Switzerland at the 2006 Winter Olympics explained

Noc:	SUI
Nocname:	Swiss Olympic Association
Games:	Winter Olympics
Year:	2006
Website:
Location:	Turin
Competitors:	140
Sports:	13
Flagbearer:	Philipp Schoch (opening)^[1] Maya Pedersen-Bieri (closing)^[2]
Rank:	8
Gold:	5
Silver:	4
Bronze:	5
Appearances:	auto
See also:	1906 Intercalated Games

Switzerland competed at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. This was the confederation's largest Winter Olympics team ever, because two ice hockey teams qualified (men and women).

Medalists

Medal	Name	Sport	Event	Date
				16 February
				17 February
				22 February
				22 February
				23 February
				15 February
				16 February
				22 February
				23 February
				12 February
				17 February
				18 February
	Beat Hefti			19 February
	Beat Hefti Cédric Grand Thomas Lamparter			25 February

Alpine skiing

See main article: Alpine skiing at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Switzerland won three medals in alpine skiing, with the best performance a silver from Martina Schild in the women's downhill. Bruno Kernen finished 17th in the final men's downhill training run, but improved in the race itself, winning the bronze medal.^[3]

Men

Athlete	Event	Final
		Run 1	Run 2	Run 3	Total	Rank
Daniel Albrecht	Giant slalom	did not finish
	Slalom	55.33	did not finish
	Combined	1:40.47	45.31	44.95	3:10.73	4
Marc Berthod	Giant slalom	1:19.05	1:19.20	n/a	2:38.25	17
	Slalom	56.22	49.78	n/a	1:46.00	14
	Combined	1:41.24	45.21	44.77	3:11.22	7
Didier Cuche	Super-G	n/a	1:31.50	12
	Giant slalom	1:19.08	1:20.25	n/a	2:39.33	19
Didier Défago	Downhill	n/a	1:51.51	26
	Super-G	n/a	1:31.90	16
	Giant slalom	1:18.03	1:19.57	n/a	2:37.60	14
	Combined	1:38.68	did not finish
Tobias Grünenfelder	Downhill	n/a	1:50.44	12
Ambrosi Hoffmann	Downhill	n/a	1:50.72	17
	Super-G	n/a	1:30.98
Bruno Kernen	Downhill	n/a	1:49.82
	Super-G	n/a	1:31.95	18
Silvan Zurbriggen	Slalom	55.17	50.93	n/a	1:46.10	15
	Combined	1:41.08	did not finish

Women

Athlete	Event	Final
		Run 1	Run 2	Run 3	Total	Rank
Fraenzi Aufdenblatten	Downhill	n/a	1:57.96	12
	Super-G	n/a	1:34.10	17
	Giant slalom	1:03.46	1:09.16	n/a	2:12.62	16
	Combined	41.22	47.23	did not start
Sylviane Berthod	Downhill	n/a	1:58.36	14
	Super-G	n/a	1:34.00	15
Martina Schild	Downhill	n/a	1:56.86
	Super-G	n/a	1:33.33	6
Nadia Styger	Downhill	n/a	1:57.62	5
	Super-G	n/a	1:35.57	35
	Giant slalom	1:01.87	1:12.58	n/a	2:14.45	24

Note: In the men's combined, run 1 is the downhill, and runs 2 and 3 are the slalom. In the women's combined, run 1 and 2 are the slalom, and run 3 the downhill.

Biathlon

See main article: Biathlon at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Matthias Simmen earned Switzerland's only top 25 finish in Biathlon, as a near-clean shooting performance left him solidly positioned in the men's pursuit.^[4]

Athlete	Event	Final
		Time	Misses	Rank
Simon Hallenbarter	Men's sprint	30:05.7	5	66
	Men's individual	1:04:37.0	8	76
Matthias Simmen	Men's sprint	28:56.3	3	45
	Men's pursuit	38:08.85	4	23
	Men's individual	1:01:04.9	5	52

Bobsleigh

See main article: Bobsleigh at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Martin Annen piloted the Switzerland-1 sled in the two-man and the four-man, and in both events won a bronze medal. In each case, his team fell behind on the third run, but then performed well on the final run to earn a medal.^[5]

Athlete	Event	Final
		Run 1	Run 2	Run 3	Run 4	Total	Rank
Martin Annen Beat Hefti	Two-man	55.54	55.67	56.18	56.34	3:43.73
Ivo Rüegg Cédric Grand	Two-man	55.85	55.74	56.37	56.90	3:44.86	8
Maya Bamert Martina Feusi	Two-woman	57.72	57.78	58.00	58.54	3:52.04	8
Sabina Hafner Cora Huber	Two-woman	57.86	57.92	58.73	58.35	3:52.86	10
Martin Annen Beat Hefti Thomas Lamparter Cédric Grand	Four-man	55.26	55.37	55.00	55.20	3:40.83
Ivo Rüegg Andy Gees Roman Handschin Christian Aebli	Four-man	55.65	55.63	55.22	55.30	3:41.80	8

Cross-country skiing

See main article: Cross-country skiing at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

The Swiss cross-country team had only a single top-10 finish, a 7th place from the men's relay. The women's relay team, which earned a bronze medal in Salt Lake City, finished 11th.^[6]

Distance

Athlete	Event	Final
		Total	Rank
Seraina Boner	Women's 10 km classical	30:58.0	41
Reto Burgermeister	Men's 30 km pursuit	1:25:49.9	59
Remo Fischer	Men's 30 km pursuit	1:20:19.7	36
	Men's 50 km freestyle	2:06:40.9	21
Natascia Leonardi Cortesi	Women's 15 km pursuit	45:34.3	24
	Women's 30 km freestyle	1:25:32.0	16
Toni Livers	Men's 30 km pursuit	1:21:08.2	40
	Men's 50 km freestyle	2:07:25.4	32
Seraina Mischol	Women's 10 km classical	29:30.4	15
Laurence Rochat	Women's 10 km classical	30:02.2	25
Christian Stebler	Men's 15 km classical	40:38.6	29
	Men's 50 km freestyle	2:11:13.0	50
Reto Burgermeister Christian Stebler Toni Livers Remo Fischer	Men's 4 x 10 km relay	1:45:10.9	7
Seraina Mischol Laurence Rochat Natascia Leonardi Cortesi Seraina Boner	Women's 4 x 5 km relay	56:52.4	11

Sprint

Athlete	Event	Qualifying		Quarterfinal		Semifinal		Final
		Total	Rank	Total	Rank	Total	Rank	Total	Rank
Christoph Eigenmann	Men's sprint	2:20.46	30 Q	2:25.6	6	Did not advance	30
Seraina Mischol	Women's sprint	2:18.83	32	Did not advance	32
Laurence Rochat	Women's sprint	2:17.73	26 Q	2:18.9	3	Did not advance	15
Reto Burgermeister Christoph Eigenmann	Men's team sprint	n/a	18:00.6	8	Did not advance	15

Curling

See main article: Curling at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

In the men's event, 2006 European champion Ralph Stöckli finished the round robin at 5 wins, one short of the mark needed to progress to the medal round. On the women's side, Mirjam Ott, who won a silver medal as a third in 2002, made the final in 2006 as well, this time as a skip. Her rink finished second in the round robin before beating Canada in the semifinals. In the final, the Swiss managed to tie the game in the 10th end, forcing an extra, but Swedish skip Anette Norberg made a difficult shot to leave the Swiss with silver again.^[7]

Men's tournament

Team: Ralph Stöckli (skip), Claudio Pescia, Pascal Sieber, Simon Strübin, Marco Battilana (alternate)

Round Robin

Draw 1

Draw 3

Draw 5

Draw 6

Draw 7

Draw 8

Draw 9

Draw 11

Draw 12

Standings

width=25	Rank	width=150	Team	width=150	Skip	width=60	Won	width=60	Lost
1		Markku Uusipaavalniemi	7	2
2		Brad Gushue	6	3
3		Pete Fenson	6	3
4		David Murdoch	6	3
5		Pål Trulsen	5	4
6		Ralph Stockli	5	4
7		Joel Retornaz	4	5
8		Peter Lindholm	3	6
9		Andy Kapp	3	6
10		Sean Becker	0	9

Women's tournament

Mirjam Ott (skip), Binia Beeli, Valeria Spälty, Michèle Moser, Manuela Kormann (alternate)

Round Robin

Draw 1

Draw 2

Draw 3

Draw 5

Draw 6

Draw 7

Draw 8

Draw 10

Draw 12

Standings

width=25	Rank	width=150	Team	width=150	Skip	width=60	Won	width=60	Lost
1		Anette Norberg	7	2
2		Mirjam Ott	7	2
3		Shannon Kleibrink	6	3
4		Dordi Nordby	6	3
5		Rhona Martin	5	4
6		Ludmila Privivkova	5	4
7		Ayumi Onodera	4	5
8		Dorthe Holm	2	7
9		Cassandra Johnson	2	7
10		Diana Gaspari	1	8

Playoffs

Semifinal

Final

Key: The hammer indicates which team had the last stone in the first end.

Figure skating

See main article: Figure skating at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

2005 World champion Stéphane Lambiel was one of the few medal challengers to have two consistent performances, and his 4th-placed free skate and 3rd-placed short program were good enough to earn him a silver medal.^[8]

Athlete	Event	CD		SP/OD		FS/FD		Total
		Points	Rank	Points	Rank	Points	Rank	Points	Rank
Stéphane Lambiel	Men's	n/a	79.04	3 Q	152.17	4	231.21
Sarah Meier	Ladies'	n/a	55.57	10 Q	100.56	8	156.13	8
Jamal Othman	Men's	n/a	52.18	27	did not advance	27

Key: CD = Compulsory Dance, FD = Free Dance, FS = Free Skate, OD = Original Dance, SP = Short Program

Freestyle skiing

See main article: Freestyle skiing at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

2005 World Championships silver medalist Evelyne Leu sat 5th after the first jump in the |women's aerials final, but on her second jump, she put up the highest score of the competition, earning her a gold medal.^[9]

Athlete	Event	Qualifying		Final
		Points	Rank	Points	Rank
Thomas Lambert	Men's aerials	214.77	14	did not advance	14
Evelyne Leu	Women's aerials	180.37	4 Q	202.55
Manuela Müller	Women's aerials	168.31	9 Q	159.14	7
Renato Ulrich	Men's aerials	225.75	11 Q	204.75	11

Ice hockey

See main article: Ice hockey at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

The Swiss men's team had the two biggest upsets of the Olympic ice hockey tournament, beating the 1998 and 2002 gold medalists, the Czech Republic and Canada in back-to-back games. The win against Canada was the first time the Swiss had beaten that nation in an international competition, and required a stellar goaltending show from Martin Gerber, who earned a shutout.^[10] The team made the medal round, but lost in the quarter-finals to eventual champions Sweden. The women's team was less successful, losing each of its first four games before eventually finishing 7th.^[11]

Men's tournament

Players

Round-robin

Medal round

Quarterfinal

Women's tournament

Players

Round-robin

Medal round

Classification 5–8

7th place game

Luge

See main article: Luge at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Neither Swiss luger managed to challenge for the top positions.^[12]

Athlete	Event	Final
		Run 1	Run 2	Run 3	Run 4	Total	Rank
Stefan Höhener	Men's singles	52.459	51.989	52.124	52.212	3:28.784	15
Martina Kocher	Women's singles	47.548	47.410	47.276	47.357	3:09.591	9

Nordic combined

See main article: Nordic combined at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

No individual Swiss athlete finished in the top 20 in Nordic Combined, but the team put on a strong run in the last two legs of the cross-country portion to finish fourth, though they were more than a minute back of a medal spot.^[13]

Athlete	Event	Ski jumping		Cross-country
		Points	Rank	Deficit	Time	Rank
Ronny Heer	Sprint	105.6	22	1:20	19:37.7 +1:08.7	20
	Individual Gundersen	213.5	26	3:16	43:27.0 +3:42.4	24
Andreas Hurschler	Sprint	98.1	33	1:50	19:41.6 +1:12.6	21
	Individual Gundersen	193.5	39	4:36	43:21.9 +3:37.3	23
Seppi Hurschler	Sprint	105.3	24	1:22	19:51.4 +1:22.4	24
	Individual Gundersen	211.0	30	3:26	43:18.4 +3:33.8	22
Ivan Rieder	Sprint	105.5	23	1:21	20:42.0 +2:13.0	36
	Individual Gundersen	230.0	14	2:10	43:58.6 +4:14.0	27
Ronny Heer Andreas Hurschler Ivan Rieder Jan Schmid	Team	839.6	7	1:14	51:14.9 +1:22.3	4

Note: 'Deficit' refers to the amount of time behind the leader a competitor began the cross-country portion of the event. Italicized numbers show the final deficit from the winner's finishing time.

Skeleton

See main article: Skeleton at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Maya Pedersen-Bieri won gold at both the 2001 and 2005 World championships, and comfortably took the Olympic title, winning by more than a full second and being the only woman to complete a run in less than a minute. Her 59.64 second time in the first run was a new women's track record at Cesana Pariol. Gregor Stähli was fifth after the first run, bu when others ahead of him faltered, he put together a solid run to earn a bronze medal.^[14]

Athlete	Event	Final
		Run 1	Run 2	Total	Rank
Tanja Morel	Women's	1:00.85	1:01.65	2:02.50	7
Maya Pedersen-Bieri	Women's	59.64	1:00.19	1:59.83
Gregor Stähli	Men's	58.41	58.39	1:56.80

Ski jumping

See main article: Ski jumping at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Simon Ammann, a double gold medalist in Salt Lake, could not recapture that form in Turin, where his best finish was 15th in the large hill event. Andreas Küttel was pre-qualified in both events, but poor second jumps in both left him outside the medals.^[15]

Athlete	Event	Qualifying		First round		Final
		Points	Rank	Points	Rank	Points	Total	Rank
Simon Ammann	Normal hill	106.0	33 Q	107.0	38	did not advance	38
	Large hill	111.7	4 Q	104.4	20 Q	113.6	218.0	15
Andreas Küttel	Normal hill	134.5	1 PQ	133.5	4 Q	129.0	262.5	5
	Large hill	132.6	4 PQ	120.0	6 Q	119.1	239.1	6
Guido Landert	Normal hill	116.0	19 Q	97.0	48	did not advance	48
	Large hill	74.4	34 Q	85.3	37	did not advance	37
Michael Möllinger	Normal hill	127.0	4 Q	126.5	12 Q	122.5	249.0	13
	Large hill	91.3	17 Q	104.9	19 Q	120.0	224.9	13
Simon Ammann Andreas Küttel Guido Landert Michael Möllinger	Team	n/a	424.2	8 Q	462.7	886.9	7

Note: PQ indicates a skier was pre-qualified for the final, based on entry rankings.

Snowboarding

See main article: Snowboarding at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

The Swiss Olympic team won four medals in snowboarding, more than in any other sport. Three of these came in the parallel giant slalom, as the Swiss swept the golds in both the men's and women's events. Daniela Meuli was seeded 6th after the qualifying run, but overcame deficits twice to make the final, and then won after her German opponent fell. Philipp Schoch earned his second consecutive gold medal in the men's event, winning the final against his brother Simon.^[16] In the women's snowboard cross final, Tanja Frieden was the beneficiary of American Lindsey Jacobellis's fall on the final hill, sweeping past the American to claim the gold medal.^[17]

Halfpipe

Athlete	Event	Qualifying run 1		Qualifying run 2		Final
		Points	Rank	Points	Rank	Run 1	Run 2	Rank
Therry Brunner	Men's halfpipe	23.0	26	9.2	33	did not advance	39
Frederik Kalbermatten	Men's halfpipe	16.8	32	30.8	18	did not advance	24
Markus Keller	Men's halfpipe	33.7	12	38.3	5 Q	(29.3)	38.5	7
Manuela Pesko	Women's halfpipe	7.1	32	36.9	3 Q	35.9	(14.2)	7
Gian Simmen	Men's halfpipe	32.0	14	33.8	13	did not advance	19

Note: In the final, the single best score from two runs is used to determine the ranking. A bracketed score indicates a run that wasn't counted.

Parallel GS

Athlete	Event	Qualification		Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Finals
		Time	Rank	Opposition Time	Opposition Time	Opposition Time	Opposition Time	Rank
Ursula Bruhin	Women's parallel giant slalom	1:21.47	7 Q	(10) W -2.06 (-0.06 -2.00)	(2) L +0.15 (+0.12 +0.03)	Classification 5–8 (3) L +4.76 (-1.50 +6.26)	7th place final (4) W -1.74 (-0.71 -1.03)	7
Heinz Inniger	Men's parallel giant slalom	1:09.96	3 Q	(3) W -0.66 (-0.25 -0.41)	(6) L +0.61 (+1.35 -0.74)	Classification 5–8 (10) W -0.14 (+0.18 -0.32)	5th place final (8) W -0.42 (-0.94 +0.52)	5
Gilles Jaquet	Men's parallel giant slalom	1:10.47	5 Q	(12) W -0.51 (0.00 -0.51)	(13) L +1.54 (+0.86 +0.68)	Classification 5–8 (8) L +4.55 (-0.85 +5.40)	7th place final (10) L +0.41 (+0.12 +0.29)	8
Daniela Meuli	Women's parallel giant slalom	1:21.36	6 Q	(11) W -1.00 (-0.24 -0.76)	(3) W -1.43 (-1.50 +0.07)	(2) W -3.70 (+0.24 -3.94)	(5) W -15.97 (-0.21 -15.76)
Philipp Schoch	Men's parallel giant slalom	1:09.83	2 Q	(15) W -1.37 (-0.89 -0.48)	(10) W -1.07 (-1.35 +0.28)	(6) W -0.34 (-0.42 +0.08)	(1) W -0.73 (-0.88 +0.15)
Simon Schoch	Men's parallel giant slalom	1:09.38	1 Q	(16) W -0.52 (-0.14 -0.38)	(8) W -1.27 (-0.59 -0.68)	(13) W -0.38 (+0.31 -0.69)	(2) L +0.73 (+0.88 -0.15)

Key: '+ Time' represents a deficit; the brackets indicate the results of each run.

Snowboard cross

Athlete	Event	Qualifying		1/8 finals	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Finals
		Time	Rank	Position	Position	Position	Position	Rank
Mellie Francon	Women's snowboard cross	1:32.30	14 Q	n/a	1 Q	3	Classification 5–8 1	5
Tanja Frieden	Women's snowboard cross	1:29.77	4 Q	n/a	1 Q	2 Q	1 Q
Marco Huser	Men's snowboard cross	1:20.26	2 Q	2 Q	3	did not advance	Classification 9–12 1	9
Ueli Kestenholz	Men's snowboard cross	1:22.32	21 Q	4	did not advance	25
Olivia Nobs	Women's snowboard cross	1:30.44	7 Q	n/a	3	did not advance	Classification 9–12 3	11

Further reading

• Bis heute selektionierte Athleten, from the Swiss Olympic Association, retrieved 26 January 2006

Notes and References

1. Web site: Flagbearers for the Opening Ceremony . 6 April 2009.
2. Web site: Flagbearers for the Closing Ceremony . https://web.archive.org/web/20120115165300/http://www.olympic.org/uk/news/media_centre/press_release_uk.asp?id=1726 . dead . 15 January 2012 . 6 April 2009.
3. Web site: Torino 2006 Official Report - Alpine Skiing . https://web.archive.org/web/20120612013210/http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/2006/Results/AlpineSkiing.pdf . dead . 2012-06-12 . Torino Organizing Committee . LA84 Foundation . March 2009 . 6 April 2009.
4. Web site: Torino 2006 Official Report - Biathlon . https://web.archive.org/web/20120612013218/http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/2006/Results/Biathlon.pdf . dead . 2012-06-12 . Torino Organizing Committee . LA84 Foundation . March 2009 . 6 April 2009.
5. Web site: Torino 2006 Official Report - Bobsleigh . https://web.archive.org/web/20120612013222/http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/2006/Results/Bobsleigh.pdf . dead . 2012-06-12 . Torino Organizing Committee . LA84 Foundation . March 2009 . 6 April 2009.
6. Web site: Torino 2006 Official Report - Cross Country Skiing . https://web.archive.org/web/20120612013304/http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/2006/Results/CrosscountrySki.pdf . dead . 2012-06-12 . Torino Organizing Committee . LA84 Foundation . March 2009 . 6 April 2009.
7. Web site: Torino 2006 Official Report - Curling. Torino Organizing Committee. LA84 Foundation. March 2009. 6 April 2009.
8. Web site: Torino 2006 Official Report - Figure Skating. Torino Organizing Committee. LA84 Foundation. March 2009. 6 April 2009.
9. Web site: Torino 2006 Official Report - Freestyle Skiing . https://web.archive.org/web/20120612013356/http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/2006/Results/FreestyleSkiing.pdf . dead . 2012-06-12 . Torino Organizing Committee . LA84 Foundation . March 2009 . 6 April 2009.
10. Web site: Swiss shock Canadian men 2-0. Canadian Broadcasting Company. 19 February 2006. 6 April 2009.
11. Web site: Torino 2006 Official Report - Ice Hockey. Torino Organizing Committee. LA84 Foundation. March 2009. 6 April 2009.
12. Web site: Torino 2006 Official Report - Luge . https://web.archive.org/web/20120612013446/http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/2006/Results/Luge.pdf . dead . 2012-06-12 . Torino Organizing Committee . LA84 Foundation . March 2009 . 6 April 2009.
13. Web site: Torino 2006 Official Report - Nordic Combined. Torino Organizing Committee. LA84 Foundation. March 2009. 6 April 2009.
14. Web site: Torino 2006 Official Report - Skeleton . https://web.archive.org/web/20120612013510/http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/2006/Results/Skeleton.pdf . dead . 2012-06-12 . Torino Organizing Committee . LA84 Foundation . March 2009 . 6 April 2009.
15. Web site: Torino 2006 Official Report - Ski Jumping. Torino Organizing Committee. LA84 Foundation. March 2009. 6 April 2009.
16. Web site: Torino 2006 Official Report - Snowboarding. Torino Organizing Committee. LA84 Foundation. March 2009. 6 April 2009.
17. Web site: Jacobellis makes rookie mistake on biggest stage. Lindsey Berra. ESPN. 18 February 2006. 6 April 2009.