Olympic News Circle: Summer & Winter Olympics

A party full of joy, to celebrate the success of the Olympic Winter Games and the athletes’ victories, with a touch of sadness for an event that’s coming to an end. This is how the Torino 2006 Closing Ceremony, which will be held tomorrow night at the Olympic Stadium, presents itself, a great show that will have the Carnival as its dominating theme. This is the weekend during which the whole of Italy disguises itself and this celebration, deeply rooted in Italian tradition, will be the underlying theme of the entire evening. The show, designed and directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca, among the most widely recognised director, writer, choreographer and clown at an international level for his theatre performances inspired to the circus world, will combined the fantasy and colours of the Carnival with the sounds and shapes typical of the circus and Art Comedy.

Source: torino2006.org

Today at 20:00 (Turino time), the closing ceremoney for Turin 2006 Winter Olympic Games begins. That is:

14:00 Eastern Time 
13:00 Central Time
12:00noon Mountain Time
11:00am Pacific Time

If you miss the show, I’m pretty sure CBC (Canada) and NBC (USA) will broadcast the ceremony during local prime time (ie, 6pm or 8pm). Theme of the closing ceremony is “Carnival”.

TURIN, Italy — Nicklas Lidstrom scored 10 seconds into the third period as Sweden defeated rival Finland 3-2 to win Olympic hockey gold for a second time on Sunday.The Swedes, who won gold at the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway, were the first team to beat the tenacious Finns in eight tournament games.

“It’s a big relief to finally win it,” Lidstrom, a three-time Stanley Cup winner with Detroit, told the CBC. “I would rank it up there with winning the Stanley Cup.

“It’s a huge deal for our country back in Sweden. You only play every fourth year.”

Finland, which had allowed only five goals in its first seven matches, was in its first Olympic final but had to settle for the silver.

The Czech Republic won bronze after beating Russia 3-0 on Saturday. Source: canada.com

This is Swedish second-ever olympic gold in Men’s Ice Hocky event. Everyone on the team must be very happy. Here is the list of Team Sweden Men’s Ice Hockey.

Here is a promotion video clip from CBC for XX Winter Olympic Games in Turino, Italy 2006.
View this Turin 2006 Winter Olympics Promotion video clip.

Canadian Francois-Louis Tremblay won the silver medal in the men’s 500-metre short-track race Saturday.Tremblay finished in a time of 42.002 seconds, just back of gold-medal winner Apolo Anton Ohno (41.935) of the United States. South Korean Ahn Hyun-Soo (42.089) was third, narrowly edging Canadian Eric Bedard (42.093), who finished fourth.

The race was expected to be a showdown between Ahn and China’s Li JiaJun. Ahn is now ranked first overall in this event, while Li is ranked second. But Li was disqualified in the semifinal. Source: cbc.ca

Canada won another silver medal today at Turino 2006 Witer Olympic Games in Short Track Speed Skating Men’s 500m. Canada now has 7 Golds, 9 Silvers, and 7 Bronzes and is currently ranked 3rd overall based on the total number of medals. Canada will be 5th place in terms of gold medal number.

TURIN, Italy — Winnipeg speedskater Clara Hughes won gold in the women’s 5,000 metres on Saturday and Cindy Klassen claimed bronze to become Canada’s most decorated Olympian.For Winnipeg’s Klassen, it’s her fifth medal of these Games and sixth of her career. For Hughes, it’s career medal No. 5.

Runner Philip Edwards and short-track speedskater Marc Gagnon held the previous Canadian record with five Olympic medals.

”It’s been an exciting Games and I couldn’t have done it without such an awesome coach and such great teammates,” Klassen told CBC. ”I’m truly so lucky to be training in Calgary and to be a Canadian.

”It’s just been awesome and I’ve had such a fun time here at the Games here that I’m going to have memories for a lifetime.”

Hughes held off three-time defending champion Claudia Pechstein of Germany to win in six minutes 59.07 seconds. Pechstein finished one second behind and took the silver. Source: canada.com

Clare Hughes captured Canada a 7th Gold medal today in Speed Skating Ladies 5000m event at Turino 2006 Winter Olympic Games. Cindy KLASSEN won a bronze medal in the same event. This will be her fifth medal in Turin Olympics.