| Women's Skeleton at the XX Olympic Winter Games | |||||||||||||
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 Pictogram for skeleton | |||||||||||||
| Venue | Cesana Pariol | ||||||||||||
| Dates | 16 February | ||||||||||||
| Competitors | 15 from 12 nations | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
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| Skeleton at the 2006 Winter Olympics | ||
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| men | women | |
The women's skeleton at the 2006 Winter Olympics took place on 16 February, at the Cesana Pariol.
Two-time world champion Maya Pedersen set the two fastest times to win the gold medal, Switzerland's first gold of the games. Shelley Rudman won silver, Great Britain's only medal of the games. Mellisa Hollingsworth-Richards took bronze for Canada, the first Olympic medal in skeleton won by a Canadian athlete. [1]
Rudman's hometown of Pewsey, Wiltshire held a twelve-hour canoe marathon to raise money to help her go to Turin after she was disqualified from the 2005 world championships in Calgary for her sled being 200 grams (0.44 lb) overweight after she was denied funding by the British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation. Pederson trained for the event by watching a video of the course on a big screen in her living room while lying down on her sled on a table. [2]
| Rank | Name | Country | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total | Diff. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Maya Pedersen-Bieri |  Switzerland | 0:59.64 | 1:00.19 | 1:59.83 | — |
 | Shelley Rudman |  Great Britain | 1:00.57 | 1:00.49 | 2:01.06 | +1.23 |
 | Mellisa Hollingsworth-Richards |  Canada | 1:00.39 | 1:01.02 | 2:01.41 | +1.58 |
| 4 | Diana Sartor |  Germany | 1:00.29 | 1:01.40 | 2:01.69 | +1.86 |
| 5 | Costanza Zanoletti |  Italy | 1:00.99 | 1:01.18 | 2:02.17 | +2.34 |
| 6 | Katie Uhlaender |  United States | 1:00.87 | 1:01.43 | 2:02.30 | +2.47 |
| 7 | Tanja Morel | Switzerland | 1:00.85 | 1:01.65 | 2:02.50 | +2.67 |
| 8 | Anja Huber | Germany | 1:01.12 | 1:01.44 | 2:02.56 | +2.73 |
| 9 | Desiree Bjerke |  Norway | 1:00.92 | 1:01.70 | 2:02.62 | +2.79 |
| 10 | Lindsay Alcock | Canada | 1:01.26 | 1:01.59 | 2:02.85 | +3.02 |
| 11 | Svetlana Trunova |  Russia | 1:01.23 | 1:01.83 | 2:03.06 | +3.23 |
| 12 | Louise Corcoran |  New Zealand | 1:01.06 | 1:02.03 | 2:03.09 | +3.26 |
| 13 | Michelle Steele |  Australia | 1:01.26 | 1:02.21 | 2:03.47 | +3.64 |
| 14 | Eiko Nakayama |  Japan | 1:01.82 | 1:02.10 | 2:03.92 | +4.09 |
| 15 | Monika Wolowiec |  Poland | 1:02.31 | 1:02.99 | 2:05.30 | +5.47 |
The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter Olympics, the first being in 1956 in Cortina d'Ampezzo; Italy had also hosted the Summer Olympics in 1960 in Rome.
Eugenio Monti was an Italian bobsledder and alpine skier. He is one of the most successful athletes in the history of the bobsleigh, with ten World championship medals and 6 Olympic medals including two golds. He is known also for his acts of sportsmanship during the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, which made him the first athlete ever to receive the Pierre de Coubertin medal.
The United States sent 204 athletes to the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Chris Witty, a four-time Olympian, who competed in both Summer and Winter games, and won a gold medal in speed skating at the 2002 Games, served as the flag bearer at the opening ceremonies. Speed skater Joey Cheek, who won gold in the 500 m and silver in the 1000 m, was the flag bearer at the closing ceremonies. One athlete, Sarah Konrad, became the first American woman to compete in two different disciplines at the same Winter Olympics – biathlon and cross-country skiing.
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Amy Joy Williams, is a British former skeleton racer and Olympic gold medallist. Originally a runner, she began training in skeleton in 2002 after trying the sport on a push-start track at the University of Bath. Although unable to qualify for the 2006 Winter Olympics, she was a member of the Great Britain team four years later at the 2010 Games. She won a gold medal, becoming the first British individual gold medallist at a Winter Olympics for 30 years and the only British medallist in those Olympics.
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