Olympic Winter Games, Детальна інформація

International Olympic Committee now. Besides, each country has its National Olympic

Committee.

Summer and Winter Games are held separately. There are always several cities

wishing to host the Games. The most suitable is selected by the International Committee.

After that the city of the Games starts preparations for the competitions, constructs new

sports facilities, stadiums, hotels, press centres. Thousands of athletes, journalists and

guests come to the Games, and it takes great efforts to arrange everything. There is

always an interesting cultural programme of concerts, exhibitions, festivals, etc., for each Games.

Winter Games

Figure skating was included in the 1908 Olympics and ice hockey was added in 1920. The First Olympic Winter Games were staged in Chamonix, France, in 1924. 294 athletes from 16 nations took part in 14 events. Over the next 68 years, the Winter Games were held in the same year as the Summer Games. A new cycle began in 1994. Now the Winter Olympics, while still held every four years, are staged in a different year than the Summer Games. At the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, more than 2000 athletes representing more than 70 nations with compete in 78 different events. Half of these events have been added to the Olympic program since 1984.

In 1998 the Winter Games returned to Japan after 26 years. Snowboarding and curling debuted as official sports and women's ice hockey was introduced to the Olympic program. For the first time, the men's ice hockey tournament was opened to all professionals. The inspired team from the Czech Republic scored a surprise victory. Bjoern Daehlie won three gold medals in Nordic skiing to become the first winter athlete to earn eight career gold medals and twelve total medals. Tara Lipinski won the women's figure skating title to become, at age fifteen, the youngest champion in an individual event in the history of the Winter Olympics. The spirit of the Games was exemplified by Alpine skier Hermann Maier. Maier survived a spectacular fall in the downhill, recovered and earned gold medals in both the super-g and the giant slalom.

Dates: 7 - 22 February 1998

Participation:

2 302 Athletes (814 women, 1 488 men)

Numbers:

7 sports - 68 HYPERLINK "javascript:WinOpen('pup_events_e.html',300,400,1)" Events - 72 nations

Candidate cities:

Aosta (ITA), Jaca (ESP), Oestersund (SWE) and Salt Lake City (USA)

Official opening by: HYPERLINK "javascript:WinOpen('pup_info_e.asp?iNum=1&strType=Open&Id_Intro=36',426,550,1)" His Majesty the Emperor Akihito

Flame Lit by: HYPERLINK "javascript:WinOpen('pup_info_e.asp?iNum=1&strType=Flame&Id_Intro=36',426,550,1)" Midori Ito (figure skating)

Olympic Oath pronounced by: Kenji Ogiwara (nordic combined)

Officials' Oath pronounced by: Junko Hiramatsu (figure skating)

Sports biathlon, bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, luge, skating, and skiing.



Heroes

Christoph Langen Markus Zimmermann (GER)

Bobsleigh, gold medal (four-man) and bronze medal (two-man)

Deborah Compagnoni (ITA)

Alpine skiing, gold medal (giant slalom) and silver medal (slalom)

Georg Hackl (GER)