The 2010 Winter Olympics begin on Friday in Vancouver, so this is a good opportunity to review some Olympic vocabulary!

The Olympic Games can also be called The Olympics. ‘The Olympics‘ is a noun, while ‘Olympic‘ is an adjective.

In 2010, Vancouver is hosting the Winter Olympics. London is the host city for the 2012 Summer Games. In 2014, Sochi, Russia will host the Winter Games. Just recently Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was elected the host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The 2010 Vancouver Games will be the XXI (or 21st) Olympic Winter Games (it is also acceptable to say Winter Olympic Games), and the 46th Olympics held in the modern era (don’t forget the Olympics were also held in ancient Greece!). It is the 46th Olympiad. The first Olympic Winter Games were held in 1924, in Chamonix, France.

There are 15 different sports divided into 86 different events. There are different sports, but there are multiple opportunities to win in a medal in each sport. For example, Alpine Skiing (also called Downhill Skiing) is a sport, but there are 18 different events within the sport of Alpine skiing in which athletes can win a medal (men’s downhill, women’s downhill, men’s slalom, women’s slalom, etc.).

So far, athletes from over 80 different countries have qualified to participate in the Games, and it is estimated that 5500 athletes will compete for Olympic medals. Athletes compete to win a gold, silver, or bronze medal.

Any athlete who competes at the Olympics, whether or not they win a medal, is known as an Olympian or an Olympic athlete. A competitor who wins a medal is also known as a medalist. For example, Michael Phelps is an Olympic gold medalist. He won 8 gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Overall he has won 16 Olympic medals at two Olympic Games (Athens in 2004, Beijing 2008), including 14 gold medals – the most gold medals won by any Olympian in any sport in history.

Canada has hosted the Olympic Games twice before: the 1976 Summer Olympics were held in Montreal, and the 1988 Winter Olympics were in Calgary. However, no Canadian athlete has ever won a gold medal on Canadian soil. We have high hopes for the upcoming Olympics Games in Vancouver! We should excel at winter sports since we have so much snow and ice here!

You can read more about the Vancouver Olympics and all the different sports here:
http://www.vancouver2010.com/

You can read more about ALL the Olympics here:
http://www.olympic.org/

You can read more about Team Canada here:
http://www.ctvolympics.ca/