The Olympics 2006 - Highlights

Kjetil Andre Aamodt did it again - he has won the Super-G ski competition and increased his collection to eight Olympic medals. It was A rare three-peat, because he has won the third Olympic Super-G (1994, 2002, 2006)! Altogether with his twelve medals at World Championships he has gained twenty international medals up to now.
He joked to come back to Vancouver 2010, he would then be 38. Nobody laughed, his competitors are still afraid of the Norwegian elk.

Germany ranks first in medal standings. Eleven gold medals, twelve silver medals and six bronze medals. A good result, but a lot of the medals were gathered by the experienced athletes.
Some disciplines were a total loss: Alpine skiing, figure skating, ski jumping. No medals at all!
Some glittering highlights: Biathlon (eleven medals!), nordic combined (medals in every discipline) and bobsleigh (either).
Michael Greis has won three gold medals in biathlon. Georg Hettich has won gold, silver and bronze in nordic combined. They were the most eager medal collectors.

Doping remains to be an unsolved problem. There was a big scandal around the Austrian team. Already the Austrian officials try to sweep everything under the carpet. Although blood conserves and shots were found in hundreds, they claim that nobody was tested positive. Two biathlon athletes and a coach (he injured a police men and damaged police cars on his flight) flew from Torino back to Austria.
A very bitter aftertaste remains.

Some notes of my favourite athletes and teams:

• The Russian ice-hockey team has won the sheet medal. Only fourth in the competition, despite a good tournament (and beating the Canadians!).
• Lasse Kjus the second Norwegian Wood skier failed to win another Olympic medal. His results: Downhill 14 th, Super-G 14 th, Giant Slalom 18 th.
• Georg Hackl, Germans best (three Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal), funniest and most experienced luge athlete finished 7th. This will be the end of his glorious career.
• Curling, skeleton and short track remain to be alien elements in the Olympic program

Thank you Torino, see you in Vancouver 2010!