John Furlong, the CEO of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games, says efforts are right on track towards the event that will see Vancouver play host to the world.
"We're in the happy position of having pretty well every project, quite a number of them, where they need to be," Furlong told CTV's Canada AM on Thursday morning.
Despite a few hiccups along the way the Vancouver Olympic Games Organizing Committee, known as VANOC, is right on track for the Games, Furlong said.
"Here's the situation we're in. By the time the Beijing games start next year, all of our construction will be over," he said.
"So this winter, the athletes will be moving out to Vancouver and Whistler, and we'll be playing our part to prepare the team to be hopefully the best team in the world by 2010. Everything has gone extremely well."
Early completion of the athletic venues is part of the strategy to achieve victory at the Games, allowing Canadian athletes to train in the stadiums where they will be competing during the Olympics.
"But we didn't do this to show off," Furlong said.
"We wanted to have the venue program over well in advance of the Games so our team could get out there, see every aspect of those venues, to experience every square inch of each one of them and be ready so that we could spend the last two years simply preparing the experience that we want the world to have, that's heading in our direction in 2010."
In Whistler alone, where many of the events will be held, five stadiums are being built, Furlong said. They will be ready to begin hosting competitions next year -- providing organizers with two full years to test out the facilities and do any fine tuning that is necessary ahead of the Olympics.
"And every event will have a world cup or a Canadian championship or a world championship on it, so by the time the games start, the athletes will have had a real experience similar to the one that they'll have at games time. So they should be ready. It's fantastic."
In May, VANOC announced that the Games were on track to cost less than was first estimated. The original estimated operating cost of the games was expected to be $1.7 billion, but the 200-page plan released in May put it at $1.63 billion, $70 million less.
At the time, Furlong even said it was possible the committee would leave a cash legacy.
The committee says its financial situation means the games aren't likely to cost taxpayers any more. VANOC still has a $55.3-million contingency allowance just in case construction runs over budget.
Critics, however, have said the estimates don't account for costs the committee is not directly responsible for, such as security.
The RCMP said recently there's not enough money in the budget to cover security.
Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre says it will cost more than the original $175 million that was set aside, largely because the Mounties had expected to secure 20 venues, but that number has jumped to more than 100.
