Canadian delegation heading to Greece for Olympic Flame handover on
Wednesday, October 28; handover in Athens, Greece on Thursday, October 29

VANCOUVER , Oct. 21 /CNW/ - The Canadian delegation heading to Greece for the official handover of the Olympic Flame will leave early Wednesday, October 28 from Vancouver International Airport. The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) will hold a media availability at the airport prior to departure on the evening of Tuesday, October 27 .

The handover in Greece , which is open to the media, will occur on Thursday, October 29 at Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens . A day later, the Olympic Flame will arrive on Canadian soil via a Department of Defence chartered aircraft for the start of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Relay across Canada .

The 106-day Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Relay - the longest domestic torch relay in Olympic history - is presented by Coca-Cola and RBC, and supported by the Government of Canada . More information on the relay is available at www.vancouver2010.com/torchrelay.

    
    Canadian Delegation Send-off in Vancouver, BC
    ---------------------------------------------

    When:
    Tuesday, October 27, 2009
    9:30 pm media availability (Pacific Time)
    (Flight departs at approximately 12:30 am, October 28, 2009)

    Where:
    The Spirit of Haida Gwaii, The Jade Canoe bronze sculpture
    Entrance of the international terminal departures level
    Vancouver International Airport
    Richmond, BC

    Who:
    John Furlong, VANOC CEO
    Gary Lunn, Minister of State (Sport), Government of Canada
    Mary McNeil, Minister of State (Olympics), Province of British Columbia
    Ken Melamed, mayor of Whistler

    Olympic Flame Handover Ceremony in Athens, Greece
    -------------------------------------------------
    The final torchbearer in the Greek portion of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic
Torch Relay, which runs from October 22 to October 29, will be Nikki
Georgiadis, a Greek Canadian figure skater. The resident of Pickering, ON, is
an Olympic hopeful in ice dance. For the handover, Georgiadis will bring the
Olympic Flame into Panathinaiko Stadium where the Hellenic Olympic Committee
will entrust the flame to Canadian officials.

    When:
    October 29, 2009
    6:00 pm EEST (Eastern European Summer Time)

    Where:
    Panathinaiko Stadium
    Athens, Greece

    Delegates participating:
    Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of
    Canada
    Renata Wielgosz, Canada's ambassador to Greece
    Gary Lunn, Minister of State (Sport), Government of Canada
    Colin Hansen, deputy premier of British Columbia
    Mary McNeil, Minister of State (Olympics), Province of British Columbia
    Gregor Robertson, mayor of Vancouver
    Ken Melamed, mayor of Whistler
    John Furlong, VANOC Chief Executive Officer
    

Pool Video Footage: Broadcasters interested in accessing the pool of video footage should contact: Irini Karamani, ERT, at +302.210.607255 or +306.979.981172. The ceremony will be available to broadcasters through Eurovision and information is available at www.eurovision.net.

For further information: Media Contacts: VANOC contact (Greece), Suzanne Walters, Vancouver 2010 Torch Relay Team, Tel: [phone], E-mail: [email protected]; VANOC contact (Vancouver), Chris Shauf, Vancouver 2010 Torch Relay Team, Tel: [phone], E-mail: [email protected]; Tassos Pappachristou (Greece), Hellenic Olympic Committee, E-mail: [email protected]