The event was officially opened by Governor General Michaëlle Jean,[3] accompanied by the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge.

"[1] Vancouver 2010's gold medal final between Canada and USA "was the most watched hockey game ever with viewership of 114 million viewers around the world.

[6] Canada broke the record for the most gold medals won at a single Winter Olympics (14), which had been set by the Soviet Union in 1976 and Norway in 2002 (13).

The Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) spent C$16.6 million on upgrading facilities at Cypress Mountain, which hosted the freestyle (aerials, moguls, ski cross) and snowboarding events.

A final audit conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers released in December 2010 revealed total operation cost to have been $1.84 billion and came in on budget resulting in neither surplus nor deficit.

Non direct olympics games cost (e.g. expanded rail network, highways, security, paid time off for government employees "volunteering" etc.)

Advertising sales had slowed in comparison to previous Olympics due to the ongoing recession, and NBC projected a financial loss upwards of $250 million on the Games.

[37] The Associated Press (AP) announced that it would send 120 reporters, photographers, editors and videographers to cover the Games on behalf of the country's news media.

Rather than simply providing content, it partnered with more than 900 newspapers and broadcasters who split the ad revenue generated from an AP-produced multi-media package of video, photos, statistics, stories and a daily Webcast.

[citation needed] It then traveled from Greece, over the North Pole to Canada's High Arctic and on to the West Coast and Vancouver.

In Canada, the torch traveled approximately 45,000 kilometres (28,000 mi) over 106 days, making it the longest relay route within one country in Olympic history.

[41][42] Celebrity torchbearers included Arnold Schwarzenegger,[43] Steve Nash,[44] Matt Lauer,[45] Justin Morneau,[46] Michael Bublé,[47] Bob Costas,[48] Shania Twain,[49] and hockey greats including Sidney Crosby,[50] Wayne Gretzky,[51] and the captains of the two Vancouver Canucks teams that went to the Stanley Cup Finals: Trevor Linden (1994)[52] and Stan Smyl (1982).

Tonga sought to make its Winter Olympic debut by entering a single competitor in luge, attracting some media attention, but he crashed in the final round of qualifying.

The opening and closing ceremonies and the events categorized as ice sports (excluding bobsleigh, luge and skeleton) were held in Vancouver and Richmond.

Utilizing this existing venue instead of building a new international-sized ice rink facility saved C$10 million in construction costs and allowed an additional 35,000 spectators to attend Olympic hockey games.

[60] However, some European countries expressed concern over this decision, worried that it might give North American players an advantage since they grew up playing on the smaller NHL-sized rinks.

[66] A request to appeal that verdict to the Supreme Court of Canada was subsequently denied on December 22 – a decision that marked the end of any hopes that the event would be held during Vancouver 2010.

[67] To alleviate the exclusion, VANOC organizers invited women from all over Canada to participate at Whistler Olympic Park, including Continental Cup in January 2009.

Some in the foreign press, including London 2012 organizers, had criticized the lack of city decorations to acknowledge that Vancouver was the host of the Games.

Anti-Games activists repeatedly vandalized the existing 2010 Olympics monuments such as the countdown clock, forcing the city to install CCTV cameras, and adding more Games decorations would have inevitably required more security presence to deter protesters, so VANOC opted to minimize these symbols to avoid making the city a police state.

Due to these factors, as well as the Great Recession, VANOC built minimalistic functional venues with little aesthetic appeal though they were well-designed for post-Games usage.

Hours before the opening ceremony, Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed during a training run after being thrown out from his luge, intensifying questions about the safety of the course and prompting[70] organizers to implement quick modifications.

[75] Political decisions involving cancellation of promised low-income housing and the creation of a community of mixed economic backgrounds for post-Games use of the athletes' village was criticized.

[77] Speed skating events were delayed due to breakdowns of the ice resurfacers supplied by Olympia, an official sponsor of the Games.

[79] Visitors were also upset that, as in past Olympics, medal ceremonies required separate admission[79] and blocks of VIP tickets reserved for sponsors and dignitaries were unused at events.

[80] Other glitches and complaints have included confusion by officials at the start of the February 16 men's and women's biathlon pursuit races, and restricted access to the Olympic flame cauldron on the Vancouver waterfront.

[81][82] Opposition to the Olympic Games was expressed by activists and politicians, including Lower Mainland mayors Derek Corrigan[83] and Richard Walton.

[85] On Saturday, February 13, as part of a week-long Anti-Olympic Convergence, protesters smashed windows of the Downtown Vancouver location of The Hudson's Bay department store.

If found guilty of doping by the International Olympic Committee, Marek and the relay teams would be disqualified and stripped of their Vancouver results.

Also, as a result of hosting the 2010 Olympics, the British Columbia government pledged to restore funding for sports programs and athlete development to 2008 levels, which amounts to $30 million over three years.