IOC president Jacques Rogge, left, and VANOC CEO John Furlong meet the media in Whistler, B.C., on Wednesday. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

With one year to go until the 2010 Winter Games, the president of the International Olympic Committee says everything is on track for Vancouver to host a successful event that will have a positive impact on the region.

Staging the Olympics will bring many benefits to the Vancouver area, including an economic stimulus and increased security, Jacques Rogge told a media conference Wednesday night.

Rogge was in Whistler, B.C., to help mark the one-year countdown to the 21st Winter Olympics.

The resort community, about 120 kilometres north of Vancouver, will host alpine skiing, ski jumping, nordic skiing and the sliding events during the Feb. 12-Feb. 28 Games.

"I have been extremely pleased by the progress of the organization," said Rogge, who is making his third visit to Vancouver and second to Whistler.

"All the infrastructure is almost ready. We are in the full phase of the test events.

"The athletes and the federations tell us that these test events are very well organized. So I think everything bodes well for the future of the Games."

John Furlong, president of the Vancouver organizing committee, known as VANOC, said it's both exciting and a relief that the Olympic opening ceremony is just one year away.

"We have longed for today for a long time because tomorrow we'll be finally able to say the Olympic Games are next year," Furlong said. "We have worked hard for today.

"There is a real sense of excitement [that] we are turning the corner into the home stretch."

After speaking to the media, Rogge and other International Olympic Committee officials toured the Whistler Sliding Centre. Strangely, though, they missed the moment when the huge countdown clock flipped over to mark 365 days until the Games begin.

Instead, Furlong was given a timer's bell, traditionally used to signal the final lap of a race.

With a wide smile on his tired face, Furlong gave it a ring.

"When the athletes hear the bell, they know the end is near," he said. "This bell means for us that we too are going around that final corner and heading for the finish line."

'A stimulus for the economy'

Both Rogge and Furlong looked relaxed, even though they faced some tough questions over the cost of Olympic security and the money problems hounding construction of the athletes village in Vancouver.

Concerns have been raised about the cost of staging the Olympics, especially when the cold fingers of an economic crisis have gripped the world.

Rogge praised VANOC for managing to tighten the pursue strings, and said having an Olympics is good for the economy.

"I am glad to say what VANOC is doing is a stimulus for the economy, a stimulus for employment, a stimulus for economic life in B.C.," he said.

The Olympics themselves have an operating budget of $1.75 billion and a venue budget of $580 million.

That doesn't including the hundreds of millions of dollars the provincial and federal governments have spent upgrading the highway from Vancouver to Whistler, building a new light-trail transit system from downtown to the airport and upgrading the city's convention centre.

Furlong said VANOC will invest $1.3 billion into the local economy.

Visitors to the Games will spend millions more.

"I think we will see that as time goes by, that the Games are going to have quite a positive impact at a time when we need such an impact in the community," he said.

Games security was originally estimated to cost $175 million.

There are now suggestions the final price tag could be around $1 billion.

Rogge hasn't been briefed on the security costs, but said the benefits last long after the Games finish.

"Security investment always leave a good legacy of security for the country," he said. "The security arrangements are not there only for the 17 days of competition.

"Whenever the Games are finished, everything that has been built, the expertise that has been acquired, the hardware that has been put in place, is serving the country and the regions for decades to follow."

'We see this as an investment'

Games security could even help battle the rash of gang violence and killings that has shocked Vancouver in recent weeks, Rogge said.

Those comments are sure to stoke fears among anti-Olympic activists.

They've repeatedly raised concerns that the security infrastructure leftover form the Games will be used for harsher policing of Vancouver after 2010.

Rogge is also confident the athletes village will be completed on time.

The original lender on the project stopped payment on its loan to developers in the fall because of cost overruns and a crashing real estate market.

Now the City of Vancouver is looking to borrow the remaining $450 million needed to finish the $1-billion project, as well as advance the next construction payment due to developers.

"We are very confident the village will be ready in time," Rogge said. "We see this as an investment.

"The possibility to sell the village will enable the municipality to recoup the money that has been invested."

Celebrations to mark the one-year countdown will continue Thursday.

Olympic officials will unveil the design of the Olympic torch in Whistler in the morning.

The torch will travel 45,000 kilometres across Canada through dozens of different climates and conditions in every province and territory.

The uniforms torch bearers will wear as they carry the flame will also be unveiled.

Later, the festivities move to Vancouver, and the organizing committee has put out a call for Canadians everywhere to "make some noise" at 6 p.m. PT in honour of the one-year milestone.

In Newfoundland, musicians will play a symphony from the boats in St. John's harbour, while in Manitoba, a week's worth of community sporting events are already underway.

In the Vancouver suburbs, government and Olympic officials will gather for a celebration at the speedskating oval in Richmond, where Rogge will issue his official invitation to the world's athletes to come compete in 2010.

The anti-Olympic community has already accepted the invitation.

They're holding one-year countdown events of their own, which began last week with a "poverty Olympics" and continue Thursday with a protest march during the official Olympic celebration.

The Games are expected to attract 350,000 spectators, 5,500 athletes and officials and 10,000 journalists.