The last Olympics post

Certain readers (*cough* Miss Behaviour) will be pleased to know that this is the very last Winter Olympics post,a nd it will be short. The 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin came to an end yesterday, with Germany atop the medals table.

I really enjoyed these Olympics, as you may have gathered from the preponderance of posts about them. It's the first time I have really got into a Winter Olympics. Now I'm hooked and will look forward to the 2012 Winter Olympics in Vancouver with anticipation. I've learned a lot in the last couple of weeks about sports I scarcely even knew existed, such as skeleton. I've revelled in the coverage of sports I've been fascinated by for years, such as luge and bobsled. And I've become a fan of sports I knew existed but had never really bothered to watch before, especially biathlon, but also, believe it or not, curling. I can't pick one highlight from these games that stands out above all the others, but I do now have a favourite winter sports athlete: biathlete Martina Glagow, who picked up a whole haul of medals, though none were silver.

Anyhow, to bring my Winter Olympics coverage to an end once and for all (*hears sighs of relief*), here is the final medal table from the official torino2006.org website. You will note that Germany's account of 11 gold, 12 silver, 6 bronze, 29 total bears more than a passing similarity to my pre-Games prediction of 11 gold, 19 silver, 8 bronze, 38 total. Well, the 11 gold bit does, anyway.

Rank	NOC				Total	Rank (by Total)
1	Germany	11	12	6	29	1
2	United States	9	9	7	25	2
3	Austria	9	7	7	23	4
4	Russian Fed.	8	6	8	22	5
5	Canada	7	10	7	24	3
6	Sweden	7	2	5	14	=7
7	Korea	6	3	2	11	=9
8	Switzerland	5	4	5	14	=7
9	Italy	5	0	6	11	=9
10	France	3	2	4	9	=12
10	Netherlands	3	2	4	9	=12
12	Estonia	3	0	0	3	=16
13	Norway	2	8	9	19	6
14	China	2	4	5	11	=9
15	Czech Republic	1	2	1	4	15
16	Croatia	1	2	0	3	=16
17	Australia	1	0	1	2	=18
18	Japan	1	0	0	1	=21
19	Finland	0	6	3	9	=12
20	Poland	0	1	1	2	=18
21	Belarus	0	1	0	1	=21
21	Bulgaria	0	1	0	1	=21
21	Great Britain	0	1	0	1	=21
21	Slovakia	0	1	0	1	=21
25	Ukraine	0	0	2	2	=18
26	Latvia	0	0	1	1	=21

And that's it. More in 4 years' time.

Tags:
sport
Winter Olympics
Turin
Germany