Vancouver (pps) The major event, the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino, have not yet started but the next is already casting its shadow before. In Vancouver, the site of the XXIth Olympic Winter Games in 2010, preparations are in full swing. The construction of the combined artificially-iced track for luge, bobsleigh and skeleton at Whistler Mountain has already been started.

Josef Fendt, the President of the International Luge Federation, FIL, watched the development at a visit to the site. “Suddenly a black bear stood in front of me, not ten metres away“, the former World champion recounts the most impressive experience of his visit directly before the Viessmann Luge World Cup in Calgary. At his previous visits, Fendt could admire the bears only from far away.

But not just the animal world around the fourth artificial track in North America – besides Calgary, also Canada, Lake Placid and Park City, both USA – impressed the FIL President. Six corner foundations have already been laid, and if everything went according to schedule, the track could be opened in the autumn of 2007, track chief Craig Lehto reported. The Canadian is well-known in the sliding scene: Lehto was previously in responsible position at the 1988 Olympic track in Calgary and 2002 in Park City before his current engagement in Vancouver. In 2010 at Whistler Mountain, he will be the track chief at his third Olympic Winter Games.

The track at Whistler Mountain in the Blackcomb Mountains in direct vicinity to the sites of Alpine skiing, costs 55 million Canadian Dollar, about 40 million Euro. This corresponds with the costs for the track at Cesana Pariol, because the 80 million Euro announced by the Torino Organising Committee, TOROC, also include all costs for the infrastructure. According to Fendt, the costs just for the track amount to a maximum of 45 million Euro.

If everything goes according to the wishes of Josef Fendt and the International Luge Federation, Vancouver would stage four events in luge for the first time ever. The International Olympic Committee, IOC, will decide about the introduction of the team event possibly in the autumn of 2007.

A high-ranking IOC delegation headed by IOC Sports Director Kelly Fairweather will scrutinize the team event at the Viessmann Luge World Cup at Koenigssee, Germany, on January 6-7, 2006. Koenigssee will stage the last of altogether four team events this winter. The response has never been greater since the inauguration in the winter of 2003-04 with twelve participating nations at every event.