2006 Torino Winter Games

But again, there was nothing wrong inherently with Torino as a host city, nor was there anything significantly lacking in these Olympic Winter Games. They were just burdened throughout by a sense of ennui. After the Games had ended, the world’s sporting press, in an unofficial poll, lumped the Torino Olympics with Atlanta in 1996 as their least memorable Olympic Games – hardly stirring company.

To the hometown fans, the big hero was their speedskater, Enrico Fabris, who won three medals, including two gold. The biggest medal winner at Torino was another speed skater, Canadian Cindy Klassen, who won medals in five of the six speed skating events for women. However, even the speed skating was hampered by a very slow ice surface. No world records were approached, and except for the new events of team pursuit, only one Olympic record was broken, that of the men’s 1,000 metres by American Shani Davis.

On the snow, Croatia’s Janica Kostelić won two alpine skiing medals. Added to her four medals from Salt Lake City, this made her the first alpine skier to win six Olympic medals. To add to the family sideboard, her brother, Ivica, also won a medal in men’s alpine skiing. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the Torino results was in cross-country skiing, where Norway, normally the dominant nation in this sport, won no gold medals. Norway did manage four medals in cross-country, but only three silver and a bronze.

The Olympic athletes in Torino displayed their usual superb performances. But there was no star at Torino – nobody stood out, and one could not identify these Games with a single athlete, as so often happens. It seemed to be the perfect eulogy for the Torino Winter Olympics – nobody came, nobody watched, nobody starred, nobody cared.