Vancouver 2010 Official Competition Bibs

It is the Olympic official competition bib that represents the athlete's devotion to the sport like no other can. For every athlete, it is a piece of history in the making, a piece of Olympic glory. From the start gate all the way to the finish line, it is the symbol of the quest to ski faster and jump higher and longer, to skate at unimaginable speeds and slide down the dangerous tracks, at even faster pace. It is the symbol of athlete's endurance and skill, strength and courage.

There are twelve Vancouver competition bibs altogether in the colors of 2010 Olympic Games: biathlon, snowboard, ski jumping, luge, ski cross, freestyle skiing moguls, skeleton, freestyle skiing aerials, snowboard parallel GS, snowboard halfpipe, cross-country skiing and Alpine skiing.

For the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, the Vancouver official competition bibs were made in Slovenia, the country of two million people with long tradition of winter sports and strong representation of first-class athletes at Winter Olympic Games winning the tiny nation quite a few Olympic medals.

It is not a big manufacturing company that won the Olympic contract, but a very small family enterprise with 40-year tradition of manufacturing race bibs for major international competitions.

All in all, there were 14,995 competition bibs made for Vancouver Winter Olympic Games between September 1 and December 10, 2009. The owner, a woman in her forties, made the competition bibs together with her husband and three other seamstresses. She believes their color, deep blue that is difficult to obtain, secured the contract. She also believes in yoga and in the power of positive energy. Back in summer, she thought she would have to fire the two seamstresses and then the Olympic contract came.

It is the story of small entrepreneurship and big dreams, the kind of dreams only Olympians dare to dream. A teacher of yoga, she reached for excellence. In the shades of blue, she was sure, was her victory in winning the Olympic contract. She was right. At the end, it came down to the color. No other company offered that kind of blue, the Olympic blue.

The competition bibs always served as symbol of athlete's hopes and dreams, enthusiasm and commitment, victory and defeat. They are the constant reminder of the epic Olympian spirit. Lately, the athletes have found new value in this symbol of their pursuit of athletic brilliance.

Though occasionally the Olympians have raised money selling or auctioning their competition bibs for various causes, just recently World Cup Alpine skiers raised over $90,000 for Haiti in online auction of autographed competition bibs from the women's super G in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy and 70th Hahnenkamm men's downhill in Kitzbuehel, Austria.

Julia Mancuso, of the United States Ski Team and Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway were the organizers of the competition bib auction. Approximately one hundred bibs were sold in one week. The Hahnenkamm winner was sold for $16,209, while the competition bib of Lindsey Vonn, 2010 World Cup super G winner, was sold for $8,600. The competition bib of Tima Maze from Slovenia was sold for $660.

After all the medals are won, once all athletes go home, the competition bib is one of these memorabilia items that remain after all the important part of every Olympic Games story, exhilarating or sad. Though often unnoticed at the start gate and at the finish line, it is one of these items that gain on value after the fact.

Perhaps it is only fitting that the first Olympic event at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games was ski jumping--normal hill, the sport widely cherished in Slovenia. The Slovene athletes were worthy of the bibs they proudly wore, they finished sixth and seventh.

Source: Vancouver2010.com, zoi.dnevnik.si