Vancouver to stage 2010 Winter Olympics

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president, Jacques Rogge has announced that Vancouver will be the host city for the Winter Olympics in 2010.

At the 115th IOC session in Prague, Vancouver won the bid on the second ballot, beating the South Korean city of PyeongChang by just three votes - 56 to 53.

In the first ballot, PyeongChang won the votes of 51 delegates, Vancouver 40 and Salzburg 16, a result which saw the Austrian city drop out of the running.

Vancouver winning the nomination theoretically increases London's chances of hosting the 2012 Summer Olympic Games - for which New York is a contender - since it is felt unlikely that two consecutive Games would be held on the same continent.

Canada's last Winter Olympic Games were held in Calgary in 1988. Vancouver bid for the 1976 event but lost out to Denver, whose citizens subsequently declared themselves unwilling to guarantee tax dollars to support the games. The event went to Innsbruck instead.

The 2006 Winter Olympics will be held in the Italian city of Turin.