events

Olympic Winter Games

History

The earliest recorded Olympic Games were held at Olympia in ancient Greece in 776 B.C. This tradition took place every four years for 1,000 years.

The modern Olympic Movement started in 1894 when French educator, Pierre de Coubertin, brought together a group of sports and philosophy leaders from around the world for the International Athletic Congress. The group, which later became the International Olympic Committee (IOC), unanimously decided to revive the ancient Games. In 1896, the first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece, their country of origin.

The first winter sport included in the Olympic Games was figure skating in 1908. The first Olympic Winter Games were staged in Chamonix, France, in 1924, where 294 athletes from 16 nations took part in 14 events.

The Summer and Winter Games originally took place in the same year, but since 1992 the Winter Games have been held two years from the Summer Games. The Summer Games and the Winter Games continue to be organized once every four years.

At the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy, 2,508 athletes (960 women, 1,548 men) from more than 80 nations competed in 84 different events. Nearly 10,000 members of the media attended the event (journalists, agencies, photographers, radio and television).

2010 Olympic Winter Games

PLACE: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
DATES: Feb. 12-28, 2010

VENUES

Competition Venue: Pacific Coliseum
Secondary Arena: Trout Lake Arena

Schedule

Below is the figure skating schedule for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games:

Date	Event	Time
Sunday, Feb. 14	Pairs Short Program	4:30-7:45 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 15	Pairs Free Skate	5:00-9:00 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 16	Men's Short Program	4:15-8:45 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 18	Men's Free Skate	4:45-8:45 p.m.
Friday, Feb. 19	Compulsory Dance	5:15-8:15 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 21	Original Dance	4:15-7:45 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 22	Free Dance	4:45-9:00 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 23	Ladies Short Program	4:30-9:00 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 25	Ladies Free Skate	5:00-9:00 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 27	Exhibition Gala	4:30-7:00 p.m.

For more information on the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, please visit the U.S. Figure Skating event site.

U.S. TEAM - ATHLETE SELECTION PROCESS

The athlete selection procedure for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games is as follows:

The International Committee Management Subcommittee (ICMS) will meet on Monday, Jan. 18 (for pairs and men) and Sunday, Jan. 24 (for ice dancing and ladies) to determine its respective nominees to the 2010 U.S. Olympic Team and replacement athletes in ranked order.

The ICMS selection and recommendation for each discipline will then be forwarded to the U.S. Figure Skating International Committee for final approval. All athletes are considered nominees to the 2010 U.S. Olympic Team until final approval is given by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC).

To field the most competitive team, U.S. Figure Skating's ICMS will consider results from the events outlined below to determine athletes who will have the most performance impact at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. The squad members in each discipline will be selected taking into consideration the results of events in the following order of importance:

Athletes meeting the above criteria who qualified to compete but did not compete or complete competition in any of the six events listed above due to injury or illness (verified by U.S. Figure Skating medical personnel) may also be considered for selection by petitioning the ICMS for nomination to the 2010 U.S. Olympic Team.