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The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially known as the '''XX Olympic Winter Games''', were held in Turin , Italy from February 10 , 2006 , through February 26 , 2006 . They marked the second time Italy hosted the Olympic Winter Games ; the country has previously hosted the VII Olympic Winter Games in Cortina D'Ampezzo in 1956 . Italy also hosted the Games Of The XVII Olympiad in Rome in 1960 . 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 language, Piedmontese . 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, through 2006, was the largest city ever to have hosted a Winter Olympics; the title will fall to Vancouver , British Columbia , Canada , when that city hosts the XXI Olympic Winter Games . SPORTS See Also: Events at the 2006 Winter Olympics 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 50km and women's 30km 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 the Torino Games involved different distances from those in Salt Lake City. Disciplines RESULTS Medals table and flower bouquet.]] (''Host nation highlighted; sorted in terms of most gold medals- IOC ranking''') Athletes with the most gold medals
Athletes with the most medals
Nations with medals in most disciplines
Medal sweep events
For team sports, the following countries won a medal in both men's and women's events:
HIGHLIGHTS See Also: 2006 Winter Olympics highlights ;Opening Ceremony - February 10 ; lit the Olympic Flame . ; '' More Highlights... '' ;Day 1 - February 11 ; of Germany wins the First Gold Medal of the 2006 Winter Olympics, with a victory in the individual 20km race. ; becomes the first Canadian woman to win a medal in moguls. Norwegian Kari Traa wins the silver and Sandra Laoura of France wins the bronze. ; '' More Highlights... '' ;Day 2 - February 12 ; of the United States withdraws from the Olympics following a groin injury in practice. Emily Hughes is named her replacement. ; of the U.S. team takes the gold medal at the men's snowboarding halfpipe event. ; '' More Highlights... '' ;Day 3 - February 13 ; Svetlana Ishmuratova wins the women's 15 km biathlon. ; of the United States wins the gold medal at the 500m long track event, skating both runs in less than 35 seconds; the fastest time of any other competitor was that of silver medalist Dmitry Dorofeyev , with a 35.17. Lee Kang-Seok of Korea wins a bronze medal, the first Korean medal in (long track) speed skating in 14 years. ; '' More Highlights... '' ;Day 4 - February 14 ; defeats Sweden 8-1 and will face Finland in the semi-final. The United States defeats Finland 7-3 and will face Sweden in the other semi-final match. ; of Russia takes gold in the women's 500 m event. Wang Manli and Ren Hui of China win the other two (2) medals. ; '' More Highlights... '' ;Day 5 - February 15 ; brothers Andreas and Wolfgang Linger won the doubles competition. Teams from Germany and Italy took the silver and bronze. ; withdrew due of illness. ; '' More Highlights... '' ;Day 6 - February 16 ; wins her second gold medal of the Games with a victory in the women's 10km classical and remains the only Estonian to medal. ; edges Germany 7-6, Switzerland keeps New Zealand winless by winning 9-7, Canada edges Norway 7-6, and the United States defeats Sweden , 10-6. ; '' More Highlights... '' ;Day 7 - February 17 in New York City .]] ; of Switzerland takes the gold in women's snowboarding cross after Lindsey Jacobellis of the United States falls on the second-to-last jump while performing an unnecessary method grab to give up the largest lead of the entire tournament. Jacobellis settles for silver, while Canada 's Dominique Maltais takes bronze after recovering from a crash. ; of Canada takes gold, just ahead of fellow Canadian Jeff Pain . Swiss slider Gregor Stähli wins the bronze. The 39-year-old Gibson becomes the oldest individual gold medalist in Winter Olympics history. ; '' More Highlights... '' ;Day 8 - February 18 ; Janica Kostelić takes gold in the women's combined. Austria 's Marlies Schild wins the silver and Anja Pärson of Sweden finishes third. : Kjetil André Aamodt wins gold for Norway in the men's Super G, beating Hermann Maier of Austria . Ambrosi Hoffmann takes bronze for the Swiss . ; Kati Wilhelm and Martina Glagow finish first and second in the 10km pursuit; Albina Akhatova of Russia takes bronze. : Vincent Defrasne wins gold for France in the 12.5km pursuit event, followed closely by Ole Einar Bjørndalen of Norway . Germany 's Sven Fischer takes bronze. ; '' More Highlights... '' ;Day 9 - February 19 ; bob driven by Andre Lange wins gold in the men's 2-man event 0.21 seconds ahead of the Canadian bob of Pierre Lueders and Lascelles Brown and 0.35 seconds ahead of Martin Annen 's Swiss sled. Brown becomes the first Jamaica n-born competitor to win a Winter Olympic medal. ; of the Netherlands wins the women's 1000m in 1.16.05, 8 years after winning in Nagano . Cindy Klassen of Canada comes in second and favorite Anni Friesinger of Germany wins the bronze, 0.06 seconds behind Timmer. ; '' More Highlights... '' ;Day 10 - February 20 ; 8–1, Norway becomes the third team to qualify for the semi-finals in the women's competition, joining Sweden and Switzerland . Canada beats Denmark 9-8, occupying the fourth playoff spot. In the men's competition, Canada defeats the United States 6-3 to qualify for the semi-finals, and will play the USA again in the first game of the medal round. ; wins the team event for the first time. Finland takes the silver, while Norway takes the bronze. ; '' More Highlights... '' ;Day 11 - February 21 ; team of Sandra Kiriasis and Anja Schneiderheinze win gold in the women's event ahead of teams from the United States ( Shauna Rohbock and Valerie Fleming ) and Italy ( Gerda Weissensteiner and Jennifer Isacco ). ; of Austria wins gold in the LH Sprint competition while Norway 's Magnus Moan and Germany 's Georg Hettich finish in the silver and bronze positions. ; '' More Highlights... '' ;Day 12 - February 22 ; of Sweden wins her first Olympic gold medal in the women's Slalom ; her fifth career medal. Austrians Nicole Hosp and Marlies Schild take silver and bronze. ; of Canada wins a gold medal in her Olympic debut in the women's 1.1 km sprint. Germany's Claudia Künzel edges out Russia's Alena Sidko to earn the silver. : Björn Lind of Sweden claims the gold medal in the men's sprint in a rout. Frenchman Roddy Darragon edges out Swede Thobias Fredriksson to earn the silver. ; '' More Highlights... '' ;Day 13 - February 23 ; women's team skipped by Anette Norberg win the gold medal match against Switzerland with a 7-6 double take out on the hammer of the 11th end. Canada defeats Norway in the bronze medal match 11-5. ;'s Han Xiaopeng wins gold in men's aerials by a little more than two points over Dmitri Dashinski of Belarus . Vladimir Lebedev of Russia wins bronze. ; '' More Highlights... '' ;Day 14 - February 24 ; of The Czech Republic wins the 30 km freestyle event. Russian Julija Tchepalova claims the silver and Pole Justyna Kowalczyk gets the bronze. ; defeats Finland 10-4 in the gold medal match to win the nation's first gold medal in men's curling after winning silver in Nagano and Salt Lake City . The United States men's team defeats Great Britain by a score of 8-6 to take the bronze medal, America's first medal in curling. ; '' More Highlights... '' ;Day 15 - February 25 ; bob driven by Andre Lange wins gold in the 4-man event 0.13 seconds ahead of the Russian bob driven by Alexandre Zoubkov and 0.41 seconds ahead of Martin Annen 's Swiss sled. ; Short Track Speed Skating :American Apolo Anton Ohno wins the men's 500m, earning his second career gold medal. Canada's François-Louis Tremblay wins the silver, while Ahn Hyun-Soo of South Korea is denied his third individual gold medal of the Olympics, settling for the bronze and his third career Olympic medal. ; '' More Highlights... '' ;Day 16 - Closing Ceremony - February 26 ; defeats Finland 3-2 to take the men's Ice Hockey gold medal, with Nicklas Lidström scoring the deciding goal in the final. The Czech Republic takes the bronze after beating Russia . ; gives the gold medal to his brother Giorgio. ; '' More Highlights... '' VENUES 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:
Other locations
Olympic villages Official Olympic training sites
Olympic mountain training site PARTICIPATING NOCS A record of 80 National Olympic Committee s (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.
Despite the overall increase of NOCs and number of athletes, the following NOCs which competed at the previous Winter Games did not participate in Turin: HOST SELECTION PROCESS See Also: 2006 Winter Olympic bids Turin was chosen as the host of the Olympics in 1999, defeating and Turin . The candidacies of Helsinki , Finland ; Poprad-Tatry , Slovakia ; Zakopane , Poland ; and Klagenfurt , Austria were dropped by the Selection College after all six candidate cities made their candidate presentations to the full session {Link without Title} . The selection of Turin over Sion came as a surprise, since Sion was the overwhelming favorite. Media speculation was that the choice of Turin was due to the combination of four factors: Turin's overwhelming population size difference (Turin-1.5 mil, Sion-27,000), the skills of the Italian bid team, the IOC's desire to compensate Italy for the recent selection of Athens over Rome for the 2004 Summer Olympics , and finally a way to retaliate against Switzerland for the Whistleblower role played by IOC member Marc Hodler in the revelation of the 2002 Corruption Scandal . ORGANIZATION Out of 40,000 applicants, 25,000 volunteers were selected to help the athletes, spectators and journalists, and to prepare the competition sites. They were selected by the recruiting program Noi2006 . Construction 65 sporting facilities, various infrastructures, sport villages for athletes and media, and transportation infrastructures were constructed for a total of 1.7 billion euros. Among the most important sporting facilities that were used:
The most important transport infrastructure works were:
In the city, from the urban point of view, the main developments were the Palafuksas , a glass building designed by Massimiliano Fuksas , the new civic library designed by Mario Bellini, the new Modern Art Gallery and the great project of the "Spina", that will provide urban regeneration over an area of 2 million square meters through the construction of an underground urban railway and the re-utilization of abandoned industrial areas. BROADCASTING The 2006 Olympic Winter Games were broadcasted worldwide by a number of television broadcasters:
Eurosport also provided live coverage of events to viewers across the EU and Europe . The BBC also broadcasted many events live over the Internet for free viewing by internet users in the United Kingdom . OLYMPIC PROBLEMS Bankruptcy threats The financial situation of the Organizing Committee has gradually become more and more difficult. The latest development was a 64 million euro financial shortfall appearing at the end of 2005, mainly due to the fact that Italy's draft budget for 2006 did not include the government's promised final 40 million euro allocation to Olympic organizers. This shortfall could have led the Torino 2006 Games to declare Bankruptcy . The concerns went as far as starting to define the first step of a bankruptcy procedure for Torino 2006, which could have happened if the organizing committee had failed to approve its budget at a January 20 , 2006 board meeting. Finally, the Italian Government promised to cover the shortfall. Subway The subway was finally opened to the public on February 4 after a 45 days delay. It operates on a shorter stretch (''XVIII Dicembre'' to ''Fermi'' - 11 stations) than originally foreseen, only reaching the main railway station (''Porta Nuova'') and the rest of the city centre one year after the Games. For the duration of the Games, a single ticket (5 euros) covered use of both the subway and other means of public transportation for a whole day. Transportation officials don't expect much overcrowding. Weather A number of Alpine competitions were delayed because of low visibility caused by snowfall. Despite these events being postponed, most were later held in better weather without any problems. Doping Italian police raided the Austrian athletes' quarter in search of evidence of doping. The raid was conducted due to suspicions over the presence of biathlon coach Walter Mayer , who had been banned from all Olympic events up to and including the Vancouver Olympic Games In 2010 due to previous doping convictions. Around the time of the raid Mayer and two Austrian biathletes, Wolfgang Perner and Wolfgang Rottmann, tried to escape and fled back to Austria. Later, the Austrian ski federation president said that the two athletes told him they "may have used illegal methods." {Link without Title} . After some days the results of the tests of all 10 tested Austrian athletes were presented and were all negative. List of athletes with doping convictions in these Games:
Ratings and attendance A number of events reported low spectator attendance despite having acceptable ticket sales. Preliminary competition and locally less popular sports failed to attract capacity crowd as expected. Organisers explained this was because blocks of seats were reserved or purchased by sponsors and partners who later did not show up at the events. Several news organizations reported that many Americans are not as interested in the Olympics as in years past It has been suggested that reasons for this disinterest include the Tape Delay ed coverage, which showed events in Prime-time as much as 18 hours late in the West , and also due to the lack of success achieved by big-name American athletes. [http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/winter06/columns/story?id=2345588 In Canada, CBC's coverage has also posted disappointing numbers, which were reduced as the Canadian men's hockey team was eliminated early in the competition. Primetime ratings reached only as high as #7 in the weekly ratings. However, ratings for live, afternoon coverage have attracted 300,000 more viewers than the taped, primetime coverage. Overall, only primetime coverage has suffered, dropping 45 percent from the 2002 Games, with the entire coverage being 52 percent ahead from 2002. [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060223.wxolyblues0223_3/BNStory/Torino2006/home Meanwhile on TSN , the numbers for its live curling coverage (which aired as early as 3:00am EST) were between 300,000 and 500,000 viewers. [http://calsun.canoe.ca/Sports/2006Games/2006/02/18/1449801-sun.html SECURITY MEASURES As with every Olympics since the 1972 Olympics In Munich and increasingly since the 2002 Winter Olympics , there was heavy security due to fears of terrorism. The organizers further increased security measures {Link without Title} in connection with the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad Cartoons Controversy and insisted that the Olympic Games were going to be safe, which they were; the Olympics concluded without a major breach of security occurring. SEE ALSO
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