Thursday marks one year to go until the lighting of the flame at the 21st Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada. From 12 – 28 February 2010, 5,000 athletes and officials from a projected 80 National Olympic Committees will converge on Vancouver, and the mountain resort of Whistler, to compete across 15 winter sport disciplines.

Over the past decade Australia’s winter athletes have built a reputation for podium finishes and with the Aussie accent as common in Vancouver and Whistler as snow, it is a highly anticipated countdown.

“It’s really exciting to have Vancouver operating as the host city,” Australian Chef de Mission Ian Chesterman said.

“Whistler is one of the great ski resorts of the world; Cypress Mountain is a new venue for snowboarders and freestyle skiers, while down in Vancouver, one of the fantastic cities of the world, will be the ice sports and athletes Village.”

The competition venues are all but complete and test events have run smoothly. Two new venues that are especially high-tech and breathtaking, even following suit from Beijing, are the speed skating oval in Richmond and the sliding centre in Whistler. The bobsleigh, luge and skeleton venue is already considered the fastest and scariest in the world.

Australia first competed at the Olympic Winter Games in 1936, when lone competitor Kenneth Kennedy contested the long track speed skating in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. A much larger Australian team will contest a variety of sports in Vancouver.

“Since the early 80s we have sent about 25 athletes to a Winter Games,” Chesterman said.

“In 2010, we will send between 25 and 35 athletes, depending on qualifying some of our team sports like curling and bobsleigh. All up we are going to have a very strong team across a fairly big range of sports.”

Australia won its first winter Olympic medal (bronze) in the short track relay featuring Steven Bradbury at Lillehammer in 1994. Remarkably Australian athletes have won medals at every Winter Games since including gold medals at Salt Lake 2002 and Torino 2006 (medal list below).

“Our performance in the winter sports has really improved over the past few years,” Chesterman said.

“We are targeting a few medals at the Vancouver Games. Torah Bright and Holly Crawford in the half pipe, and Lydia Lassila and Jacqui Cooper in the aerials have really good chances.

“In mogul skiing, we’ve had a set back with (defending Olympic champion) Dale Begg-Smith injuring himself, but hopefully he will be back. And in border cross there are two guys that can win a medal. It is really exciting to go there with several medal chances.”

Five-time World Cup aerial skiing champion, Jacqui Cooper is looking towards competing at her fifth Winter Games – the most by any Australian female Olympian winter or summer - and winning that elusive Olympic medal.

“I have had a bit of bad luck in the past,” Cooper said from Vancouver where she has just completed the World Cup Test Event.

“And I am hoping I get a bit of good luck coming into Vancouver. This combined with my experience and skills gained from the past 22 years, with my passion and love for the sport, I really hope to have a performance that not only myself, but the Australian public and AOC can be proud of. I would be very satisfied with that.”

Leading the Australian team for the fourth time in Vancouver, Chesterman is confident of adding to Australia’s tally of winter medals.

“We have a couple of objectives for Vancouver,” he said. “The one most people focus on is winning medals and we are confident we can produce a couple of those.

“Also very important for us is to provide a really good Olympic experience for every athlete in our team. We want them to leave Vancouver knowing they had a really special moment in their life.”

For extended interviews with Ian Chesterman and Jacqui Cooper, visit olympics.com.au.

Australian Olympic Winter Games Medallists

Torino 2006:
Gold – Dale Begg-Smith (freestyle skiing - moguls)
Bronze – Alisa Camplin (freestyle skiing - aerials)
Salt Lake 2002: Gold – Alisa Camplin (freestyle skiing - aerials)
Gold – Steven Bradbury (short track speed skating - 1000m)
Nagano 1998:
Bronze – Zali Steggall (alpine skiing – slalom)
Lillehammer 1994:
Bronze – Steven Bradbury, Kieran Hansen, Andrew Murtha, Richard Nizielsk (short track speed skating – 5000m relay)

Official Australian Olympic Winter Team Website
The official website of the 2010 Australian Olympic Winter Team will be launched in the second half of 2009 at olympics.com.au.

Throughout 2009 there will be news, multimedia, selection information and AOC updates on Vancouver preparations at olympics.com.au.

During the Games there will be journalists and multi-media teams working exclusively for olympics.com.au

Australians wanting to spectate in Vancouver
The Official Supplier of tickets for the Vancouver Olympic Games in 2010 is CoSport. Visit www.cosport.com.au for more information