WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES - TURIN 2006

Motif: Two pairs of crossed over skis symbolise the 20th Winter Olympic Games in Turin The XXth Winter Olympic Games will be held from the 10th to 26th of February 2006 in Turin, in the Italian Region Piemonte, with competitions in traditional and modern winter sports. 2500 athletes from 85 countries will participate in the games, and the events will be held at seven different competition sites – Turin, Bardonecchia, Cesana, Pinerolo, Pragelato, Sauze d’Oulx and Sestriere. The athletes will be accommodated in three Olympic villages: Turin, Bardonecchia and Sestriere. The Olympic flame of the Winter Olympic Games, the design of the well-known firm Pininfarina, will be carried through all of Italy, starting from Rome on the 8th of December 2005, then going through Florence, Pisa, Genoa, Sardinia, Sicily, Naples, Bologna, Venice and Milan. The Olympic Torch relay will finish its journey on the 10th of February 2006, at the Opening ceremony. After the end of the Games, the torch will be returned to Cortina D’Ampezzo for the 50th anniversary of the Winter Olympic Games held there in the year 1956. These Olympic Games will definitely make Turin the centre of attention, this erstwhile capital of the united Italy, quite rightly called the metropolis of the Baroque art. This modern, industrially developed city with a rich cultural past, magnificent architecture and marvellous landscapes, has also built a number of objects of sports infrastructure, including the new imposing stadium Palasport Olimpico that can take 8500 spectators. Both ceremonies of the Games, the opening and the closing ceremony will be held there. 650 judges and referees will participate in the Games, helped by 22,000 volunteers, and there are 10,000 accredited journalist from the written media and 6,600 journalists and technical staff from TV and Radio who are expected to carry out the coverage of the Games. The right to buy off the signal licence was demanded by 160 countries, and it is expected that, apart from the 1.5 million spectators in the arenas, the events at the Winter Olympic Games will be watched by 4 billion television spectators. The programme of the Winter Olympic Games – Turin 2006 will comprise seven different sports, 15 sports branches and 84 sports disciplines: 1) BOBSLEIGH (bob, skeleton) 2) SLEIGHING 3) SKIING (Alpine skiing, Cross-country skiing, Ski jumping, Nordic combined – Ski jumping and Cross-country skiing, Free-style skiing, Snow-boarding) 4) BIATHLON 5) SKATING (Figure skating, Speed skating, Short-track speed skating) 6) CURLING 7) ICE-HOCKEY The competition events will be held at 14 arenas in Turin, Sestriere, Bardonecchia, Pragelato, Cesana, San Sicario, Pinerolo and Sauze d’Oulx. For the first time in the history of the Winter Olympic Games, Croatia will be represented by more than 30 athletes in seven sports: alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, biathlon, bob, figure skating, sleighing and skeleton, which is almost unbelievable for a country with limited conditions for winter sports. SKIING How much Croatian skiing has developed in the past four years can be proved by the fact that there are as many as 12 of our skiers who have satisfied the obligatory standard for Turin. Janica Kostelić will, naturally, compete in all the disciplines, and she will be one of the greatest stars of the Olympic Games in Turin, carrying the “heavy burden” of four medals from Salt Lake City. There will also be Nika Fleiss and Ana Jelušić as well as Mateja Ferk and Yvonne Schnock. Ivica Kostelić is ready to undertake the “slalom roulette” on the 25th of February, and in this season he will also run the fast disciplines. Ivica’s successors, Dalibor Šamšal, Ivan Ratkić, Natko Zrnčić-Dim, Danko Marinelli, Ivan Olivari and Tin Široki will have the chance for the first time to experience the feeling of participating at the Olympic Games. BOB The unbelievable story of the Croatian bob “had not been smothered” after Salt Lake City, because the spiritus movens of the team, Ivan Šola, had spent the past four years strenuously training on icy runs and chutes all over the world. The Croatian team has stopped being strange or exotic. It is now a competitive team that lags behind the best not for seconds but only for tenths of seconds. Šola’s team now comprises the former and current athletes Niki Drpić, Slaven Krajačić, Dejan Vojnović and Jurica Grabušić. What is new is the fact that a women’s two-seater bob will run down the chute with Martina Makoš and Anabela Straga. Croatia is going to have the Olympic’s first appearance in sleighing in Turin, where Kornelija Raša is going to participate, while in the skeleton competition two skeleton athletes, Nikola Rimac and Ivan Pokos are going to run down the Olympic slope in Cesana. SKATING Idora Hegel was ninth in the European championship in figure skating, thus proving that she is among the top skaters in the world. She can deservedly fight in the Turin Games for the placement among the world’s first ten figure-skaters in the women’s competition. CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING Damir Jurčević, Denis Klobučar, Alen Abramović and Maja Kezele will continue the Croatian tradition of participating in the cross-country skiing competition, though they are not expected to achieve top results on the run in Pragelato, which is also true of the two ladies biathlon skiers, Ana-Marija Brajdić and Petra Starčević. Ante Drpić