The men's team pursuit competition at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, began on 15 February at Oval Lingotto. The team pursuit consisted of a qualifying round, then a series of elimination races, with the winners of the elimination races progressing to the next round of the knockout phase.[1]
Each race was skated by two teams of three skaters, over a distance of eight 400 metre laps (3200 metres total). The three skaters of a team were allowed to change order at any time, but the team's final time was always recorded when the third skater crossed the finishing line. If two teams started simultaneously on opposite sides of the track, and if one team managed to overtake the other before the full distance, the overtaking team was immediately declared the winner.[2]
Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
Teams had to select three skaters for each round of the team pursuit, but all skaters who participated in at least one round earned a medal, and are mentioned in the overall results below.
^1: As this was a debut Olympic event, the teams from Germany and the Netherlands both briefly held the Olympic record time. Germany set the record in the first heat, while the Netherlands surpassed it in the third, before Canada posted the fastest time in the final heat
^2: This time was briefly the Olympic record, as the Dutch surpassed Canada's qualifying time before Italy set the fastest time of the quarterfinal stage one race later.
Semifinals
The Italian men's team was well behind the Dutch team in their semi-final heat, and although they were gaining it was late in the race and the Dutch seemed en route to a victory. However, Dutch skater Sven Kramer fell on a corner, taking his team's chances down with him and allowing Italy to go through to the gold medal race.
Four finals determined the final finishing order, with the two semifinal winners meeting for gold, and the two semifinal losers racing for bronze. To determine places five-through-eight, the four quarterfinal losers were ranked by their time in the quarterfinal race, with the fastest loser matched up against the second-fastest for fifth, and the two slowest for seventh.
