Medal Standings   Gold Silver Bronze Total Germany 11 12 6 29 United States 9 9 7 25 Austria 9 7 7 23 Russian Federation 8 6 8 22 Canada 7 10 7 24 Sweden 7 2 5 14 South Korea 6 3 2 11 Switzerland 5 4 5 14 Italy 5 0 6 11 France 3 2 4 9 CANADIAN MEDAL WINNERS GOLD Jennifer Heil Women's Freestyle Moguls Duff Gibson Men's Skeleton Women's Team Ice Hockey Cindy Klassen 1,500m Speed Skating Chandra Crawford Cross-Country Skiing Sprint B.Gushue/M.Nichols/ J.Korab/M.Adams/ R.Howard Men's Curling Clara Hughes 5,000m Speed Skating SILVER Beckie Scott/ Sara Renner Cross-Country Skiing Team Sprint Men's Team Team Pursuit Speed Skating Women's Team Team Pursuit Speed Skating Jeff Pain Men's Skeleton Pierre Lueders/ Lascelles Brown Two-Man Bobsled Cindy Klassen 1,000m Speed Skating Kristina Groves 1,500m Speed Skating Women's Team 3,000m Short-Track Relay Francois-Louis Tremblay 500m Short-Track Men's Team 5,000m Short-Track Relay BRONZE Cindy Klassen 3,000m Speed Skating Anouk Leblanc-Boucher 500m Short-Track Jeffrey Buttle Men's Figure Skating Mellisa Hollingsworth-Richards Women's Skeleton Dominique Maltais Women's Snowboard Cross S.Kleibrink/C.Keshen/ S.Jenkins/G.Bakker/ A.Nixon Women's Curling Cindy Klassen 5,000m Speed Skating

For the 2006 Olympic Winter Games, the International Olympic Committee introduced a new selection process which prohibited visits by IOC members to the Candidate Cities. Torino, Italy was eventually awarded the games over Sion, Switzerland by a 53-36 vote margin. Other cities which had been considered included Helsinki, Finland; Klagenfurt, Austria; Poprad-Tatry, Slovakia; and Zakopane, Poland.

Going into the Games, the Canadian Olympic Committee had set a goal to finish third in the medal standings, predicting it would take 25 medals to do so. It was all part of the COC's "Own the Podium" program in the buildup to the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.

Mission accomplished.

Canada finished third with 24 medals for its best showing ever at the Winter Olympics. The previous high for Canada was 17 medals in Salt Lake City in 2002. Just as impressive, Canada had 13 fourths and eight fifths, for a total of 45 top-five finishes.

Canada's undeniable leader in Torino was speed skater Cindy Klassen, who won a Canadian record five medals. International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge called her "the woman of the Games."

Klassen won gold in the 1,500 metres, silver in the 1,000, bronze in the 3,000, silver in the team pursuit and bronze in the 5,000. Indeed, long and short track speed skaters combined for 12 of Canada's 24 medals, including two golds - one for Klassen and one for Clara Hughes.

There were Canadian heroes in other disciplines as well. Jennifer Heil won Canada's first medal with a gold in women's moguls; cross-country skier Chandra Crawford came from nowhere to win gold in the women's individual sprint; Duff Gibson and Jeff Pain finished 1-2 in men's skeleton; Brad Gushue recovered from a shaky start to lead Canada to gold in men's curling; and the women's hockey team continued to rule the world with another golden showing.

The men's hockey team crashed spectacularly in Torino. Coming in as the defending gold medalist from Salt Lake City, much was expected of this collection of NHL'ers. Instead, this edition of Team Canada never came together and lacked chemistry and cohesion.

Canada finished third in their group in the round-robin portion of the tournament. After easy wins over Italy and Germany, the team failed to score in each of its next two games before hanging on for a 3-2 win over the Czech Republic. That set them up for a quarterfinal showdown against Russia, who finished with just one loss in the round-robin. For the third time in the tournament, the Canadians were shut out, 2-0, ending their quest for an Olympic medal. It marked the first time Canada has failed to reach the semifinals in men's hockey since full participation of NHL players began with the 1998 Games in Nagano, Japan. That year they lost the bronze medal game.

Sweden would go on to win the gold over Scandanavian rival Finland while the Czech Republic would take the bronze over Russia.

The Torino Games had only one confirmed doping case. Russian biathlete Olga Pyleva was stripped of a silver medal after testing positive for a banned stimulant during the first week.

However, the Games ended under the shadow of a possible doping scandal involving Austria's cross-country and biathlon teams. On February 18, the IOC and Italian police raided apartments in the mountain villages of Pragelato and San Sicario, seizing what police descirbe as blood equipment, syringes and other materials. Tests on six skiers and four biathletes came back negative but the IOC and police are pressing ahead with the case.