympic Centre)
The Mascots for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics are:
Miga: a mythical sea bear, part orca and part kermode bear.
Quatchi: a sasquatch (bigfoot)
Sumi: Sumi the masot for the Paralypic Games is an animal guardian spirit who wears the hat of the orca whale, flies with the wings of the mighty Thunderbird and runs on the strong furry legs of the black bear.
Mukmuk: a Vancouver Island marmot.
Around 1350 paralympic athletes from around 40 countires are expected to take participate.
1.6 million tickets will be available for the spectators, with around 10000 media representatives expected to cover the mega games.
The security budget for the games will be around $900 million for the Winter Olympic Games 2010.
All the events can be watched live on BBC and Eurosport channel.
The full schedule of the Winter Olympics 2010 Vancouver can be found on its official website.
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2010 Winter Olympics News Index
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