The World Competes

On Sundays, I’d like to take a look at one of the past Olympics. Since the Summer Olympics have been held since 1896, and the Winter Olympics have been held since 1924, there’s a lot to look back upon. The games have changed over the years, and they continue to evolve. Since the Vancouver Winter Olympics are just around the corner, I’d like to take a look at recent Winter Olympics games that have been held, starting with the most recent games.

The 2006 Torino Olympics (also known as Turin) were held from February 10th to February 26, 2006, in Torino (Turin), Italy, which is located in the Alps. This Olympics saw some firsts, and had some interest.

In figure skating, the new scoring system was introduced, after the 2002 scandal where the French judge was bribed (in a way) of giving her vote to the Russians. Sasha Cohen walked away with the silver, in what is likely to be her last Olympics, while Evan Lysacek and and Johnny Weir (who are competing in Vancouver) just barely walked away without a medal, taking fourth and fifth place. Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, who just barely qualified for the Olympics (it literally took an act of congress for Belbin to become a US citizen in time), brought home a silver medal.

Snowboardcross made its debut, and Seth Westcott received the first gold medal for the men. Lindsey Jacobellis almost won a gold for the US, but a little showboating caused her to make a bad landing, leaving her with the silver.

Other people to remember include Apolo Ohno, Julia Mancuso (with her tiara), Shani Davis, and the disappointing performance by Bode Miller (who was much hyped but didn’t win anything). It’s difficult to boil down 16 days of competition into a small blog post, but I gave it a try.