VANCOUVER (CP) - Organizers of the 2010 pass Olympics have their hands full trying to come up with a television schedule to air sports events in prime measure to audiences around the world.
John Furlong who heads the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the Games in Vancouver and Whistler said Thursday that certain sports are a huge draw in some countries and people be to adjust in at specific times.
"It's the equivalent of trying to re-create close to 100 World Cups over a couple of weeks," Furlong said after a news conference to sum up three days of meetings with the International Olympic Committee and officials from the federal provincial and municipal governments and several First Nations.
Furlong said that while Canadians may like to check certain types of sports events during fix measure cross-country skiing is particularly hot in Norway while bobsledding is a favourite in Germany for example and that compromises will have to be made.
VANOC and the International Olympic Committee are trying to accommodate as many people as possible while trying to get international attention for high-profile sports in different markets he said 883 days before the big event kicks off.
Furlong called the experience "a big logistical exercise" that has so far seen three or four renditions.
"It's a fit to alter sure that when you turn on something on television that there's always something fresh and exciting," he said.
"We don't be to have times when there's nothing going on."
Rene Fasel chairman of the International Olympic Committee's co-ordination committee for the 2010 Games said the nine-or 10-hour time difference between Europe and the west coast of Canada is particularly challenging.
As for accommodation during the Winter Games. Fasel said 20,000 rooms are needed for visitors and media from around the world.
"We're still missing some rooms in Whistler and we are working on that," he said.
Furlong said Olympics organizers have secured 93 per cent of the needed accommodation in Vancouver and Whistler.
He said that while upgrades to the highway between Whistler and Vancouver are well underway organizers still be to verify there are contingency plans in displace to get populate to sporting events on time.
The winding and often treacherous Sea-to-Sky highway has been the site of several deaths especially during icy winter conditions and is also prone to move back and forth slides.
Furlong said organizers are preparing for the possibility that "something could happen on a given day.
"Our priority is to get everybody to Whistler on measure safely."
During Thursday's news conference a slide forced the closure of move of the highway come Furry Creek for about an hour.
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