In two years, the world's eyes will be on Vancouver as the Olympic flame is ignited to mark the start of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

From an infrastructure perspective, the competition venues will be ready for Feb. 12, 2010, the start of the 17-day event. The Paralympics start on March 12.

The three main venues -- constructed at a cost of $580 million, about 23 per cent above the 2003 bid forecasts -- have already had their work largely completed. The $40-million Hillcrest/Nat Bailey stadium park, which will host curling, will be finished later this year.

In that regard, Vancouver is actually ahead of Beijing, which hosts the Summer Games in August.

Having the venues finished well before the actual Games gives athletes a chance to familiarize themselves with the runs and courses.

This weekend, Cypress Mountain in West Vancouver hosted a World Cup aerial skiing event -- the first 2010 venue to host a World Cup event.

The Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) spent $16.6 million on upgrading facilities at Cypress, which will host the freestyle (aerials, moguls, ski cross) and snowboarding events.

Canada's Steve Omischl won Sunday's Cypress event -- albeit one shortened by fog and snow.

This country's skiers are having a great year on the World Cup circuit. They are currently ranked number two and closing in on Germany, the number-one nation, Alpine Canada's Ken Read told Canada AM on Monday.

The plan is to have Canada in the overall number one medal-winning spot during the Games -- a plan launched in 2005 and called 'Own the Podium.'

"We know that that's a stretch," Read said, adding that even if the goal isn't achieved, it's one worth striving for.

Nathalie Lambert, Canada's chef de mission for the Games, admitted it would be a big challenge preparing this country's athletes for the pressures of competing in an Olympics at home.

"It's 732 days to get ready for the Games, prepare the athletes to really put the focus on making them not only physically and technically ready for their event, but also mentally,'' Lambert said Monday after a Vancouver luncheon marking the two-year countdown.

B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, meanwhile, told a sold-out crowd at a downtown hotel that there will be a major difference between the 2010 Games and the two previous Olympics held in Canada.

"We are the only country ever to host an Olympic Games that didn't win a gold medal while they were doing it,'' said Campbell."I want you to know this.

"We have the athletes, they have our commitment, they have our support. When the Games are on . . . our athletes will stand at the top of the podium and we all will be singing O Canada."

Canada won 24 medals at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. The goal for Vancouver-Whistler is 35 medals, he said.

The speedskating team hopes to contribute 15 medals. Canada did not win any alpine skiing medals in Torino but it hopes to pick up three or four in 2010. Freestyle skiing and snowboarding are also expected to contribute to Canada's medal winnings, Read said.

As the home team, he expected the biggest challenge for Canadian athletes will be maintaining focus.

"We can't let the distractions come in," he said, and named the media and sponsors as two potential distractions.

"To me, it's always better that you're interviewing the gold medallist, rather than the person who should have won the gold medal."

Other infrastructure

Athletes' villages in Whistler and Vancouver are still under construction, as are the main media centre in Coal Harbour and its Whistler counterpart.

Construction crews are currently working on the Sea to Sky Highway, a $775 million project to upgrade the highway between West Vancouver and Whistler.

The highway was a weak point in the Vancouver Olympic bid because the existing road was narrow and dangerous.

Vancouver is also getting a $2 billion transit link from the airport to downtown, and a convention centre that will cost $800 million, up from a budgeted $500 million.

Those costs aren't strictly considered to be Games costs. VANOC has estimated the Games will cost $1.63 billion, although some have said the $175 million budgeted for security is simply too low.

With the world coming to Vancouver, some questions are being raised about whether there will be places for everyone to stay.

Metro Vancouver has about 24,000 hotel rooms available, but most have been reserved for Olympic officials and sponsors. A half-dozen high-end hotels are under construction.

Various levels of government have promised that social housing for Vancouver's poor would be a legacy of the 2010 Games, but anti-poverty activists are skeptical.