2006 – Turin

Dates

Feb 10-26

Countries

80

Sports

15

Demonstration sports

None

Events

84

Mascots

Neve, a pink snowball-headed character and Gliz, a blue, square headed, ice cube inspired character.

Other candidate cities

Helsinki, Klagenfurt, (Austria), Poprad-Tatry (Slovakia), Sion (Switzerland) and Zakopane (Poland)

Number of athletes

2,508 (1,548 men men and 960 women)

Medals distributed

252

Games opened by

Carlo Ciampi the Italian President

Olympic oath recited by

Giorgio Rocca (Alpine skier)

Olympic flame lit by

Stefania Belmondo (Cross-country skier)

Television rights

833 million dollars

IOC president

Jacques Rogge (Belgium)

Fifty years after Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy hosted its second Winter Games, this time at Turin, an event foreshadowed by a doping scandal involving the cross-country team from Austria, whose face was saved by domination of the Alpine events.

The Olympic stadium was the old Comunale, abandoned by Juventus after the Italia 90 football World Cup, but revamped to popular acclaim for Torino 2006.

Some 100km away on the slopes of Sestrieres and San Sicario, the Austrian ski team was in a state of grace as it towered above its rivals in the Alpine events.

Local hero Giorgio Rocca had won the first five slaloms of the 2005-06 World Cup season, so imagine the disappointment when he choked at the top of the first descent.

Austria conversely won 14 of 30 Alpine medals and was led to glory by Michaela Dorfmeister (gold in the downhill and super-G) and Benjamin Raich (titles for the giant slalom and the slalom).

Germany eventually topped the medals table with the US taking second and Austria third.

There was however a blemish on Austria’s record. The presence nearby of a coach already banned until 2010 for a 2002 doping scandal, Walter Mayer, had alerted officials to possible cheating and their worst suspicions prompted a high profile dawn raid by police where a dozen cross-country and biathlon skiers were rounded up.

But Italy and Austria were not alone in the doldrums, with Canada and the United States suffering relative disappointments.

Canada was keen to do well as the hosts of the upcoming 2010 Games at Vancouver and they achieved a national best of seven golds. However the failure to defend the crucial men’s hockey title was viewed with dismay and was preceded with the iconic Wayne Gretzky coming under fierce scrutiny in an illegal gambling affair. No charges were ever brought against him, but the trial by media undermined the team.

And while youngsters Ted Ligety and Julia Mancuso won a title apiece on the slopes for the US, the extraordinary Bode Miller turned out to be a flop. At the 2005 world championships, he had raced to a double downhill and super-G, in a season he also won the World Cup overall crown. At the Games he seemed out of sorts and overly relaxed.

Four up for Aamodt and Kostelic

Norway’s Kjetil-Andre Aamodt won a fourth Alpine title at 34-years-old, the first man to so, with his third Super-G gold. Croatia’s Janica Kostelic then did the same thing, winning the combined to take her fourth Alpine title too.

The prize in the much awaited men’s downhill went to an unexpected Frenchman Antoine D?n?riaz, who put in the performance of a lifetime.

Norway’s Ole Einar Bjorndalen had been expected to clean up in the biathlon but instead Germany’s Michael Greis grabbed three gold medals beating his rival to silver in the 20km and 50km before adding a third in the 4×7.5km relay.

Russia came within a hair’s breadth of a sweep in the figure skating winning the dance, pairs and men’s crown before Irina Slutskaya, runaway favourite to win the women’s individual, fell badly and came third, leaving Japan’s graceful Shizuka Arakawa to claim her nation’s sole medal, a gold.

Blood doping shame for Austrians

While Austria shone on the Alpine slopes with 14 medals they were also embroiled in a messy, drawn out, doping scandal sparked by the brazen presence at Turin of a banned Nordic ski coach Walter Mayer.

On the evening of February 18 some 23 Italian police raided a residence where ten Austrian skiers were putting the last touches on their Olympic preparations.

The police stayed several hours, all the athletes were dope tested and while none came back positive doping products and blood doping kits were found and seized. Two of their number fled to Austria.

The raid occurred after a tip off that Mayer, a coach banned from the Games until 2010 after a blood doping matter, was defying the Olympic ruling by actively working with the team on site.

Dr Mayer had appealed his ban in Austria and not only won but had been employed by the Austrian federation as sports director for the Nordic team.

Drunken binge seals Mayer’s fate

But in Italy there are tough sports fraud laws that have severe consequences for anyone found doping. Worse was to come when overnight Mayer fled to the Italian border. He was awoken while in a drunken slumber in his car by Austrian police and in a failed attempt to get away, rammed a police vehicle.

After arrest Mayer was held overnight and briefly released before being incarcerated in a psychiatric institution due to fears over potential suicide.

The press had a field day with the whole affair, with the Austrian section demanding answers as to why Mayer had been engaged in such a high profile post and stating his presence in Turin could hardly have been unknown to the national federation.

The IOC was to eventually ban six of the ten skiers for life – biathletes Wolfgang Perner and Wolfgang Rottmann, as well as cross-country men Friedrich Pinter, Roland Diethard, Johannes Eder and Martin Tauber.

Although there had been no positive tests the blood doping sets, the IOC said, proved organised cheating.

Other athletes had their image ruined, the Austrian federation was fined a million dollars by the IOC and the Austrian federation then banned 14 officials for life and declared any Austrian found doping would receive a lifetime Olympic ban.

Of equal pain to Austrian sports fans – the Salzburg candidature for the 2014 Winter Games was mortally wounded by the affair.

It’s all Raich on the night for Austria

Benjamin Raich joined the all-time Alpine ski greats at 2006 Turin Winter Games with a stunning slalom and giant slalom brace of titles on the precarious Sestriere slopes.

The ‘Blitz from Pitz’ (his home region in Austria) had enjoyed a brilliant world championships in 2005, claiming the slalom and combined titles, coming second in the giant and third in the super-G.

The then 27-years-old though had remained firmly in the shadow of Hermann Maier, a ski instructor and bricklayer who captured the heart of his nation by turning pro late, at 24, and romping two years later to two Olympic golds at Nagano.

Raich’s Games started with an agonising flop when he exited the piste, skiing out of bounds, on the second slalom leg of the men’s tough combined competition when he was moments away from winning the gold medal, which went to American rookie Ted Ligety.

“It was very fast. But you have accept this and you have to look to the future and that’s what I’m doing now,” lamented Raich.

In the next event, the super-G, he slid home way down the rankings, 21st in fact, and suddenly his Games were starting to look a little hollow.

“I’ve been skiing well in the super-G all season, but not today. It was not a good day for me,” he said.

Hitting the snow in the right way

So when he held on to a slim first leg lead to finish first in the giant slalom, collapsing with joy on the snow after holding on to a narrow two-leg lead time of 2min 35.00sec, edging Frenchman Joel Chenal by just 0.07secs and Maier by 0.16sec.

“I don’t know why I fell back on the snow. All I know is the Olympic gold medal is something special, and you can only win it once every four years,” he said.

“It was a really tough race. The slope was very long, steep and icy – just the way I like it. But I really had to fight all the way to the end.

“Now it’s happened. I’m the Olympic champion.”

Six days later in the slalom, where Austria managed a sweep, the demanding Sises course claimed the scalps of 35 racers in the first run alone. He was to shed tears of joy when realising he had claimed the coveted gold, having taken the bronze at Salt Lake City in 2002.

Perhaps watching his girlfriend Marlies Schild win a surprise silver for Austria in the women’s combined two days earlier had helped focus his mind.

Either way the size of his feat will long be remembered and missing the triple by such a slender margin may actually haunt this discreet man, after all only two men have managed that; Toni Sailer in 1956 and Jean-Claude Killy in 1968. Two others have previously managed the slalom double Ingemar Stenmark in 1980 and Alberto Tomba in 1988.

Evergreen Aamodt

At 34, Norway’s Kjetil Andre Aamodt brushed aside a weak knee to claim the Super-G title for a record fourth gold medal in Alpine skiing, an eighth overall Olympic medal to add to his 12 in the world championships.

A touch of Klassen

Canadian speed skater Cindy Klassen established a national record for medals at one Games winning five at Turin, a gold, two silvers and two bronze. Adding that to the medal she won in 2002 she also became the Canadian with most overall Winter Games medals.

All downhill for Miller

American star Bode Miller was expected to do brilliantly at Turin but was strangely out of sorts on the Italian slopes. He came fifth in the downhill, was sixth in the giant slalom, fell in both the super-G and slalom and was disqualified from the combined. The American press was none too impressed, but the off-beat free-spirited and unorthodox skier enjoyed great support from the public.

Arakawa saves Japan

Japan was having a nightmarish time of it at Turin without a medal of any kind until Shizuka Arakawa unexpectedly won a gold medal for her flawless and graceful showing in the figure skating. Japan hadn’t experienced such a poor Winter Games since Sarajevo in 1984 where they won just a silver medal.

Three triple gold winners

Three athletes went home with three Olympic titles: South Korean short track speed skaters Ahn Hyun-soo and Jin Sun-hyu, and German biathlete Michael Greis.

Swiss have fun in the snow

Alpine bastion Switzerland always does well at the Winter Games and Turin was no exception with 14 medals for the Helvets. However, of the five titles they won, three of them came in the so-called fun sport of snowboarding.

Chinese first

Two years ahead of the Beijing Summer Games, China won its first ever Winter gold when Han Xiaopeng took the Aerials freestyle title. Ten other medals were won by China though, all in skating events.

Estonia in a state of grace

The smallest of the Baltic republics, Estonia walked away from Turin with three titles, all taken in the cross-country with Kristina Smigun winning both the 10km combined and the pursuit while Andrus Veerpalu won the 15km classic.

French speciality

Since 1998 France has had the pleasure of taking one of the downhill titles. At Nagano Jean-Luc Cretier won gold followed by Carole Montillet at Salt Lake in 2002. Antoine Deneriaz kept the tradition alive with an unexpected triumph on the Italian slopes.

Swedes show a bit of puck

Sweden was the surprise winner of the men’s hockey, beating Finland in the final while the Czechs picked up bronze leaving the fancied North Americans Canada and the US, who both fell at the quarter-finals, to slink home with their tails between their legs.

Giorgio and Manuela

Long distance cross-country champion Italy’s Giorgio Di Centa, who won the 50km title on the last day of the Games, was presented with his gold medal by his sister Manuela, who won four medals at Lillehammer in 1994.

Rendezvous at Vancouver

One of the key moments of the closing ceremony was the handing over of the flag to Vancouver Myaor Sam Sullivan, who is quadriplegic. His injuries came in a skiing accident at 19, and his waving of the flag by manoeuvring the wheelchair inspired people far and wide.