Who is popular today?

The Strathcona Nordic Ski Club of Mount Washington was heavily involved in volunteering for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and Paralympics — 25 club members helped prepare and lay out the Nordic venue in the Callaghan Valley.

Could they be doing it as organizers in 2030? How about curling at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre and preliminary-round group hockey games as the catalyst to finally getting a new arena built in Nanaimo?

Lead proponent John Furlong, who headed the Vancouver 2010 Games, is expected to lay out a vision of a province-wide approach to a 2030 Winter Olympics and Paralympics bid when he unveils his plans today.

The bid tagline is expected to read B.C. 2030.

“We have the legacy of the experience our club members gained from 2010,” said Len Apedaile of Black Creek, president of the Strathcona Nordic Club and sport manager for cross-country skiing at the 2010 Vancouver Games, as well as course designer for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. “The terrain is there, the snow is there and the capacity and expertise are there [on Mount Washington].

“We have demonstrated potential on the technical level.”

That included the Strathcona club’s Susan Denny as the Olympic supervisor of course marshals in 2010 and Wilf Dreher as supervisor of course marking.

Marc Lyster, from Mount Washington’s Nordic operations crew, helped groom the Olympic course. Strathcona club member Andrea Lee was a forerunner, skiing the course minutes before each Nordic race in the Vancouver Games. The Nordic pre-Olympic test events in 2009 were held on Mount Washington and the Island hill hosted several of the international teams’ pre-Games camps in 2010.

That sort of technical expertise is also available in curling, with Victoria having twice hosted the world men’s championship and the Scotties’ Canadian women’s championship at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.

Keith Dagg, chairman of the 2005 world men’s curling tournament and co-chair of the 2013 world men’s held at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, said the prospect of hosting the 2030 Games is exciting.

“We’ve still got the [organizing] team. We’re waiting to do it. We’ve had success in putting on national and world events in Victoria and the world loves coming here, and there isn’t a bad seat in the Memorial Centre.”

The arena was considered for curling in 2010 as the lone venue outside the Lower Mainland, but security costs nixed the plan.

“[Vancouver 2010 Games chair] Jack Poole and I worked hard to have curling here in 2010, but in the end, they did Vancouver because they would have had to do policing here, too,” said Dagg.

The process by which B.C. communities can show their interest has yet to be determined. In an email to the Times Colonist, Furlong said it’s too early to talk about which events would go where. But he said his main message is that B.C. communities beyond the three 2010 venues — Vancouver, Richmond and Whistler — could be a major part of a 2030 event.

Other jurisdictions that have expressed interest in hosting the 2030 Winter Olympics, scheduled for Feb. 8-24, include Salt Lake City, Utah; Sapporo, Japan; and Barcelona-Pyrenees, Spain. The vote will be held in 2023 during an International Olympic Committee session in Mumbai, India.

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com