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 time Italy had hosted the
Winter Olympics, the first being in
1956
Events
January
* January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan.
* January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim ...
in
Cortina d'Ampezzo
Cortina d'Ampezzo (; lld, Anpezo, ; historical de-AT, Hayden) is a town and ''comune'' in the heart of the southern (Dolomitic) Alps in the Province of Belluno, in the Veneto region of Northern Italy. Situated on the Boite river, in an alp ...
; Italy had also hosted the
Summer Olympics
The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...
in
1960
It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism.
Events
January
* Ja ...
in
Rome.
Turin was selected as the host city for the 2006 Games in June 1999. The official motto of Torino 2006 was "Passion lives here".
The Games' logo depicted a stylized profile of the
Mole Antonelliana building, drawn in white and blue ice crystals, signifying the snow and the sky. The crystal web was also meant to portray the web of new technologies and the Olympic spirit of community. The 2006 Olympic mascots were Neve ("snow" in Italian), a female
snowball, and Gliz, a male
ice cube
An ice cube is a small piece of ice, which is typically rectangular as viewed from above and trapezoidal as viewed from the side. Ice cubes are products of mechanical refrigeration and are usually produced to cool beverages. They may be produc ...
.
Italy will host the Winter Olympics again in
2026
Predicted and scheduled events
* January 1
** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1930 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law.
** ''Soup to Nuts'', the first on-scree ...
, scheduled to be held in
Milan and
Cortina d'Ampezzo
Cortina d'Ampezzo (; lld, Anpezo, ; historical de-AT, Hayden) is a town and ''comune'' in the heart of the southern (Dolomitic) Alps in the Province of Belluno, in the Veneto region of Northern Italy. Situated on the Boite river, in an alp ...
.
Host city selection
Turin was chosen as the host of the Olympics at the 109th
IOC Session in
Seoul,
South Korea on 19 June 1999.
This decision was the first bidding process, after the
IOC had adopted new election procedures during the 108th Extraordinary IOC Session in light of the controversies surrounding the votes for the
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...
and
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 ...
.
Since IOC members were forbidden from visiting the candidate cities (in the interests of reducing bribery), the 109th IOC Session elected a special body, the Selection College, to choose finalist cities from the pool of candidate cities after each had made their final presentations to the full IOC Session.
The full IOC Session then voted on the cities chosen as finalist cities by the Selection College. Although six European cities presented their projects. Only two would advance to the final stage, which was the choice of the host city. At the first phase, all had to make the preliminary presentation in full IOC Session. All the members of the Selection College had to be present at the audience and it was their responsibility to decide which would be the two finalists. They decided that the cities were: the big favorite
Sion and the dark horse of the process:
Turin.
The bids of
Helsinki, Finland;
Poprad-Tatry, Slovakia;
Zakopane, Poland; and
Klagenfurt, Austria were dropped by the Selection College after all six bidding cities made their presentations.
The selection of Turin over Sion came as a surprise around the world,as since the swiss city was seen as the overwhelming favorite in part because the IOC had their your headquarters in Switzerland.
Some experts and analysts say that the choice of Turin was a compensation for the country, because two years earlier,
Rome's made an unsuccessful
bid for the 2004 Summer Olympics. Those games were ultimately awarded to
Athens,
Greece.
The information below comes fro
the International Olympic Committee Vote History web page.
Cost and cost overrun
''The Oxford Olympics Study'' established the outturn cost of the Torino 2006 Winter Olympics at US $4.4 billion in 2015-dollars and cost overrun at 80% in real terms. This includes sports-related costs only, that is, (i) ''operational costs'' incurred by the organizing committee for the purpose of staging the Games, e.g., expenditures for technology, transportation, workforce, administration, security, catering, ceremonies, and medical services, and (ii) ''direct capital costs'' incurred by the host city and country or private investors to build, e.g., the competition venues, the Olympic village, international broadcast center, and media and press center, which are required to host the Games. Indirect capital costs are ''not'' included, such as for road, rail, or airport infrastructure, or for hotel upgrades or other business investment incurred in preparation for the Games but not directly related to staging the Games. The cost and cost overrun for Torino 2006 compares with costs of US$2.5 billion and a cost overrun of 13% for Vancouver 2010, and costs of US$51 billion and a cost overrun of 289% for Sochi 2014, the latter being the most costly Olympics to date. Average cost for Winter Games since 1960 is US$3.1 billion, average cost overrun is 142%.
Sports
The 2006 Winter Olympics featured 84 medal events over 15 disciplines in 7 sports.
Events that made their Olympic debut in Turin included mass start biathlon, team sprint cross-country skiing, snowboard cross and team pursuit speed skating.
Most of the cross-country skiing events at these Games involved different distances from those at the
previous Winter Games in 2002. The classical men's 50 km and women's 30 km distances, which were held at Salt Lake 2002, were not included in these Games, as these events were alternated with freestyle events of the same distances.
The following list shows the sports and disciplines that were contested at the 2006 Games.
# Biathlon
#*
# Bobsleigh
#*
#*
# Curling
#*
# Ice hockey
#*
# Luge
#*
# Skating
#*
#*
#*
# Skiing
#*
#*
#*
#*
#*
#*
''Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of medal events contested in each separate discipline.''
Calendar
:''All dates are in
Central European Time (
UTC+1)''
Medal table
The top ten listed
NOCs by number of gold medals are listed below.
''To sort this table by nation, total medal count, or any other column, click on the icon next to the column title.''
Podium sweeps
Highlights
Day 1 (Opening Ceremony)
Stefania Belmondo, a 10-time Olympic medalist in
cross-country skiing
Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreation ...
, lit the
Olympic Flame during 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. on 10 February. Before that, the ceremony celebrated the best of Italy and Sport including a segment honoring the
Alps. The
FilmMaster Group K-events (from March 2012:
Filmmaster Events) created and produced the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the XX Winter Olympic Games in Turin in 2006. Executive Producer
Marco Balich
Marco may refer to:
People
* Marco (given name), people with the given name Marco
* Marco (actor) (born 1977), South Korean model and actor
* Georg Marco (1863–1923), Romanian chess player of German origin
* Tomás Marco (born 1942), Spanish c ...
, Content Supervisor
Alfredo Accatino
Alfredo (, ) is a cognate of the Anglo-Saxon name Alfred and a common Italian, Galician, Portuguese and Spanish language personal name.
People with the given name include:
*Alfredo (born 1946), Brazilian footballer born as Alfredo Mostarda Fil ...
, Art Direction Lida Castelli.
Monica Maimone
Monica Maimone (born 5 December 1945), is an Italian theater director and playwright.
She started her career in theater in 1966; in 1968 she created the theatre group called ''Nuova Scena'' together with Dario Fo and Franca Rame, following the ...
of Studio Festi directed the section ''From Renaissance To Baroque'', part of the Opening Ceremony.
Day 2
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
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
defeated
Russia 3–1 in the first match while
Canada's team opened with the second most lopsided win in Olympic history by beating the host
Italians 16–0.
Day 3
On 12 February,
Latvia
Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
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 and gave Zöggeler medals at four consecutive Olympics, including two golds in a row. In Alpine skiing, the men's downhill was won by
Antoine Deneriaz
Antoine is a French given name (from the Latin '' Antonius'' meaning 'highly praise-worthy') that is a variant of Danton, Titouan, D'Anton and Antonin.
The name is used in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada, West Greenland, Haiti, French Guian ...
of France.
Day 4
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.
Day 5
The fourth day saw
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
Alpine skiing, or downhill skiing, is the pastime of sliding down snow-covered slopes on skis with fixed-heel bindings, unlike other types of skiing ( cross-country, Telemark, or ski jumping), which use skis with free-heel bindings. Whether for ...
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 6
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
Andreas Linger and
Wolfgang Linger won the men's doubles luge while
Michaela Dorfmeister gave the nation another championship in the women's downhill.
Day 7
Kristina Šmigun won her second gold medal of the Games with a victory in the women's 10 kilometre classical
cross-country skiing
Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreation ...
on 16 February, remaining the only
Estonian
Estonian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe
* Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent
* Estonian language
* Estonian cuisine
* Estonian culture
See also ...
to medal. In men's
curling action,
Great Britain edged
Germany 7–6,
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
kept
New Zealand winless by winning 9–7,
Canada beat
Norway 7–6, and the
United States defeated
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
, 10–6.
Evgeni Plushenko of Russia won the gold in the men's singles artistic skating.
Day 8
On 17 February,
Tanja Frieden of
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
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. Jacobellis settled for silver (she would have won gold if she hadn't performed the grab), while
Canada's
Dominique Maltais took bronze after recovering from a crash.
Duff Gibson of
Canada took gold in the
skeleton
A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...
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 9
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's ice hockey to put the Canadians on the wrong end of two major upsets on 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 10
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.
The day also saw the most hyped event of these games, at least in Europe, as the Men's 10 km Cross Country Relay was scheduled. The battle stemmed from the
Lillehammer
Lillehammer () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. Some of the more notable villages in the municip ...
games 12 years ago in which Italy out-dueled Norway in that very same event. To that extent, many Norwegians wanted to win this event in order to embarrass the Italians on their home turf, but it was not to be as Italy crushed the field winning over Germany by over 15 seconds to take their 5th straight gold in this event. Norway failed to medal for the first time since 1988.
Day 11
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.
Day 12
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 13
On 22 February, the twelfth day of competition,
Anja Pärson
Anja Sofia Tess Pärson (; born 25 April 1981) is a Swedish former alpine skier. She is an Olympic gold medalist, seven-time gold medalist at the World Championships, and two-time overall Alpine Skiing World Cup champion. This included winning ...
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
Chandra Crawford (born November 19, 1983) is a Canadian cross-country skier who has competed since 2001 at the age of 16. Prior to this, she was a biathlete for five years. She was born in Canmore, Alberta, Canada.
Career
On February 22, 2006, ...
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 Slovaks lost to the Czech Republic while Russia, Finland, and Sweden eliminated Canada, the United States, and Switzerland, respectively.
Philipp Schoch
Philipp Schoch (born 10 October 1979) is a Swiss snowboarder. He won a gold medal in the Parallel Giant Slalom at the 2002 Winter Olympics. At the next Olympics, he faced his brother Simon Schoch
Simon Schoch (born 7 October 1978) ...
successfully defended his snowboarding giant slalom gold against his brother
Simon.
Day 14
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 Germany.
Day 15
24 February 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 16
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 kilometer biathlon and the men's individual bobsleigh.
Apolo Anton Ohno won his second short track speed skating gold medal. South Korea's
Jin Sun-Yu wins her third gold of the Games in the women's 1000 m. Compatriot
Ahn Hyun-Soo
Viktor An (russian: Виктор Ан; born Ahn Hyun-soo ( ko, 안현수) on November 23, 1985),. is a South Korean-born Russian Short track speed skating, short-track speed skating coach and retired short-track speed skater. With a total of e ...
wins his third gold medal of the Games, medaling in every men's short track event and bringing his total number of medals in Turin to four.
Day 17 (Closing ceremony)
The final day of competition and the
closing ceremony, were held during the
Sunday Carnival 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
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 were located in the Olympic District in central Turin, including:
*
Oval Lingotto – Speed skating
*
Torino Esposizioni – Ice hockey
*
Palasport Olimpico
Palasport Olimpico, officially operating with the sponsored name Pala Alpitour except during events prohibiting sponsorship names when it is usually known as simply PalaOlimpico, or occasionally PalaIsozaki after its architect, is a multi-purpos ...
– Ice hockey (final)
*
Stadio Olimpico
The Stadio Olimpico (English: ''Olympic Stadium'') is the largest sports facility in Rome, Italy, seating over 70,000 spectators. It is located within the Foro Italico sports complex, north of the city. The structure is owned by the Italian Na ...
–
Opening
Opening may refer to:
* Al-Fatiha, "The Opening", the first chapter of the Qur'an
* The Opening (album), live album by Mal Waldron
* Backgammon opening
* Chess opening
* A title sequence or opening credits
* , a term from contract bridge
* , ...
and
closing
Closing may refer to:
Business and law
* Closing (law), a closing argument, a summation
* Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction
* Closing (sales), the process of making a sale
* Closure (business), Closing a ...
ceremonies
*
Palavela – Figure skating, short-track speed skating
*
Piazza Castello
Piazza Castello is a city square in Turin, Italy. It is lined with museums, theaters and cafes.
Buildings around the square
*Royal Palace of Turin
*Palazzo Madama, Turin
Palazzo Madama e Casaforte degli Acaja is a palace in Turin, Piedmont. ...
- awarding ceremonies
* Olympic Village
Other locations
*
Bardonecchia – Snowboarding
*
Cesana Pariol – Bobsleigh, Luge, Skeleton
*
Cesana San Sicario – Biathlon
*
Pinerolo – Curling
*
Pragelato – Nordic combined (ski jumping), Ski jumping
*
Pragelato Plan – Cross-country skiing, Nordic combined (cross-country skiing)
*
San Sicario Fraiteve San Sicario Fraiteve is a venue built for the 2006 Winter Olympic. It seated 6,160 spectators, including 5,660 seated and 500 standing, for the women's alpine skiing downhill, super-G, and combined. The course has an overall length of .
The venue ...
– Alpine skiing (women's combined (downhill), downhill, and super-g)
*
Sauze d'Oulx – Freestyle skiing
*
Sestriere Borgata – Alpine skiing (men's combined (downhill), downhill, super-g)
*
Sestriere Colle – Alpine skiing (combined (slalom), giant slalom, slalom)
Olympic villages
*
Bardonecchia
*
Sestriere
*
Turin
Official Olympic training sites
*
Chiomonte
*
Claviere
*
Prali
*
Alpe Lusentino - Domodossola
The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, ...
(VB) (Alpine Skiing)
*
Riale - Formazza (VB) (Nordic Skiing)
Olympic mountain training site
*
Torre Pellice
Participating National Olympic Committees
A record 80
National Olympic Committee
A National Olympic Committee (NOC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Olympic Committee, NOCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the Olympic Games ...
s (NOCs) entered athletes at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games. This was an increase of two from the 78 represented at the
2002 Olympic Winter Games
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 internationa ...
. The number in parentheses indicates the number of participants that NOC contributed. It was the first appearance for Albania, Ethiopia and Madagascar. It was the only appearance at the Winter Olympics for
Serbia and Montenegro
Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...
, coming between the country's name change in 2003 from the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Montenegro's then-pending
vote for independence in May 2006.
Organization
Out of 40,000 applicants, 20,000 volunteers were selected to help the athletes, spectators, and journalists, and to prepare the competition sites. They were selected by the recruiting program
Noi2006
NOI or Noi may refer to:
Acronyms
* Nation of Islam, an African American political and religious movement
* Nation People Together (''Națiune Oameni Împreună''), a Romanian political party
* National Olympiad in Informatics, for selection to th ...
.
Construction
Sixty-five 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
Stadio Olimpico (Turin)
The Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino ( en, Grande Torino Olympic Stadium) is a multi-purpose stadium located in Turin, Italy. It is the home ground of Serie A club Torino Football Club. The stadium is located in Piazzale Grande Torino, in the distr ...
(formerly known as Stadio Comunale);
* Five sports halls (three new, two rearranged): the Palazzo a Vela re-designed by Gae Aulenti (to host short track and ice skating), the
Oval Lingotto (speed ice skating),
Torino Esposizioni (ice hockey), the Ice stadium in corso Tazzoli, the
Palasport Olimpico
Palasport Olimpico, officially operating with the sponsored name Pala Alpitour except during events prohibiting sponsorship names when it is usually known as simply PalaOlimpico, or occasionally PalaIsozaki after its architect, is a multi-purpos ...
designed by Arata Isozaki (ice hockey);
* The Olympic arch of Turin;
* Olympic villages of Turin, Bardonecchia and Sestriere;
* The ice stadium in Pinerolo, re-arranged and enlarged, to host the curling competition;
* A new stadium in Torre Pellice (ice hockey);
* Twelve new intermediate-level ski lifts in Cesana Torinese, Cesana San Sicario, Sestriere, Bardonecchia, Claviere, Sauze d'Oulx, Pragelato;
* The tracks for bobsled, luge, and skeleton in Cesana (the second international track in Italy, along with the one in
Cortina d'Ampezzo
Cortina d'Ampezzo (; lld, Anpezo, ; historical de-AT, Hayden) is a town and ''comune'' in the heart of the southern (Dolomitic) Alps in the Province of Belluno, in the Veneto region of Northern Italy. Situated on the Boite river, in an alp ...
);
The most important transport infrastructure works were:
* The
Turin Metro (
VAL
Val may refer to: Val-a
Film
* ''Val'' (film), an American documentary about Val Kilmer, directed by Leo Scott and Ting Poo
Military equipment
* Aichi D3A, a Japanese World War II dive bomber codenamed "Val" by the Allies
* AS Val, a Sov ...
system), which for the Olympic games connected
Collegno to the railway station of
Porta Susa
Torino Porta Susa is a railway station in Turin, northern Italy; it is the second busiest mainline station in the city, after Torino Porta Nuova. It is located in ''Corso Inghilterra''.
History
The station was built in 1868 during the expansi ...
.
* The upgrade of 11 state roads and motorways connecting Turin with other Olympic sites, including the Motorway between Turin and Pinerolo, which was host to the Curling events.
In the city, the main developments were the
Palafuksas, a glass building designed by
Massimiliano Fuksas, 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.
Sponsors
Worldwide Olympic Partners
*
Atos Origin
*
The Coca-Cola Company
*
General Electric
*
Kodak
*
Lenovo
Lenovo Group Limited, often shortened to Lenovo ( , ), is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology company specializing in designing, manufacturing, and marketing consumer electronics, Personal computer, personal computers, ...
*
Manulife
*
McDonald's
*
Omega SA
*
Panasonic
*
Samsung Electronics
*
Visa Inc.
Main Sponsors
*
Fiat Group
Stellantis Italy, formerly known as Fiat Group Automobiles S.p.A. from 2007 to 2014 and FCA Italy S.p.A. from 2014 to 2021, is the Italian subsidiary of the multinational automaker Stellantis, dedicated to the production and selling of passenger ...
*
Sanpaolo IMI
*
Telecom Italia (Telecom and
TIM)
Official Sponsors
*
Alfa Romeo
* Alpitour
*
Anheuser-Busch
*
ASICS
* Berloni
*
Eutelsat
Eutelsat S.A. is a French satellite operator. Providing coverage over the entire European continent, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas, it is the world's third-largest satellite operator in terms of revenues.
Eutelsat's satellit ...
*
Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane
*
Jet Set Sports
Jet Set Sports LLC, d/b/a CoSport, is a distributor of consumer hospitality packages and tickets to the Olympic games. It is a privately-held company established in 2000 and owned by Sead Dizdarevic. CoSport has the rights to market and sell cons ...
*
Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is an American multinational corporation founded in 1886 that develops medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and consumer packaged goods. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company i ...
*
Kyocera
*
Lancia
Lancia () is an Italian car manufacturer and a subsidiary of FCA Italy S.p.A., which is currently a Stellantis division. The present legal entity of Lancia was formed in January 2007 when its corporate parent reorganised its businesses, but it ...
*
Leonardo-Finmeccanica
* Reale Mutua Assicurazioni
Official Suppliers
*
Adecco Group
The Adecco Group, is a Swiss-French company based in Zurich, Switzerland, and is the world's second largest Human Resources provider and temporary staffing firm, and a Fortune Global 500 company.
They directly employ 700,000 people a day, an ...
*
Automobile Club d'Italia The Automobile Club d'Italia (usually known by its acronym ACI) is a not-for-profit statutory corporation of the Italian Republic. The club originated through the efforts of Count Carlo Biscaretti di Ruffia as the "Automobile Club of Turin" found ...
*
A.T. Kearney
Kearney is a global management consulting firm with offices in more than 40 countries worldwide. Kearney has consistently earned top places among global management consulting firm rankings, such as Vault's Consulting 50 and ''Consulting'' magazine' ...
* Ceriel
* Cicrespi
* Cofatech
*
Deutsche Bahn
The (; abbreviated as DB or DB AG) is the national railway company of Germany. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). The Federal Republic of Germany is its single shareholder.
describes itself as the se ...
(
DB Schenker)
*
Europcar
* Fast-Buyer
* Fontanafredda Winery
* Garrett Metal Detectors
* Intercom Dr. Leitner
*
Italcar
Italcar is an Italian company, located in Turin, which produces and distributes electric vehicles.
Description
The vehicles carried by Italcar range from golf cart
A golf cart (alternatively known as a golf buggy or golf car) is a small mot ...
* Italgas
* Liski
*
Nortel
* Ottaviani
*
Pininfarina
* Recchi
* Seteco
* SITAF
*
Technogym
* Ticketone
*
TNT Express
Broadcasting
About 40% of the television coverage of the Olympics was in
high definition
High definition or HD may refer to:
Visual technologies
*HD DVD, discontinued optical disc format
*HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format
*HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tape
* HiDef, 24 frames-pe ...
.
The 2006 Winter Olympic Games were broadcast worldwide by a number of television broadcasters:
Controversies
The Games had issues with costs covering and international attendance. Due to a lack of funding by the Italian Government, TOROC risked dissolution.
Metro
The
metro was finally opened to the public on 4 February 2006, after a 45-day delay. It operated on a shorter stretch (''XVIII Dicembre'' (Porta Susa) to ''Fermi'' – 11 stations) than originally forecast; it finally reached the main railway station (''Porta Nuova'') and the rest of the city centre more than one year after the Games, in October 2007. For the duration of the Games, a single ticket (5 euros) covered use of both the metro and other means of public transportation for a whole day. However, during the Games, metro service stopped at 6:00 pm, making it impractical for spectators of evening events. Furthermore, the metro did not reach any of the Olympic venues. On the other hand, the bus service was heavily improved for the Games, although still inadequate at night hours.
Doping
During the games, Italian police raided the Austrian athletes' quarters in search of evidence of blood doping. The raid was conducted due to suspicions over the presence of biathlon coach
Walter Mayer
Walter Mayer (born March 17, 1957) is an Austrian Cross-country skier and coach. He won the Vasaloppet in 1980, and finished second in 1992. As a coach, he was banned from the 2006 and 2010 Olympics after blood transfusion equipment was found in a ...
, 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". Six skiers and four biathletes were also taken for drug screens by the
IOC. Those substance screens later returned negative results.
On 25 April 2007, six Austrian athletes (
Roland Diethard
Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the ...
,
Johannes Eder
Johannes Eder (born 19 October 1979) is an Austrian cross-country skier who competed between 1998 and 2007.
Eder has five individual career victories up to 30 km (four in Continental Cup, one in an FIS race) from 2001 to 2004. In 2006, he ...
,
Wolfgang Perner
Wolfgang Perner (17 September 1967 – 1 October 2019) was an Austrian biathlete. The IOC banned Perner for life from competing in the Olympics as the result of a doping scandal at the 2006 Winter Olympics.
Biography
He was a part of the Austr ...
,
Jürgen Pinter
Jürgen Pinter (born 30 March 1979 in Villach) is an Austrian cross-country skier. He competed in cross-country skiing at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. He participated at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2011. In November 2008 he was ha ...
,
Wolfgang Rottmann
Wolfgang Rottmann (born May 15, 1973 in Altenmarkt im Pongau) is a former biathlete from Austria.
As the result of a doping scandal at the 2006 Winter Olympics, the IOC banned Rottmann for life from competing in the Olympics.
Career
*Wor ...
and
Martin Tauber
Martin Tauber (born 4 November 1976) is an Austrian cross-country skier. He competed in the men's 15 kilometre classical event at the 2006 Winter Olympics.
Doping scandal in Turin
In April 2007 Tauber was banned by the International Olympic ...
) were banned for life from the Olympics for their involvement in the doping scandal at the 2006 Turin Olympics, the first time the
IOC punished athletes without a positive or missed doping test. The Austrians were found guilty of possessing doping substances and taking part in a conspiracy, based on materials seized by Italian police during the raid on the living quarters. The Austrians also had their competition results from Turin annulled.
List of athletes with doping convictions in these Games:
* Russian
Olga Pyleva
Olga Valeryevna Medvedtseva (russian: Ольга Валерьевна Медведцева), former Pyleva (russian: Пылёва), née Zamorozova (russian: Заморозова), (born 7 July 1975) is a former Russian biathlon, biathlete.
At th ...
was stripped of her silver and other medals in the 15 km biathlon event after testing positive for
carphedon.
* Brazilian bobsled athlete
Armando dos Santos, ejected from the Games after a preventive antidoping test came positive (the results were from a test conducted in Brazil).
The IOC has retested nearly 500 doping samples that were collected at the 2006 Turin Games. In 2014, the Estonian Olympic Committee was notified by the IOC that a retested sample from cross-country skier
Kristina Šmigun had tested positive. On 24 October 2016, the
World Anti-Doping Agency Athletes' Commission stated that Šmigun, who won two gold medals at the Turin Games, faces a
Court of Arbitration for Sport hearing before the end of October. In December 2017, IOC announced that re-analysis of samples resulted in no positive cases.
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. Organizers 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 were not as interested in the Olympics as in years past.
It has been suggested that reasons for this lack of interest include the
tape delayed
In radio and television, broadcast delay is an intentional delay when broadcasting live material, technically referred to as a deferred live. Such a delay may be to prevent mistakes or unacceptable content from being broadcast. Longer delays las ...
coverage, which showed events in prime-time as much as 18 hours later in the Western United States.
Primetime viewing figures in Canada were also disappointing, especially after the early exit of the Canadian men's hockey team,
though overall viewing figures were up from 2002.
[ ]
Olympic legacy
The Olympics represented an opportunity to revamp the city's look and change its traditional image as an industrial city by showing the world its hidden side of vibrant cultural life and stunning architectures.
Thanks to the olympic exposure and state of the art venues, Turin has become one of Italy's primary tourist destinations and has been established as an important sport center in Europe.
Since 2006, TOP (
Torino Olympic Park) has been the agency in charge of managing the Olympic facilities.
Security measures
As with every Olympics since the
Munich massacre at the
1972 Summer Olympics
The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...
and then increasingly since the
Salt Lake 2002 Winter Olympics in the aftermath of the
September 11 attacks, there was heavy security due to fears of terrorism.
The organizers further increased security measures
The Washington Post
/ref> 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
* 2026 Winter Olympics
)
, nations =
, athletes =
, events = 116 in 8 sports
, opening = 6 February 2026
, closing = 22 February 2026
, opened_by =
, cauldron =
, stadium = San Siro Verona Arena
, wint ...
- Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo
Cortina d'Ampezzo (; lld, Anpezo, ; historical de-AT, Hayden) is a town and ''comune'' in the heart of the southern (Dolomitic) Alps in the Province of Belluno, in the Veneto region of Northern Italy. Situated on the Boite river, in an alp ...
* :Competitors at the 2006 Winter Olympics
* Neve and Gliz
Neve and Gliz were the official mascots of the 2006 Winter Olympics and Aster was the official mascot of the 2006 Winter Paralympics, both held in Turin, Italy.
Neve and Gliz were created by Pedro Albuquerque. They both represent the character ...
* Bids for Olympic Games
References
External links
*
Official site
* City of Turin
English
*
The program of the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics
{{Portal bar, Olympics, Italy
W
Sports competitions in Turin
Olympic Games in Italy
Winter Olympics by year
Olympics
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
2006 in multi-sport events
February 2006 sports events in Europe
Winter sports competitions in Italy
2000s in Turin