Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics Sports Stamps
Canada Post Issues Vancouver Games Commemoratives
Jun 26, 2009
Postage stamps have long been a popular souvenir of an Olympic Games. As an official supplier of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and Paralympics, Canada Post Corporation has issued a set of five domestic postage stamps on the theme "Sports of the 2010 Winter Games".
According to Liz Wong, Manager of Stamp Design and Production at Canada Post in a media release dated Jan 13, 2009, the stamp series is intended to represent the dynamism of an Olympic event. “Its energy reflects Canada’s excitement to be hosting this world-class event,” she explains. “As these stamps make their way from coast to coast, they’ll help spread the Olympic and Paralympic Spirit and build anticipation for the arrival of the world’s athletes, officials and sports enthusiasts.”
The Jan 12, 2009 issue has a stamp for each of curling, snowboarding, freestyle skiing, bobsleigh, and ice sledge hockey.
Sports of the 2010 Winter Games in Stamps
A number of the sports of the 2010 Winter Olympics are featured on the stamps.
- Ice sledge hockey— Invented in Stockholm, Sweden, in the 1960s, the sport was introduced at the 1994 Paralympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway.
- Snowboard—A combination of skiing, surfing and skateboarding, snowboarding made its debut at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan.
- Freestyle skiing— Downhill skiing combined with jumps and aerial maneuvers in several events including Moguls (1992 Albertville Olympic Winter Games), Aerials (1994 Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer) and Ski Cross (new for 2010 in Vancouver).
- Bobsleigh— A four-man bobsleigh race was held in 1924 at the first Olympic Winter Games in Chamonix, France. A feature of the Vancouver 2010 games is the return of the popular Jamaican Bobsleigh team, featured in the Disney film "Cool Runnings" based on their appearance at Nagano in 1988.
- Curling—Developed in Scotland, this game goes against the Olympic motto of "Higher, Faster, Stronger" in that it is a game of strategy and skill rather than of speed and strength. Popular in host country Canada, curling was part of the 1924 games but was dropped until Nagano in 1988.
Design of the 2010 Olympic Stamps
Designers Kosta Tsekekas and John Belisle of Signals Design Group in Vancouver adapted Olympic imagery from decades past for the stamps.
“We were inspired by Olympic imagery of the 1940s and 1950s, particularly the highly romanticized silk-screened posters of the era,” explains John Belisle (in Canada's Stamp Details, Vol XVIII No. 1, Jan/Mar 2009). “We started with basic sketches of athletes in action and, to give the design a contemporary spin, we layered the images.”
The resulting stylized athletes emphasize motion and flow, and feature the same colors as used in the official Olympic inukshuk logo. The red and orange are wound into the athlete's paths to indicate speed and strength, while the blues and whites are intended to represent snow and ice, the Canadian winter landscape through which the athletes travel.
Stamp Specifications
Philatelists may be interested in the following specifications from Canada Post.
- Denomination: 5 x PERMANENT™ domestic stamps
- Design/Illustration: John Belisle, Kosta Tsetsekas
- Dimensions: 23.25 mm x 20.25 mm (horizontal)
- Gum Type: Pressure sensitive
- Paper Type: Tullis Russell
- Perforations: Simulated perforation
- Printer: Canadian Bank Note
- Printing Process: Lithography in 5 colours
- Tagging: General, 4 sides
- Quantity: Continuous printing
Olympic stamps are always a popular memento, not only among stamp collectors, but also as a way of sharing the games with family and friends on letters and souvenir postcards.
Related Articles
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Official Suppliers to the Vancouver 2010 Games – Canada Post is an official supplier. Find out just what that means, and what CP gets out of the deal.
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