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.
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.[2]
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.
The same torch design used for the Olympics was used for the Paralympic Games. On March 5, 2006, the torch began a 10-day journey from Rome to Torino.[3] The Paralympic flame has been lit under the Arch of Constantine on the front of the
Coliseum in Rome, Italy. The flame was ignited at the coming together of three symbolic figures: a winner at the Rome 1960 Summer Paralympic Games, a current athlete with a disability and a young person with a disability. From the lighting in Rome, the flame was transmitted by satellite to Turin, where the then Mayor of Turin, Sergio Chiamparino, received it at the Piazza della Repubblica]]. From there, the flame was carried along the Via Milano to the Town Hall by the first four torchbearers and the fire burned at the Town Hall - except for two days on Monte Rosa - until 8 March, when started its journey through the city.
Three days before the opening ceremonies, on 5 and 6 March, the Paralympic flame take a leg through the landscape of the Province of Vercelli and went up to the Margherita Hut at the peak of Monte Rosa, when started his way back to Turin. The route, organised together with local groups and authorities, included a parade through the streets of Alagna Valsesia by a group of athletes with a disability. Then a leg with another group of athletes carried the fire to the Alagna-Pianalunga gondola and the continued the way to towards Passo dei Salati.At the next day the torchbearers will followed a trail for about an hour and was taken by helicopter to italian side of the Signalkuppe,reaching in a single group of athletes,the Margherita Hut. A special torch was used to burn the flame on the peak, and this group of athletes donate a symbolic book to the highest library in Europe, situated in the 4.554 meter refuge. At the end of the celebrations, the guides will down the mountain with the flame. On March 8, the torch arrived again in the Torino City Hall and started their way before arriving in the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino during the Opening Ceremonies.[4]
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 and paraded during the Opening Ceremonies, 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.[5][6]
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.
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 decided to separate the organization of the two events, separating its Paralympic department into another Organizing Committee (ComParTo) to facilitate the management, organization and training of resources. In the end, ComParTo managed to raise an estimated amount of USD$ 40 million.Despite this, the entire organization of both events was carried out in a unified manner.[8]
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