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124-543: The 2010 Winter Olympics , officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games ( French : XXI Jeux olympiques d'hiver ) and also known as Vancouver 2010 ( Squamish : K'emk'emeláy̓ 2010 ), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver , British Columbia , Canada , with some events held in the surrounding suburbs of Richmond , West Vancouver and

248-744: A French official to teachers in the department of Finistère , in western Brittany, included the following: "And remember, Gents: you were given your position in order to kill the Breton language". The prefect of Basses-Pyrénées in the French Basque Country wrote in 1846: "Our schools in the Basque Country are particularly meant to replace the Basque language with French..." Students were taught that their ancestral languages were inferior and they should be ashamed of them; this process

372-431: A comprehensive academic study entitled "The World's 10 most influential languages". In the article, Weber ranked French as, after English, the second-most influential language of the world, ahead of Spanish. His criteria were the numbers of native speakers, the number of secondary speakers (especially high for French among fellow world languages), the number of countries using the language and their respective populations,

496-555: A foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050. French is the fastest growing language on the continent (in terms of either official or foreign languages). French is increasingly being spoken as a native language in Francophone Africa, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and

620-705: A period of prosperity and prominence among European nations. Richelieu established the Académie française to protect the French language. By the early 1800s, Parisian French had become the primary language of the aristocracy in France. Near the beginning of the 19th century, the French government began to pursue policies with the end goal of eradicating the many minorities and regional languages ( patois ) spoken in France. This began in 1794 with Henri Grégoire 's "Report on

744-494: A relic of the old nominal case system of Latin longer than most other Romance languages (with the notable exception of Romanian which still currently maintains a case distinction), differentiating between an oblique case and a nominative case. The phonology was characterized by heavy syllabic stress, which led to the emergence of various complicated diphthongs such as -eau which would later be leveled to monophthongs. The earliest evidence of what became Old French can be seen in

868-683: A result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 16th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. French has a long history as an international language of literature and scientific standards and is a primary or second language of many international organisations including the United Nations , the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ,

992-516: A total contribution to the BC economy of $ 2.3 billion of Gross Domestic Product, and as well creating 45,000 jobs and contributing an additional $ 463 million to the tourism industry while venue construction by VANOC and 3rd parties added $ 1.22 billion to the economy, far short of the $ 10 billion forecast by Premier Gordon Campbell . The study also said that hosting the Olympics was one of many reasons why

1116-407: A tradition followed by other recent Games host cities, were canceled for several reasons. Anti-Games activists repeatedly vandalized the existing 2010 Olympics monuments such as the countdown clock, forcing the city to install CCTV cameras, and adding more Games decorations would have inevitably required more security presence to deter protesters, so VANOC opted to minimize these symbols to avoid making

1240-547: A variant of Canadian French , is spoken in parts of New England . Missouri French was historically spoken in Missouri and Illinois (formerly known as Upper Louisiana ), but is nearly extinct today. French also survived in isolated pockets along the Gulf Coast of what was previously French Lower Louisiana , such as Mon Louis Island , Alabama and DeLisle, Mississippi (the latter only being discovered by linguists in

1364-705: A week-long Anti-Olympic Convergence, protesters smashed windows of the Downtown Vancouver location of The Hudson's Bay department store . Protesters later argued that the Hudson's Bay Company , "has been a symbol of colonial oppression for centuries" as well as a major sponsor of the 2010 Olympics. Some of the issues reflected in the opposition continue the themes identified in opposition to all Olympic games, some of which are outlined in anti-Olympics activist and Professor of Sociology Helen Jefferson Lenskyj's books Olympic Industry Resistance (2007) and Inside

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1488-457: A working language along with English and German ; in some institutions, French is the sole working language (e.g. at the Court of Justice of the European Union ). French is also the 16th most natively spoken language in the world, the sixth most spoken language by total number of speakers , and is among the top five most studied languages worldwide, with about 120 million learners as of 2017. As

1612-437: Is 95%, and in the French collectivity of Wallis and Futuna , it is 84%. In French Polynesia and to a lesser extent Wallis and Futuna, where oral and written knowledge of the French language has become almost universal (95% and 84% respectively), French increasingly tends to displace the native Polynesian languages as the language most spoken at home. In French Polynesia, the percentage of the population who reported that French

1736-415: Is a map of the participating nations and a list of the nations with the number of competitors indicated in brackets. 2,626 athletes from 82 NOCs participated in the 2010 Winter Olympics. The 2010 Winter Olympics featured 86 events over 15 disciplines in 7 sports. Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of medal events contested in each separate discipline. The opening and closing ceremonies and

1860-472: Is a widespread second language among the Lebanese people , and is taught in many schools along with Arabic and English. French is used on Lebanese pound banknotes, on road signs, on Lebanese license plates , and on official buildings (alongside Arabic). Today, French and English are secondary languages of Lebanon , with about 40% of the population being Francophone and 40% Anglophone. The use of English

1984-489: Is also a working language in nonprofit organisations such as the Red Cross (alongside English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Russian), Amnesty International (alongside 32 other languages of which English is the most used, followed by Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Italian), Médecins sans Frontières (used alongside English, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic), and Médecins du Monde (used alongside English). Given

2108-652: Is enacted only in New Brunswick, where about one third of the population is Francophone. French is also an official language of all of the territories ( Northwest Territories , Nunavut , and Yukon ). Out of the three, Yukon has the most French speakers, making up just under 4% of the population. Furthermore, while French is not an official language in Ontario , the French Language Services Act ensures that provincial services are available in

2232-563: Is growing in the business and media environment. Out of about 900,000 students, about 500,000 are enrolled in Francophone schools, public or private, in which the teaching of mathematics and scientific subjects is provided in French. Actual usage of French varies depending on the region and social status. One-third of high school students educated in French go on to pursue higher education in English-speaking institutions. English

2356-521: Is highlighted.    Host country (Canada) To sort this table by nation, total medal count, or any other column, click on the [REDACTED] icon next to the column title. Some in the foreign press, including London 2012 organizers, had criticized the lack of city decorations to acknowledge that Vancouver was the host of the Games. The original plans to decorate the city in Olympic colours,

2480-404: Is known as Old French. The period of Old French spanned between the 8th and 14th centuries. Old French shared many characteristics with Latin. For example, Old French made use of different possible word orders just as Latin did because it had a case system that retained the difference between nominative subjects and oblique non-subjects . The period is marked by a heavy superstrate influence from

2604-469: Is often considered to be a useful skill by business owners in the United Kingdom; a 2014 study found that 50% of British managers considered French to be a valuable asset for their business, thus ranking French as the most sought-after foreign language there, ahead of German (49%) and Spanish (44%). MIT economist Albert Saiz calculated a 2.3% premium for those who have French as a foreign language in

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2728-828: Is one of the official languages of such major international and regional courts, tribunals, and dispute-settlement bodies as the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights , the Caribbean Court of Justice , the Court of Justice for the Economic Community of West African States , the Inter-American Court of Human Rights , the International Court of Justice , the International Criminal Tribunal for

2852-639: Is taught in universities around the world, and is one of the world's most influential languages because of its wide use in the worlds of journalism, jurisprudence , education, and diplomacy. In diplomacy, French is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (and one of the UN Secretariat 's only two working languages ), one of twenty official and three procedural languages of the European Union , an official language of NATO ,

2976-553: Is the language of business and communication, with French being an element of social distinction, chosen for its emotional value. French is an official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu , where 31% of the population was estimated to speak it in 2023. In the French special collectivity of New Caledonia , 97% of the population can speak, read and write French while in French Polynesia this figure

3100-483: Is the native language of about 23% of the Swiss population, and is spoken by 50% of the population. Along with Luxembourgish and German, French is one of the three official languages of Luxembourg , where it is generally the preferred language of business as well as of the different public administrations. It is also the official language of Monaco . At a regional level, French is acknowledged as an official language in

3224-492: Is the second-most spoken language (after English) in the states of Maine and New Hampshire . In Louisiana , it is tied with Spanish for second-most spoken if Louisiana French and all creoles such as Haitian are included. French is the third most spoken language (after English and Spanish) in the states of Connecticut , Rhode Island , and New Hampshire . Louisiana is home to many distinct French dialects, collectively known as Louisiana French . New England French , essentially

3348-424: Is the sole official language in the province of Quebec , where some 80% of the population speak it as a native language and 95% are capable of conducting a conversation in it. Quebec is also home to the city of Montreal , which is the world's fourth-largest French-speaking city, by number of first language speakers. New Brunswick and Manitoba are the only officially bilingual provinces, though full bilingualism

3472-676: Is the transfer of the Olympic flame from Ancient Olympia, Greece — where the first Olympic Games were held thousands of years ago — to the stadium of the city hosting the current Olympic Games. The flame arrives just in time for the Opening Ceremony . For the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, the flame was lit in Olympia on October 22, 2009. It then traveled from Greece , over the North Pole to Canada's High Arctic and on to

3596-570: The 1976 games, which were first awarded to Denver, then to Innsbruck and the 1980 games, which were awarded to Lake Placid. After the bribery scandal over the candidacy of the Salt Lake City bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics (which resulted in Quebec City asking for compensation (C$ 8 million) for its unsuccessful bid), many of the rules of the bidding process were changed in 1999. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) created

3720-764: The Aosta Valley region of Italy where it is the first language of approximately 50% of the population, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands . It is also spoken in Andorra and is the main language after Catalan in El Pas de la Casa . The language is taught as the primary second language in the German state of Saarland , with French being taught from pre-school and over 43% of citizens being able to speak French. The majority of

3844-609: The Democratic Republic of Congo . There is not a single African French , but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages . Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth. It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries, but written forms of

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3968-517: The Democratic Republic of the Congo . In some North African countries, though not having official status, it is also a first language among some upper classes of the population alongside indigenous languages, but only a second one among the general population. In 2015, approximately 40% of the Francophone population (including L2 and partial speakers) lived in Europe, 36% in sub-Saharan Africa and

4092-533: The European Union , French was the dominant language within all institutions until the 1990s. After several enlargements of the EU (1995, 2004), French significantly lost ground in favour of English, which is more widely spoken and taught in most EU countries. French currently remains one of the three working languages, or "procedural languages", of the EU, along with English and German. It is the second-most widely used language within EU institutions after English, but remains

4216-559: The Francien dialect is one that not only continued but also thrived during the Middle French period (14th–17th centuries). Modern French grew out of this Francien dialect. Grammatically, during the period of Middle French, noun declensions were lost and there began to be standardized rules. Robert Estienne published the first Latin-French dictionary, which included information about phonetics, etymology, and grammar. Politically,

4340-684: The Integrated Security Unit , of which the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) was the lead agency; other government agencies such as the Vancouver Police Department , Canada Border Services Agency , Canadian Forces , and police agencies across Canada . The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) also played a role. That number was later revealed to be in the region of C$ 1 billion, an amount in excess of five times what

4464-877: The International Olympic Committee , the Council of Europe , the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development , Organization of American States (alongside Spanish, Portuguese and English), the Eurovision Song Contest , one of eighteen official languages of the European Space Agency , World Trade Organization and the least used of the three official languages in the North American Free Trade Agreement countries. It

4588-626: The Oaths of Strasbourg and the Sequence of Saint Eulalia , while Old French literature began to be produced in the eleventh century, with major early works often focusing on the lives of saints (such as the Vie de Saint Alexis ), or wars and royal courts, notably including the Chanson de Roland , epic cycles focused on King Arthur and his court , as well as a cycle focused on William of Orange . It

4712-751: The University of British Columbia , and in the nearby resort town of Whistler . It was regarded by the Olympic Committee to be among the most successful Olympic games in history, in both attendance and coverage. Approximately 2,600 athletes from 82 nations participated in 86 events in fifteen disciplines. Both the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games were organized by the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC), headed by John Furlong . The 2010 Winter Games were

4836-713: The Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire . French evolved from Gallo-Romance , the Latin spoken in Gaul , and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl —languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French ( Francien ) largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by

4960-720: The Whistler Blackcomb ski resort, the Whistler Olympic Park , the Whistler Celebration Plaza and the Whistler Sliding Centre . The 2010 Winter Games marked the first time that the energy consumption of the Olympic venues was tracked in real time and made available to the public. Energy data was collected from the metering and building automation systems of nine of the Olympic venues and was displayed online through

5084-775: The World Trade Organization , the International Olympic Committee , the General Conference on Weights and Measures , and the International Committee of the Red Cross . French is a Romance language (meaning that it is descended primarily from Vulgar Latin ) that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance dialects spoken in northern France. The language's early forms include Old French and Middle French . Due to Roman rule, Latin

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5208-441: The ice resurfacers supplied by Olympia, an official sponsor of the Games. Thousands of tickets were voided by organizers when weather conditions made standing-room-only areas unsafe. Visitors were also upset that, as in past Olympics, medal ceremonies required separate admission and blocks of VIP tickets reserved for sponsors and dignitaries were unused at events. Other glitches and complaints have included confusion by officials at

5332-468: The ongoing recession , and NBC projected a financial loss upwards of $ 250 million on the Games. Due to the growth of social media , NBC faced particular criticism for its traditional practice of tape delaying network coverage of the Olympics for the west coast—a practice that was made more egregious by the fact that these Games took place at sites within the Pacific Time Zone . In April 2010,

5456-689: The provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick); Belgium ( Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region ); western Switzerland (specifically the cantons forming the Romandy region); parts of Luxembourg; parts of the United States (the states of Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont); Monaco; the Aosta Valley region of Italy; and various communities elsewhere. French is estimated to have about 310 million speakers, of which about 80 million are native speakers. According to

5580-427: The ( Germanic ) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to the French colonial empire , there are numerous French-based creole languages , most notably Haitian Creole . A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is an official language in 27 countries , as well as one of the most geographically widespread languages in

5704-529: The 1.54 million tickets available were sold, with 71% to the Canadian public at an average price of $ 139. Adding in international public ticket sales, the percentage of ticket sales to the public exceeds 75% of all available tickets." Vancouver 2010 also achieved record global television coverage as per the Olympic Committee, more than double the viewership of the preceding Turin 2006 games and triple

5828-502: The 1968 Games were awarded to Grenoble . A development program for the Whistler and Mount Garibaldi region was then launched to host the 1972 Games . It included the development of road infrastructure, electrical network and drinking water, which was still absent in this region. But once again, Banff was chosen to represent Canada as the potential host city for the 1972 Games, which were eventually awarded to Sapporo , Japan . In 1968,

5952-455: The 1990s) but these varieties are severely endangered or presumed extinct. French is one of two official languages in Haiti alongside Haitian Creole . It is the principal language of education, administration, business, and public signage and is spoken by all educated Haitians. It is also used for ceremonial events such as weddings, graduations, and church masses. The vast majority of the population speaks Haitian Creole as their first language;

6076-402: The 2010 Games. A request to appeal that verdict to the Supreme Court of Canada was subsequently denied on December 22 – a decision that marked the end of any hopes that the event would be held during Vancouver 2010. To alleviate the exclusion, VANOC organizers invited women from all over Canada to participate at Whistler Olympic Park, including Continental Cup in January 2009. Women's ski jumping

6200-474: The 20th century, when it was replaced by English as the United States became the dominant global power following the Second World War . Stanley Meisler of the Los Angeles Times said that the fact that the Treaty of Versailles was written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language. During the Grand Siècle (17th century), France, under the rule of powerful leaders such as Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIV , enjoyed

6324-510: The Canadian capital, is also effectively bilingual, as it has a large population of federal government workers, who are required to offer services in both French and English, and is just across the river from the Quebecois city of Gatineau . According to the United States Census Bureau (2011), French is the fourth most spoken language in the United States after English, Spanish, and Chinese, when all forms of French are considered together and all dialects of Chinese are similarly combined. French

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6448-614: The Caribbean that are collectively referred to as the French West Indies , namely Guadeloupe , Saint Barthélemy , Saint Martin , and Martinique . French is the official language of both French Guiana on the South American continent, and of Saint Pierre and Miquelon , an archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland in North America. French was the official language of the colony of French Indochina , comprising modern-day Vietnam , Laos , and Cambodia . It continues to be an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent decades. In colonial Vietnam,

6572-408: The Empire, this local elite had been slowly abandoning Gaulish entirely, but the rural and lower class populations remained Gaulish speakers who could sometimes also speak Latin or Greek. The final language shift from Gaulish to Vulgar Latin among rural and lower class populations occurred later, when both they and the incoming Frankish ruler/military class adopted the Gallo-Roman Vulgar Latin speech of

6696-473: The Evaluation Commission, which was appointed on October 24, 2002. Prior to the bidding for the 2008 Summer Olympics , host cities would often fly members of the IOC to their city where they toured the city and were provided with gifts. The lack of oversight and transparency often led to allegations of money for votes. Afterward, changes brought forth by the IOC bidding rules were tightened, and more focused on technical aspects of candidate cities. The team analyzed

6820-402: The GODA was finally chosen by the Canadian Olympic Committee with the aim of making a joint candidacy with the city of Vancouver for the organization of the 1976 Winter Olympics . However, the chances of Vancouver's candidacy dwindled when Montreal was selected to host the 1976 Summer Olympics , and the Vancouver-Garibaldi candidacy was thus eliminated in the first round of voting. Vancouver

6944-401: The Games, and Quebec City , which had lost the 2002 Olympic bid in 1995. On the first round of voting on November 21, 1998, Vancouver-Whistler had 26 votes, Quebec City had 25 and Calgary had 21. On December 3, 1998, the second and final round of voting occurred between the two leading contenders, which saw Vancouver win with 40 votes compared to Quebec City's 32 votes. Vancouver had also bid for

7068-441: The Garibaldi Olympic Development Association (GODA) was created in order to prepare a bid to host the Winter Games in the region of Mount Garibaldi , near Whistler . In 1961, GODA considered developing a bid for the 1968 Winter Games , but the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) preferred the cities of Calgary and Banff , in Alberta , as the best opportunity for a Canadian bid to succeed. Calgary's candidacy ultimately failed, and

7192-416: The Germanic Frankish language , which non-exhaustively included the use in upper-class speech and higher registers of V2 word order , a large percentage of the vocabulary (now at around 15% of modern French vocabulary ) including the impersonal singular pronoun on (a calque of Germanic man ), and the name of the language itself. Up until its later stages, Old French , alongside Old Occitan , maintained

7316-410: The Indian Ocean, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas, and 1% in Asia and Oceania. French is the second most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union . Of Europeans who speak other languages natively, approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as a second language. French is the second most taught foreign language in the EU. All institutions of the EU use French as

7440-489: The NHL's Vancouver Canucks , which was temporarily renamed Canada Hockey Place for the duration of the Olympics. Utilizing this existing venue instead of building a new international-sized ice rink facility saved C$ 10 million in construction costs and allowed an additional 35,000 spectators to attend Olympic hockey games. However, some European countries expressed concern over this decision, worried that it might give North American players an advantage since they grew up playing on

7564-402: The OIF, approximately 321 million people worldwide are "able to speak the language" as of 2022, without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses. In Francophone Africa, it is spoken mainly as a second language. However it has also become a native language in a number of urban areas, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and

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7688-457: The Olympic Industry (2000), which examined a number of different Olympic Games prior to the 2010 Winter Olympics. These issues of concern, underlying the opposition to any and all Olympic Games, include: French language French ( français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family . Like all other Romance languages, it descended from

7812-464: The Venue Energy Tracker project. The Olympic Games in Vancouver were broadcast worldwide by a number of television broadcasters. As rights for the 2010 Games have been packaged with those for the 2012 Summer Olympics , broadcasters were largely identical for both events. The host broadcaster was Olympic Broadcasting Services Vancouver, a subsidiary of the IOC's new in-house broadcasting unit Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS). The 2010 Olympics marked

7936-410: The Virgin Islands which were at the 2006 Games, did not participate in 2010. Tonga sought to make its Winter Olympic debut by entering a single competitor in luge, attracting some media attention, but he crashed in the final round of qualifying. Luxembourg qualified two athletes but did not participate because one did not reach the criteria set by the NOC and the other was injured before the Games. Below

8060-605: The West Coast and Vancouver. The relay started its long Canada journey from the British Columbia capital of Victoria . In Canada, the torch traveled approximately 45,000 kilometres (28,000 mi) over 106 days, making it the longest relay route within one country in Olympic history. The Olympic Torch was carried by approximately 12,000 Canadians and reached over 1,000 communities. Celebrity torchbearers included Arnold Schwarzenegger , Steve Nash , Matt Lauer , Justin Morneau , Michael Bublé , Bob Costas , Shania Twain , and hockey greats including Sidney Crosby , Wayne Gretzky , and

8184-400: The ad revenue generated from an AP-produced multi-media package of video, photos, statistics, stories and a daily Webcast. AP's coverage included a microsite with web widgets facilitating integration with social networking and bookmarking services . In France, the Games were covered by France Télévisions , which included continuous live coverage on its website. The Olympic Torch Relay

8308-433: The available coverage of Salt Lake City 2002, and is "recognized in numerous post Games reports as being among the most widely viewed and well received Games in Olympic history, both in Canada and internationally." Vancouver 2010's gold medal final between Canada and USA "was the most watched hockey game ever with viewership of 114 million viewers around the world." For the first time, Canada won gold in an official sport as

8432-446: The candidate city features and provided its input back to the IOC. Vancouver won the bid to host the Olympics by a vote of the International Olympic Committee on July 2, 2003, at the 115th IOC Session held in Prague , Czech Republic. The result was announced by IOC President Jacques Rogge . Vancouver faced two other finalists shortlisted that same February: Pyeongchang , South Korea, and Salzburg , Austria. Pyeongchang, which later won

8556-521: The captains of the two Vancouver Canucks teams that went to the Stanley Cup Finals : Trevor Linden ( 1994 ) and Stan Smyl ( 1982 ). 82 National Olympic Committees (NOC) entered teams in the 2010 Winter Olympics. Cayman Islands, Colombia, Ghana, Montenegro, Pakistan, Peru and Serbia made their winter Olympic debuts. Morocco returned to the Winter games after a 18-year absence, and Jamaica and Mexico returned after 8 years. Seven countries, Costa Rica, Kenya, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Thailand, Venezuela and

8680-532: The city a police state. Besides local opposition, budget cutbacks also forced the organizers to scale back on the elaborate plans. VANOC initially benefited from an economic boom and was able to secure lucrative and record domestic sponsorships, but this boom also resulted in rapidly rising construction and labour costs. Due to these factors, as well as the Great Recession , VANOC built minimalistic functional venues with little aesthetic appeal though they were well-designed for post-Games usage. This approach, as well as

8804-749: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French Germany at the 2002 Winter Olympics Women's combined Sprint Pursuit 4 × 10 km relay Sprint Pursuit 4 × 5 km relay Top four teams advanced to semi-finals. Contestants Skip: Sebastian Stock Third: Daniel Herberg Second: Stephan Knoll Lead: Markus Messenzehl Alternate: Patrick Hoffman Top four teams advanced to semi-finals. Tie-breaker Contestants Skip: Natalie Neßler Third: Sabine Belkofer Second: Heike Wieländer Lead: Andrea Stock Alternate: Karin Fischer Top team (shaded) advanced to

8928-519: The demographic prospects of the French-speaking nations of Africa, researcher Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry wrote in 2014 that French "could be the language of the future". However, some African countries such as Algeria intermittently attempted to eradicate the use of French, and as of 2024 it was removed as an official language in Mali and Burkina Faso . Significant as a judicial language, French

9052-441: The duration of the Games since corporate sponsorship is not allowed for an Olympic venue. Renovations included the removal of advertising from the ice surface and conversion of some seating to accommodate the media. The 2010 Winter Olympics marked the first time an Olympic hockey game was played on a rink sized according to NHL rules instead of international specifications. Competition venues in Whistler included Whistler Creekside at

9176-440: The east of the city. This allowed events to proceed as planned. Political decisions involving cancellation of promised low-income housing and the creation of a community of mixed economic backgrounds for post-Games use of the athletes' village was criticized. Opening ceremonies were stalled while organizers dealt with mechanical problems during the cauldron lighting ceremony. Speed skating events were delayed due to breakdowns of

9300-448: The economic power of the countries using the language, the number of major areas in which the language is used, and the linguistic prestige associated with the mastery of the language (Weber highlighted that French in particular enjoys considerable linguistic prestige). In a 2008 reassessment of his article, Weber concluded that his findings were still correct since "the situation among the top ten remains unchanged." Knowledge of French

9424-594: The elites primarily spoke French, while many servants who worked in French households spoke a French pidgin known as " Tây Bồi " (now extinct). After French rule ended, South Vietnam continued to use French in administration, education, and trade. However, since the Fall of Saigon and the opening of a unified Vietnam's economy, French has gradually been effectively displaced as the first foreign language of choice by English in Vietnam. Nevertheless, it continues to be taught as

9548-673: The events categorized as ice sports (excluding bobsleigh, luge and skeleton) were held in Vancouver and Richmond. The sports categorized as "Nordic events" were held in the Callaghan Valley located just to the west of Whistler. All alpine skiing events were held on Whistler Mountain (Creekside) and sliding events (bobsleigh, luge and skeleton) were held on Blackcomb Mountain . Cypress Mountain (located in Cypress Provincial Park in West Vancouver ) hosted

9672-517: The fact that most of the infrastructure already existed, meant that the direct costs of the Vancouver Games were much lower than recent Olympic games. Before the Games began and as they commenced, a number of concerns and controversies surfaced and received media attention. Hours before the opening ceremony, Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed during a training run after being thrown out from his luge, intensifying questions about

9796-613: The first Games where the host broadcasting facilities were provided solely by OBS. The executive director of Olympic Broadcasting Services Vancouver was Nancy Lee , a former producer and executive for CBC Sports . The official broadcast theme was a piece called "City of Ice" composed by Rob May and Simon Hill . In Canada, the Games were the first Olympic Games broadcast by a new Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium led by CTVglobemedia and Rogers Media , displacing previous broadcaster CBC Sports . Main English-language coverage

9920-597: The first Winter Olympic gold medals for their nations. The concept of a bid by Vancouver to host the Winter Olympic Games first appeared at the 1960 Games in Squaw Valley , where the Canadian representative of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Sidney Dawes discusses the possibility of hosting a Games in British Columbia if a venue was found near Vancouver. Shortly afterwards,

10044-516: The first government authority to adopt Modern French as official was the Aosta Valley in 1536, while the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) named French the language of law in the Kingdom of France . During the 17th century, French replaced Latin as the most important language of diplomacy and international relations ( lingua franca ). It retained this role until approximately the middle of

10168-915: The former Yugoslavia , International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda , the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea the International Criminal Court and the World Trade Organization Appellate Body . It is the sole internal working language of the Court of Justice of the European Union , and makes with English the European Court of Human Rights 's two working languages. In 1997, George Weber published, in Language Today ,

10292-520: The freestyle skiing (aerials, moguls and ski cross), and all snowboard events (half-pipe, parallel giant slalom, snowboard cross). Vancouver 2010 was also the first winter Olympics in which both men's and women's hockey were played on a narrower, NHL -sized ice rink, measuring 200 ft × 85 ft (61 m × 26 m), instead of the international size of 200 ft × 98.5 ft (61.0 m × 30.0 m). The games were played at General Motors Place (now Rogers Arena), home of

10416-829: The gender of the corresponding word in Gaulish. The estimated number of French words that can be attributed to Gaulish is placed at 154 by the Petit Robert , which is often viewed as representing standardized French, while if non-standard dialects are included, the number increases to 240. Known Gaulish loans are skewed toward certain semantic fields, such as plant life ( chêne , bille , etc.), animals ( mouton , cheval , etc.), nature ( boue , etc.), domestic activities (ex. berceau ), farming and rural units of measure ( arpent , lieue , borne , boisseau ), weapons, and products traded regionally rather than further afield. This semantic distribution has been attributed to peasants being

10540-651: The gold medal count. Canada broke the record for the most gold medals won at a single Winter Olympics (14), which had been set by the Soviet Union in 1976 and Norway in 2002 (13). The United States won the most medals in total, marking their second time doing so at the Winter Olympics, and broke the record for the most medals won during the Winter Games (37), a record held until then by Germany in 2002 (36). Athletes from Slovakia and Belarus won

10664-470: The host nation of the Olympics, having failed to do so in 1976 and 1988 (although Canada won the 1988 woman's curling event in Calgary when it was still only a demonstration sport ). Canada clinched their first gold medal on the second day of the competition, first topping the gold medal tally on the second-to-last day of competition, and went on to become the first host nation since Norway in 1952 to lead

10788-454: The language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is the second most commonly spoken language in Canada and one of two federal official languages alongside English. As of the 2021 Canadian census , it was the native language of 7.7 million people (21% of the population) and the second language of 2.9 million (8% of the population). French

10912-479: The language, although it has now given way to Tamil and English. A former French mandate , Lebanon designates Arabic as the sole official language, while a special law regulates cases when French can be publicly used. Article 11 of Lebanon's Constitution states that "Arabic is the official national language. A law determines the cases in which the French language is to be used". The French language in Lebanon

11036-612: The language. The Act applies to areas of the province where there are significant Francophone communities, namely Eastern Ontario and Northern Ontario . Elsewhere, sizable French-speaking minorities are found in southern Manitoba, Nova Scotia , Prince Edward Island and the Port au Port Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the unique Newfoundland French dialect was historically spoken. Smaller pockets of French speakers exist in all other provinces. The Ontarian city of Ottawa ,

11160-479: The last to hold onto Gaulish. The beginning of French in Gaul was greatly influenced by Germanic invasions into the country. These invasions had the greatest impact on the northern part of the country and on the language there. A language divide began to grow across the country. The population in the north spoke langue d'oïl while the population in the south spoke langue d'oc . Langue d'oïl grew into what

11284-420: The necessity and means to annihilate the patois and to universalize the use of the French language". When public education was made compulsory , only French was taught and the use of any other ( patois ) language was punished. The goals of the public school system were made especially clear to the French-speaking teachers sent to teach students in regions such as Occitania and Brittany . Instructions given by

11408-467: The network reported a financial loss of $ 233 million on the Games. The Associated Press (AP) announced that it would send 120 reporters, photographers, editors and videographers to cover the Games on behalf of the country's news media . The cost of their Olympics coverage prompted AP to make a "real departure for the wire service 's online coverage". Rather than simply providing content, it partnered with more than 900 newspapers and broadcasters who split

11532-469: The official program. The Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) subsequently approved the event to officially be part of the Games program. Events proposed for inclusion but ultimately rejected included: The issue over women's ski jumping being excluded ended up in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver during April 21–24, 2009, with a verdict on July 10 excluding women's ski jumping from

11656-534: The other main foreign language in the Vietnamese educational system and is regarded as a cultural language. All three countries are full members of La Francophonie (OIF). French was the official language of French India , consisting of the geographically separate enclaves referred to as Puducherry . It continued to be an official language of the territory even after its cession to India in 1956 until 1965. A small number of older locals still retain knowledge of

11780-471: The preferred language of certain institutions or administrations such as the Court of Justice of the European Union , where it is the sole internal working language, or the Directorate-General for Agriculture . Since 2016, Brexit has rekindled discussions on whether or not French should again hold greater role within the institutions of the European Union. A leading world language , French

11904-411: The provincial debt grew by $ 24 billion during the decade. Non direct olympics games cost (e.g. expanded rail network, highways, security, paid time off for government employees "volunteering" etc.) cost in excess of 7 billion. In 2011, the provincial auditor-general declined to conduct a post-Games audit. C$ 200 million was expected to be spent for security, which was organized through a special body,

12028-471: The rest largely speak French as a first language. As a French Creole language , Haitian Creole draws the large majority of its vocabulary from French, with influences from West African languages, as well as several European languages. It is closely related to Louisiana Creole and the creole from the Lesser Antilles . French is the sole official language of all the overseas territories of France in

12152-627: The rights of hosting both 2018 Winter Olympics and 2024 Winter Youth Olympics (as a part of the Gangwon Province ) had the most votes of the three cities in the first round of voting, in which Salzburg was eliminated. In the run-off, all but two of the members who had voted for Salzburg voted for Vancouver. It was the closest vote by the IOC since Sydney, Australia beat Beijing for the 2000 Summer Olympics by two votes. Vancouver's victory came almost two years after Toronto's 2008 Summer Olympic bid

12276-402: The safety of the course and prompting organizers to implement quick modifications. Immediately after the accident, officials attributed it to an athlete error rather than a track deficiency. The International Luge Federation called an emergency meeting after the accident, and all other training runs were cancelled for the day. The President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili , thanked the hosts for

12400-661: The smaller NHL-sized rinks. By contrast, the only other NHL venue to host Olympic hockey, the Calgary Flames ' Olympic Saddledome , started construction before Calgary won the bid for the 1988 Winter Olympics and it was designed to accommodate an international ice rink. There were a number of events that were proposed to be included in the 2010 Winter Olympics. On November 28, 2006, the IOC Executive Board at their meeting in Kuwait voted to include ski cross in

12524-553: The start of the February 16 men's and women's biathlon pursuit races, and restricted access to the Olympic flame cauldron on the Vancouver waterfront. Opposition to the Olympic Games was expressed by activists and politicians, including Lower Mainland mayors Derek Corrigan and Richard Walton . Many of the public pre-Olympic events held in Vancouver were attended by protesters . On Saturday, February 13, as part of

12648-634: The third Olympics to be hosted by Canada, and the first to be held within the province of British Columbia. Canada had hosted the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal , Quebec, and the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary , Alberta. Following Olympic tradition, incumbent Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan received the Olympic flag during the closing ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin , Italy. The flag

12772-466: The total number of French speakers will reach approximately 500 million in 2025 and 650 million by 2050, largely due to rapid population growth in sub-Saharan Africa . OIF estimates 700 million French speakers by 2050, 80% of whom will be in Africa. In a study published in March 2014 by Forbes , the investment bank Natixis said that French could become the world's most spoken language by 2050. In

12896-679: The two official languages—along with Dutch —of the Brussels-Capital Region , where it is spoken by the majority of the population (approx. 80%), often as their primary language. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, along with German, Italian, and Romansh , and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland, called Romandy , of which Geneva is the largest city. The language divisions in Switzerland do not coincide with political subdivisions, and some cantons have bilingual status: for example, cities such as Biel/Bienne and cantons such as Valais , Fribourg and Bern . French

13020-508: The urban intellectual elite. The Gaulish language likely survived into the sixth century in France despite considerable Romanization . Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French contributing loanwords and calques (including oui , the word for "yes"), sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence, and influences in conjugation and word order. Recent computational studies suggest that early gender shifts may have been motivated by

13144-485: The use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In Belgium, French is an official language at the federal level along with Dutch and German. At the regional level, French is the sole official language of Wallonia (excluding a part of the East Cantons , which are German-speaking ) and one of

13268-442: The way that they handled Kumaritashvili's death which included a moment of silence, bringing his remains back to Georgia and a tribute to him at the opening ceremony. One critic questioned the choice of Cypress Mountain as a venue because of its potential lack of snow due to the 2009-10 El Niño . Because of this possibility, organizers had a contingency plan to truck in snow from Manning Park , about 250 kilometres (160 mi) to

13392-536: The workplace. In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese . In English-speaking Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, French is the first foreign language taught and in number of pupils is far ahead of other languages. In the United States, French is the second-most commonly taught foreign language in schools and universities, although well behind Spanish. In some areas of

13516-402: The world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to a 2023 estimate from the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie , an estimated 167 million African people spread across 35 countries and territories can speak French as either a first or a second language . This number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as

13640-503: The world, with about 50 countries and territories having it as a de jure or de facto official, administrative, or cultural language. Most of these countries are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the community of 54 member states which share the official use or teaching of French. It is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France; Canada (especially in

13764-881: Was 7.1 °C (44.8 °F) for the month of February 2010. The opening and closing ceremonies were held at BC Place Stadium , which received over C$ 150 million in major renovations. Competition venues in Greater Vancouver included the Pacific Coliseum , the Vancouver Olympic/Paralympic Centre , the UBC Winter Sports Centre , the Richmond Olympic Oval and Cypress Mountain . GM Place, now known as Rogers Arena , played host to ice hockey events, being renamed Canada Hockey Place for

13888-501: Was again a candidate for the 1980 Games , but withdrew at the last moment. For the 1988 Winter Olympics , Calgary was chosen as the preferred site for the Canadian bid, and would go on to win the election and thus become the first Canadian city to host the Winter Olympics. For the 2010 Games, the Canadian Olympic Association chose Vancouver as the Canadian candidate city over Calgary, which sought to re-host

14012-435: Was completed on time and at least one year prior to the Games. In 2004, the operational cost of the 2010 Winter Olympics was estimated to be Canadian $ 1.354 billion (about £ 828,499,787, € 975,033,598 or US$ 1,314,307,896). As of mid-2009 it was projected to be C$ 1.76 billion, mostly raised from non-government sources, primarily through sponsorships and the auction of national broadcasting rights. C$ 580 million

14136-470: Was defeated by Beijing in a landslide vote. The Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) spent C$ 16.6 million on upgrading facilities at Cypress Mountain , which hosted the freestyle (aerials, moguls, ski cross) and snowboarding events. With the opening in February 2009 of the C$ 40 ;million Vancouver Olympic/Paralympic Centre at Hillcrest Park , which hosted curling, every sports venue for the 2010 Games

14260-819: Was during the period of the Crusades in which French became so dominant in the Mediterranean Sea that became a lingua franca ("Frankish language"), and because of increased contact with the Arabs during the Crusades who referred to them as Franj , numerous Arabic loanwords entered French, such as amiral (admiral), alcool (alcohol), coton (cotton) and sirop (syrop), as well as scientific terms such as algébre (algebra), alchimie (alchemy) and zéro (zero). Within Old French many dialects emerged but

14384-400: Was gradually adopted by the inhabitants of Gaul. As the language was learned by the common people, it developed a distinct local character, with grammatical differences from Latin as spoken elsewhere, some of which is attested in graffiti. This local variety evolved into the Gallo-Romance tongues, which include French and its closest relatives, such as Arpitan . The evolution of Latin in Gaul

14508-565: Was included in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi , Russia . In the following calendar for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, each blue box indicates that an event competition, such as a qualification round, was held on that day. The yellow boxes represent days during which medal-awarding finals for a sport were held with the number in these boxes representing the number of finals that were contested on that day. The top ten listed NOCs by number of gold medals are listed below. The host nation, Canada,

14632-652: Was known in the Occitan-speaking region as Vergonha . Spoken by 19.71% of the European Union's population, French is the third most widely spoken language in the EU, after English and German and the second-most-widely taught language after English. Under the Constitution of France , French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992, although the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts made it mandatory for legal documents in 1539. France mandates

14756-505: Was originally estimated. Some venues, including the Richmond Olympic Oval , were at sea level, a rarity for the Winter Games. The 2010 Games were also the first—Winter or Summer—to have had an Opening Ceremony held indoors. Greater Vancouver was the most populous metropolitan area ever to hold the Winter Games. In February, the month when the Games were held, Vancouver has an average temperature of 4.8 °C (40.6 °F). The average temperature as measured at Vancouver International Airport

14880-589: Was raised in a special ceremony on February 28, 2006, and was on display at Vancouver City Hall until the Vancouver opening ceremony . The event was officially opened by Governor General Michaëlle Jean , accompanied by the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge . Vancouver 2010 was immensely successful, with the official Olympic Committee press release citing "Full venues, record public attendance: Over 97% of

15004-594: Was shaped by its coexistence for over half a millennium beside the native Celtic Gaulish language , which did not go extinct until the late sixth century, long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire . The population remained 90% indigenous in origin; the Romanizing class were the local native elite (not Roman settlers), whose children learned Latin in Roman schools. At the time of the collapse of

15128-585: Was shown on the CTV Television Network , while supplementary programming was mainly shown on TSN and Rogers Sportsnet . Main French-language coverage was shown on V and RDS . NBC Universal networks televised the 2010 Winter Olympics in the United States, under a contract in which it paid US$ 2.2 billion for the rights to the Games and the 2012 Summer Olympics . Advertising sales had slowed in comparison to previous Olympics due to

15252-570: Was the language they use the most at home rose from 67% at the 2007 census to 74% at the 2017 census. In Wallis and Futuna, the percentage of the population who reported that French was the language they use the most at home rose from 10% at the 2008 census to 13% at the 2018 census. According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la Francophonie ,

15376-479: Was the taxpayer-supported budget to construct or renovate venues throughout Vancouver and Whistler . A final audit conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers released in December 2010 revealed total operation cost to have been $ 1.84 billion and came in on budget resulting in neither surplus nor deficit. Construction of venues also came on budget with a total cost of $ 603 million. PricewaterhouseCoopers' study estimated

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