VANCOUVER - Steady progress is being made on the road to the 2010 Paralympic Games but some challenges remain, the head of the International Paralympic Committee says.
Members of the committee wrapped up a three-day tour of Vancouver venues Friday and said they're excited about the work organizers have done so far to get ready for the Paralympic Games.
"From my point of view there is not today any major issue. There is a lot of things that we are working to put together because it is the time to do it," said Xavier Gonzalez, the chief executive officer of the IPC.
"I would be a lot more concerned if it was three months and we were talking about these things."
High on the list of concerns is accommodation.
The Paralympic family requires about 600 hotel rooms in Whistler, B.C., the site of Nordic events, Gonzalez said, and they're still looking.
His team will head to Whistler on Saturday to inspect some housing options and look at sports venues.
The Paralympics will be held in March 2010, 12 days after the close of the 2010 Winter Games, and organizers are working towards keeping their profile high, Gonzalez said.
The torch relay for the Paralympic Games is one area where organizers are having to think hard about how to make the event as high-profile.
Given that it can only begin after the close of the Olympics and there's a limited window of time, it won't have the same reach as the Olympic torch relay.
That relay will reach 1,000 places in the 100 days before the Games.
The Paralympic torch will travel about half the distance, with 700 runners, over about eight days, but John Furlong, the chief executive officer of Vancouver's organizing committee, said it will reach every region of Canada.
"If you actually sit down and look at how to do it, it's not simple. It's very complicated to do but we're going to do it," he said.
"In the time we have we will extract every opportunity we have to celebrate it."
Gonzalez said he's pleased that both the cities of Vancouver and Whistler will leave a celebration site open for the duration of the Paralympic Games.
He's excited about a plan to have similar medal ceremonies as well - a first for the Paralympic Games.
Normally, the medals are handed out at the venues themselves.
"We will for the first time have medal ceremonies at night in celebration plaza in Whistler," he said.
"That will bring a different level of excitement for the athletes to be able to do that."
He's also optimistic that the broadcast coverage Vancouver organizers have secured for the Paralympics will ensure the Games remain in the eyes of the world.
Gonzalez provided little by way of details on the any of the plans, but said he looks forward to seeing further progress when the committee returns after the Beijing Games this summer.
"These are all steps that in the past would happen only in the last six months prior to the Games when the people started to realize," he said.
"That I think is the consequences of the integration we have achieved and the commitment VANOC made from the beginning to have the Paralympic Games at the forefront of their planning."
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