Olympic venues need a little more than a fresh coat of paint for Paralympics

VANCOUVER, B.C. - While residents of Vancouver and Whistler, B.C., grapple with the haze of a post-Olympic hangover, for the venue staff there wasn't much time to party.

As Olympic events were wrapping up at the end of February, they were ripping down banners even before everyone had left the buildings.

Mere hours after Canada's men's hockey team won their epic battle for the gold medal, Canada Hockey Place was returned to its former life as GM Place.

And Cypress Mountain has now reopened to the public.

But there are seven Olympic sites being used for the Paralympics: four sports venues, the two athletes villages and B.C. Place, and organizers are working hard to prepare them for the start of the Paralympics on March 12.

"You have just brought life back to our team," said Nejat Sarp, the vice-president of villages for the Vancouver Organizing Committee, as he welcome Paralympians into the Vancouver village earlier this week.

While the Paralympics are about raising the proverbial bar for sport, in some cases getting the venues ready has also been about removing or lowering the actual bars themselves.

At UBC's Thunderbird arena, home of sledge hockey, the curtain rods to hang street clothes were lowered to be more accessible to players.

The dasher boards in front of the players' and penalty benches were replaced with clear Plexiglas as well, so the players can see the action on the ice and know when to make line changes.

The biggest change is the ice surface itself.

When the venue was built, the ice was set to international standards, but when the rules allow Olympic and Paralympic hockey to be played on NHL-size ice, it left Games organizers with extra room.

So for the first time at a Paralympics, the players bench areas and the penalty box will be ice as well, which allows the players to glide on and off the field of play.

"Because this was a new venue and it was purpose built for the Olympics and Paralympics, it is a very accessible venue to start with and with some of the enhancements we've put in for this event, it's made it even more accessible for the Paralympic Games," said Keith Baulk, venue manager at UBC.

During the Olympics, the spectators are confined to merely watching the game, but at the Paralympics they'll be encouraged to get involved.

Inside the curling venue, people will be given the opportunity to try out the Paralympic sports in a demonstration area.

While the field of play for the ice events doesn't change for the Paralympics, it does change up in the mountains.

For downhill, the start gates are moved down and some of the drops smoothed out to help sit skiers and visually-impaired skiers who can't react as rapidly to changes in terrain.

"They ski at similar speeds to the able-bodied athletes at the Olympic Games, and ski similar terrain, but there's just slight adjustments made to make sure it's a safe race track," said Pete Bosinger, alpine sport manager for the committee.

Roller boards have also been introduced to help sit skiers get on and off the gondola.

At the Nordic venues, the course alignments were changed to eliminate some hills and the biathlon shooting range was moved into the cross-country stadium.

"The Paralympic athletes want to ski the Olympic courses because in their minds they are as good of an athlete as Olympians and that's what they've been able to do here," said John Aalberg, director of Nordic sports at Whistler Paralympic Park.

Though it does take more than a fresh coat of paint to switch Olympic venues into Paralympic sites, there is still a lot of painting.

The same blues and greens hang from lampposts and on fencing, but gone are the five rings, replaced with the Paralympic logo called the "Agitos," red, blue and green crescents.

And while the International Olympic Committee forbids the advertising on the field of play, it is allowed by the International Paralympic Committee.

So instead of the Games motto "with glowing hearts" plastered on the boards or in the ice, sponsors like Bell, Acer and Omega will get a chance to showcase their logos.

But organizers hope that while the images may change during the Paralympics, the spirit doesn't.

They're expecting the same cowbells along the cross-country courses and the same deafening roars at curling, where Olympic teams actually complained they couldn't hear themselves giving instructions.

But with no sweeping at wheelchair curling, the shouts of hurry hard can be drowned out by the cheers of die-hards.

"There's not a lot of noise coming from the field of play and they don't need to hear each other as much," said Brian Eaton, the general manager at the Vancouver Paralympic Centre.

"(The athletes) don't mind if it's noisy in the arena."