Vancouver 2010: Winter Olympics final preparations

Japanese figure skater Takahiko Kozuka practises his routine
Photograph: David Gray/Reuters

Staff members prepare the ramp ahead of a ski jumping official training session
Photograph: Javier Soriano/AFP/Getty Images

Kazakhstan's Alexey Korolev, left, and South Korea's Kim Hyun-ki shelter from some long-awaited snow as they head up to a training session for the men's ski jumping event at Whistler Olympic Park
Photograph: Javier Soriano/AFP/Getty Images

It's not just the athletes who have to go through practice sessions ahead of the start of the competition as Swiss TV staff run through things ahead of tonight's opening ceremony. In the International Broadcast Center, the Swiss national broadcaster has been allotcated space for 40 working places, technical equipment, six working stations for cutters, one radio broadcasting studio and control rooms
Photograph: Alexandra Wey/EPA

Pierre-Alexandre Rousseau jumps while training for the men's moguls
Photograph: Bela Szandelszky/AP

A luger competes in the women's luge practice at the Whistler Sliding Centre
Photograph: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

Canadian singer Sarah McLachlan carries the Olympic flame during the Olympic torch relay. The Olympic flame is on a 106-day journey across Canada in the longest domestic torch relay in Olympic history. It will end with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremony
Photograph: Darryl Dyck/AP

American speed skater Shani Davis trains at the Richmond Olympic Oval. Photograph: Kevin Frayer/AP
Photograph: Kevin Frayer/AP

People pose in front of the Olympic rings at the Whistler ski resort. Photograph: Oliver Lang/AFP/Getty Images
Photograph: Oliver Lang/AFP/Getty Images

Arnold Schwarzenegger carries the Olympic torch before the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Photograph: Darryl Dyck/AP

Candles are lit up at the Whistler medal plaza in commemoration of 21-year-old Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili who died in a horrific crash on a training run on Friday, casting a pall over the Winter Olympics hours before the Games were to be declared open Photograph: Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters

Artists perform next to a 20-meter LED light covered spirit bear puppet during the opening ceremony of the XXI Winter Olympic Games Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

A snowboarder jumps through the Olympics rings
Photograph: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images