XX Olympic Winter Games

▪ 2007

by Melinda C. Shepherd On Feb. 10, 2006, Turin (Torino), Italy, officially proclaimed to the world “Passion Lives Here” as the city opened the XX Olympic Winter Games with “rhythm, passion, and speed.” The opening ceremony—filled with fire and ice, art and music—featured some of Italy's finest, including a fiery red Ferrari automobile (Turin's best-known industrial export), opera star Luciano Pavarotti, who performed Puccini's aria “Nessun dorma,” and cross-country skier Stefania Belmondo, the 10-time Olympic medalist who lit the torch that burned continuously above the stadium until it was extinguished in the “Carnevale”-themed closing ceremony on February 26. Turin, the home of more than 900,000 people, was the largest city ever to host the Winter Olympics. In addition to the opening and closing ceremonies, the skating and ice hockey competitions were held in Turin, while skiing, bobsleigh, luge, and curling events took place at seven other venues scattered across Italy's Piedmont region.

      The region's six-year preparation for the Games had gone smoothly, without the corruption scandals and construction delays that had plagued some other recent Olympics. As 2006 began, there were concerns about the lack of snow in the mountains, but heavy snowfalls blanketed the ski slopes in late January. Worries about security—notably in regard to the four Danish curlers, who were given increased protection after violent protests erupted among militant Islamists in several countries in response to cartoons published in a Danish newspaper (see World Affairs: Denmark )—proved unfounded, and the Turin Games closed without having experienced any serious problems.

      More than 2,500 athletes representing 80 national Olympic committees (NOCs) competed in 84 medal events in 15 disciplines, with 1,026 medals awarded, including team events. There were three new events for both men and women: speed-skating team pursuit, biathlon mass-start races (15 km for men and 12.5 km for women), and snowboardcross. Three NOCs—Albania, Algeria, and Madagascar—made their Winter Olympics debut. The diversity of countries present was matched by the wide range in ages of the individual competitors, from 14-year-old snowboarder Sun Zhifeng of China to 54-year-old American Scott Baird, who shared the silver medal won by the U.S. men's curling team. The oldest athlete to earn an individual medal at the Turin Games was 41-year-old Hilde Pedersen of Norway, the bronze medalist in the 10-km cross-country-skiing event. Baird and Pedersen were the oldest man and woman, respectively, ever to win a Winter Olympics medal. The detection and subsequent arrest of an Austrian biathlon coach who had previously been banned and the discovery of illegal doping equipment in the Austrian athletes' quarters raised questions about that country's cross-country and biathlon squads. Russian biathlete Olga Pyleva, however, was the only competitor to fail a drug test during the Games (she was disqualified and stripped of her silver medal in the 15-km individual race).

      Germany topped the medal count with 29 and had the most gold (11), though that showing was far fewer than the 36 medals (12 gold) that German competitors had captured at the 2002 Salt Lake City (Utah) Winter Olympics. Some Americans expressed disappointment that the U.S. team earned only 25 medals (9 gold) for second place after they had achieved a record 34 (10 gold) in 2002, but this result was well above the 13 (6 gold) that the U.S. had won in both Nagano, Japan, in 1998 and Lillehammer, Nor., in 1994. The other top countries in Turin were Canada, with a national-record 24 medals (7 gold); Austria, with 23 (9 gold); Russia, with 22 (8 gold); Norway, with a disappointing 19 (2 gold) after having won at least 25 medals in each of the past three Winter Olympics; and Sweden and Switzerland, which were tied with 14 medals each. Italy, with 11 medals, finished in joint ninth place with South Korea and China. Slovakia (1 silver) and Latvia (1 bronze) won their first medals since achieving independence.

      Athletes from 26 countries won medals, with 62 individuals (37 men and 25 women) taking home more than one. Canadian speed skater Cindy Klassen (Klassen, Cindy ) (see Biographies) earned five medals (one gold, two silver, and two bronze) in five races. The top male athlete was South Korea's Ahn Hyun Soo (see Biographies), who won three gold and a bronze in four short-track speed-skating events. Italy's hero at the Games, speed skater Enrico Fabris, upset the favourites to take two gold and a bronze. Four American men were multiple-medal winners, three speed skaters—Chad Hedrick (with three), Joey Cheek (two), and Shani Davis (Davis, Shani ) (two; see Biographies)—and short-track speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno (two). Several of the American favourites in skiing fell short, notably Daron Rahlves and Bode Miller, the 2005 World Cup overall champion. Russians won three of four gold medals in figure skating, but the elegant Shizuka Arakawa of Japan came from behind to win the women's competition. Canadian-born Tanith Belbin, who was sworn in as a U.S. citizen in December 2005, and her partner, Benjamin Agosto, captured the silver in ice dancing, the first medal for the U.S. in the event in 30 years and the best showing ever for a U.S. ice-dance duo. André Lange of Germany was a double gold medalist in bobsleigh, piloting both the two-man and four-man champions, while in luge Armin Zöggeler of Italy and Germany's Sylke Otto (Otto, Sylke ) (see Biographies) retained the singles titles they had won in 2002. Austrians dominated Alpine skiing, with Benjamin Raich (Raich, Benjamin ) (see Biographies) and Michaela Dorfmeister each capturing two gold medals. American snowboarders won six of the nine medals awarded, led by “the Flying Tomato,” Shaun White (White, Shaun ) (see Biographies), the gold medalist in men's halfpipe.

Melinda C. Shepherd is senior editor of Encyclopædia Britannica Yearbooks.

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