Brazil at the 2006 Winter Olympics

Infobox Olympics Brazil
games=2006 Winter
competitors=10
sports=4
flagbearer=Isabel Clark (opening)
Nikolai Hentsch (closing)

Brazil sent 10 competitors to the 2006 Winter Olympics, in Turin, Italy, half of which consisted of the Men's Bobsleigh team — although following the exclusion of Armando dos Santos from the Bobsleigh team due to a doping incident, the number dropped to nine athletes.
Isabel Clark, a snowboarder, carried the flag at the Opening Ceremonies. Clark is also the Brazilian athlete who achieved the best result in the Brazilian delegation, since she is ranked relatively high in her sport (in the top 30) and made it as far as the quarterfinals in her category, finishing ninth overall.

In the Bobsleigh team, the substitute athlete, Claudinei Quirino, is a silver medalist in the Summer Olympic Games, where he finished second in Sydney 2000 with the Brazilian 4x100m relay team. By participating in the Winter Games, Quirino becomes the second Brazilian man to have participated in both the Summer and Winter Games (the first was Matheus Inocêncio, who participated in Salt Lake 2002 and Athens 2004). On the women's side, Jaqueline Mourão became the first woman to have achieved this feat: she had participated in the Mountain Bike competition of Athens 2004 and in Turin 2006, she took part in the 10 km classical interval start.

On February 22, the Brazilian Olympic Committee announced, in Rio de Janeiro, that alpine skier Nikolai Hentsch was to be the flag bearer for Brazil at the closing ceremonies of the Winter Games. For the Closing Ceremony, all the nine athletes participating in the Games remained in Turin. Hentsch bore the flag, and the other eight (Edson Bindilatti, Márcio Silva, Ricardo Raschini, Claudinei Quirino, Mirella Arnhold, Jaqueline Mourão, Hélio Freitas and Isabel Clark) entered the stadium along with the other delegations. The Brazilians were seated by the organization in a privileged spot: in the first row immediately behind the podium where IOC president Jacques Rogge and the president of the Turin 2006 Organizing Committee, Valentino Castellani, delivered their speeches. Most of the Brazilian athletes were clearly visible in the stands whenever the focus was on the podium and the people standing nearby.

Events

Alpine skiing

;Men's combined:

;Men's Super-G:

;Women's giant slalom:

Bobsleigh

* Edson Bindilatti (breakman)
* Márcio Silva (pusher: second man)
* Ricardo Raschini (pilot)
* Claudinei Quirino (alternate — pusher: third man)
* Armando dos Santos (pusher: third man):→ On February 13 the Brazilian Olympic Committee announced that Armando dos Santos' preventive antidoping test, which had been done in Brazil on January 4, was positive for the forbidden substansce nandrolone. Santos was ejected from the team, being replaced by former sprinter Claudinei Quirino, the team's substitute athlete.:→ On February 18, the Australian Olympic Committee filed a request with the International Olympic Committee claiming that the qualification of the Brazilian team to the Olympics was invalid, and thus the Brazilian team should not be allowed to compete. The claim of the Australian Committee revolved around the circumstances of the qualification: the Brazilians earned their spot in the Games by winning the 2006 Challenge Cup, in late January, which awarded two spots in the Olympics. That event took place two weeks after Armando dos Santos' antidoping test, which turned out to be positive, had been performed, although the result was only divulged on February 13. In that event, New Zealand came in second, which earned them a spot in the Olympics as well, and the Australian team was third. Thus, the Australians claimed that the Brazilian result should have been cancelled, given the previous — although then unknown — positive doping result of an athlete of the Brazilian team. This would have removed the Brazilian team from the Olympics and awarded Australia the spot, as the second valid result from the qualification event (New Zealand would have moved to first place). On February 19, the IOC ruled in favor of the Brazilians, rejecting the motion from the Australian Olympic Committee.

:→ "Results"::→ Final: 2:58.94 (25th place – 13.64s behind winners, Germany 1):::→ Day 1 (February 24): 1:58.52 (25th place – 8.32s behind leaders, Germany 1)::::→ Heat 1: 1:00.31 (25th place – 5.11s behind leaders, Germany 1)⁽¹⁾::::→ Heat 2: 58.51s (25th place – 3.21s behind leaders, Germany 1):::→ Day 2 (February 25): ::::→ Heat 3: 1:00.12 (25th place – 5.32s behind the leaders, Germany 1) — Did not qualify for Heat 4 ⁽²⁾::::→ Heat 4: DNS (failed to qualify by finishing outside the top 20)

¹ In their first run, the Brazilians' sleigh turned over coming out of Curve 14, after an error by pilot Ricardo Raschini, causing the team to finish with an exceedingly slow time. After an initial scare, the Brazilians got out of the sleigh and decided to continue in competition. No one was hurt and their sleigh was not damaged, but they had to borrow a helmet from the German team, since one of the Brazilians' was badly damaged during the accident.

² In what looked like a replay of Heat 1, the Brazilians once again turned over in Curve 14. Once again, pilot Ricardo Raschini miscalculated his exit of this curve, causing the sleigh to turn over. This time, the accident was slightly more violent than the original one: the sleigh was completely up side down for a few seconds, and pusher Claudinei Quirino got out of the sleigh complaining of pain in one of his arms, being taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital for detailed exams. He was released soon after, having been only medicated for the pain. The event finished any faint possibility that the Brazilians could qualify for Heat 4, of which only the top 20 sleighs would participate. In an interview soon afterwards, Raschini took full responsibility for both the accidents, asking for "the forgiveness of his team and the Brazilian people", although reporting that insufficient training at the Olympic track was the main cause of his inability to master Curve 14. His teammates and Brazilian officials, however, were quick to show Raschini their full support, saying that no one is to blame for a competition mishappening and that they are already looking forward to Vancouver 2010. Edson Bindilatti, the breakman, closed his statement vowing that "the Frozen Bananas" shall return "in style". On another aspect of the last participation of the Brazilian team, they were able to secure a replacement helmet for second man Márcio Silva (he had had to borrow a German helmet the day before, for lack of a spare unit), having had it flown in from the United States, where the manufacturer is located.

Cross country skiing

Men's 15 km classical
* Hélio Freitas :→ Final: 54:06.08 (93rd place – 16:05.05 behind winner)

Women's 10 km classical
* Jaqueline Mourão:→ Final: 35:59.07 (67th place – 08:08.03 behind winner)

nowboarding

Snowboard cross
* Isabel Clark :→ Final: 9th place (won race to determine 9-12 places)::→ First stage: 6th place (best time):::→ First run: 1:30.12:::→ Second run: 1:31.49::→ QF: 3rd place (did not qualify to SF):::→ Ran in QF3, with Switzerland's Mellie Francon, USA's Lindsey Jacobellis and France's Karine Ruby, finishing ahead only of Ruby, who fell.::→ 9-12 places: won race:::→ after a shaky start, which caused her to race from behind, Clark was benefited by the accident involving all the other three participants in her race (France's Deborah Anthonioz, Switzerland's Olivia Nobs and Germany's Katharina Himmler)

References

* [http://www.cob.org.br/site/news_room/noticia.asp?id=4612 Brazil NOC article listing team (last paragraph)]

ee also

* Brazilian Olympic Committee

External links

* [http://www.cob.org.br/ Website of the Brazilian Olympic Committee] (in Portuguese)
* [http://www.torino2006.org/ENG/OlympicGames/gare_e_programma/gare_e_programma.html Results at the 2006 Winter Olympics' official website] (English version)