Winter Olympiad (2006)The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XX Olympic Winter Games, celebrated in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy hosted the Olympic Winter Games. Italy also hosted the Games of the XVII Olympiad in Rome in 1960. Turin was selected as the host city for the 2006 games in 1999. The official logo displayed the name "Torino", the Italian name of the city, but the city is known as "Turin" in both English and the local traditional dialect, Piedmontese, although having slightly different pronunciations. The Olympic mascots of Torino 2006 were Neve ("snow" in Italian), a female snowball, and Gliz, a male ice cube. The official motto of the XX Olympic Winter Games was "Passion lives here”. Turin, with a metropolitan area of 1.7 million, was the largest city to have ever hosted a Winter Olympics. A record 2,508 athletes from 80 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) competed at the Turin Winter Games, and 26 NOCs took home medals, another record. Austrians dominated Alpine skiing, gaining 14 of the 30 medals awarded. South Korea displayed equal success in short-track speed skating (gaining 10 medals of the 24 awarded). On the women’s side, Sun-Yu Jin earned three gold medals, and for the men Hyun-Soo Ahn won three golds and one bronze. The other triple-gold winner was Michael Greis in biathlon. Cindy Klassen earned medals in five of the six women’s speed skating events. With his victory in the Super G, Kjetil Andre Aamodt became the first Alpine skier to earn four medals in the same event and the first to win four gold medals in total. At the age of 39, skeleton specialist Duff Gibson became the oldest athlete in the history of the Olympic Winter Games to win a gold medal in an individual event. During the cross-country skiing team sprint, Sara Renner of Canada broke one of her poles. Norwegian head coach Bjørnar Håkensmoen, seeing her struggle, gave her one of his (albeit 12 cm too long). This allowed Renner to help her team win silver medals, and dropped Norway out of the medals. Bjørnar Hakensmoen’s display of fair play clearly demonstrates true sportsmanship. Opening date
10 February 2006
Closing date
26 February 2006 Ceremonies Official opening of the Games by: The President of the Italian Republic Carlo Azaglio CIAMPI
Lighting the Olympic Flame by: Stefania BELMONDO (Cross country Skiing)
Olympic Oath by: Giorgio ROCCA (Alpine Skiing)
Official Oath by: Fabio BIANCHETTI (Skating) Participation 80 National Olympic Committees (Nations) 2,508 athletes (960 women, 1,548 men) 84 events 18,000 volunteers 2,688 journalists, agencies and photographers and 6,720 radio and TV Country of the host city: Italy (ITA)
Candidate cities: Helsinki (FIN), Klagenfurt (AUT), Poprad-Tatry (SVK), Sion (SUI), Zakopane (POL) Sports - Biathlon
- Bobsleigh
- Skiing
- Curling
- Skating
- Ice Hockey
- Luge
Venues Turin - Oval Lingotto - Speed skating
- Torino Esposizioni - Ice hockey
- Palasport Olimpico - Ice hockey
- Stadio Olimpico - Opening and closing ceremonies
- Palavela - Figure skating, short-track speed skating
- Olympic Village
Other locations - Bardonecchia, located in Alta Val di Susa, was the site of the snowboarding competitions. An Olympic Village is also located in Bardonecchia.
- Cesana Pariol was the competition site for luge, bobsleigh, and skeleton.
- Cesana-San Sicario was the site of biathlon and alpine skiing events.
- Pinerolo, a town of 35,000, located 50 km from Turin, was the host of curling events.
- Pragelato was the site of cross-country skiing, ski jumping, and Nordic combined competitions.
- Sauze d'Oulx, a resort located 80 km from Turin, was the host of the freestyle skiing events.
- Sestriere, located 100 km from Turin, was the site of alpine skiing events. An Olympic village is also located in Sestriere.
Olympic villages - Bardonecchia
- Sestriere
- Turin
Official Olympic training sites - Chiomonte
- Claviere
- Prali
- Alpe Lusentino - Domodossola (VB) (Alpine Skiing)
- Riale - Formazza (VB) (Nordic Skiing)
Olympic mountain training site Highlights - Kjetil Andre Aamodt became the first Alpine skier to earn four medals in the same event and the first to win four gold medals in total.
- Janica Kostelic won the Alpine combined to become the first woman to achieve the same feat.
- There were two national medals sweeps at the Torino Games. First Sylke Otto, Silke Kraushaar and Tatjana Huefner of Germany finished one-two-three in the women’s luge. Then, in the men’s slalom, Benjamin Raich, Reinfried Herbst and Reiner Schoenfelder took the gold, silver and bronze for Austria, making it the first medals sweep in slalom.
- Ole Einar Bjoerndalen and Uschi Disl became the first biathletes to earn nine career Olympic medals.
- Canada's team opened with the most lopsided win in Olympic history by beating the host Italians 16-0 on the first day of competition.
- Evgeni Plushenko of Russia set a world record score in the men's figure skating short program.
- Lascelles Brown became the first Jamaican-born competitor to win a medal at the Winter Olympics.
- Anja Parson won her first gold medal in the women's slalom; it was her fifth overall Olympic medal and third of the 2006 Games.
Facts - For the first time, live video coverage of the Olympic Games was available on mobile phones. Including delayed programming, mobile operators provided video coverage in eighteen countries on five continents.
- Three NOCs entered the Winter Olympic Games for the first time. Erjon Tola of Albania and Mathieu Razanakolona of Madagascar represented their countries in Alpine skiing, while Robel Teklemariam competed for Ethiopia in cross-country skiing.
- The Torino 2006 cauldron is reported to be the tallest cauldron in the history of the Olympic Games. Measuring 57 metres, the cauldron has three segments of 31, 15 and 11 metres respectively.
- With a population of more than 900,000, Turin became the largest city ever to host the Winter Olympic Games. The previous record was 600,000 for Calgary in 1988.
- The exciting sport of snowboard cross was included in the Olympic program for the first time in 2006.
- Stefania Belmondo, a 10-time Olympic medalist in cross-country skiing, lit the Olympic Flame during the opening ceremony.
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