Canada

Coca-Cola’s chief executive Muhtar Kent has suggested his company will continue sponsoring the Olympics beyond 2020.

All 1.6 million tickets for the 86 events of the Vancouver Winter Olympics are expected to sell out, according to organisers. It would be the first time an Olympics has sold out of tickets.

A protest march in Vancouver against the Winter Olympics turned violent on Saturday, as demonstrators damaged mail boxes, cars and shop windows, and scuffled with pedestrians and police.

The green credentials of the Vancouver Winter Olympics organisers and the International Olympic Committee have been called into question by a report by leading Canadian environmental group David Suzuki Foundation.

Unseasonably warm weather yesterday forced Canadian officials to prematurely limit public access to one of the skiing venues for next month’s Vancouver Olympic Games.

Quebec’s Molson family will buy NHL team the Montreal Canadiens from George Gillett, after the NHL approved the sale.

The Vancouver Organising Committee (VOC) for the 2010 Winter Olympics has appointed Rusty Goepel as its chairman, filling the role left empty when Jack Poole died of cancer last month.

Quebec City, which failed in bids to host the 2002 and 2010 Winter Olympic Games, is considering a bid for the 2022 or 2026 Games.

Jack Poole, chairman of the Vancouver Organising Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC), died in hospital shortly after midnight on Friday following a battle with pancreatic cancer.

The International Olympic Committee is hoping to add up to three top-tier sponsors for the 2010 and 2012 Olympic Games package in the next few months, taking them to their $1 billion revenue target for the sales process.

A lawsuit filed this week claims that restrictions on advertising and leafleting introduced for next year’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver violate free speech rights.

Organisers of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games have received an additional $7.7 million in federal funds to ensure the event will be bilingual, a Canadian minister said yesterday.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge has expressed a confidence that the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver will break even despite a budget shortfall.

Montreal will to return to the Formula One calendar in 2010 after an agreement was reached for the city to host the Canadian Grand Prix, according to the sport's commercial rights-holder Bernie Ecclestone.

The organisers of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver have launched a major drive for extra volunteers in Olympics history as their budget tightens. Reuters reports that the event’s organisers are facing a budget shortfall, part of which is due to a failure by the International Olympics Committee to get major sponsors.

The NHL board of governors has unanimously approved a $148 million bid by US businessman Jerry Reinsdorf for the Phoenix Coyotes team, and rejected a rival bid by Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie.