Editing 2006 Winter Olympics (section)

==Highlights==
{{Main|Chronological summary of the 2006 Winter Olympics}}
 [[File:Piazza Carlo Felice Torino.JPG|thumb|2006 Olympics logo on display in the Carlo Felice Square, in Turin]]

===Day 1 (Opening Ceremony)===
[[Stefania Belmondo]], a 10-time Olympic medalist in [[cross-country skiing (sport)|cross-country skiing]], lit the [[Olympic Flame]] during the [[2006 Winter Olympics opening ceremony|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 (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.<ref name="Oaths">{{cite news|url=http://www.sportsnetwork.com/default.asp?c=sportsnetwork&page=olymp/2006/archive/summary10.htm |title=Olympic Daily News |date=10 February 2006 |publisher=The Sports Network |access-date=18 April 2007 |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/5wfdPToxz?url=http://www.sportsnetwork.com/default.asp?c=sportsnetwork&page=olymp%2F2006%2Farchive%2Fsummary10.htm |archive-date=21 February 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Relay-Opening">{{cite news|url=http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/torino/torch_relay/full_story_uk.asp?id=1670 |title=Torino 2006: Flame in the Tallest Cauldron |date=11 February 2006 |publisher=[[International Olympic Committee]] |access-date=18 April 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090730042446/http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/torino/torch_relay/full_story_uk.asp?id=1670 |archive-date=30 July 2009 |url-status=live  }}</ref>

===Day 2===
The first gold medal of the 2006 Games was awarded in the 20 kilometre [[biathlon at the 2006 Winter Olympics|biathlon]], won by [[Germany at the 2006 Winter Olympics|German]] [[Michael Greis]] on the first day of competition. Ice hockey began with the women's competition; [[Sweden at the 2006 Winter Olympics|Sweden]] defeated [[Russia at the 2006 Winter Olympics|Russia]] 3–1 in the first match while [[Canada at the 2006 Winter Olympics|Canada]]'s team opened with the second most lopsided win in Olympic history by beating the host [[Italy at the 2006 Winter Olympics|Italians]] 16–0.

===Day 3===
On 12 February, [[Latvia at the 2006 Winter Olympics|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===
[[China at the 2006 Winter Olympics|Chinese]] figure skating pair [[Zhang Dan]] and [[Zhang Hao (figure skater)|Zhang Hao]], trailing a dominant [[Russia at the 2006 Winter Olympics|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 at the 2006 Winter Olympics|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 at the 2006 Winter Olympics|Netherlands]] bettered Canada's time only to have Italy improve upon theirs. China won its first gold of 2006 with [[Wang Meng (speed skater)|Wang Meng]]'s victory in the women's individual 500-metre short track speed skating. A pair of [[Austria at the 2006 Winter Olympics|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===
[[Kristina Šmigun]] won her second gold medal of the Games with a victory in the women's 10&nbsp;kilometre classical [[Cross-country skiing at the 2006 Winter Olympics|cross-country skiing]] on 16 February, remaining the only [[Estonia at the 2006 Winter Olympics|Estonian]] to medal. In men's [[Curling at the 2006 Winter Olympics|curling]] action, [[Great Britain at the 2006 Winter Olympics|Great Britain]] edged [[Germany at the 2006 Winter Olympics|Germany]] 7–6, [[Switzerland at the 2006 Winter Olympics|Switzerland]] kept [[New Zealand at the 2006 Winter Olympics|New Zealand]] winless by winning 9–7, [[Canada at the 2006 Winter Olympics|Canada]] beat [[Norway at the 2006 Winter Olympics|Norway]] 7–6, and the [[United States at the 2006 Winter Olympics|United States]] defeated [[Sweden at the 2006 Winter Olympics|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 at the 2006 Winter Olympics|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 (she would have won gold if she had not performed the grab), while [[Canada at the 2006 Winter Olympics|Canada]]'s [[Dominique Maltais]] took bronze after recovering from a crash. [[Duff Gibson]] of [[Canada at the 2006 Winter Olympics|Canada]] took gold in the [[Skeleton at the 2006 Winter Olympics|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.<ref>{{cite web|work=espn.com|first=Scott|last=Burnside|date=17 Feb 2006|title=Semifinal stunner changes women's hockey map|url=https://www.espn.com/olympics/winter06/hockey/columns/story?id=2334389|access-date=2020-07-07|archive-date=8 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200708012336/https://www.espn.com/olympics/winter06/hockey/columns/story?id=2334389|url-status=live}}</ref> Canada's win maintained its record of never having lost to anyone other than the United States.<ref>{{cite web|first=James H.|last=Marsh|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/ice-hockey|publisher=The Canadian Encyclopedia|title=Ice Hockey in Canada|date=July 21, 2013|access-date=2020-07-07|quote=Canada and the US were again widely considered to be the gold and silver medal contenders, but Sweden managed to eke out the US to play the final match with Canada. Team Canada claimed gold with a 4–1 victory. It was the first time that both Canada and US had faced serious contenders in international women's hockey besides each other.|archive-date=29 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220429030451/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/ice-hockey|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Day 9===
[[Kjetil André Aamodt]] won gold for [[Norway at the 2006 Winter Olympics|Norway]] in the men's super-G on 18 February, beating [[Hermann Maier]] of [[Austria at the 2006 Winter Olympics|Austria]]. [[Germany at the 2006 Winter Olympics|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 at the 2006 Winter Olympics|Slovakia]] and Russia continue their dominance of the pool.

===Day 10===
[[Lascelles Brown]] became the first Jamaican-born competitor to win a medal at the Winter Olympics on 19 February, competing on the Canadian 2-man bobsleigh team which finished second in an extremely tight competition. The German pair was only .21&nbsp;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 10&nbsp;km Cross Country Relay was scheduled. The battle stemmed from the [[1994 Winter Olympics|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&nbsp;seconds to take their 5th straight gold in this event. Norway failed to medal for the first time since 1988.

===Day 11===
The final day of curling pool play was 20 February; 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.

===Day 12===
Slovakia and Finland both won their final men's ice hockey games on 21 February 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&nbsp;metres.

===Day 13===
On 22 February, 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 Slovaks 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 Schoch|Simon]].

===Day 14===
Sweden took the women's championship in the curling finals held on 23 February. [[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 Germany.

===Day 15===
24 February 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===
The Austrians swept the men's alpine slalom medals on 25 February, led by [[Benjamin Raich]]. Germany took gold medals in the men's 15&nbsp;kilometer biathlon and the men's individual bobsleigh. [[Apolo Anton Ohno]] won his second short track speed skating gold medal. South Korea's [[Jin Sun-Yu]] wins her third gold of the Games in the women's 1000&nbsp;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)===
The final day of competition and the [[2006 Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony|closing ceremony]], were held during the [[Carnival in Italy|Sunday Carnival]] on 26 February. 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.