VANCOUVER - International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge on Thursday praised the progress that organizers here are making in preparation for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
"The work that is being done here by the VANOC team and its partners is of a very high standard, and I would like to thank everyone involved in Games preparations for their professionalism and dedication," said Rogge, who was making his second visit to Vancouver since the city was awarded the Games five years ago.
In addition to hosting Rogge, the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) this week met with the IOC's coordination commission, discussing progress in such projects as improving the dangerous Sea-to-Sky highway which connects Vancouver to Whistler, the mountain resort that will host both alpine and nordic skiing as well as bobsled and luge.
"The commission feels very good about where we are with the road," said Rene Fasel, chairman of the IOC coordination commission. "It's a very challenging engineering job and it's working very well."
Fasel said that in addition to physical improvements to the road, local organizers and their IOC advisers were studying the event schedule to optimize the transportation system.
"There's a high degree of optimism we will have a very good road, and we will have what we need to move people and have a great Games," Fasel said.
Rogge added that he thought some negative comments regarding Whistler's accessibility, which surfaced in the European media in the wake of men's and women's alpine World Cup races at Whistler last week, were unjustified.
"It's not finished," he said of the road. "We have to point that out."
VANOC chief executive John Furlong noted that once the Beijing Summer Games in August are over, Vancouver will come under increased scrutiny as the host of the next Olympics.
He said organizers were "moving rapidly toward being ready for all that."
The Vancouver Olympics will take place from February 12-28, 2010.
bb/gph
02/28/2008 23:01 GMT