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The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XX Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event which was 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 official logo displayed the name "Torino", the Italian name of the city; the city is known as "Turin" in both English and the local traditional language, Piedmontese.^[4] The Olympic mascots of Torino 2006 were Neve ("snow" in Italian), a female snowball, and Gliz, a male ice cube.^[5] The official motto of the XX Olympic Winter Games was "Passion lives here".^[6]

Host city selection[link]

"Passion lives here", the Turin 2006 motto written by the Italian calligrapher Francesca Biasetton.

Turin was chosen as the host of the Olympics in 1999 at Seoul, South Korea in the 109th IOC Session.^[7] This was after the IOC had adopted new election procedures during the 108th Extraordinary IOC Session in light of the corruption scandals surrounding the votes for the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics.^[8] 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 cities launched candidacies and made presentations to the full IOC Session, the Selection College chose only two cities to go forward to be voted upon by the full IOC Session: Sion and Turin.^[7] 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.^[9]

The selection of Turin over Sion came as a surprise, since Sion was the overwhelming favorite.^[10] Media speculation was that the choice of Turin was due to the IOC's desire to retaliate against Switzerland for the whistleblower role played by IOC member Marc Hodler in the revelation of the 2002 corruption scandal.^[11]

The information below comes from the International Olympic Committee Vote History web page.

2006 Winter Olympics bidding results[12]
City	Country	Round 1
Turin	Italy	53
Sion	Switzerland	36

Sports[link]

The Games featured 84 medal events over 15 sports.^[1] Events that made their Olympic debut in Turin included mass start biathlon, team sprint cross country skiing, snowboard cross and team pursuit speedskating.^[13] 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.^[14] Most of the cross country skiing events at these Games involved different distances from those in Salt Lake City.

The following are the sports and disciplines that were contested at the games. The numbers in parentheses after each sport discipline indicate the number of events contested.

Calendar[link]

February		10th Fri	11th Sat	12th Sun	13th Mon	14th Tue	15th Wed	16th Thu	17th Fri	18th Sat	19th Sun	20th Mon	21st Tue	22nd Wed	23rd Thu	24th Fri	25th Sat	26th Sun	Events
Ceremonies		OC																CC
Alpine skiing				1		1	1		●	2		2		1		1	1		10
Biathlon			1		1	1		1		2			1		1		2		10
Bobsleigh										●	1	●	1				●	1	3
Cross country skiing				2		2		1	1	1	1			2		1		1	12
Curling					●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●		●	1	1			2
Figure skating			●		1	●		1	●		●	1	●		1	EG			4
Freestyle skiing			1				1					●	●	1	1				4
Ice hockey			●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	1	●	●		●	●	1	2
Luge			●	1	●	1	1												3
Nordic combined			1				●	1					1						3
Short track speed skating				1			1			2				1			3		8
Skeleton								1	1										2
Ski jumping			●	1					●	1		1							3
Snowboarding				1	1			1	1					1	1				6
Speed skating			1	1	1	1	●	2		1	1		1	1		1	1		12
Total events			4	8	4	6	4	8	3	9	3	5	4	6	5	4	7	3	84
Cumulative total			4	12	16	22	26	34	37	46	49	54	58	64	69	73	81	84
February		10th Fri	11th Sat	12th Sun	13th Mon	14th Tue	15th Wed	16th Thu	17th Fri	18th Sat	19th Sun	20th Mon	21st Tue	22nd Wed	23rd Thu	24th Fri	25th Sat	26th Sun	Events

Medal table[link]

Gold medal and flower bouquet

      Host country (Italy)

To sort this table by nation, total medal count, or any other column, click on the icon next to the column title.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Germany (GER)	11	12	6	29
2	United States (USA)	9	9	7	25
3	Austria (AUT)	9	7	7	23
4	Russia (RUS)	8	6	8	22
5	Canada (CAN)	7	10	7	24
6	Sweden (SWE)	7	2	5	14
7	South Korea (KOR)	6	3	2	11
8	Switzerland (SUI)	5	4	5	14
9	Italy (ITA)	5	0	6	11
10	France (FRA)	3	2	4	9
10	Netherlands (NED)	3	2	4	9

Highlights[link]

Jeremy Teela in the biathlon

Day 1 (Opening Ceremony)[link]

Stefania Belmondo, a 10-time Olympic medalist in cross-country skiing, lit the Olympic Flame during the opening ceremony on February 10. 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, Content Supervisor Alfredo Accatino, Art Direction Lida Castelli. Monica Maimone of Studio Festi directed the section From Renaissance To Baroque, part of the Opening Ceremony. .

Day 2[link]

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 second most lopsided win in Olympic history by beating the host Italians 16–0.

Day 3[link]

On February 12, 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.

Day 4[link]

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[link]

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. American Ted Ligety won the event in what was considered an upset.

Day 6[link]

Canada had another strong day on February 15, 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[link]

Kristina Šmigun won her second gold medal of the Games with a victory in the women's 10 kilometre classical cross-country skiing on February 16, 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.

Day 8[link]

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. 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).

Day 9[link]

Kjetil André Aamodt won gold for Norway in the men's Super G on February 18, 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 in 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[link]

Lascelles Brown became the first Jamaican-born competitor to win a medal at the Winter Olympics on February 19, 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 10k Cross Country Relay was scheduled. The battle stemmed from the Lillehammer 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[link]

The final day of curling pool play was February 20; 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 to take a 2–1 lead over the United States in all-time Olympic championships.

Day 12[link]

Slovakia and Finland both won their final men's ice hockey games on February 21 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[link]

On February 22, the twelfth day of competition, Anja Pärson 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 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 Slovakians lost to the Czech Republic while Russia, Finland, and Sweden eliminated Canada, the United States, and Switzerland, respectively. Philipp Schoch successfully defended his snowboarding giant slalom gold against his brother Simon.

Day 14[link]

Sweden took the women's championship in the curling finals held on February 23. 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 two-time defending champions Germany.

Day 15[link]

February 24 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[link]

The Austrians swept the men's alpine slalom medals on February 25, 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, with only somewhat less controversy than his first 4 years earlier. South Korea's Jin Sun-Yu wins her third gold of the Games in the women's 1000 m. Compatriot Ahn Hyun-Soo 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)[link]

The final day of competition and the closing ceremony, were held on February 26. 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[link]

Mole Antonelliana in Turin.

Olympic areas[link]

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[link]

Many venues were located in the Olympic District in central Turin, including:

• Oval Lingotto – Speed skating
• Torino Esposizioni – Ice hockey
• Palasport Olimpico – Ice hockey (final)
• Stadio Olimpico – Opening and closing ceremonies
• Palavela – Figure skating, short-track speed skating
• Olympic Village

Other locations[link]

Location of Turin (Torino in Italian) and some other venues

• 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 – 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[link]

• Bardonecchia
• Sestriere
• Turin

Official Olympic training sites[link]

• Chiomonte
• Claviere
• Prali
• Alpe Lusentino - Domodossola (VB) (Alpine Skiing)
• Riale - Formazza (VB) (Nordic Skiing)

Olympic mountain training site[link]

• Torre Pellice

Participating NOCs[link]

A record 80 National Olympic Committees (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. A total of 19 countries sent just 1 athlete. It was the first appearance for Albania, Ethiopia and Madagascar. It was also the only appearance at the Winter Olympics for Serbia and Montenegro, coming between their change of name in 2003 and Montenegro's vote for independence in May.

Participating NOCs. Green: 1–9; blue: 10–49; orange: 50–99; red: 100 or more.

Despite the overall increase of NOCs and number of athletes, the following NOCs which competed at the previous Winter Games (in the case of the Philippines, they tried to qualify for figure skating and snowboarding through Eden Serina but did not qualify) did not participate in Turin:

•  Cameroon
•  Fiji
•  Jamaica
•  Mexico
•  Philippines
•  Puerto Rico
•  Trinidad and Tobago

Organization[link]

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.^[15]

Construction[link]

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.^[16]

Among the most important sporting facilities that were used:

• The Stadio Olimpico (Turin) (formerly known as Stadio Comunale);
• 5 sports halls (3 new, 2 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 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);
• 12 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);

The most important transport infrastructure works were:

• The Turin Metro (VAL system), which for the Olympic games connected Collegno to the railway station of Porta Susa.
• 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.

Broadcasting[link]

The 2006 Olympic Winter Games were broadcast worldwide by a number of television broadcasters:

• An extensive list of official broadcasters is found at The Games on Television section of the Torino Games official site.
• The BBC provided television and radio coverage of the winter Olympics in the UK – the TV coverage was presented mainly by Grandstand regulars such as Hazel Irvine and Clare Balding. Most of the coverage was shown on BBC Two, with some on BBC One, and there was also BBCi for Freeview, Satellite and Cable (digital TV) viewers. BBC also broadcast many events live on the webcast Freeview provides an extra two screens whereas all 3 interactive streams were available to UK users only on bbc.co.uk and Digital Satellite and Cable such as Sky Digital.
• Eurosport also provided live coverage of events to viewers across the EU and Europe.
• American Forces Network rebroadcast some of this coverage for military personnel serving outside the United States.
• SportTV2 broadcast for the first time all days and all events in Brazil.
• ČT4 Sport was introduced on the occasion of the Olympic Games in the Czech Republic.

Country	Broadcasting organisation
Australia	Seven Network
Austria	ORF
Belgium	VRT
	RTBF
Brazil	Sportv
Canada	CBC
	TSN
	RDS
	SRC
China	CCTV-5
Croatia	HRT
Czech Republic	ČT4 Sport
Denmark	TV2
Estonia	ETV
Finland	YLE
France	France 2
	France 3
Germany	ARD
	ZDF
Greece	ERT
Iceland	RÚV
Ireland	RTÉ
Israel	Arutz 2
Italy	RAI
Latvia	LTV7
Luxembourg	RTL
Japan	NHK
Malaysia	Astro
Mexico	Televisa
	TV Azteca
Montenegro	RTCG 1
Netherlands	NOS
	Nederland 2
New Zealand	TVNZ
Norway	NRK
	SportN
Poland	TVP
Romania	TVR
Russia	C1R
	RTR
Serbia	RTS
Singapore	MediaCorp 5
Slovakia	STV
Slovenia	RTV Slovenija
South Korea	KBS
	MBC
	SBS
Spain	TVE
Sweden	SVT
Switzerland	SSR
	TSR
	TSI
Turkey	TRT
Ukraine	NTU
United Kingdom	BBC
USA	NBC
	CNBC
	MSNBC
	USA Network
	Telemundo
	Universal HD

Controversies[link]

The Games had several problems, including doping and poor ratings. Due to a lack of funding by the Italian Government, Toroc risked dissolution. American skier Bode Miller was also a focus of controversy in his home country and Canada, where his actions were not considered in line with the Olympic spirit.^{[citation needed]}

Metro[link]

The metro was finally opened to the public on February 4, 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.^{[citation needed]}

Weather[link]

A number of Alpine competitions were delayed because of low visibility caused by snowfall in early days. Despite these events being postponed, most were later held in better weather without any problems.^{[citation needed]}

Doping[link]

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."^[17] 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:

• Russian Olga Medvedtseva was stripped of her silver medal 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).

Ratings and attendance[link]

The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (February 2010)

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.^{[citation needed]}

Several news organizations reported that many Americans were not as interested in the Olympics as in years past.^[18] It has been suggested that reasons for this lack of interest include the tape delayed coverage, which showed events in prime-time as much as 18 hours later in the Western United States, and also due to the lack of success achieved by big-name American athletes.^[19] Primetime viewing figures in Canada were also disappointing, especially after the early exit of the Canadian men's hockey team,^[20] though overall viewing figures were up from 2002.^[21]

Olympic Legacy[link]

Torino's Olympic Oval hosting the 2009 European Athletics Indoor

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 media exposure during the Olympics, and state of the art venues, Turin became a tourist destination among European bigs and an important sport center for Italy and Europe.^[22] Since 2006, TOP (Torino Olympic Park) had been the agency in charge of managing the Olympic facilities.

Security measures[link]

As with every Olympics since the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics and increasingly since the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Olympics, there was heavy security due to fears of terrorism.

The organizers further increased security measures^[23] 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[link]

Olympics portal

• 2006 Winter Paralympics
• Olympic games celebrated in Italy
  • 1956 Winter Olympics – Cortina D'Ampezzo
  • 1960 Summer Olympics – Rome
  • 2006 Winter Olympics – Turin

• Winter Olympic Games
• Olympic Games
• International Olympic Committee
• List of IOC country codes
• Category:Competitors at the 2006 Winter Olympics
• Neve and Gliz

Notes[link]

References[link]

• "Turin 2006". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. http://www.olympic.org/en/content/Olympic-Games/All-Past-Olympic-Games/Winter/Turin-2006. 
• "All the Medallists since 1896". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. http://www.olympic.org/en/content/All-Olympic-results-since-1896/?AthleteName=&Games=1334152&Country=&Sport=&TargetResults=true&resultsPageIPP=30. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 2006 Winter Olympics

Wikinews has a related section: Olympics

• "Turin 2006". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. http://www.olympic.org/en/content/Olympic-Games/All-Past-Olympic-Games/Winter/Turin-2006. 
• Official site
• City of Turin – English
• 2006 Winter Olympics at the Open Directory Project
• The program of the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics

Winter Olympic Games
The Olympic flame in Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympics
Games
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Sports (details)
Alpine skiing • Biathlon • Bobsleigh • Cross‑country skiing • Curling • Figure skating • Freestyle skiing • Ice hockey • Luge • Nordic combined • Short track speed skating • Skeleton • Ski jumping • Snowboarding • Speed skating

The Winter Olympic Games is a sporting event, which occurs every four years. The first celebration of the Winter Olympics was held in Chamonix, France, in 1924. The original sports were alpine and cross-country skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, Nordic combined, ski jumping and speed skating. The Games were held every four years from 1924 until 1936 when they were interrupted by World War II. The Olympics resumed in 1948 and were celebrated every four years. The Winter and Summer Olympic Games were held in the same years until 1992, when the governing body for the Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), decided to place the Summer and Winter Games on separate four-year cycles in alternating even-numbered years.

The Winter Games have evolved since their inception. Sports have been added and some of them, such as luge, short track speed skating and freestyle skiing, have earned a permanent spot on the Olympic programme. Others, such as speed skiing, bandy and skijoring, were demonstration sports but never incorporated as Olympic sports. The rise of television as a global medium for communication enhanced the profile of the Games. It created an income stream, via the sale of broadcast rights and advertising, which has become lucrative for the IOC. This allowed outside interests, such as television companies and corporate sponsors, to exert influence. The IOC has had to address several criticisms, internal scandals, the use of performance enhancing drugs by Winter Olympians, as well as a political boycott of the Winter Olympics. Nations have used the Winter Games to showcase the claimed superiority of their political systems.

The Winter Olympics have been hosted on three continents, but never in a country in the southern hemisphere. The United States has hosted the Games four times; France has been the host three times; Austria, Canada, Italy, Japan, Norway and Switzerland have hosted the Games twice. In 2014 Sochi will be the first Russian city to host the Winter Olympics. The IOC has selected Pyeongchang, South Korea, to host the 2018 Winter Olympics.

History[link]

Early years[link]

Ulrich Salchow at the 1908 Olympics

The first international multi-sport event for winter sports was the Nordic Games held in Sweden in 1901. Originally organised by General Viktor Gustaf Balck, the Nordic Games were held again in 1903 and 1905 and then every fourth year thereafter until 1926.^[1] Balck was a charter member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and a close friend of Olympic Games founder Pierre de Coubertin. He attempted to have winter sports, specifically figure skating, added to the Olympic programme but was unsuccessful until the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom.^[1] Four figure skating events were contested and at which Ulrich Salchow (10-time world champion) and Madge Syers won the individual titles.^[2][3]

Three years later Italian count Eugenio Brunetta d'Usseaux proposed that the IOC stage a week of winter sports included as part of the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. The organisers opposed this idea because they desired to protect the integrity of the Nordic Games and were concerned about a lack of facilities for winter sports.^[4][5][6] The idea was resurrected for the 1916 Games, which were to be held in Berlin, Germany. A winter sports week with speed skating, figure skating, ice hockey and Nordic skiing was planned, but the 1916 Olympics was cancelled after the outbreak of World War I.^[5]

The first Olympics after the war were held in Antwerp, Belgium and featured figure skating and ice hockey tournament.^[5] At the IOC Congress held the following year it was decided that the host nation of the 1924 Summer Olympics, France, would host a separate "International Winter Sports Week" under the patronage of the IOC. Chamonix was chosen to host this "week" (actually 11 days) of events. The Games proved to be a success when more than 250 athletes from 16 nations competed in 16 events.^[7] Athletes from Finland and Norway won 28 medals, more than the rest of the participating nations combined.^[8] In 1925 the IOC decided to create a separate Olympic Winter Games and the 1924 Games in Chamonix was retroactively designated as the first Winter Olympics.^[5][7]

St. Moritz, Switzerland, was appointed by the IOC to host the second Olympic Winter Games in 1928.^[9] Fluctuating weather conditions challenged the hosts. The opening ceremony was held in a blizzard while warm weather conditions plagued sporting events throughout the rest of the Games.^[10] Because of the weather the 10,000 metre speed-skating event had to be abandoned and officially cancelled.^[11] The weather was not the only note-worthy aspect of the 1928 Games; Sonja Henie of Norway made history when she won the figure skating competition at the age of 15. She became the youngest Olympic champion in history, a distinction she would hold for 74 years.^[12]

The next Winter Olympics was the first to be hosted outside of Europe. Seventeen nations and 252 athletes participated.^[13] This was less than in 1928 as the journey to Lake Placid, United States, was a long and expensive one for most competitors who had little money in the midst of the Great Depression. The athletes competed in fourteen events in four sports.^[13] Virtually no snow fell for two months before the Games, it was not until mid-January that there was enough snow to hold all the events.^[14] Sonja Henie defended her Olympic title and Eddie Eagan, who had been an Olympic champion in boxing in 1920, won the gold in the men's bobsleigh event to become the first, and so far only, Olympian to have won gold medals in both the Summer and Winter Olympics.^[13]

The German towns of Garmisch and Partenkirchen joined to organise the 1936 edition of the Winter Games, held on February 6–16.^[15] This would be the last time the Summer and Winter Olympics were held in the same country in the same year. Alpine skiing made its Olympic debut, but skiing teachers were barred from entering because they were considered to be professionals.^[16] Because of this decision the Swiss and Austrian skiers refused to compete at the Games.^[16]

World War II[link]

World War II interrupted the celebrations of the Winter Olympics. The 1940 Games had been awarded to Sapporo, Japan, but the decision was rescinded in 1938 because of the Japanese invasion of China. The Games were moved to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, but the German invasion of Poland in 1939, which precipitated the commencement of World War II in Europe, forced the cancellation of the 1940 Games.^[17] Due to the ongoing war the 1944 Games, originally scheduled for Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy, were cancelled.^[18]

1948 to 1960[link]

St. Moritz was selected to host the first post-war Games in 1948. Switzerland's neutrality had protected the town during World War II and most of the venues were in place from the 1928 Games, which made St. Moritz a logical choice to become the first city to host a Winter Olympics twice.^[19] Twenty-eight countries competed in Switzerland, but athletes from Germany and Japan were not invited.^[20] Controversy erupted when two hockey teams from the United States arrived, both claiming to be the legitimate U.S. Olympic hockey representative. The Olympic flag presented at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp was stolen, as was its replacement. There was unprecedented parity at these Games, during which 10 countries won gold medals—more than any Games to that point.^[21]

The Olympic Flame for the 1952 Games in Oslo, was lit in the fireplace by skiing pioneer Sondre Nordheim and the torch relay was conducted by 94 participants entirely on skis.^[22][23] Bandy, a popular sport in the Nordic countries, was featured as a demonstration sport; though only Norway, Sweden and Finland fielded teams. Norwegian athletes won 17 medals, which outpaced all the other nations.^[24] They were led by Hjalmar Andersen who won three gold medals in four events in the speed skating competition.^[25]

After not being able to host the Games in 1944, Cortina d'Ampezzo was selected to organise the 1956 Winter Olympics. At the opening ceremonies the final torch bearer, Guido Caroli, entered the Olympic Stadium on ice skates. As he skated around the stadium his skate caught on a cable and he fell, nearly extinguishing the flame. He was able to recover and lit the cauldron.^[26] These were the first Winter Games to be televised, though no television rights would be sold until the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.^[27] The Cortina Games were used to test the feasibility of televising large sporting events.^[27] The Soviet Union made its Olympic debut and had an immediate impact, winning more medals than any other nation.^[28] Chiharu Igaya won the first Winter Olympics medal for Japan and the continent of Asia, when he placed second in the slalom.^[29]

The IOC awarded the 1960 Olympics to Squaw Valley, United States. Since the village was underdeveloped there was a rush to construct infrastructure and sports facilities like an ice arena, speed-skating track, and a ski-jump hill.^[30][31] The opening and closing ceremonies were produced by Walt Disney.^[32] The Squaw Valley Olympics had a number of notable firsts: it was the first Olympics to have a dedicated athletes' village; it was the first to use a computer (courtesy of IBM) to tabulate results; and the first to feature female speed skating events. The bobsleigh events were absent for the first and only time because the organising committee found it too expensive to build the bobsleigh run.^[32]

1964 to 1980[link]

The Herb Brooks Arena, site of the "Miracle on Ice", photo taken ca. 2007

The Austrian city of Innsbruck was the host in 1964. Although Innsbruck was a traditional winter sports resort, warm weather caused a lack of snow during the Games and the Austrian army was asked to transport snow and ice to the sport venues.^[32] Soviet speed-skater Lidia Skoblikova made history by sweeping all four speed-skating events. Her career total of six gold medals set a record for Winter Olympics athletes.^[32] Luge was first contested in 1964, although the sport received bad publicity when a competitor was killed in a pre-Olympic training run.^[33][34]

Held in the French town of Grenoble, the 1968 Winter Olympics were the first Olympic Games to be broadcast in colour. There were 37 nations and 1,158 athletes competing in 35 events.^[35] Frenchman Jean-Claude Killy became only the second person to win all the men's alpine skiing events. The organising committee sold television rights for $2 million, which was more than double the price of the broadcast rights for the Innsbruck Games.^[36] Venues were spread over long distances requiring three athletes' villages. The organisers claimed this was required to accommodate technological advances. Critics disputed this, alleging that the layout was necessary to provide the best possible venues for television broadcasts at the expense of the athletes.^[36]

The 1972 Winter Games, held in Sapporo, Japan, were the first to be hosted outside North America or Europe. The issue of professionalism became contentious during the Sapporo Games. Three days before the Games IOC president Avery Brundage threatened to bar a number of alpine skiers from competing because they participated in a ski camp at Mammoth Mountain in the United States. Brundage reasoned that the skiers had financially benefited from their status as athletes and were therefore no longer amateurs.^[37] Eventually only Austrian Karl Schranz, who earned more than all the other skiers, was not allowed to compete.^[38] Canada did not send teams to the 1972 or 1976 ice hockey tournaments in protest of their inability to use players from professional leagues.^[39] Francisco Ochoa became the only Spaniard to ever win a Winter Olympic gold medal when he triumphed in the slalom.^[40]

The 1976 Winter Games had been awarded to Denver, United States, but in 1972 the city's voters passed a referendum declining to be hosts.^[41] Innsbruck, which had maintained the infrastructure from the 1964 Games, was chosen to replace Denver.^[42] Two Olympic flames were lit because it was the second time the Austrian town had hosted the Games.^[42] The 1976 Games featured the first combination bobsleigh and luge track, in neighbouring Igls.^[40] The Soviet Union won its fourth consecutive ice hockey gold medal.^[42]