Turin 2006 Olympic Games
The 2006 Turin Olympic Games, officially known as the XX Olympic Winter Games, were a multi-sport event held in Turin, Italy between 10 and 26 February 2006. This marked the second time that Italy had hosted a Winter Olympics, the previous being the 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo Games. Italy also hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics, in Rome. Turin was selected as the host city in 1999. 2,508 athletes (1,548 men and 960 women) participated in this event.
The symbol of these Games corresponds to a stylized version of the Mole Antonelliana, the architectural symbol of the city, made up of ice crystals that represent the sky, snow and progress. In the official logo of the games, the name of "Torino", the Italian name of the city, can be seen. The city is known as "Turin" in Spanish, and the traditional language of the area, the Piedmontese language. The official mascots of Turin 2006 were Neve, a female snowflake, and Gliz, a male ice cube. The official motto of the games was Passion lives here (in Spanish: Passion lives here). while the official theme of the event was “Va'”, performed by Claudio Baglioni.
Choice
Turin was chosen to host the event in 1999 at the 199th Session of the International Olympic Committee. This was after the IOC had adopted new election procedures during the 108th IOC Special Session due to repeated corruption scandals surrounding the election processes of the 1998 and 2002 Olympic Games. For this reason, it was confirmed that IOC members were prohibited from visiting the candidate cities (to avoid scandals), and at the 109th IOC Session A special body, the Selection College, was elected to evaluate the candidate cities and select two finalists from the six candidate cities after each had made its final presentation at the IOC headquarters. There, a Session was held where the cities chosen as finalists by the Selection College were voted on. Although six cities submitted candidacies and made presentations to the full IOC Session, the Selection College chose only two finalist cities: Sion and Turin. The cities of Klagenfurt (Austria), Poprad-Tatry (Slovakia), Helsinki (Finland) and Zakopane (Poland), were not selected for the final vote.
On June 19, 1999, the 109th IOC Session was held in Seoul. There, all the candidacies made their final presentation before the Court issued its decision. Turin was finally the city chosen to host the Olympic Games in 2006, defeating the city of the canton of Valais by 53 votes to 36, despite the fact that the latter was the favourite.
The Turin election was considered a surprise by the media, as they assumed that Sion was the big favorite because the IOC was based in Switzerland. For some insiders, the Turin election was a consolation prize after the defeat of Rome in the candidacy for the 2004 Olympic Games and as a form of punishment for the conduct of one of the members of the Swiss Olympic Committee in the corruption scandal during the election of the venue for the 2002 Games.
The following are the results of the voting:
| 109.a Session of the International Olympic Committee Results of the 2006 Winter Olympic Games Election 19 June 1999, Seoul, South Korea | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| City | Country | Round 1 | |||
| Turin |  Italy | 53 | |||
| Sion |  Switzerland | 36 | |||
The information comes from the page of the History of the IOC election process.
Organization
For the realization of this event, a great modernization of the host city was carried out, considerably improving its infrastructure, both sports and transportation and telecommunications. Turin's old Estadio Comunale underwent a complete refurbishment, while three new sports venues had to be built in the city, three Olympic villages and a stadium in Torre Pellice. The winter centers also underwent modifications and new tracks were established for the development of the different Olympic events.
The cost of the Olympic Games reached 1.7 billion euros, which was not foreseen by the TOROC (Organizing Committee). At the end of 2005, TOROC was running a €64 million deficit, which almost led to its filing for bankruptcy, which was ultimately prevented by a loan from the Italian government. Another controversy was the delay in the start-up of the Turin Metro, one of the main civil construction works ahead of the Olympic Games. Finally, the service was inaugurated on February 4, 2006 in a short stretch of 13 stations.
Despite the serious problems faced by the organization, the Italian public received the Games with great enthusiasm. An example of this is that more than 40,000 people signed up to participate as volunteers during the Games, only 20,000 being finally chosen.
Olympic Torch
On November 27, 2005, the Olympic torch began its journey from Olympia, Greece to the venue of the Games. Carried by hundreds of volunteers, the torch traveled through San Marino, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland, the French cities of Grenoble and Albertville (previous venues for the Winter Olympics) and the Vatican City, being blessed by Benedict XVI. After being received on December 8 by President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in Rome and traveling through most of the country's cities, the torch arrived in Turin on February 10 for the opening ceremony of the Games.
10,000 relievers covered 11,300 kilometers following, roughly, the following route:
- Greece
Greece: Olympia, Athens. - Italy
Italy: Rome, Florence, Genoa, Cagliari, Palermo, Naples, Bari, Ancona. 
San Marino- ItalyItaly: Bologna, Venice, Trieste.
- Slovenia
Slovenia: Ljubljana - Austria
Austria: Klagenfurt - ItalyItaly: Trento, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Milan.
- Switzerland
Switzerland: Lugano - ItalyItaly: Bardonecchia
France: Grenoble, Albertville.- ItalyItaly: Turin
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Sports
The Turin 2006 Olympic Games included 7 sports (15 disciplines) that awarded a total of 84 medals. and team pursuit speed skating.
Most of the cross-country events at these Games involve different distances from those in Salt Lake City.
The following list details the sports and disciplines that were performed at the games. The numbers in parentheses after each sport discipline indicate the number of events played.
Development
Opening
The opening ceremony was held on February 10 at 20:00 (CET; UTC+1) at Turin's Estadio Comunale, renamed Stadio Olimpico during the Games.
Hundreds of dancers filled the sports venue to give life to one of the most watched events in the world with an estimated audience of more than 2 billion viewers worldwide. The history of Italy, the city and winter sports was represented by the dancers before a fervent audience. To the rhythm of music from the 1980s, the Parade of Nations was performed while acrobats formed the image of a dove representing peace.
Several artists such as Luciano Pavarotti, Sofia Loren and Yōko Ono were present at the ceremony that reached its climax with the entrance of the Olympic Torch in the hands of Alberto Tomba who handed it over to the skier Stefania Belmondo. Using the flames from the torch, Belmondo ignited a series of fireworks that eventually ignited the Olympic Cauldron.
Review
Day 1 (opening ceremony)
Stefania Belmondo, a 10-time Olympic medalist in cross-country skiing, lit the Olympic flame during the opening ceremony on February 10. Before that, the ceremony, which was held at Turin's Stadio Olimpico, was about the best of Italy and the sport, including a segment honoring the Alps. The group "The FilmMasters" created and produced the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the Games, whose executive producer is Marco Balich, his content supervisor is Alfredo Accatino. Art direction by Lida Castelli, Monica Maimone from Studio Festi led the Renaissance to Baroque section, which is part of the Opening Ceremony.
Day 2
The first gold medal of the 2006 Games was awarded in the 20 km biathlon event, won by German Michael Greis on the first day of the competition. Ice hockey began with the women's tournament; Sweden defeated Russia 3-1 in the first match, while Canada posted the second-largest victory in Olympic history by beating hosts Italy 16-0.
Day 3
On February 12, Latvia captured its first Winter Olympics gold medal, when Mārtiņš Rubenis took the bronze medal in the Men's Singles event. Also, in that same event Armin Zöggeler gave the first gold medal to the local, Italy. In ice hockey, both the Canadian and US women's teams achieved their second victory without conceding a goal.
Day 4
In the pairs figure skating event, the Chinese pair of Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao attempted a quadruple Salchow jump, but Zhang Dan fell, injuring his knee, but the pair finished their performance to cheers from the audience at foot and took the silver medal. Russia won the event and ended the day with two gold medals, just like the United States.
Day 5
The fifth day of the games saw the women's ice hockey teams of Canada and the United States finish top of their group undefeated with three wins each. Evgeni Plushenko of Russia sets a world record score in the men's short track speed skating event. His 90.66 points exceeded the closest opponent's score by more than 10 points. In alpine skiing, the men's combined event was subject to disqualifications, including favorites Bode Miller and Benjamin Raich. Finally, the American Ted Ligety won the test, in what was considered a surprise.
Day 6
Canada had a very positive day on February 15, setting new Olympic records in the Team Pursuit event in the sport of Speed Skating, in both the men's and women's events, as well as Canada also opening the hockey competition on men's ice with a victory against the local team, Italy. Italy, to the great support of their audience in the stands, ended the day with the men's Olympic team pursuit record, even surpassing Canada, which had previously achieved another record, but it was not enough to win the event. This was, in part, thanks to the Netherlands as the time in Canada and Italy improved.
China won its first gold medal, the work of Wang Meng winning the women's 500m singles in short track speed skating. Brothers Andreas Linger and Wolfgang Linger of Austria won the men's doubles luge competition, while Michaela Dorfmeister gave Austria another gold medal in the women's downhill alpine skiing.
Day 7
Kristina Šmigun-Vähi of Estonia won her second medal at these games after winning the 10 km interval start in cross-country skiing. There was action in men's curling, with the UK defeating Germany 7-6, the same result as Canada's win over Norway and Switzerland also winning, beating New Zealand 9-7. The day closed with the victory of the United States over Sweden 10-6.
Day 8
On February 17, Tanja Frieden of Switzerland took gold in women's snowboarding, after Lindsey Jacobellis of the United States fell on the penultimate jump while performing an unnecessary hold method. Jacobellis had to settle for silver, while Canada's Dominique Maltais took bronze after recovering from a crash. Duff Gibson of Canada took the gold in Skeleton, just ahead of fellow Canadian Jeff Pain, making Gibson the oldest gold medalist in Winter Olympic history. Rodney Hiner of the United States took bronze.
In the semifinals of the women's ice hockey tournament, the United States lost to Sweden, marking the first time in international competition that the United States had lost to anyone other than Canada (also, Canada maintained its record of never losing against someone other than the United States).
Day 9
Kjetil André Aamodt won gold for Norway in the men's Super G, beating Hermann Maier of Austria. Germany's Kati Wilhelm and Martina Glagow finished first and second in the women's 10km pursuit biathlon event.
Host Italy upset Canada 2-0 in men's curling, while Switzerland upset Canada 2-0 in men's ice hockey. At that same event, the United States suffered their first loss of the tournament against Slovakia.
Day 10
Lascelles Brown became the first Jamaican-born competitor to medal at the Winter Olympics on February 19, competing in the pairs bobsleigh team representing Canada that finished second in a very close contest.. The German pair led the Canadians by just 0.21 seconds. Likewise, the Canadian couple outperformed the Swiss couple by only 0.14. Finland remains undefeated in the men's ice hockey tournament, and Canada suffered from its second loss.
The day also saw the most controversial event of these games, at least in Europe, as it was scheduled to be the men's 10km Cross Country Relay. The battle stems from the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics 12 years ago in which Italy dueled Norway in that same event. In that sense, many Norwegians wanted to win this event in order to embarrass the Italians at home, but it didn't happen because of Italy's lopsided victory over Germany by more than 15 seconds to take their fifth straight gold at this event. Norway failed to win a gold medal for the first time since 1988.
Day 11
It was the last day of play in the curling discipline; Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Canada advanced to the women's semifinals, while Finland, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom advanced to the men's competition. Austria had its first team gold medal in ski jumping, while Canada took its second gold in women's ice hockey to take a two-to-one gold lead over the United States in the aggregate of all championships. olympians
Day 12
Slovakia and Finland won their final matches in men's ice hockey to finish their respective groups with a record of five wins each. Enrico Fabris gave host nation Italy another speed skating gold medal by winning the 1500 meter event.
Day 13
On February 22, the twelfth day of the competition, Anja Pärson won her first gold medal in alpine ski slalom. This is her fifth Olympic medal overall and her third from these games. Chandra Crawford took a faster route to the top of the podium, as she won the 1.1km cross-country ski sprint in her Olympic debut.
In the men's ice hockey quarterfinals, Slovakia, who had a perfect first round, said goodbye to the Czech Republic, while Russia, Finland and Sweden eliminated Canada, the United States and Switzerland, respectively.
Philipp Schoch successfully defended his gold medal at Salt Lake 2002, winning the snowboarding giant slalom.
Day 14
Sweden won gold in women's curling. Shizuka Arakawa gave Japan its first gold medal of the Games and the first gold medal in figure skating, winning the Women's Singles event. Russia snatched the gold medal in the women's biathlon team from two-time defending champions Germany.
Day 15
This day the men's curling final was played, in which Canada won its first gold medal and the United States won its first medal in this sport as Canada defeated Finland in the final and the United States defeated the United Kingdom United in the bronze medal match. A figure skating gala was also held, where the main participants of all events hold exhibitions. Sweden and Finland their respective semifinals in men's ice hockey, defeating the Czech Republic and Russia, respectively.
Day 16
The Austrians swept the men's alpine skiing medals on February 25. Germany won the gold medal in the men's 15km biathlon and the men's individual bobsleigh.
Apolo Anton Ohno won his second short track speed skating gold medal, with only slightly less controversy than his first 4 years prior. Jin Sun-Yu wins her third gold medal of the Games in the women's 1000m. Her compatriot Ahn Hyun-Soo won another gold medal in what was a sport at these games largely dominated by South Korea.
Day 17 (Closing)
The last day of the competition and the closing ceremony were held on February 26. In men's hockey, Sweden defeated Finland in the final to take the gold medal.
At the closing ceremony, Manuela Di Centa, a seven-time Olympic medalist for Italy and then a member of the International Olympic Committee, were scheduled to present the medals for the men's 50km cross-country skiing events. This led to the presentation of the gold medal to her own brother when Giorgio Di Centa won the event to take his second gold medal.
Calendar
| Event | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ceremonies | A | C | |||||||||||||||
| Biathlon | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | |||||||||
| Bobsleigh | F | F | F | ||||||||||||||
| Nordic combination | F | F | F | ||||||||||||||
| Background ski | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | |||||||
| Curling | F | F | |||||||||||||||
| Alpine skiing | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | |||||||
| Acrobatic skiing | F | F | F | F | |||||||||||||
| Ice hockey | F | F | |||||||||||||||
| Luge | F | F | F | ||||||||||||||
| Artistic landscape | F | F | F | F | |||||||||||||
| Speed skate | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | ||||||||
| Speed skate on short track | F | F | F | F | F | ||||||||||||
| Ski salts | F | F | F | ||||||||||||||
| Skeleton | F | F | |||||||||||||||
| Snowboard | F | F | F | F | F |
- A - Opening ceremony
- C - Closing ceremony
- F - Final.
Offices
The Games are held mainly in the city of Turin and in some smaller towns located around the city that have ski resorts.
Olympic areas
Olympic events were mostly held in Turin, but other events (such as skiing or snowboarding) were held in outlying mountain villages, for obvious reasons.
Turin
- Olympic Stadium: Opening and closing ceremonies
- Oval Lingotto: Speed Skating
- Torino Esposizioni: Ice Hockey
- Olympic Palasport: Ice Hockey (finals)
- Torino Palavela: Artistic and short track landscape
- Olympic Villa
Other venues
- Bardonecchia: Snowboard
- Cesana Torinese: Biatlon (in San Sicario), female alpine ski (in San Sicario Fraiteve), bobsleigh, luge and skeleton (in Cesana Pariol)
- Pinerole: Curling (in Palagiacchio)
- Pragelato: Nordic combination, cross-country skiing and ski jumps
- Sauze d'Oulx: Acrobatic skiing
- Sestriere: Male Alpine skiing
In addition, training sites were established in Chiomonte, Claviere and Prali, as well as in Torre Pellice for mountain sports. On the other hand, in the towns of Bardonecchia, Sastriere and Turin they are in charge of hosting the thousands of participants in the Olympic Villages.
Olympic Villages
- Bardonecchia
- Sestriere
- Turin
Training sites
- Chiomonte
- Claviere
- Prali
- Alpe Lusentino - Domodossola (Nordic Ski)
- Riale - Formazza (Alpine ski)
Olympic Mountain Training Site
- Pellice Tower
Participating countries
In green, between 1 and 9 athletes
In blue, between 10 and 49 athletes
In orange, between 50 and 99 athletes
In red, more than 100 athletes.
Official list of participating countries in the XX Olympic Winter Games. Of the 80 countries, Ethiopia and Madagascar are debuting countries in these sporting events.
Europe is the continent with the largest number of athletes and participating countries with a total of 42 national representations. It is followed by Asia with a total of 19 countries and America with 8 countries, of which 3 are from North America, 4 from South America and 1 from Central America. Africa is the continent with the smallest number of athletes representing the 5 participating countries of that continent. Finally, Oceania is represented by only two countries.
The largest delegation is the United States with 211 participants, followed by Canada with 198 athletes, Italy with 184 and Russia with 178 athletes.
| Olympic Committees participating in the XX Winter Olympic Games | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Albania
|  Germany
|  Andorra
|  Algeria
|  Argentina
|  Armenia
|
 Australia
|  Austria
|  Azerbaijan
|  Belgium
|  Bermuda
|  Belarus
|
 Bosnia and Herzegovina
|  Brazil
|  Bulgaria
|  Canada
|  Chile
|  China
|
 China Taipei
|  Cyprus
|  North Korea
|  South Korea
|  Costa Rica
|  Croatia
|
 Denmark
|  Slovakia
|  Slovenia
|  Spain (atletas)
|  United States
|  Estonia
|
 Ethiopia
|  Finland
|  France
|  Georgia
|  Greece
|  Hong Kong
|
 Hungary
|  India
|  Iran
|  Ireland
|  Iceland
|  United States Virgin Islands
|
 Israel
| Italy
|  Japan
|  Kazakhstan
|  Kenya
|  Kyrgyzstan
|
 Latvia
|  Lebanon
|  Liechtenstein
|  Lithuania
|  Luxembourg
|  Madagascar
|
 Moldova
|  Monaco
|  Mongolia
|  Nepal
|  Norway
|  New Zealand
|
 Netherlands
|  Poland
|  Portugal
| .svg){kind=small} United Kingdom
|  Czech Republic
|  Republic of Macedonia
|
 Romania
|  Russia
|  San Marino
|  Senegal
|  Serbia and Mont.
|  South Africa
|
 Sweden
| Switzerland
|  Tajikistan
|  Thailand
|  Turkey
|  Ukraine
|
 Uzbekistan
| .svg){kind=small} Venezuela
| ||||
Number of people
| IOC Codes | Countries | Sportsmen |
|---|
Stars
- South Korean skaters, 10 short track winners.
- Michael Greis (Germany), 3 golds in biathlon.
- Cindy Klassen (Canada), winner of 5 medals in speed skating.
Medal table
- See complete medallion in Medalero of the Turin Olympic Games 2006
Organizing country (Italy)
| No. | Country |  |  |  | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Germany (GER) | 11 | 12 | 6 | 29 |
| 2 |  United States (USA) | 9 | 9 | 7 | 25 |
| 3 |  Austria (UT) | 9 | 7 | 7 | 23 |
| 4 |  Russia (RUS) | 8 | 6 | 8 | 22 |
| 5 |  Canada (CAN) | 7 | 10 | 7 | 24 |
| 6 |  Sweden (SWE) | 7 | 2 | 5 | 14 |
| 7 |  South Korea (KOR) | 6 | 3 | 2 | 11 |
| 8 |  Switzerland (SUI) | 5 | 4 | 5 | 14 |
| 9 |  Italy (ITA) | 5 | 0 | 6 | 11 |
| 10 |  France (FRA) | 3 | 2 | 4 | 9 |
| 10 |  Netherlands (NED) | 3 | 2 | 4 | 9 |