1994 Winter Olympics - Definition and Overview

The XVII Olympic Winter Games were held in 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway. Other candidate cities were Anchorage, USA; Östersund/Åre, Sweden; and Sofia, Bulgaria. In 1986 the IOC voted to change the schedule of the Olympic Games so that the summer and winter games would be arranged in alternating even-numbered years. Effectuating this vote, the Lillehammer Games were held in 1994, the only time the winter games have been staged two years after the preceding games.

XVII Olympic Winter Games
Nations participating	67
Athletes participating	1737 (1215 men, 522 women)
Events	61 in 6 sports
Opening ceremony	February 12, 1994
Closing ceremony	February 27, 1994
Officially opened by	HM The King, Harald V
Athlete's Oath	Vegard Ulvang
Official's Oath	Kari Karing
Olympic Torch	HRH The Crown Prince, Haakon

Highlights

• For the first time, the Winter Olympics were not held in the same year as the Games of the Olympiad.
• The Olympic flame was brought into the stadium by a ski jumper.
• Local hero Johann Olav Koss won three speed skating events, setting three world records.
• Vreni Schneider won a complete set of medals in alpine skiing and Manuela Di Centa medaled in all five cross-country skiing events. Myriam Bédard won both women's individual biathlon races.
• Gustav Weder and Donat Acklin became the first repeat winners of the two-man bobsleigh. Pairs skaters Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov repeated their 1988 Winter Olympics
• A massive Norwegian crowd saw their relay team being beaten by the Italians in the final metres of the cross country skiing relay. The crowd fell silent, but only briefly.
• A month before the games were due to begin, Tonya Harding's ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly clubbed fellow female figure skater Nancy Kerrigan in the knee. In the end Nancy Kerrigan went on to win the silver medal, behind Oksana Baiul of Ukraine. Tonya Harding finished 8th and was banned from the world of figure skating by the U.S. Figure Skating Association (USFSA) a few years later.
• Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, ice dancing champions ten years earlier, competed again following relaxation of amateurism rules. (They had turned professional in the 1980s.)

Medals awarded

See the medal winners, ordered by sport:

• Biathlon
• Bobsleigh
• Ice Hockey
• Luge
• Skating
• Cross-country Skiing

Medal count

Top medal-collecting nations:
(for the full table, see 1994 Winter Olympics medal count)

1994 Winter Olympics medal count
Pos	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Russia	11	8	4	23
2	Norway	10	11	5	26
3	Germany	9	7	8	24
4	Italy	7	5	8	20
5	United States	6	5	2	13
6	South Korea	4	1	1	6
7	Canada	3	6	4	13
8	Switzerland	3	4	2	9
9	Austria	2	3	4	9
10	Sweden	2	1	0	3

See also

• 1994 Winter Paralympics
• International Olympic Committee
• WikiProject Sports Olympics
• IOC country codes

External links

• IOC Site on 1994 Winter Olympics (http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/past/index_uk.asp?OLGT=2&OLGY=1994)