The Winter Olympic Games is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held in Chamonix, France. The modern Olympic Games were inspired by the ancient Olympic Games, which were held in Olympia, Greece, from 776 BC to 394 AD. The Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) 1,500 years later in 1894, leading to the first modern Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece in 1896. The IOC is the governing body of the Olympic Movement, with the Olympic Charter defining its structure and authority. The original five Winter Olympic Sports were bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, Nordic skiing, and skating. The Games were held every four years from 1924 to 1936, interrupted in 1940 and 1944 by World War II, and resumed in 1948. Until 1992, the Summer Olympic Games and the Winter Olympic Games were held in the same year. A decision to change this was made in 1986, when during the 91st International Olympic Committee session, IOC members decided to alternate the Summer Olympic Games and the Winter Olympic Games on separate four-year cycles in even-numbered years. Also, at that same congress it was decided that 1992 Winter Olympics would be the last to be held in the same year as the Summer Games and that to change the rotation, the games that would be held in 1996 would be brought forward by two years, being scheduled to 1994. After those games, the next were to be held in 1998 when the four-year Olympic Cycle resumed.
The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIX Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event held in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, from February 8 to 24, 2002. A total of 2,399 athletes from 77 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated in these Games, competing in 78 events in 15 sports and disciplines.
Sara Renner is a Canadian cross-country skier who competed from 1994 to 2010. With Beckie Scott, she won the silver medal in the team sprint event at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin and earned her best individual finish of eight in the 10 km classical event in those same games. She was born in Golden, British Columbia.
Marit Bjørgen is a former Norwegian cross-country skier. She is ranked first in the all-time Cross-Country World Cup rankings with 114 individual victories. Bjørgen is also the most successful sprinter in Cross-Country World Cup history, with 29 victories. She headed the medal table at the 2010 Winter Olympics by winning five medals, including three gold. A five-time Olympian, her five Olympic medals at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games brought her total number of medals up to a record 15, the most by any athlete in Winter Olympics history.
Canada competed at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, with a team of 196 athletes and 220 support staff.
Canada has competed at every Winter Olympic Games, and has won at least one medal each time. By total medals, the country's best performance was in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games where Canadian athletes won 29 medals. Canada set a new record for most gold medals won by a country in a single Winter Olympics with 14 at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. This achievement surpassed the previous record of 13 gold medals held by the Soviet Union (1976) and Norway (2002). Both Germany and Norway matched the record total of 14 gold medals in Pyeongchang in 2018. This record has since been surpassed by Norway with 16 at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Zina Kocher is a Canadian cross-country skier and former biathlete. She competed for Team Canada in biathlon at the 2006, 2010, 2014 Winter Olympics and in 12 editions of the Biathlon World Championships.
Competitors at the Olympic Games have used banned athletic performance-enhancing drugs.
Charmaine Crooks, is a Canadian businesswoman, sports executive, and retired sprinter and middle-distance runner. She is currently the president of Canadian Soccer Association since March 1, 2023, following the resignation of Nick Bontis.
Alexander Gennadiyevich Legkov is a retired Russian cross-country skier who competed internationally between 2002 and 2017. He has five individual World Cup victories including one Tour de Ski title, as well as gold and silver medals at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Natalya Konstantinovna Matveyeva is a Russian cross-country skier who has been competing since 2004. Matveyeva skis for Dynamo Moscow. She has a total of four victories since 2004, including three in the 2006–2007 season. All four of her victories have been in the sprint events.
Maxim Mikhailovich Vylegzhanin is a Russian former cross country skier and a three-time Olympic silver medalist at the 2014 Sochi Olympics in 50 km freestyle, 4 × 10 km relay and team sprint. He was stripped of his 2014 Olympic medals by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on 9 November 2017, however on 1 February 2018, his results were restored as a result of the successful appeal.
The Women's 15 kilometre pursuit cross-country skiing competition at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy was held on 12 February, at Pragelato.
The Women's 10 kilometre classical cross-country skiing competition at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy was held on 16 February, at Pragelato.
Georgia Simmerling is a Canadian road and track cyclist, who currently competes for UCI Women's Team Virginia's Blue Ridge–TWENTY24. Simmerling has also previously competed in alpine skiing and skicross, and is the first Canadian to compete in three different sports in three different Olympic Games.
The women's 4 × 5 kilometre relay cross-country skiing competition at the 2014 Sochi Olympics took place on 15 February at Laura Biathlon & Ski Complex. Sweden won the event. This became the first gold medal in the women's relay for Sweden since the 1960 Winter Olympics. Finland won the silver medals, and Germany finished third.
The Oswald Commission was a disciplinary commission of the International Olympic Committee ("IOC"), chaired by IOC member Denis Oswald. It was responsible for investigating and ruling on doping violations by individual Russian athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.
Systematic doping of Russian athletes has resulted in 50 Olympic medals stripped from Russia, four times the number of the next highest, and more than 30% of the global total. Russia has the most competitors who have been caught doping at the Olympic Games in the world, with more than 150.
Michael A. Chambers is the former president of the Canadian Olympic Committee and senior partner at Maclaren Corlett LLP. As of 2021, Chambers serves as chair of the Association of National Olympic Committees Legal Commission, chair of the Panam Sports Legal Commission, and chair of the Ethics Commission of the International Canoe Federation.
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