An ice skating rink is to be built on top of Whistler Mountain for the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival, giving Canada’s Olympians and the public a chance to showcase their talents high above the clouds.
The peak-positioned RBC Rink will be one of the main event hubs during the 10-day party, kicking off April 11 at 12:30 p.m. with an Olympic extravaganza from Canada’s women’s gold medal hockey team and other Canadian winter sport legends.
After that, the RBC Rink will open up for the public with free skate rental courtesy of the Resort Municipality of Whistler. There’ll be a stack of Olympic sport demonstrations on ice all week, including hockey activities and other sport events, weather dependent as always.
Students from Whistler’s Myrtle Philip elementary school are the big winners on the temporary rink – two classes will snare the opportunity of a lifetime skating with Olympians in the kick-off opening event.
The lucky kids, chosen through an art contest, will go head to head with the Olympians in a skills competition and then take the gondola down to the RBC Olympic FanFair in the village for an "après-skate" party.
The RBC Olympic FanFair, a public celebration of Canada’s Olympic spirit and Vancouver’s 2010 bid, will be the headline feature in the Village Square during the festival. Sports lovers can try all those games they’ve always wondered about, including biathlon, hockey, curling, speed skating and sledge hockey. Olympic athletes will be on-hand to demonstrate how it’s done and assist the eager in trying it out safely.
World-class curler and Salt Lake City bronze medallist Georgina Wheatcroft was thrilled to have the opportunity to showcase the benefits of sport during the festival.
"I know first hand how the Olympic spirit can inspire and captivate a community and I look forward to sharing my Olympic experience with everyone at WSSF," she said.
