IOC Turin FOCUS 9
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OLYMPIC REVIEWFEBRUARY 2005 OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE OLYMPIC MOVEMENT FOCUS: TURIN 2006 – ONE YEAR TO GO MILESTONES TURIN 2006 THERE ARE MANY IMPORTANT EVENTS STILL TO HAPPEN ON THE ROAD TO THE GAMES: • 27 November 2004 - 25 April 2005 – The Impressionists And Snow. France and Europe – Promotrice di Belle Arti gallery, Turin • 9-11 February 2005 – Snowboard, FIS World Cup – Bardonecchia • 10 February 2005 – One-Year-To-Go – Sending of Invitations to NOCs – Turin • 10 February 2005 – Start of Phase Two of Ticket Sales Turin hosted the European Short Track Speed Skating Championships in mid-January as a test event. • 10-11 February 2005 – IOC Executive Board Meeting – Turin • 10-13 February 2005 – Biathlon, World Cup – Cesana TEST EVENTS MARK – San Sicario • 11-12 February 2005 – Nordic Combined, FIS World ONE-YEAR COUNTDOWN Cup – Pragelato WITH A YEAR REMAINING BEFORE THE OPENING • 11-12 February 2005 – Ski Jumping, FIS World Cup – CEREMONY OF THE TURIN 2006 OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES, Pragelato WORLD-CLASS SPORT HAS ALREADY COME TO THE CITY AND THE NEARBY MOUNTAINS. TEST EVENTS FOR THE • 18-19 February 2005 – Freestyle Skiing, FIS World Cup – Sauze d’Oulx OLYMPIC GAMES ARE OFTEN MAJOR COMPETITIONS IN THEIR OWN RIGHT, BE THEY THE EUROPEAN SHORT • 25-27 February 2005 – Alpine Skiing, FIS World Cup – TRACK SPEED SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS OR THE FIS Cesana – San Sicario WORLD CUP FINALS FOR SKIING. • 3-13 March 2005 – Curling, World Junior Championships – Pinerolo-Palaghiaccio From the new ice rink beneath the Palavela’s sweeping President Jacques Rogge will send out invitations to the • 15-17 March 2005 – International Paralympic roof, to the sliding centre in Cesana Pariol, the sight of National Olympic Committees whose athletes are Tournament Wheelchair Curling – Pinerolo-Palaghiaccio sports at future Olympic venues provides a tangible expected to participate. • – 9th IOC Coordination Commission – demonstration of just how far the preparations have Chefs de Mission from the NOCs have already been 7-9 June 2005 Turin come in their long journey from bid to Games. to Turin to prepare for their teams’ success. Taken together, the series of events also provides a Broadcasters and the press have carefully looked at • 4-6 November 2005 – International Paralympic vital opportunity for the Organising Committee of the venues as they ready themselves to bring the stories of Tournament Ice Sledge Hockey – Turin Esposizioni Turin 2006 Olympic Winter Games (TOROC) to test its the Games to the world. Sponsors, suppliers and • – Ice Hockey, Olympic Palasport plans, provide its people with further experience of security teams all are now moving into the final phase 9-11 November 2005 high-level competition and even give spectators a small of preparations. and Turin Esposizioni, Turin taste of the great things ahead. While a great deal of work has been carried out • 30 November – 1 December 2005 – 10th IOC Before concluding its meetings on 11 February, the behind the scenes, public attention is shifting towards Coordination Commission – Turin IOC’s Executive Board will have joined those taking a next winter’s Games. From airport posters to stickers in first-hand look at the venues that will serve as the basis shop windows, the imagery of Turin 2006 is spreading • 8 December 2005 – Start of Turin 2006 Olympic Torch of next year’s Games. The Coordination Commission will fast. The Torch Relay will further capture imaginations Relay – Rome pay its next and penultimate visit in June. during the lead-up to 10 February 2006, after which the • 9-12 December 2005 – Speed Skating, World Cup – During the Executive Board meetings on 10 February, world will rediscover the magic of the Winter Games, Oval Lingotto, Turin the day that marks one year to go before the Games, from piste to piazza. To contact the Olympic Review editorial team, please email: [email protected], fax +41 (0)21 621 6356 or TURIN 2006 telephone +41 (0)21 621 6111 www.olympic.org INTERVIEW: OLYMPIC JEAN-CLAUDE TORCH RELAY KILLY The Turin 2006 Torch was officially launched on 20 January at WITH BUILDING WORK IN TURIN Palazzo Marino in Milan. The Olympic Flame bears the signature FAST APPROACHING COMPLETION, of Pininfarina, Official Supplier of TOROC. The internationally- OLYMPIC REVIEW FOCUS ASKED renowned design company Pininfarina is responsible for the style COORDINATION COMMISSION and the engineering of the Torch, as well as the CHAIRMAN JEAN-CLAUDE KILLY TO production of 12,000 units by December 2005. COMMENT: The concept behind the design is a modern reinterpretation of the traditional torch made of Olympic Review: In what ways will Turin 2006 be different from wood; the flame envelopes the body of the past Olympic Winter Games? torch, instead of coming out of a hole on J-C K: No two Olympic Games are exactly the same. But no two top, as was the case in previous editions. Games are completely different. This is one of the things that make The Torch is 770mm high and the Games special. The Turin 2006 Games will of course be the first weighs 1.85kg. The outside shell is time the Olympic Winter Games have been held in Italy for 50 years. made of aluminium; the inside fittings The Turin 2006 Torch Relay will pass through Cortina D’Ampezzo on PHOTOGRAPHS: TOROC; IOC/OLYMPIC MUSEUM COLLECTIONS; AFP; GETTY IMAGES are of steel, copper and techno- the day that marks 50 years since the Opening Ceremony there. polymers, and for the surface finish, Rome’s Summer Games were more than 40 years ago. Sport has a special paint is used that is always been a national preoccupation in Italy and now the country is resistant to high temperatures. realising what an opportunity it has with Turin 2006. So we can hope The Olympic Flame, which will for the Italians to bring their special national flavour to the Games. travel all over the national territory, Turin 2006 will also be the first time a European Olympic Winter will begin its journey in Rome on 8 Games have been hosted by a city the size of Turin. This will bring its December 2005. It will be carried by own special feel. For example, a medal plaza in the city’s main torchbearers for 10,000 kilometres, historical piazza will bring athletes, even from the mountain sports, ending its journey in Turin on 10 close to a very large number of spectators. February 2006 for the opening of the XX Olympic Winter Games. OR: Surely it must be hard to find space for winter sports The first torchbearer will be Skaters Barbara Fusar Poli and venues in the centre of such a well-developed city? Stefano Baldini, winner of the men’s Maurizio Margalio at the launch. J-C K: Certainly, it would have been a problem to find completely marathon at Athens 2004. new sites. Instead, Turin is renovating old sites and old buildings. The Olympic Games are completing a transformation of the city that had already been started. The former Fiat factory at the Lingotto had INVITATION already been converted for post-industrial use. During the Games, it will house the Olympic Family hotel, the offices of the Turin Olympic TO THE GAMES Broadcast Organisation and the Press Centre, all alongside the existing shops, cinema and so on. The IOC will officially invite the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) to participate in the XX Olympic Winter Games in Turin at a ceremony held The city’s main food market is now becoming the Olympic Village. on 10 February 2005, exactly one year before the Opening Ceremony of The Torino Esposizione site is having new life breathed into it and will the Games. IOC President Jacques Rogge will sign several of the host the ice hockey matches. The Palavela has been completely invitations during the ceremony to be held at the Lingotto Centre in transformed. A new structure beneath the original roof will host the Turin. NOCs have until 8 May, 2005 to confirm the attendance of their figure skating and short track events. In each case, the original athletes. Designed by Lausanne-based graphic designer Claudio Ceni, architectural gestures have been respected. There has clearly been a the invitation reflects the colours of winter by using cool blues and icy great deal of respect paid to Turin’s urban environment and to whites. making sure the Games bring lasting improvements. NEVE AND GLIZ NEVE AND GLIZ ARE THE NAMES OF THE MASCOTS FOR THE XX OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES IN TURIN. NEVE REPRESENTS A SNOWBALL, WHILE GLIZ REPRESENTS AN ICE CUBE, THE TWO ELEMENTS WITHOUT WHICH THE OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES CANNOT TAKE PLACE: SNOW AND ICE. They personify the essence of winter sports: the harmony and elegance of the movements made in sport (with the fluid and rounded shapes of Neve) and the power and strength of the athletes (the angular and smooth shapes of Gliz). Neve and Gliz were born from the pencil of the Portuguese designer Pedro Albuquerque, 38, who won the international competition, organised by TOROC. “It was just an aesthetic passion, together with research on the sites of the Olympic Games, the Italian spirit, the Olympic values and the technical characteristics of the various sports disciplines of the Olympic Games, which inspired the creative process that gave birth to Neve and Gliz,” Albuquerque said. Official products of Turin 2006 portraying Neve and Gliz are on sale at authorised stores and at the Turin Olympic Store. They can also be purchased on the Internet at the site www.olympicstore.it..