2006 Winter Paralympics

IX Paralympic Winter Games

Location	Turin, Italy
Motto	Passion lives here (Italian: La passione vive qui)
Nations	39
Athletes	486
Events	58 in 4 sports
Opening	10 March 2006
Closing	19 March 2006
Opened by	President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
Cauldron	Silvia Battaglio Aroldo Ruschioni
Stadium	Stadio Olimpico
Winter Summer 2006 Winter Olympics

The 2006 Winter Paralympic Games (Italian: Giochi paralimpici invernali del 2006), the ninth Paralympic Winter Games, took place in Turin, Italy from 10 to 19 March 2006. These were the first Winter Paralympic Games to be held in Italy. They were also the first Paralympics to use the new Paralympics logo.

Italy will host the Winter Paralympics again in 2026, scheduled to be held in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo.

Medal count

Main article: 2006 Winter Paralympics medal table

The top 10 NPCs by number of gold medals are listed below. The host nation (Italy) is highlighted.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Russia	13	13	7	33
2	Germany	8	5	5	18
3	Ukraine	7	9	9	25
4	France	7	2	6	15
5	United States	7	2	3	12
6	Canada	5	3	5	13
7	Austria	3	4	7	14
8	Japan	2	5	2	9
9	Italy*	2	2	4	8
10	Poland	2	0	0	2
Totals (10 entries)		56	45	48	149

Sports

The Games featured 58 medal events in five disciplines of four sports. As with other Paralympic Games, medals are awarded for each classification within each event. The sport of wheelchair curling made its Paralympic debut at these games.^[1]

• Alpine skiing (24) (details)
• Ice sledge hockey (1) (details)
• Nordic skiing
  • Biathlon (12) (details)
  • Cross-country skiing (20) (details)
• Wheelchair curling (1) (details)

Venues

Five competition venues were used during the Winter Paralympics. They all hosted competitions during the 2006 Winter Olympics.

The Opening ceremonies were held at Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino and the closing and the awarding ceremonies for the snow events were also held in Turin were held at the Medals Plaza at Piaza Castello.

Alpine skiing events were held at Sestriere. Cross-country skiing and biathlon events were held shared by the Cesana San Sicario complex. All the skiing athletes were accommodated in the Mountain Paralympic Village in Sestriere.

Ice sledge hockey was held in Torino Esposizioni and wheelchair curling was held in Pinerolo Palaghiaccio. These athletes were accommodated in the Main Paralympic Village in Turin.

Calendar

●

Opening ceremony

●

Event competitions

●

Event finals

●

Closing ceremony

March	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th
Ceremonies	●									●
Alpine Skiing		2	4	2	4		2	4	2	4
Biathlon		6			6
Cross-country skiing			6			6		2	2	4
Ice sledge hockey		●	●		●	●	●	●	1
Wheelchair curling			●	●	●	●	●	●	1

Participating National Paralympic Committees (NPC)s

Thirty-nine National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) classified athletes to compete at the 2006 Winter Paralympics. This was an increase of three from the 36 represented at the 2002 Winter Paralympics. The number in parentheses indicates the number of participants from each NPC.

Note that, although Greece was scheduled to compete, no Greek athlete took part in any event; the International Paralympic Committee does not list Greece as having entered any athlete in the Games, and considers that there were thirty-eight NPCs at the Games, rather than thirty-nine.^[2][3]

•  Andorra (2)
•  Armenia (2)
•  Australia (10)
•  Austria (25)
•  Belarus (6)
•  Belgium (1)
•  Bulgaria (3)
•  Canada (35)
•  Chile (2)
•  China (8)
•  Croatia (1)
•  Czech Republic (5)
•  Denmark (6)
•  Finland (7)
•  France (19)
•  Germany (35)
•  Great Britain (20)
•  Hungary (2)
•  Iran (1)
•  Italy (39) (Host)
•  Japan (40)
•  Kazakhstan (2)
•  South Korea (3)
•  Latvia (1)
•  Mexico (1)
•  Mongolia (1)
•  New Zealand (2)
•  Norway (29)
•  Poland (11)
•  Russia (29)
•  Slovakia (17)
•  Slovenia (1)
•  South Africa (1)
•  Spain (9)
•  Sweden (19)
•  Switzerland (21)
•  Ukraine (12)
•  United States (56)

Participating nations. Green: fewer than 5 athletes; blue: 5–9; orange: 10–19; red: 20 or more.

A total of 486 athletes participated in the Games, 385 male and 101 female. This is an increase from the 430 athletes participated in 2002. Despite overall increase of delegates and athletes, the following nations who participated in the 2002 Winter Paralympics did not send athletes to Turin.

•  Estonia
•  Netherlands

Mexico was the only country who had sent an athlete to the Winter Paralympics but not the Olympics.

Other information

These are the second Paralympic Games to be held in Italy, which hosted the first Summer Paralympics in Rome in 1960.^[4]

These are the first Paralympic Games to feature a live webcast of events, hosted by ParalympicSport.TV.

The Games mascot is Aster, a star-shaped snowflake similar in design and was the younger brother to the Olympic mascots Neve and Gliz.

Unable to fund the hosting themselves, the Olympic organizing committee TOROC sold the rights off to a company for an estimated US$40 million^[5]

See also

• 2006 Winter Olympics

References

1. "Torino 2006". International Paralympic Committee. 2008. Retrieved 6 August 2008.
2. Paralympic Games results and delegations database, International Paralympic Committee
3. "Torino 2006", International Paralympic Committee
4. "Torino 2006 Paralympic Bid Dossier" (PDF). 12 December 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 December 2005. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
5. "10 Olympic Games That Nearly Bankrupted Their Host Countries". 19 January 2014. Retrieved 15 August 2016.

External links

• Official website of Torino Paralympics 2006 → Archive copy at the Wayback Machine
• Torino 2006 Paralympic Games (English) → Archive copy at the Wayback Machine
• ParalympicSport.TV
• International Paralympic Committee

Preceded by Salt Lake City

Winter Paralympics Turin IX Paralympic Winter Games (2006)

Succeeded by Vancouver