Here's our monthly 2010 Winter Games update:

LOCAL ATHLETES
Crystal Mountain skier Scott Macartney continues to train as he recovers from a nasty crash that cut last season short.
“It's been good to get back on snow with all the guys and for me it's been good to be back since it's been a while,” Macartney, an ’04 Olympian, said in statement released by the U.S. Ski Team.
Macartney is staying pretty active off the snow, too. He’s surfing, cooking salmon and might take a European vacation. He says Kitzbuhel, the ski area where he had his accident, offered him a week long summer vacation.
Earlier this month Macartney and the U.S. Ski Team finished a hockey cross-training program in Utah. The program ended with a hockey game.
“It was really fun to be out there with everybody and mix it up a little bit,” Macartney said in press release. “I got checked a few times, but we had a good time. It was a very close game. It came down to the wire and could have gone either way.”

TEAMS USA UPDATES
- Snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler won Best Female Action Sports Athlete honors this month at the ESPY Awards.
- Kikkan Randall of the U.S. Nordic ski team spent part of July training on the Eagle Glacier in his home state of Alaska
- Skating Magazine readers voted Johnny Weir the skater of the year making him the first man to win the award since Michael Weiss in 2000. Weir received 1,156 of approximately 8,400 votes.
- The U.S. Snowboarding team finished a training session on Mount Hood on July 25.

FACILITY UPDATES
- According to the Vancouver Sun, a bad splice resulted in an underground explosion that destroyed 14 circuits and left 20 percent of the city in darkness for three days. According to the newspaper, some officials are concerned about a power failure during the Olympics.
- On July 7 the University of British Columbia’s Thunderbird Arena became the first indoor competition venue to be completed. According to a statement released by organizers the 7,500 arena was finished four months early and on budget. The venue will host men’s and women’s hockey.
- Organizers announced this month that the anti-doping lab for the games will be located at the Richmond Oval, the speed skating venue.

OTHER OLYMPIC NEWS
- The Summer Olympics start Aug. 8 and the Vancouver Olympic Committee will send 36 members to the games to study the event as it continues to plan for 2010.
- General Electric donated a CT scanner for the games that Olympic organizers say will be the first in Whistler. The scanner will be installed in December.

TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets go on sale Oct. 11, 2008. Tickets.com was selected as the games’ official ticket service.