Tajikistan sent a delegation to compete at the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second t ...

in Turin, Italy from 10–26 February 2010. This was the second time Tajikistan had participated in a Winter Olympic Games. The Tajikistani delegation consisted of one alpine skier,

Andrei Drygin Andrei Sergeyevich Drygin (russian: link=no, Андре́й Сергее́вич Дры́гин), (born June 12, 1977, in Krasnoyarsk, Russian SFSR), is a Tajikistani alpine skier, originating from Russian family that emigrated to Tajikistan. Dryg ...

. He finished 51st in both the super-G and the downhill.

Background

The National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Tajikistan was first recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1993, and Tajikistan made its Olympic debut at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics. The nation debuted at the Winter Olympic Games in 2002 in Salt Lake City, and was making its second Winter Olympics appearance in Turin. The Tajikistani delegation to Turin consisted of one alpine skier, Andrei Drygin. He was the flag bearer for the

opening ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly-constructed location or the start of an event.

while Abdugafar Sharipov performed the duties for the closing ceremony. Sharipov was a non-competitor at these Olympics however, he was listed by the IOC as an alpine skier.

Alpine skiing

was 28 years old at the time of the Turin Olympics. He had previously represented Tajikistan at the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 ( arp, Niico'ooowu' 2002; Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; nv, Sooléí 2002; Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), was an internation ...

. According to the official report of these Olympics, he finished last in each of the first two downhill training runs. His performance in the actual race of the downhill, held on 12 February, was better. He finished the race in a time of 1 minute and 59.41 seconds, good for 51st place out of 53 competitors who completed the competition. On 18 February he took part in the super-G, finishing in a time of 1 minute and 37.85 seconds, again finishing 51st, this time out of 56 classified finishers. On 20 February, in the

giant slalom Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline. It involves skiing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in slalom but less than in Super-G. Giant slalom and slalom make up t ...

, he failed to finish the first run. Drygin would go on to represent Tajikistan again four years later at the Vancouver Olympics.

References

{{Nations at the 2006 Winter Olympics Nations at the 2006 Winter Olympics

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

Winter Olympics