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The 2005 Honda Tour of Champions NorAm received $10,000 from Hosting BC. The snowboarding event attracted 63 athletes aged 15-30 from five Canadian provinces and eight countries, including New Zealand, Japan and Brazil. They competed in front of 2,000 spectators and an estimated TV audience of 125,000.
The city received an estimated direct economic benefit of $15,000 along with significantly increased profile through national media coverage. The sophisticated race timing system purchased for the event will be used for future national and provincial training and competition. Also, the event contributed significantly to plans for a National Snowboard Training Centre in Kelowna and Big White Resort and triggered agreements for facility upgrades to improve early season training capacity. The training and experience of 150 volunteers creates a valuable resource leading up the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
