The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games left a positive legacy not only in sports venues and sustainable buildings but also in a new sense of national pride, sport development and international awareness, according to a report released by the Vancouver Organizing Committee.

The report, prepared by journalist Kate Zimmerman, was commissioned by the organizing committee as the last in a four-part review of the legacies of Winter Olympic Games held in North America since 1980. She had earlier looked at the legacies of the 1980 Lake Placid, 1988 Calgary and 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games.

The report was released at the Vancouver 2010 debriefing in Russia, where organizing committee officials are presenting their best practices to the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee and others. Many of the hard legacy aspects, such as venues, are well known — they include 13 sport venues and two athletes villages.

But in her report, Zimmerman also looked at whether the Vancouver Games had created other less tangible legacies. One of the most striking findings, according to organizing committee spokeswoman Renee Smith-Valade, was that the post-Games impact is being felt far sooner than expected. As an example, she cited a surge in youth interest in new sports such as ski cross.

“We always were very focused on what the legacies would be. But what the report is indicating is the benefits of the Games are coming sooner rather than later,” she said.

“We’re seeing Canadian team interest in sports not popular in the past. Ski cross and luge, for example, are getting more kids signing up. That’s a real benefit from the Games.”

The report, which Zimmerman based on a review of news stories written prior and during the Games, as well as interviews, concludes that the hard legacies are yet to be fully understood.

But, she said, “it’s the intangibles that seem to be dominant now — impressions, memories, patriotic feelings, a national sense of pride. They, too, are valid legacies of the Games.”

The report is generally positive and doesn’t deal in detail with some of the problems the organizing committee and its partners encountered.

But it does acknowledge the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, the financial problems at the Vancouver athletes’ village and the impact of the economic downturn.

Overall, it looks forward, examining the perceived positive environmental and sustainable impacts, the growth in tourism and trade and convention bookings and the new relationship with First Nations.

It also cites the positive legacy of the Sea to Sky Highway upgrades between Vancouver and Whistler, B.C., and improved transit with the Canada Line, even though the government did not recognize those as Olympic projects.

“Our sense is that people who experienced the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games instinctively know they will have a lasting and positive impact,” organizing committee CEO John Furlong said in a statement. “This report, however, documents the many hard and soft legacies of the Games, and it’s quite stunning to see them all gathered in one place.”