Vancouver 2010: With Glowing Hearts Quiz

Answer: Quatchi

All four of these images were inspired by the traditions of First Nations people. Quatchi and Miga were the mascots for the 2010 Games, Sumi for the Paralympics, and Mukmuk hung around for both Games as an official sidekick. Quatchi was a sasquatch (a large ape-like being of the Pacific Northwest, sometimes called Bigfoot) who sported blue earmuffs. Miga was a sea bear, a cross between an orca and a Kermode bear, also known as a spirit bear, the official state mammal of British Columbia. Mukmuk was modeled on a kind of marmot endemic to Vancouver Island BC which is critically endangered. Sumi, dressed in green, had the wings of a Thunderbird and the legs of a black bear.

Answer: BC Place Stadium

Located on the north side of False Creek in Vancouver, BC Place Stadium opened in 1983 with (at the time) the world's largest stadium with an air-supported (inflatable) roof. After the Winter Olympics, the roof was replaced by a cable-supported retractable roof.

The opening ceremony, on February 12, was the first indoor opening ceremony for an Olympic Games. The games were officially opened by Governor General Michaëlle Jean. The ceremony included recognition of the four First Nations groups indigenous to the region, and representatives issued a welcome to the world before the parade of athletes.

Then followed the usual cultural display featuring a range of famous Canadians highlighting the diversity of the nation, culminating in the athletes' oath, the raising of the Olympic flag and the lighting of the cauldron.

This last experienced an equipment failure (only three of the four arms functioning properly) which was incorporated into the closing ceremony.

Answer: Catriona Le May Doan

Rick Hansen (a Paralympian who had previously participated as a torchbearer in 1988 at Calgary) lit the torch of Catriona Le May Doan (a double gold medallist in 500m speed skating), who lit that of Nancy Greene (an alpine skier who was voted Canada's Female Athlete of the 20th Century in a popular poll), who lit that of Wayne Gretzky (professional hockey player known as "The Great One"). When one of the arms failed to rise, Catriona Le May Doan was unable to light the cauldron. This was "fixed" in the closing ceremony, when a mime pretended to repair the arm, and she lit it at the start of the closing ceremony.

Following the lighting of the Indoor Cauldron, Wayne Gretzky carried his torch out of the stadium and across town to Coal Harbour, where he lit the Outdoor Cauldron, becoming the first person to light two official cauldrons in the same Olympic Games.

Answer: Women's ski jumping

Women's ski jumping was a rather controversial exclusion, fought all the way to the Supreme Court of British Columbia. As a sort of compensation, the organisers of the games organised several women's competitions at the Olympic venue in the months before the Games. The event was added to the program for the 2014 Sochi Games.

There are always a number of events that request to be included, and only a few can be added. In Vancouver, ski cross made its debut, while team skeleton, team luge, team alpine skiing, mixed doubles curling and mixed biathlon relay events all had their applications turned down.

Answer: Whistler

Whistler Creekside was the site of the alpine skiing events - downhill, slalom, giant slalom, Super-G and super combined. The Whistler Sliding Centre (on Blackcomb Mountain) was the venue for luge, bobsleigh and skeleton competition. The Nordic events (biathlon, cross-country skiing and ski jumping) were held at the Whistler Olympic Park, which was actually located a bit south of Whistler Mountain, in the Callaghan Valley. Freestyle skiing and snowboarding events were held at Cypress Mountain in West Vancouver.

Answer: Skiing - freestyle aerials

Aleksei Grishin had previously represented Belarus in 1998 (Nagano), when he finished in eighth place, 2002 (Salt Lake City), when he won Belarus' only medal with a bronze, and 2006 (Turin) when he came fourth. In 2014 (Sochi) he was the Belarusian flagbearer, but failed to qualify for the finals in the aerials event, which was won by his compatriot Anton Kushnir.

Vancouver also saw Slovakia win their first gold medal at a Winter Olympics, when Anastasiya Kuzmina won the women's biathlon sprint.

Answer: Freestyle skiing - Men's moguls

Alexandre Bilodeau, won gold on 14 February, the second day of competition, having finished in twelfth place at the Turin Olympics in 2008. Bilodeau finished the qualification run in second place, and produced a blinder in his final run, which included both a back double full jump and a back iron cross as he produced the fastest run. He later went on to defend his title in 2014 at Sochi, becoming the first Olympian from any country to successfully defend a freestyle skiing title.

Canada had won the Women's Curling at Calgary in 1988, but it was only a demonstration event at that time. They came second in Vancouver.

Answer: False

The first host team to top the tally of gold medals for a Winter Olympics was the United States, with six gold medals in the 1932 winter Olympics held in Lake Placid, New York. Prior to that, Norway had led the table in both 1924 and 1928, a feat they repeated in 1936.

In 1948 they shared the lead with Sweden, and in 1952 they again took top spot in their home games in Oslo. That was the last time a host city managed to come first until Canada did so in 2010, with 14 gold medals in Vancouver.

Answer: 14

Canada won 14 gold, 7 silver and 5 bronze medals, for a total of 26. The previous highest number of gold medals won by any country was 13, shared by the Soviet Union (at Innsbruck in 1976) and Norway (at Salt Lake City in 2002).

Answer: United States

This was the second time that the United States topped the overall medal count, having done so previously in 1932 at Lake Placid. Their 37 medals broke the previous record for the most medals at a single Winter Olympics, previously held by Germany, who won 36 medals in 2002 at Salt Lake City.

These numbers are notably smaller than those associated with the Summer Olympics, in which many more events are contested.