XX Olympic Winter Games Held in Turin, Italy
The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XX Olympic Winter Games, were 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 dialect, Piedmontese. The Olympic mascots of Torino 2006 were Neve ("snow" in Italian), a female snowball, and Gliz, a male ice cube. The official motto of the XX Olympic Winter Games was "Passion lives here".
Turin, with a metropolitan area of 1.7 million, was the largest city to have ever hosted a Winter Olympics. The title will fall to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, (2.5 million) when that city hosts the XXI Olympic Winter Games.
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 15 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.
The Games had several problems, including possible bankruptcy, doping, and poor ratings. 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.
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 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.
