2006 Winter Olympics

XX Olympic Winter Games
The emblem shows a stylized profile of the Mole Antonelliana, drawn in ice crystals in white and blue, signifying the snow and the sky. The crystal web also portrays the web of new technologies and the Olympic spirit of community.
Host city	Turin, Italy
Nations participating	80
Athletes participating	2,508 (1,548 men; 960 women)
Events	84 in 7 sports
Opening ceremony	February 10
Closing ceremony	February 26
Officially opened by	Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
Athlete's Oath	Giorgio Rocca
Judge's Oath	Fabio Bianchetti
Olympic Torch	Stefania Belmondo
Stadium	Stadio Olimpico

The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XX Olympic Winter Games, were celebrated in Turin, Italy from February 10, 2006, through February 26, 2006. This marked the second time Italy hosted the Olympic Winter Games, the first being the VII Olympic Winter Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo in 1956. 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, is the largest city to have ever hosted a Winter Olympics; the title will fall to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, (2.1 million) when that city hosts the XXI Olympic Winter Games. The 2002 Salt Lake City games also claims this title because at the time of the Olympics its metropolitan population was 1,516,227 and some events were held in the Provo metropolitan area of 400,209, which the state of Utah calls a single metropolitan area of 1.9 million and the U.S. government describes as two metropolitan areas in a single urban area.

The Games featured 84 medal events in 15 disciplines grouped over 7 sports. Events that made Olympic debut in Turin included mass start biathlon, team sprint cross country skiing, snowboard cross and team pursuit speedskating. The classical men's 50 km and women's 30 km distances, which were held at the previous Winter Games in 2002, were not held in these Games, as these events were alternated with freestyle events of the same distances; In fact, most of the cross country skiing events at these Games involved different distances from those in Salt Lake City.

The following are the disciplines that were contested at the games.

Results

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	11	12	6	29
2	United States	9	9	7	25
3	Austria	9	7	7	23
4	Russia	8	6	8	22
5	Canada	7	10	7	24
6	Sweden	7	2	5	14
7	South Korea	6	3	2	11
8	Switzerland	5	4	5	14
9	Italy (host nation)	5	0	6	11
10	France	3	2	4	9
10	Netherlands	3	2	4	9

The 2006 Olympics logo on display in Turin

Athletes with the most gold medals

Michael Greis (GER) (Biathlon): 3 gold medals
Ahn Hyun Soo (KOR) (Short track speed skating): 3 gold medals
Jin Sun-Yu (KOR) (Short track speed skating): 3 gold medals

Athletes with the most medals

Cindy Klassen (CAN) (Speed skating): 5 (1 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze)
Ahn Hyun Soo (KOR) (Short track speed skating): 4 (3 gold, 1 bronze)

Nations with medals in most disciplines

Canada: 10 disciplines, 21 events
United States: 9 disciplines, 21 events
Germany: 7 disciplines, 25 events
Russia: 7 disciplines, 21 events
Norway: 7 disciplines, 15 events
Switzerland: 7 disciplines, 13 events

Medal sweep events

Austria: 3/3 medals in Men's Slalom
Germany: 3/3 medals in Women's single luge

For team sports, the following countries won a medal in both men's and women's events:

Canada: curling; short track speed skating relay; Speed skating team pursuit
France: biathlon relay
Germany: biathlon relay; Cross country skiing relay
Italy: Cross country skiing relay
South Korea: short track speed skating relays
Russia: biathlon relay
Sweden: Cross country skiing team sprint; Ice hockey

The only occasions where both golds were won by the same country were South Korea in the short track speed skating relays and Sweden in Cross country skiing team sprint.

Calendar

Opening ceremony

Event competitions

Event finals

Exhibition gala

Closing ceremony

February	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd	23rd	24th	25th	26th
Ceremonies	o																o
Biathlon		o		o	o		o		o o			o		o		o o
Bobsleigh									o	o	o	o			o	o
Curling				o o o	o o o	o o o	o o o	o o o	o o o	o o o	o o o		o o	o o	o o
Ice hockey		o o	o o	o o	o o	o o	o o	o	o o	o o	o o	o o	o		o	o	o
Figure skating		o		o	o		o	o		o	o	o		o	o
Cross-country skiing			o o		o o		o	o	o	o			o o		o		o
Nordic combined		o				o	o					o
Luge		o	o	o	o	o
Speed skating		o	o	o	o	o o	o o		o	o		o	o		o	o
Short track			o			o			o o				o			o o o
Alpine skiing			o		o	o			o	o	o		o		o	o
Freestyle skiing		o				o				o	o		o	o
Ski jumping		o	o					o	o		o
Skeleton							o	o
Snowboarding			o	o			o	o					o	o
February	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd	23rd	24th	25th	26th

Highlights

Jeremy Teela in the biathlon

Opening Ceremony

Stefania Belmondo, a 10-time Olympic medalist in cross-country skiing, lit the Olympic Flame during the opening ceremony on 10 February. Before that, the ceremony celebrated the best of Italy and Sport including a segment honoring the Alps.

Day 1

The first gold medal of the 2006 Games was awarded in the 20 kilometre biathlon, won by German Michael Greis on the first day of competition. Ice hockey began with the women's competition; Sweden defeated Russia 3-1 in the first match while Canada's team opened with the most lopsided win in Olympic history by beating the host Italians 16-0.

Day 2

On 12 February, Latvia won its first winter Olympic medal when M?rti?� Rubenis took the bronze in the men's luge. Armin Z�ggeler's win in that event gave Italy its first gold medal of the Games. Both the Canadian and American women's ice hockey teams posted their second straight shutout wins.

Day 3

Chinese figure skating pair Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao, trailing a dominant Russian pair, attempted a throw quadruple salchow jumps � an element which had never been successfully completed in competition. Zhang Dan fell, injuring her knee, but the pair finished their program to a standing ovation and took the silver medal. Russia finished the third day of competition with two gold medals, as did the United States.

Day 4

The fourth day saw the two North American women's hockey teams finish out pool play with their third win each. Evgeni Plushenko of Russia set a world record score in the men's figure skating short program; his 90.66 points was more 10 points better than the nearest opponent's score. The men's combined alpine skiing was riddled with disqualifications, including front-runners Bode Miller and Benjamin Raich. American Ted Ligety won the event in what was considered an upset.

Day 5

Canada had another strong day on 15 February, setting new Olympic records in both men's and women's pursuit team speed skating events as well as opening the men's ice hockey competition with a win against Italy. Italy finished the day with the men's pursuit team Olympic record, however, after the Netherlands bettered Canada's time only to have Italy improve upon theirs. China won its first gold of 2006 with Wang Meng's victory in the women's individual 500 metre short track speed skating. A pair of Austrian brothers won the men's doubles luge while Michaela Dorfmeister gave the nation another championship in the women's downhill.

Day 6

Kristina �migun won her second gold medal of the Games with a victory in the women's 10 kilometre classical cross-country skiing on 16 February, remaining the only Estonian to medal. In men's curling action, Great Britain edged Germany 7-6, Switzerland kept New Zealand winless by winning 9-7, Canada beat Norway 7-6, and the United States defeated Switzerland took the gold in women's snowboard cross after Lindsey Jacobellis of the United States fell on the second-to-last jump while performing an unnecessary method grab to give up the largest lead of the entire tournament. Jacobellis settled for silver, while Canada's Dominique Maltais took bronze after recovering from a crash. Duff Gibson of Canada took gold in the skeleton just ahead of fellow Canadian Jeff Pain, becoming the oldest individual gold medalist in Winter Olympics history. In the women's ice hockey semifinals, the United States lost a shootout to Sweden, marking the first time in international competition that the United States had lost to anyone other than Canada (Canada's win maintained its record of never having lost to anyone other than the United States).

Day 8

Kjetil Andr� Aamodt won gold for Norway in the men's Super G on 18 February, beating Hermann Maier of Austria. Germans Kati Wilhelm and Martina Glagow finished first and second in the 10 kilometre biathlon pursuit. The host Italians defeated Canada in men's curling, while Switzerland did the same in men's ice hockey to put the Canadians on the wrong end of two major upsets in the same day. The United States men's ice hockey team suffered its first loss of the tournament as Slovakia and Russia continue their dominance of the pool.

Day 9

Lascelles Brown became the first Jamaican-born competitor to win a medal at the Winter Olympics on 19 February, competing on the Canadian 2-man bobsleigh team which finished second in an extremely tight competition. The German pair was only .21 seconds ahead of the Canadians, themselves only .14 ahead of the Swiss team. Finland continued to be unbeaten in men's ice hockey, handing Canada its second loss.

Day 10

The final day of curling pool play was 20 February; Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Canada advanced to the women's semifinals while Finland, Canada, the United States, and Great Britain qualified in the men's competition. Austria took their first team gold medal in ski jumping, while Canada took their second in women's ice hockey to take a 2-1 lead over the United States in all-time Olympic championships.

Day 11

Slovakia and Finland both won their final men's ice hockey games on 21 February to win their respective pools with 5-0-0 records. Enrico Fabris gave the host nation another gold medal in speed skating by winning the men's 1500 metres.

Day 12

On 22 February, the twelfth day of competition, Anja P�rson won her first gold medal in the women's slalom; it was her fifth overall Olympic medal and third of the 2006 Games. Chandra Crawford took a quicker route to the top of the podium, winning the 1.1 kilometre cross-country sprint gold in her Olympic debut. In the men's ice hockey quarterfinals, the previously undefeated Slovakians lost to the Czech Republic while Russia, Finland, and Sweden eliminated Canada, the United States, and Switzerland, respectively. Philipp Schoch successfully defended his snowboarding giant slalom gold against his brother Simon.

Day 13

Sweden took the women's championship in the curling finals held on 23 February. Shizuka Arakawa gave Japan its first gold medal of the Games and first figure skating gold medal, winning the ladies' figure skating competition in part by being able to finish without falling, as Sasha Cohen and Irina Slutskaya both tumbled. Russia wrested the gold medal in women's team biathlon from two-time defending champions Germany.

Day 14

February 24 was the day of the men's curling finals, in which Canada won its first gold medal and the United States won its first medal in the sport as Canada defeated Finland and the United States beat Great Britain for the second time. The figure skating gala was also held, with top placers in all of the events performing exhibitions. Sweden and Finland won their men's ice hockey semifinal games, defeating the Czech Republic and Russia.

Day 15

The Austrians swept the men's alpine slalom medals on 25 February, led by Benjamin Raich. Germany took gold medals in the men's 15 kilometre biathlon and the men's individual bobsleigh. Apolo Anton Ohno won his second short track speed skating gold medal, with only somewhat less controversy than his first 4 years earlier.

Day 16

The final day of competition and the closing ceremony, were held on 26 February. The Swedish men's ice hockey team handed Finland their first loss in the final to take the gold medal. In the closing ceremony, Manuela Di Centa, a seven-time Olympic medalist from Italy and then-member of the International Olympic Committee, was scheduled to present the medals for the men's 50 kilometre cross-country skiing event. This resulted in her presenting the gold medal to her own brother when Giorgio Di Centa won the event to take his second gold medal.

Venues

Landsat 7 image of the Italian Alps with some of the venues marked.

Olympic areas

Olympic events were mainly held in Turin, but other events (namely skiing, snowboarding, and the track sports) were held in mountainous outlying villages for obvious reasons.

Turin

Many venues are located in the Olympic District in central Turin, including:

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

Location of Turin (Torino in Italian) and some other venues

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

Torre Pellice

Participating NOCs

A record of 80 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) entered athletes at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games. This was an increase of three from the 77 represented at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. The number in parentheses indicates the number of participants that NOC contributed.