One would expect it to take years to land an Olympic Games, but half a century?
As early as the 1960s, there was talk of Vancouver offering itself as a Winter Olympics venue, paired with the ski slopes of Whistler -- then called Garibaldi.
By 1970, the idea had gained steam, and Canada formally offered Vancouver as its candidate to host the 1976 Winter Olympics. But the International Olympic Committee chose Denver, setting the stage for one of the biggest embarrassments in Olympic-bid history.
Two years after winning the Games, Denver had to say "never mind." Seems someone had forgotten to sell the idea to Colorado voters, who, concerned about costs and environmental damage, pulled the plug. Innsbruck, Austria, which had held the 1964 Winter Games, was hastily selected as a replacement.
Vancouver's international profile was boosted considerably in 1986, when its Expo 86 World's Fair drew 22 million people over 51âÑ2 months.
Efforts to land the current Winter Olympics can be traced back 12 years to a group spearheaded by former Vancouver Canucks owner Arthur Griffiths. Outlining the proposal to Vancouver Sun reporters in late 1997, Griffiths said, "I like being told that things of this nature and magnitude can't happen. That's what fuels my fire."
The strength of the bid is obvious: Vancouver, largest city to ever host a Winter Olympics, has the infrastructure and amenities. Whistler has internationally respected ski runs.
Even so, synchronizing the double-sited Olympics posed challenges, including the need to create two Olympic villages and expand the 70-mile Sea to Sky Highway.
The exact price of the Games is in the billions, and depends on what is counted as an Olympics expense.
The Vancouver Organizing Committee has an operating budget of $1.8 billion Canadian (about $1.75 billion U.S.) and will spend $580 million on venues. Concerned about possible terrorism, Canada will spend about $900 million on security -- five times early estimates.
Beyond that, several permanent projects costing hundreds of millions of dollars apiece, such as the Canada Line rail extension to Richmond, were built with the Games in mind. Vancouver Deputy Mayor Andrea Reimer said the Olympic stage gives her city "a megaphone of gigantic proportions" to tout -- and further -- its opportunities for economic growth and its efforts to become the "greenest" major city in the world.
Permanent improvements, Reimer said, include 1,000 condominium units in Vancouver's Olympic Village, with about 250 of those designated as "affordable" rental housing.
Enthusiasm for the British Columbia Olympics hasn't been universal, with opponents citing deep cuts in social-service funding while the provincial and national governments pour money into the Games.
But in early 2003, in an election held just in the city of Vancouver, 64 percent of the voters supported the Olympic bid.
Games backers had been wary about the uncertainty of a public vote, but unlike Denver, at least they cleared that hurdle before landing the event.
Five months after that vote, the IOC chose Vancouver over Salzburg, Austria, and Pyeongchang, South Korea, to host the Winter Olympics. The news, beamed to giant screens at Vancouver's GM Place, triggered fireworks, cheers and a burst of local pride so intense even the security guards got misty-eyed.
And then the real work began.
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