Australia competed at the 2006 Winter Olympics in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

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. The team of 40 athletes was the largest ever for Australia, surpassing the team of 31 that participated at the

1960 Winter Olympics The 1960 Winter Olympics (officially the VIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Squaw Valley 1960) were a winter multi-sport event held from February 18 to 28, 1960, at the Squaw Valley Resort (now known as Palisades Tahoe) in Squaw Vall ...

. Prior to the Olympics, Australia had set a goal of winning one medal.

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Aussies set target of one medal
2 February 2006. They were able to win two medals – one gold and one bronze – and had several other top 10 finishes. Alisa Camplin served as flag bearer at the opening ceremonies.

Medalists

Alpine skiing

Five Australian skiers competed in Turin, but only one,

Craig Branch Craig Branch (born 11 February 1977) is an Australian alpine skier. He competed for Australia at the 2002 Olympics, 2006 Olympics and the 2010 Olympics. His best result was 27th place in the super-G Super giant slalom, or super-G, is a raci ...

, finished a run. Branch was the first starter for the men's downhill, and his 32nd place was the highest finish for an Australian alpine skier since Calgary '88. Note: In the men's combined, runs 1 is the downhill, and runs 2 and 3 are the slalom. In the women's combined, run 1 and 2 are the slalom, and run 3 the downhill.

Biathlon

Cameron Morton, a primary school principal, and the only Australian biathlete in Turin, was aiming for a top-fifty finish, but failed to make the top 80 in either of his two events. He was the fifth Australian to compete in an Olympic biathlon.

Bobsleigh

The men's pair of Rolleston and McKenzie equalled the best Australian finish in the event by placing 22nd, while Loch-Wilkinson and Reed were the first to represent the country in women's bobsleigh. Australia also attempted to enter a four-man team in Turin, appealing to the

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and the

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after it was revealed a Brazilian athlete had tested positive for nandrolone in a pre-Olympic test. The athlete in question had competed in a qualifying race won by Brazil, with New Zealand second and Australia third, with the top two teams advancing. The disqualification of the Brazilian entry from that race could have allowed Australia to compete, but the IOC, FIBT and CAS rejected the appeal.

Cross-country skiing

Australia sent 3 skiers to compete in the cross country events, its largest contingent at a Winter Olympics. ;Distance ;Sprint

Figure skating

Joanne Carter Joanne "Jo" Carter (born 17 April 1980) is an Australian former competitive figure skater. She is the 1998 Piruetten champion, the 1996 Golden Spin of Zagreb silver medalist, the 2004 Karl Schäfer Memorial bronze medalist, and a seven-time ...

, who had placed 12th at the

1998 Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 ( ja, 長野1998), was a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Japan, with some events taking place in the ...

, finished 25th in the women's short program, failing to advance to the free skate. Key: CD = Compulsory Dance, FD = Free Dance, FS = Free Skate, OD = Original Dance, SP = Short Program

Freestyle skiing

Canadian-born Dale Begg-Smith entered the Games as the top ranked man in moguls, and won Australia's only gold medal in Turin.

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 ...

gold medallist Alisa Camplin also won a medal, bronze in the women's aerials. This made her the first Australian athlete to win back-to-back medals in a winter sport. Camplin won a medal despite having major surgery on her knee four months before the Turin games.

Jacqui Cooper Jacqueline Cooper (born 6 January 1973) is an Australian motivational speaker and retired freestyle skier. Skiing career Cooper started skiing aerials at age 16 and was on the Australian team for 20 years. During her career she had many injurie ...

set a world record in qualifying for the women's aerials, but ended up 8th in the final. ;Men ;Women

Luge

Hannah Campbell-Pegg was the lone lugist representing Australia in Turin. She finished 23rd overall.

Short track speed skating

Four years after Stephen Bradbury won a gold medal in short track, Australia's first, no Australian skater managed to advance to an A final. The best performance came from the men's relay, which won the B final to finish sixth.

Skeleton

Michelle Steele, who was recruited to participate in the skeleton just 14 months before the Games, finished 13th in the women's event. Steele was part of a program created by the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

to develop Australian winter athletes by converting athletes from summer sports.

Snowboarding

Nine snowboarders represented Australia across each of the three disciplines, but only one,

Torah Bright Torah Jane Bright (born 27 December 1986) is an Australian professional snowboarder. She is Australia's most successful Winter Olympian, former Olympic gold and silver medalist, two time X Games gold medalist, three time US Open winner, two ti ...

qualified for a medal final. Bright was touted as a medal threat, and though she failed to qualify in the first round, she finished 1st in the second to make the final. She struggled in her first run of the final, ending up 10th, but improved to 5th after the second run. ;Halfpipe Note: In the final, the single best score from two runs is used to determine the ranking. A bracketed score indicates the run in the final that wasn't counted. ;Parallel GS Key: '+ Time' represents a deficit; the brackets indicate the results of each run. ;Snowboard cross

References

External links

Australian NOC

Olympic Winter Institute of Australia
*

Australian Olympic Committee Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

: "2006 Australian Winter Olympic Team
PDF file
25 January 2006. {{DEFAULTSORT:Australia at the 2006 Winter Olympics Nations at the 2006 Winter Olympics

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Winter Olympics Winter sports in Australia