The 2006 Winter Paralympic Games (Italian: Giochi paralimpici invernali del 2006), the ninth Paralympic Winter Games, took place in Turin, Italy from 10 to 19 March 2006. These were the first Winter Paralympic Games to be held in Italy. They were also the first Paralympics to use the new Paralympics logo.
 | |
| Host city | Turin, Italy |
|---|---|
| Motto | Passion lives here (Italian: La passione vive qui) |
| Nations | 39 |
| Athletes | 486 |
| Events | 58 in 4 sports |
| Opening | 10 March |
| Closing | 19 March |
| Opened by | |
| Cauldron |
Silvia Battaglio
Aroldo Ruschioni |
| Stadium | Stadio Olimpico |
Winter
Summer
| |
Italy will host the Winter Paralympics again in 2026, scheduled to be held in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo.
The top 10 NPCs by number of gold medals are listed below. The host nation (Italy) is highlighted.
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Russia | 13 | 13 | 7 | 33 |
| 2 |  Germany | 8 | 5 | 5 | 18 |
| 3 |  Ukraine | 7 | 9 | 9 | 25 |
| 4 |  France | 7 | 2 | 6 | 15 |
| 5 |  United States | 7 | 2 | 3 | 12 |
| 6 |  Canada | 5 | 3 | 5 | 13 |
| 7 |  Austria | 3 | 4 | 7 | 14 |
| 8 |  Japan | 2 | 5 | 2 | 9 |
| 9 |  Italy* | 2 | 2 | 4 | 8 |
| 10 |  Poland | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Totals (10 entries) | 56 | 45 | 48 | 149 | |
The Games featured 58 medal events in five disciplines of four sports. As with other Paralympic Games, medals are awarded for each classification within each event. The sport of wheelchair curling made its Paralympic debut at these games.[1]
Alpine skiing (24) (details)
Ice sledge hockey (1) (details)
Biathlon (12) (details)
Cross-country skiing (20) (details)
Wheelchair curling (1) (details)Five competition venues were used during the Winter Paralympics. They all hosted competitions during the 2006 Winter Olympics.
The Opening ceremonies were held at Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino and the closing and the awarding ceremonies for the snow events were also held in Turin were held at the Medals Plaza at Piaza Castello.
Alpine skiing events were held at Sestriere. Cross-country skiing and biathlon events were held shared by the Cesana San Sicario complex. All the skiing athletes were accommodated in the Mountain Paralympic Village in Sestriere.
Ice sledge hockey was held in Torino Esposizioni and wheelchair curling was held in Pinerolo Palaghiaccio. These athletes were accommodated in the Main Paralympic Village in Turin.
| ● | Opening ceremony | ● | Event competitions | ● | Event finals | ● | Closing ceremony |
| March | 10th | 11th | 12th | 13th | 14th | 15th | 16th | 17th | 18th | 19th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ceremonies | ● | ● | ||||||||
| Alpine Skiing | 2 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 4 | ||
| Biathlon | 6 | 6 | ||||||||
| Cross-country skiing | 6 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 4 | |||||
| Ice sledge hockey | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | 1 | |||
| Wheelchair curling | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | 1 |
Thirty-nine National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) classified athletes to compete at the 2006 Winter Paralympics. This was an increase of three from the 36 represented at the 2002 Winter Paralympics. The number in parentheses indicates the number of participants from each NPC.
Note that, although Greece was classified a athlete,they don't participated in any event; the International Paralympic Committee does not list Greece as a participating country, and considers that there were thirty-eight NPCs at the Games, rather than thirty-nine.[2][3]
Andorra (2)
Armenia (2)
Australia (10) Austria (25)
Belarus (6)
Belgium (1)
Bulgaria (3) Canada (35)
Chile (2)
China (8)
Croatia (1)
Czech Republic (5)
Denmark (6)
Finland (7) France (19) Germany (35)
Great Britain (20)
Hungary (2)
Iran (1) Italy (39) (Host) Japan (40)
Kazakhstan (2)
South Korea (3)
Latvia (1)
Mexico (1)
Mongolia (1)
New Zealand (2)
Norway (29) Poland (11) Russia (29)
Slovakia (17)
Slovenia (1)
South Africa (1)
Spain (9)
Sweden (19)
Switzerland (21) Ukraine (12) United States (56)
A total of 486 athletes participated in the Games, 385 male and 101 female. This is an increase from the 430 athletes participated in 2002. Despite overall increase of delegates and athletes, the following nations who participated in the 2002 Winter Paralympics did not send athletes to Turin.
Mexico was the only country who had sent an athlete to the Winter Paralympics but not the Olympics.
These are the second Paralympic Games to be held in Italy, which hosted the first Summer ParalympicsinRome in 1960.[4]
These are the first Paralympic Games to feature a live webcast of events, hosted by ParalympicSport.TV.
The Games mascot is Aster, a star-shaped snowflake similar in design and was the younger brother to the Olympic mascots Neve and Gliz.
Unable to fund the hosting themselves, the Olympic organizing committee TOROC and in a and if it is impossible to cancel or transfer the Games to another location,TOROC sold the Games' organization to public-private partnership between the Turin and italian government,the Italian Paralympic Committee and several private companies for an estimated US$40 million value.[5]
| Preceded by | Winter Paralympics Turin IX Paralympic Winter Games (2006) |
Succeeded by |
