1994 Winter Olympics

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XVII Olympic Winter Games
Image:1994 wolympics logo.jpg
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
Judge's Oath	Kari Karing
Olympic Torch	HRH The Crown Prince, Haakon
Stadium	Lysgårdsbakkene

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.

1 Highlights
2 Medals awarded
3 Medal count
4 See also
5 External links

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 hired "hit men" to club 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 competitive figure skating by the U.S. Figure Skating Association (USFSA) after the games.
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:

Medal count

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

(Host nation in bold.)

1994 Winter Olympics medal count					Image:Olympic-rings.png
Pos	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Image:Russia flag large.png Russia	11	8	4	23
2	Image:Flag of Norway.svg Norway	10	11	5	26
3	Image:Germany flag large.png Germany	9	7	8	24
4	Image:Flag of Italy.svg Italy	7	5	8	20
5	Image:USA flag.png United States	6	5	2	13
6	Image:South korea flag large.png South Korea	4	1	1	6
7	Image:Canada flag large.png Canada	3	6	4	13
8	Image:Switzerland flag large.png Switzerland	3	4	2	9
9	Image:Austria flag large.png Austria	2	3	4	9
10	Image:Sweden flag large.png Sweden	2	1	0	3