Memories of the 2010 Winter Games will live on after the Olympic Flame is extinguished thanks to three new licensees who are creating products capturing the memories of the Games, as well as auctioning off an amazing collection of competition memorabilia.EMI Music Canada is creating official commemorative music CDs from the Olympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies and a CD capturing Canada's favourite hockey anthems. Gameday Auctions will facilitate the auctioning of 10,000 pieces of highly coveted and one-of-a-kind pieces of Games history and Transcontinental is producing the official Vancouver 2010 photo products website. They join a stable of 48 official licensees of the Games.

"We're pleased to join forces with three industry leaders who are helping to keep the memories of the Games alive long after they're over through music, photos and the auctioning of Games collectibles," said Dennis Kim, director of licensing and merchandising for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC). "Their expertise will help add to the overall experience of fans of Canada's Games throughout the country and the world."

EMI Music Canada is creating official commemorative CDs capturing some of Canada's biggest names in music who will perform at the Olympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

The International Luge Federation (FIL) and the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic Games (VANOC) shared the outcome of their investigation into the sad demise of Georgian athlete, Nodar Kumaritashvili. Kumaritashvili was fatally injured during the final training session in the last corner of the track at the Whistler Sliding Centre on Friday morning.

The Coroners Service of British Columbia, responsible for the investigation of all sudden deaths, together with the RCMP, concluded their on-scene investigations on the track and transferred the decision to FIL when the track can be re-opened. The FIL, through its technical officials, further investigated into the cause of this tragic incident. Based on a physical inspection of the track and a thorough review of the tapes they have concluded the following:

In a celebration of the 2010 Winter Games, the Olympic and Paralympic Cauldron will become a permanent landmark on the Vancouver waterfront through a legacy partnership announced tonight between Terasen Gas Inc. and the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC).

This legacy will ensure the cauldron, lit tonight by Canadian hockey legend Wayne Gretzky at the conclusion of the spectacular Olympic Opening Ceremony at BC Place, will be a lasting reminder of the Games.

Gretzky, the all-time record holder for goals scored in the National Hockey League (NHL) and executive director of the Team Canada gold medal-winning men's hockey team at the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Games, ignited the almost 10-metre-high steel and glass cauldron after a flatbed truck transported him and the Olympic Flame through the streets of downtown Vancouver to the waterfront location.

"We are an idea in the process of being realized / we are young / we are cultures strung together then woven into a tapestry / and the design is what makes us more than the sum total of our history / we are an experiment going right for a change / with influences that range from a to zed / and yes we say zed instead of zee / we are the true north / strong and free / and what's more / is that we didn't just say it / we made it be."

With these words as part of We Are More, a powerful contemporary ode on patriotism by Canadian slam poet Shane Koyczan, Canada welcomed the world's best winter athletes to Vancouver tonight at the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

The night's celebrations started with a daring jump by snowboarder Johnny Lyall through a giant set of Olympic Rings as the live audience was engaged in the dramatic countdown to the start of the ceremony.