Oakley Athletes Take 52 Medals At 2006 Winter Olympics

    Competitors Rely on High Definition Optics in Medal Winning Performances

/24-7PressRelease/ - TORINO, ITALY - March 09, 2006 - Oakley, Inc. (NYSE: OO) today announced that a total of 52 medals were awarded to Olympic athletes who relied on the clarity and protection of the company's goggles and performance eyewear featuring High Definition Optics (HDO ). More than 150 competitors from over 20 countries took advantage of Oakley technologies at the 2006 Winter Games. Gold medals were awarded to 17 Oakley-wearing Olympians. An additional 19 silver and 16 bronze medals were awarded to athletes wearing the company's eyewear inventions.

"We were the dominate player in eyewear at the 2006 Winter Olympics - one of every five athletes who medaled at Torino wore Oakley," said Colin Baden, president of Oakley. "The athletes' accomplishments are the product of decades of training and commitment. Likewise, our HDO technology is the culmination of decades of research, development and refinement, and we are honored that they chose to rely on our innovations as essential gear en route to some of the greatest performances of their careers."

ESPN's Cold Pizza on High Definition Optics (HDO ):
Video clip.wmv (3.63 MB) - http://mi.oakley.com/media/brochures/news/torino_2006/day16/video_clip.wmv

Snowboarding
Topping 44 competitors, Shaun White (USA) brought home gold in the Men's Halfpipe snowboarding competition while wearing the Oakley A FRAME goggle. The goggle offers unbeatable clarity and protection thanks to HDO and features dual vented lenses with Oakley's F3 anti-fog technology. Oakley's Gretchen Bleiler (USA) also took advantage of the A FRAME during her silver medal performance in the Women's Halfpipe snowboarding competition and charmed Torino with a sneak-peek at the Oakley DART sunglasses from the company's upcoming exclusive new women's eyewear collection. The third Oakley athlete to stand on the Women's Halfpipe snowboarding podium was Kjersti Buaas (Norway), who utilized the A FRAME in her bronze medal run.

Speedskating
A total of 39 medals were awarded to athletes wearing Oakley eyewear in speedskating competitions. The majority of the medalists in this category chose the Oakley M FRAME and PRO M FRAME , eyewear inventions that combine the unbeatable clarity of HDO with the comfort of lightweight architecture that offers unsurpassed impact protection.

Cindy Klassen (Canada) tied a winter Olympics record earning five medals in one game - gold in the women's 1500m, silver in both the women's 1000m and Team Pursuit and bronze medals in the 3000m and 5000m. She competed wearing HALF JACKET , Oakley eyewear that combines an open-edge lens design with interchangeable lenses that offer the clarity and protection of HDO .

All top three finishers and medalists in every women's speedskating event (500m, 1000m, 1500m, 3000m, 5000m and Team Pursuit) wore Oakley eyewear with notable gold medal performances by Svetlana Zhurova (Russia-500m), Marianne Timmer (Netherlands-1000m), Irene Wust (Netherlands-3000m), Clara Hughes (Canada-5000m) and the German team of Anni Friesinger, Daniela Anschuetz Thoms and Lucille Opitz who took the top prize in the Team Pursuit.

In Short Track competition, Mena Wang (China) earned gold in the women's 500m race and Sun-Yu Jin (South Korea) took home three gold medals in the women's 1000m, 1500m and 3000m Team Relay competitions. In the men's competition Hyun-Soo Ahn (South Korea) took home four medals - gold in the men's 1000m and 1500m, a bronze in the 500m and then another gold in the South Korean team victory in the 5000m Relay.

Freestyle Skiing
The Oakley CROWBAR goggle was the choice of gold medalist Jennifer Heil (Canada) and bronze medalist Toby Dawson (USA) in their freestyle skiing mogul events. Like the A FRAME goggle, CROWBAR utilizes patented XYZ Optics , an HDO technology that optimizes clarity at all angles of vision to maximize peripheral and downward view. Freestyle aerialists Han Xiaopeng (China) and Dmitry Dashinski (Belarus) took gold and silver in the men's competition pin-pointing their landings at more than 50 feet. China's Nina Li of China earned a silver medal in the women's aerial event.

Cross-country Skiing
Katerina Neumannova (Czech Republic) took home gold in the 30k cross-country skiing Mass Start and silver in the 15k cross-country skiing Pursuit while wearing the PRO M FRAME , an Oakley sunglass that has been a mainstay in athletics for many years.

Ice Hockey
Deemed the 'Superbowl of Scandanavia,' the men's gold medal game between Sweden and Finland featured a number of players wearing Oakley hockey shields including Sweden's gold medalists: Daniel Alfredsson, Peter Forsberg, Mikael Samuelsson, Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin. Finland's silver medalists included: Teemu Selanne, Mikko Koivu, Saku Koivu, Olli Jokinen and Antti-Jussi Niemi.

Oakley High Definition Optics (HDO )
"Olympic athletes can hone every muscle but when it comes to vision, there is no training regimen," said Baden. "Even those with perfect vision need the technologies of HDO for the competitive edge of precise visual clarity."

Oakley HDO is a collective platform of patented innovations that offer unbeatable optical performance. Tests developed specifically for eyewear by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) have proven Oakley eyewear with HDO to be superior to all other eyewear brands tested. ANSI is the yardstick of performance in the eyewear industry, and three of its optical tests - clarity, refractive power and prism - show the superiority of Oakley technology. Pure Plutonite lens material filters out the damaging rays of UV including 100% of all UVA, UVB, UVC and harmful blue light up to 400nm.

Date Sport Medal Name Country
02/11 Ski:
Women's Moguls Gold Jennifer Heil CAN

02/11 Speedskating:
Men's 5000m Silver Sven Kramer NED

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02/12 Snowboard:
Men's Half Pipe Gold Shaun White USA

02/12 Speedskating:
Women's 3000m Gold Ireen Wust NED

02/12 Speedskating:
Women's 3000m Silver Renate Groenwald NED

02/12 Speedskating:
Women's 3000m Bronze Cindy Klassen CAN

02/12 Speedskate
Short Track:
Men's 1500m Silver Ho-Suk Lee KOR

02/12 XC Ski:
Women's 7.5km
Double Pursuit Silver Katerina
Neumannova CZE

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02/13 Snowboard:
Women's
Half Pipe Silver Gretchen Bleiler USA

02/13 Snowboard:
Women's
Half Pipe Bronze Kjersti Buaas NOR

02/13 Speedskate
Short Track:
Men's 500m Silver Dimitri Dorofeyev RUS

02/13 Speedskate
Short Track:
Men's 500m Bronze Kang Seok Lee KOR

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02/14 Speedskate:
Women's 500m Gold Svetlana Zhurova RUS

02/14 Speedskate:
Women's 500m Silver Manli Wang CHN

02/14 Speedskate:
Women's 500m Bronze Hie Ren CHN

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02/15 Ski:
Men's Moguls Bronze Toby Dawson USA

02/15 Short Track:
Women's 500m Gold Meng Wang CHN

02/15 Short Track:
Women's 500m Silver Eugina Radinova BUL

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02/16 Speedskate:
Women's
Team Pursuit Gold Germany GER

02/16 Speedskate:
Women's
Team Pursuit Silver Canada CAN

02/16 Speedskate:
Women's
Team Pursuit Bronze Russia RUS

02/16 Speedskate:
Men's Team
Pursuit Bronze Netherlands NED

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02/18 Speedskate
Short Track:
Women's 1500m Gold Sun-Yu Jin KOR

02/18 Speedskate
Short Track:
Women's 1500m Silver Choi Eun-Kyung KOR

02/18 Speedskate
Short Track:
Women's 1500m Bronze Meng Wang CHN

02/18 Speedskate
Short Track:
Men's 1000m Gold Hyun-Soo Ahn KOR

02/18 Speedskate
Short Track:
Men's 1000m Silver Ho-Suk Lee KOR

02/18 Speedskate
Bronze Erben Wennemars NED

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02/19 Speedskate:
Women's 1000m Gold Marianne Timmer NED

02/19 Speedskate:
Women's 1000m Silver Cindy Klassen CAN

02/19 Speedskate:
Women's 1000m Bronze Anni Friesinger GER

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02/21 Speedskate:
Women's 1500m Gold Cindy Klassen CAN

02/21 Speedskate:
Women's 1500m Silver Kristina Groves CAN

02/21 Speedskate:
Women's 1500m Bronze Ireen Wust NED

02/21 Speedskate
Short Track:
Women's 3000m
Team Relay Gold Korea KOR

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02/22 Ski:
Women's Aerials Silver Ninali CHN

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02/23 Ski:
Men's Aerials Gold Han Xiaopeng CHN

02/23 Ski:
Men's Aerials Silver Dmitry Dashinski BLR

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02/24 Ski:
XC Ski-30kms Gold Katerina Neumannova CZE

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02/25 Speedskating:
Women's 5000m Gold Clara Hughes CAN

02/25 Speedskating:
Women's 5000m Silver Claudia Pechstein GER

02/25 Speedskating:
Women's 5000m Bronze Cindy Klassen CAN

02/25 Speedskate:
Short Track
Women's 1000m Gold Sun-Yu Jin KOR

02/25 Speedskate:
Short Track
Women's 1000m Silver Meng Wang CHN

02/25 Speedskate:
Short Track
Women's 1000m Bronze Yang Yang CHN

02/25 Speedskate:
Short Track
Men's 500m Bronze Ahn Hyun-Soo KOR

02/25 Speedskate:
Short Track
Men's 5000m Relay Gold Korea KOR

02/25 Speedskate:
Short Track
Men's 5000m Relay Silver Canada CAN

02/25 Speedskate:
Short Track
Men's 5000m Relay Bronze USA USA

02/25 Hockey:
Men's Bronze Czech Republic CZE

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02/26 Hockey:
Men's Gold Sweden SWE

02/26 Hockey:
Men's Silver Finland FIN

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