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Image:Torino 2006 Neve e Glitz sciano in Atrium.jpg Neve and Gliz, the 2006 Olympics mascots, on display in Turin Image:€2 commemorative coin Italy 2006.jpg Italian €2 commemorative coin of 2006 celebrating the Turin games 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 Turin metropolitan area at 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[1] and some events were held in the Provo metropolitan area of 400,209,[2] which the state of Utah calls a single metropolitan area of 1.9 million[3] and the U.S. government describes as two metropolitan areas in a single urban area.
SportsThe 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;[4] in fact, most of the cross country skiing events at these Games involved different distances from those in Salt Lake City. (Numbers in parentheses after each sport discipline indicate the number of events contested.)
ResultsMedal tableImage:PICT0089.JPG Gold medal and flower bouquet.
Image:Torino.jpg The 2006 Olympics logo on display in Turin Athletes with the most gold medals
Athletes with the most medals
Nations with medals in most disciplines
Medal sweep events
The only occasions where both golds were won by the same country were Image:Flag of South Korea (bordered).svg South Korea in the short track speed skating relays and Image:Flag of Sweden.svg Sweden in Cross country skiing team sprint.
Calendar
HighlightsStefania Belmondo, a 10-time Olympic medalist in cross-country skiing, lit the Olympic Flame during the opening ceremony on 10 February. 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. On 12 February, Latvia won its first winter Olympic medal when Mārtiņš Rubenis took the bronze in the men's luge. Armin Zöggeler'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. Chinese figure skating pair Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao, trailing a dominant Russian pair, attempted a throw quadruple salchow jump—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. 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. 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. Kristina Šmigun 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 Sweden, 10-6. Image:Lindsey Jacobellis.jpg Poster of Lindsey Jacobellis in New York City. On February 17, Tanja Frieden of 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). Kjetil André 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' | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
