2006 Winter Olympics

The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter Olympics, the first being in 1956 in Cortina d'Ampezzo; Italy had also hosted the Summer Olympics in 1960 in Rome. Italy is scheduled to host the Winter Olympics in 2026 in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, 20 years after the 2006 event.
Turin was selected as the host city for the 2006 Games in June 1999.

Host city selection

In a surprising way, 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 and 2002 Winter Olympics.
Since IOC members were forbidden from visiting the candidate cities, 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 since the Swiss city was seen as the overwhelming favorite in part because the IOC had their headquarters in Switzerland. Some analysts attribute the choice of Turin as a reaction to Swiss IOC member Marc Hodler's role in exposing the bribery scandal surrounding Salt Lake City's bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics.
The information below comes from the International Olympic Committee Vote History web page.

City	Country	Round 1
Turin		53
Sion		36

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, 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 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. Unlike the previous four editions of the Winter Games, no new sport/discipline was introduced. Eight new events were added in disciplines already on the Olympic program, including mass start in biathlon, team sprint in cross-country skiing, boarder cross in snowboard, and team pursuit in speed skating, all with both men's and women's competitions. The International Ski Federation introduced an alternating system for cross-country skiing styles in certain events. Long-distance races that were contested in the classic style during the 2002 Winter Olympics were freestyle events in Torino.
The sports and disciplines that were contested at the 2006 Games:

''Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of medal events contested in each separate discipline.''

Calendar

Opening ceremony

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Event competitions

Event finals

Exhibition gala

Closing ceremony

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)

, a 10-time Olympic medalist in cross-country skiing, lit the Olympic Cauldron during the opening ceremony 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 created and produced the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the XX Winter Olympic Games in Turin in 2006. Marco Balich was the executive producer, Alfredo Accatino the content supervisor, while Lida Castelli was the arts director. Monica Maimone 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 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 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 of France.

Day 4

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 exceeded the nearest opponent's score by more than 10 points. 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

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

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. Evgeni Plushenko of Russia won the gold in the men's singles artistic skating.

Day 8

On 17 February, 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

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.