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Torino looks to Olympics for transformation

Italian officials advise community to build on legacies of Games Whistler may be counting the years until it hosts the 2010 Winter Olympic Games with Vancouver.

Italian officials advise community to build on legacies of Games

Whistler may be counting the years until it hosts the 2010 Winter Olympic Games with Vancouver.

But Torino, Italy, host of the 2006 Games is counting the days – with only 679 to go.

And what has become apparent to organizers in Italy, as the years of preparation rush by, is that the Games are all about the legacies they leave behind.

"It is important to have a successful Games because that gives you a reputation," said Valentino Castellani, president of the Torino organizing committee, TOROC.

"But the people who remain in the territory of the Games, they have to have some long-term opportunities and results. So looking far (ahead) in your planning on the Olympic legacies is an important commitment for the local authorities."

Added Torino Mayor Sergio Chiamparino: "I would like to underline the importance of the legacies because this, I think, is the most important goal of the Winter Games and those of the (host) city, particularly in the field of culture."

Castellani gave the Whistler venue a glowing review this week during a visit by a delegation of Italian Games organizers, businesses, and city planners. They came to share their experiences, raise their own profile, and forge new alliances with B.C. companies.

"You will have a great Olympics, I am sure of it," he said Sunday while touring Whistler Village and Whistler Mountain.

"On this sunny day you could just breathe in the spirit of the place."

The design and layout of the pedestrian village, which keeps most parking underground, also impressed the former mayor of Torino.

"Our villages are older so you couldn’t have planned this, but this is very important so you can make important choices," said Castellani.

He also felt that Vancouver’s message of being the Sea to Sky Games was a powerful one.

"What impressed me… is this connection of mountains with the sea," said Castellani.

"I believe this is a very interesting feature for the identity of the Games. To have this connection, skiing in front of the sea, I believe this is very, very important, spectacular I would say, so that is what impressed me on my first visit to Vancouver."

However, he noted that the highway between Vancouver and Whistler does need work.

"It must be improved, of course, for the Games," said Castellani, adding that the 2006 Games have a similar road into some of the alpine venues, which is currently being upgraded.

The Sestriere 2006 alpine venue just hosted the FIS World Cup finals.

Castellani said there were several problems but the organizing committee took the opportunity to learn from them.

"You don’t plan to make errors but… you learn a lot from the difficulties," he said.

"We had some problems with the accommodation and the logistics. In part they were expected because we don’t have yet the Olympic Village. But I believe that that was useful to alert the people."

The lessons from Torino’s years of preparations will be shared with Vancouver and Whistler. It is also hoped that companies from B.C. and Piemonte (Piedmont) can also share information and opportunities sparked by the common Games experience.

On Monday B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell and Piemonte Region President Enzo Ghigo signed a co-operation agreement to help local and Italian companies do business together.

It is all part of Torino’s quest to reinvent itself – a journey that began in the mid 1990’s said Anna Mirtina, director of communications for the city, after economic strife hit the region.

"The benefits are a lot in the sense that that I think the Olympic Games are arranging for the economic benefit for the city," she said while in Vancouver this week.

"I can say it is a great opportunity also for the city world-wide because the Olympic Games represent an international stage for promoting the city."

Torino is using the 2006 Games as a catalyst to redefine itself said Mirtina.

Known for decades as the "Detroit of Italy" because of the manufacture of Fiat cars in the region, the Piemonte area is now working to promote its art, culture, food and wine, and its innovative approach to new industries which include technology sectors, aerospace and others.

For Torino, a city of 1.2 million in the shadow of the Italian Alps, the Games represent an important deadline in completing major city planning transformations, infrastructures and principal cultural projects.

It is currently working on an extensive modernization of its rail system, which will also include a new underground portion. All of this is to be finished in times for the Games.

Olympic events in Torino will be concentrated in an "Olympic District" in the city’s industrial south, intended to serve post-Games as an alternate hub to the historic downtown.

At the centre of the district is the Fiat-owned Lingotto, Europe’s largest auto plant when it was completed in 1923. In the 1990s this complex was transformed into a kilometre-long district containing a hotel, theatre, congress centre exhibition hall, shopping centre, polytechnic college and the headquarters of TOROC.

A speed skating oval is also under construction and a 12,800-seat hockey arena will also be built in the Olympic district. Both are to be finished in 2005.

The Palavela, which will host figure skating, is undergoing an upgrade and scheduled to be finished this November.

All the alpine venues are already completed. The Nordic and ski jumping venues will be finished this winter.

Castellani told Vancouver officials this week that the capital costs of the Games were expected to be 15 to 20 per cent higher than originally forecast.

Torino’s Olympics will be spread out over seven areas, all linked by a loop road. One side of the loop is a modern toll highway while the other is not unlike the Sea to Sky Highway. And like Highway 99 the Italian road is also getting major upgrades for the Games.

There is also rail service to most of the venue locations.

Athletes will be bussed to their events from two sub-Olympic Villages in the mountains.

Torino will host the inauguration ceremony, the Medal Plaza, an Olympic Village and the press radio, television services as well as some individual and team ice sports: hockey, figure skating, short-track and speed skating.

Sestriere, about an hour away, will have an Olympic Village and most of the alpine skiing events. Pragelato will host ski jumping, cross-country skiing and Nordic combined. Cesana San Sicario will host the biathalon and the women’s alpine skiing speed races, downhill and super-G. And nearby Pariol-Greniere will host the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton competitions.

Bardonecchia will host the snowboard competitions and will also have an Olympic Village.

Pinerolo will host curling and Sauze d’Oulx will host the freestyle skiing.

Torino’s Games will be held February 10-26, 2006 and officials hope to host 2,500 athletes, 1,400 national team coaches and officials, 2,300 members of the International Olympic Committee, National Olympic Committees and Federations.

Officials are also expecting 1.5 million spectators will visit Torino for the Games.

Perhaps more than any city in modern times, Torino is tying its rebirth as a city for tourism, culture, modern technology and business to the Games. After all, it isn’t that long ago that one in eight workers in the area lost their jobs after Fiat experienced a major downturn.

A recent survey done by the organizing committee for the Torino Games and the Unione Industriale di Torino said an average of 4,500 jobs will be created each year between 2002 and 2007, with a peak of over 8,000 in 2006.

The main beneficiaries of the event will the building industry, and the hotel and retail businesses.

It is expected that 40 per cent of new jobs will be in the building sector, 21 per cent in commerce hotels and retailing, and 20 per cent in other services.

Turin will spend about CDN $2.1 billion on infrastructure and venue construction. The operations budget is CDN $1.7 billion.

Vancouver’s capital costs are budgeted at CDN $800 million (including security) with an operations budget of CDN $1.3 billion.

Castellani said TOROC is also proud of the work it has done in promoting sustainability within the framework of the 2006 Games.

And organizers have worked hard to reach out into the schools so that a generation of young Italians can share in the experience.

"Boys and girls will remember this for a long time and then tell tales to their children and grandchildren," said Castellani recalling that it has been 50 years since Italy hosted an Olympics.

Spectators for the 2006 Games will be able to enjoy a host of other activities along with the events themselves.

In the province of Torino there are 130 museums including the Egyptian Museum – second only to Cairo’s own.

There is also the famous Cinema Museum in the Mole Antonelliana. The city’s symbol designed by Alessandro Antonelli started out as a synagogue in 1863. But his quest for the highest spire in the area was quashed by lack of technology and the building had to wait until the turn of the century to be finished.

In the end the spire reached 167 metres.

However, the congregation, which got fed up waiting for their place of worship to be finished, handed it over to the city which only found a function for it in 2000 as the home of the cinema museum.

Another top cultural attraction is the famous Shroud of Turin, believed by many to be Jesus’ burial cloth.

The Piemonte area is also famous for its food and wine. Indeed the aperitif was invented here with both Cinzano and Martini made nearby. The bread stick and zabaglione, a custardy dessert, were also created here.

The town is host to the largest food and wine fair in the world, – the Salone de Gusto, which is dedicated to the Slow Food movement.