Swedish King and Queen to attend 2010 Olympics

King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden will attend the upcoming Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, according to a spokesperson at the Swedish Embassy in Ottawa. The royal couple is expected to be in British Columbia for a large portion of the Games, which will take place February 12-28, 2010.

The Games are close to the heart of the King and Queen, who met at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, where Silvia was a host and interpreter. They married four years later.

King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia are the first foreign heads of state to confirm their attendance at the Olympics, though The Vancouver Sun reports that as many as 10 royals and 25 other heads of state are expected to attend, including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, whose countries will host the next two sets of Olympics (London in 2012 and Sochi, Russia, in 2014).