GM Place to change name for 2010 Olympics

General Motors Place will get a new name stripped of corporate marks during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the organizing committee said Wednesday.

The arena for many of the ice events during the Games will likely be renamed Canada Hockey Place, said John Furlong, the CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympics.

Furlong was in Beijing on Wednesday to present a progress report to the International Olympic Committee, which will have to approve the name change.

The new name would reflect the IOC's policy that Olympic venues must be free of corporate marks, he said.

The Vancouver Organizing Committee also unveiled the 2010 Olympic torch relay emblem — an image that symbolizes the 35,000-kilometre journey involving 12,000 torchbearers and some 1,000 communities across Canada.

The torch relay route will be announced by the end of this year, Furlong said.

Some of the highlights in the committee's report include:

• All competition venues are complete and open, except for the speed skating and curling venues to be completed this fall.
• The anti-doping laboratory will be located at the Richmond Oval, to be operated by Montreal's Institut de la recherche scientifique.
• More than 43,000 applications for volunteer work have been received and screening interviews have already started.

The Vancouver Organizing Committee will provide its next update to the IOC in October 2009 in Copenhagen.