With not long to go until the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver (BC), Canada, the Olympic Village has just been handed over to the athletes. Here are a few Winter Olympics facts and figures. Just who is Bjørn Dæhlie? Follow the jump for more.

The 3,000 athletes will be accommodated in 1,100 buildings, from flats to condominiums. Unsurprisingly, the final $940 million cost was millions over budget, which is almost a given it seems for Olympic Games. The City of Vancouver (population 2.5 million) had to step in to rescue their Games when the financial crash hit, drying up the funding.

Whistler is the base for the Sled, Nordic and Alpine events, with the remainder being in or around Vancouver itself, 78 miles away. The Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding is taking place at Cypress Mountain, which is near Vancouver. The majority of the Paralympic Games events are Whistler based. Whistler’s ‘Athletes Village’ is set to house just under 2,500 trainers, athletes and officials. Mind you, that’s small fry compared to the 6,000 workers that have to be

Being a coastal city, the eight acre site has water on two sides, and is built around a central  square. However, there are also awe-inspiring mountain views as well, in case the athletes forget why they’re there!

The Winter Olympics grew out of the Nordic Games, which were first held in 1901. It’s chief organiser (General Viktor Gustaf Balck) persuaded the International Olympic Committee to include Figure Skating in the London Summer Olympics (1908). That event saw Ulrich Salchow take Gold – his name is still heard as he invented the Salchow jump (if you must know, it’s taking off from the back inside edge and landing on the back outside edge of the other foot, okay?). Chamonix hosted the first Winter Olympics in 1920, in the same year as France hosted the Summer Olympics. 1936 was the last time that one country (Germany) hosted both Summer and Winter Games.

Curiously, only one person has ever claimed Gold in both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. He was Eddie Eagan, who was the 1920 Olympic Boxing Champion, and also took a Bobsled title.

The last year that the Sumer and Winter Games were held in the same year was  1992, based in the French Savoie region, at Albertville. The Finn, Tony Nieminen, won two Golds and a Bronze in the, Courchevel based, Ski Jumping, making the sixteen year old the youngest Winter Olympic Champion. He was also the first man to jump over 200 meters, in competition.

The Japanese Winter Olympics (1998), held at Nagano, saw the Norwegian Nordic Skiier, Bjørn Dæhlie, win three Gold Medals. His finished his Olympic career as the most decorated Winter Olympian, with a tally of eight gold, and four silver or bronze. Dæhlie’s  Gold haul equals the GBR Olympic team’s total Golds, ever! Can Britain improve on it’s eight Gold, three Silver and ten Bronze?

For more info on Vancouver 2010 > http://www.vancouver2010.com/

image © VANOC/COVAN