Jack Poole handed over Vancouver and Whistler’s blueprint for winning the 2010 Winter Olympic Games to the International Olympic Committee in Switzerland yesterday.
It was the last step in a four-day relay, which saw the bid book carried from the top of Whistler Mountain to Lausanne.
On Monday World Cup champion downhill skier Rob Boyd carried the tome in a 2010 backpack down the Dave Murray downhill course in the first leg of its journey.
"I feels like quite an honour to do this," said Boyd, quipping that the run was a little rougher than it was in 1989 when he won the World Cup on the same track.
Boyd said he hopes to see Canadians win gold on the run if the Games are awarded to B.C.
"That would be something," he said.
Boyd handed over the sealed bid book to John Fraser, who was the chairman of the failed Vancouver-Whistler bid for the 1976 Olympic Games.
"There is no technical reason why we can’t put on the best Games," said Fraser who believes Whistler lost to the U.S. in 1976 because the IOC wanted the Summer Games in Montreal.
Also on hand for the Bid Book ceremony was federal Heritage Minister Sheila Copps, who was in the resort for a bit of skiing.
"This is the beginning of a winning journey," she said.
Fraser was to Helijet to Vancouver with the 460-page, three-volume book, but fog grounded the flight.
However, plan-B, went into action and a second Vancouver-based bid book continued the journey from the Vancouver convention centre to the airport and onto Europe.
While Poole is in Europe he will visit the site of the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy and Lillehammer, Norway where the Games were held eight years ago.
Vancouver’s mayor, Larry Campbell, was scheduled to accompany Poole when he delivered the bid book to the IOC in a show of support for hosting the Games.
Neither the mayor of Salzburg, Austria, or Pyeongchang, Korea, the other two places vying for the Games, will accompany their bid books to Lausanne.
Neither city plans to host a plebiscite on hosting the 2010 Games either.
The majority of the bid book copies will be delivered by courier this week.
Each one is contained in a wooden box made from recycled B.C. Hydro poles embossed with native art representing the journey from Vancouver to Whistler: from the sea to the sky.
The artwork depicts a whale turning into an eagle with mountains in the background.
The book is printed on recycled paper using vegetable-based dyes, including a special colour that has been dubbed "2010 red."
The bid book should be released to the public towards the end of the month.
The IOC will choose the host city for the 2010 Games in July of this year.
