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OLYMPIC TURIN

Seul, June 19 1999: IOC General Assembly. Six candidate cities are competing to host the XX Winter Olympic Games: Sion (Switzerland), Helsinki (Finland), Poprad Tatry (Slovakia), Zakopane (Poland), Klagenfurt (Austria) and Turin.
Sion is given as favourite but, to everyone's surprise, with 53 votes against 36, the name pronounced by IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch is Turin, the first city in a plane to host Winter Olympics..

Since then we've really come a long way.
The city has been turned inside out, renewed and transformed: "a profound change" as former mayor Valentino Castellani puts it.
On the other hand, our activity has been rather frenetic and intense.
We have seen the "Ragazzi del 2006" (2006 youths) describe the hopes and doubts - as well as the feelings - of the Turinese on their site, www.006.it; at the same time students from the ITC Rosa Luxemburg were direct witnesses of the city's transformation and watched the development of the Olympic Village from their classroom windows.
For those who missed them, here is a summary of Olympic Turin's essential phases based on www.006.it articles and the direct observation of Luxemburg students.

PRESS REVIEW OF THE WEBSITE WWW.006.IT

December 27 1999 TOROC IS FOUNDED
What had seemed a dream became reality.
The idea of seeing Turin, traditionally linked to the mountains, venue of the Winter Olympics, fifty years after Cortina d'Ampezzo (1956), was a dream shared by many..."It only took us thirteen months to prepare our candidature and perhaps we didn't even have the time to realise what was happening", comments enthusiastically Evelina Christillin, executive president of the Promoting Committee, soon transformed into Organising Committee.
Thus, on December 27 1999, TOROC (Turin Organising Committee) is founded, to run the 2006 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
Turin's former mayor Valentino Castellani is chosen as President.

November 27 2001 THE OLYMPIC LOGO
On November 27 2001, at the presence of President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in Rome, the official logo for Turin 2006 is presented.
Designed by the Milanese firm Benincasa- Husmann, the emblem highlights the Mole Antonelliana, symbol of the city, stylised to resemble the shape of a mountain, made of ice crystals.
A few days later in piazza Castello the Olympic Vision was held, first step towards Turin 2006.
Not just a simple launch for the new logo but an opportunity to bring the Olympic climate to the still diffident crowd.

February 26 2002 THE OLYMPIC FLAG
"Today the four years of Turin Olympic City officially begin", said Sergio Chiamparino in occasion of the Olympic Flag's arrival in town, on February 26 2002.
The flag is hoisted on March 1st 2002 onto the flagstaff of Palazzo di Città (Turin Council headquarters), right next to the city's and the Nation's.
The Olympic Flag consists of five overlapping coloured circles (blue, yellow, black, green and red) on a white background. Each circle represents one of the five continents, and their pattern represents the peace and union between countries in the name of the Olympic spirit. On March 1st 2002 the celebration "Sventola! la voglia di Olimpiadi" (Wave! your Olympic longing), in piazza Vittorio Veneto is organised to get the local population involved and it sees a record attendance (eighteen thousand people). It includes a laser light show on the theme of the five Olympic circles and a concert with important guests.

December 11 2002 THE LOGO BECOMES A MONUMENT
An architectural structure, about 12 metres high placed within the Sambuy Gardens, in the central piazza Carlo Felice; a multi-media creation, representing the official Turin 2006 Winter Games logo on a curved aluminium basis symbolically reproducing a ski trail.
It is the sculpture Olympic Turin 2006, made by Turinese artist Ottavio Di Chio and unveiled on December 11 2002.
Every 70 minutes, starting at dusk, the structure produces a 90 second show with music, sounds, movement, lights and colours.

February 10 2003/2004/2005 THE CULTURAL OLYMPICS
Year 2006 will also see the Cultural Olympics, a coincidence planned by the IOC to underline the strongly educational value of the Games and the tight connection between sport and culture.
The central theme identified by participating artists is that of the body, means of expression shared by all forms of art.And, of course, the mountains to which many photographic exhibitions will be dedicated. Expectancy for the event has been incremented every year - since 2003 - in February with a rich programme of cultural, artistic, musical and cinematographic events.
They remind everyone of the countdown to February 10 2006: "Meno- TRE" (Minus THREE), "MenoDUE" (Minus TWO), "MenoUNO" (Minus ONE)...

January 13 2004 ATRIUM OPENING
In piazza Solferino the two Atrium pavilions, which will become symbols of the forthcoming Winter Games, are inaugurated.
Equally distant from the statue of duke Ferdinando di Savoia, the two futuristic buildings signed Giugiaro have stimulated the imagination of the perplexed Turinese: two giandujotto chocolates, two dinosaurs for others and, for others still, two spaceships.
A part from aesthetics, many have expressed doubts on the use of the project.
Current Piedmont Region President Mercedes Bresso is certain "Atrium is the right choice to make Turin renowned".

September 28 2004 MASCOTS NEVE AND GLIZ
The official mascots of the 2006 Olympics Neve and Gliz are born from the hands of thirty-eight year old Portuguese Pedro Albuquerque.
Presented 500 days before the Games are to begin, Neve is a snowball, Gliz an ice cube: they are always smiling and warmly embraced.
Neve is dressed in red, has feminine features and rounded shapes representing the grace and elegance of sport gestures; Gliz is in blue, has male features and square, strong shapes representing the strength and potency of athletes.
The two mascots convince the Turinese because of their simplicity.

October 17 2003 VOLUNTEERS "NOI2006" (Us 2006)
The great Olympic machine is composed of many wheels and gears, all essential for the event's success, none excluded.
As Piero Gros, gold medal at Innsbruck '76 and coordinator of the Noi2006 project, reminds us "the Olympics do not rely only the athletes but on the thousands of people managing the event who look after all details, and not just on the trails.
Volunteers are everywhere in the Olympic scenario and to be a volunteer implies being real Olympic protagonists.
Enrolment begins... there will be more than 40,000 requests.

December 2004 / January 2005 THE FIRST SPORT EVENTS
Between December 2004 and the beginning of 2005, the venues built for the forthcoming competitions host the twenty appointments called Sport Events.
For the organisers they offer the opportunity for a general rehearsal with which to test the complex Olympic machine; for the public, instead, they offer a tasty starter that incremented the spectators' Olympic longing.
Considerable success was reached thanks also to the precious effort of the "men (and women) in blue", i.e. the Noi2006 volunteers, whose enthusiasm made it possible to overcome the inevitable difficulties.

January 20 2005 PRESENTATION OF THE OLYMPIC FLAME
The Olympic Flame represents the spirit, the values, the essence itself of the Olympics: communion and peace amongst peoples, the highest ideal of mankind.
The new torch, designed by Pininfarina to remain lit under all weather conditions, represents a modern revision of the traditional wooden torch in which the metal alights.
The Olympic flame's journey renews the magical inheritance of an ancient tradition. In a breath taking pursuit the Olympic flame will travel from Rome to Turin, where it arrives on February 10 2006, thanks to the effort of over 10 thousand torch-bearers, famous and not.

April 17 2005 TURIN IS INVOLVED
Well, here we go, just a few months left but... has anyone told the population that their city will host the Olympics?
Of course, there have been ceremonies and celebrations, but how to reach the sceptics?
Easy, the Olympic Games themselves, on board of a colourful van, travelled to each city district.
The project was called "Voglia di Olimpiadi" (Olympic longing)... on tour! 10 stops of a both informative and entertaining itinerary taking place over the spring and repeated during the autumn.
So nobody will have any excuses.

October 18 2005 THE OLYMPIC TRUCE
In Rome, the Turin 2006 Organising Committee asks for respect of the Olympic Truce, i.e. the suspension of all conflicts during the period of the Winter Games.
A few days later Turin hosts 1500 youths from all over the world to support the appeal launched in the capital and thus demonstrating that it has the Olympic values at heart.