The Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games is an excellent opportunity to enhance the image of Italy, the Italians, and what they can offer the world. So everyone must contribute, public and private institutions, companies and individuals in order to achieve this challenging goal. For Fiat, Italy’s largest corporation, which Iveco is a part of, being a main sponsor of Torino 2006 is a matter of pride. The Olympic stage offers the opportunity to make the Group’s trademarks and products visible, and above all to make the values that Iveco strongly believes in, known all over the world.

The history of Iveco, which was created 30 years ago by the merger of 5 European companies founded in the late 19th century, goes back a long way, and is full of  important milestones, the result of years of intense work, enthusiasm and commitment: as any athlete will confirm, it takes years of hard training to achieve really significant success. The universal values of sport - sincerity, loyalty, the striving for excellence and competitiveness - blend perfectly with the spirit that animates our company, following a single leitmotif, that is based on achieving the best performance in every field. To this, Winter sports add the vicinity of and love for nature, in a unique landscape. Attention to the environment is a key value for Iveco. And this is why the company has been accepted into the Torino 2006 Sponsor and Sustainability programme, which aims to underline the environmental projects of Toroc and its partners, highlighting the common elements and strong points in the context of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games.

And Iveco has been working with these values and with a passion for sport since the moment the company chose to involve itself in the organisation of the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Olympics, as an official sponsor. Numerous different initiatives have been launched, such as the volunteer programme, which will also involve employees. Their motivation will be essential for future development, sustained by the company’s involvement in the Games and the fact that they will be among the protagonists. The fact that this enthusiasm for the Games is shared will help to achieve the desired results. But if taking part in the Olympic Games is important, being involved in the Paralympic Games as well, a competition that goes well beyond sport, not as a natural consequence but by choice and conviction, is a source of even greater pride, because here participating means winning and therefore existing. It is a source of satisfaction for Iveco to be able to sponsor the IX Paralympic Winter Games, supporting them with its own vehicles and the concrete possibilities it offers, adding a stimulus to be increasingly present with its activities and its striving for innovation, to face the constant challenges of the market that the future will bring.

As an Official Sponsor of the XX Olympic Winter Games and the IX Paralympic Winter Games, Iveco is one of a small number of outstanding companies on the domestic and international economic scene that are actively involved in the development and organisation of the Games, with an economic, managerial and structural commitment.
 

The Company has been collaborating actively with the Transport and Logistics department of Toroc, the Organising Committee of the Games, for a couple of years. All the “passenger transport” services during the coming Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will be organised with Iveco Irisbus vehicles. There will be a fleet of about 1200 buses, mainly long distance and touring coaches, but also minibuses and town buses, to transport the athletes, journalists, spectators and staff volunteers. The Games’ other Sponsors will also use over 100 Iveco Irisbus luxury touring coaches to transport their own guests. All the transport services for the Paralympic Games will be organised entirely with Iveco Irisbus coaches and minibuses equipped with aids for the disabled and with wheelchair lifts. What is more, vehicles from the entire Iveco range have been employed in the development, construction and outfitting of the structures for the Torino 2006 Olympic sites.

A total of 17 sites for large infrastructure works have been completed, the most important of which are the various Media Villages, the Palavela and the Hockey arena in Turin, the Ice rinks in Turin, Pinerolo and Torre Pellice, the ski jumping sites in Pragelato, the bob and luge tracks in Cesana Torinese and, last but by no means least, the Olympic villages in Turin, Sestriere and Bardonecchia.

To this we must add 13 road projects to improve the road network near to the towns where competitions will be held. A total of over 250 Iveco vehicles (including buses) have been involved. In addition, 26 Iveco vehicles will shortly be supplied to Coca Cola and Samsung, the two sponsors of the “Olympic Torch Relay” and to Toroc. Specifically, four Eurocargos, two ML120E21's and two ML100E18's, four Daily Combi 29L12's, nine Daily chassis cabs, from 35C12 to 60C17, and eight Daily vans, from 35S12 to 35C15, together with a semi-windowed Daily 35S12.  These vehicles are finished in a mixture of eye-catching liveries, with one vehicle, for Samsung, featuring the graphic of a huge mobile phone.  Another vehicle, for Coca-Cola, houses a virtual reality simulator, on which the public can experience all the thrills of a downhill ski race. Transport of the torch-bearers from all departure points is the task of 8 Irisbus Iveco CC100E21 minibuses equipped with lifts for wheelchairs.

Of the ten thousand torch-bearers who will take part in the exciting relay to carry the Olympic Torch to Turin for the opening ceremony of the Torino 2006 Winter Olympic Games, there will also be a number chosen by Iveco: the selection process took place from among the company’s employees and the staff of Authorised Dealers and Workshops in the Italian sales network.