1998 Winter Olympics

 

XVIII Olympic Winter Games
The emblem represents a flower, with each petal representing an athlete practising a different winter sport. It can also be seen as a snowflake, thus the name, “Snowflower,” was given to it.
Host city	Nagano, Japan
Nations participating	72
Athletes participating	2176 (1389 men, 787 women)
Events	72 in 7 sports
Opening ceremony	February 7
Closing ceremony	February 22
Officially opened by	HIM Emperor Akihito
Athlete's Oath	Kenji Ogiwara
Judge's Oath	Junko Hiramatsu
Olympic Torch	Midori Ito
Stadium	Olympic Stadium

The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVIII Olympic Winter Games, were celebrated in 1998 in Nagano, Japan. Other candidate cities were Aosta, Italy; Jaca, Spain; Östersund, Sweden; and Salt Lake City, United States. The selection was held in Birmingham, United Kingdom in 1991.

Highlights

• Ice hockey for women was contested at the Olympic Games for the first time ever, and the U.S. beat the Canadians 3-1 for the gold medal. U.S. went undefeated in the women's tournament, while the men had just a single win over Belarus and lost every other game. Czech Republic faced Russia for the men's gold medal, while Finland won both the men's and women's bronze medals for ice hockey.
• XC skier Bjørn Dæhlie of Norway won three gold medals in Nordic skiing to become the first winter Olympian to earn eight career gold medals and twelve total medals.
• Curling returned as an official sport, after having been demoted to a demonstration event after the inaugural Winter Games in Chamonix in 1924
• Snowboarding debuted as an official sport and women's ice hockey was introduced to the Olympic program.
• Players from the NHL were able to compete in men's ice hockey due to a three week suspension of the NHL season.
• Tara Lipinski, 15, narrowly beat Michelle Kwan in women's figure skating to become the youngest champion in an individual event in the history of the Winter Olympics.
• Alpine skier Hermann Maier (Austria) survived a fall in the downhill and went on to gold in the super-g and giant slalom.
• Speed skaters Gianni Romme and Marianne Timmer won two gold medals each for the Netherlands; 5 out of 10 titles in speed skating went to the Netherlands.
• Snowboarder Ross Rebagliati won the gold medal, after initially being disqualified for marijuana usage.
• Azerbaijan, Kenya, the Republic of Macedonia, Uruguay, and Venezuela made their first appearance at these Olympic Winter Games.
• Denmark won their first winter olympic medal in these games, when they won a silver medal in the womens curling event

Medals awarded

See the medal winners, ordered by sport:

Alpine skiing Biathlon Bobsleigh Cross-country skiing Curling Figure skating Freestyle skiing

Ice hockey Luge Nordic combined Short track speed skating Ski jumping Snowboarding (debut sport) Speed skating

Venues

Hakuba

• Hakuba Ski Jumping Stadium: Ski Jumping
• Happo'one Resort: Alpine Skiing (Downhill and Super G)
• Snow Harp, Kamishiro: Cross-Country Skiing

Iizuna

• Iizuna Kogen Resort: Freestyle Skiing
• The Spiral, Asakawa: Bobsled and Luge

Karuizawa

• Kazakoshi Park Arena: Curling

Nagano

• Nagano Olympic Stadium: Opening and Closing Ceremonies
• Aqua Wing Arena: Ice Hockey
• Big Hat: Ice Hockey
• M-Wave: Speed Skating
• White Ring: Figure Skating and Short Track Speed Skating

Nozawaonsen:

• Nozawa Onsen Resort: Biathlon

Yamanouchi

• Mt. Yakebitai, Shiga Kogen Resort: Snowboarding and Alpine Skiing (Slalom and Giant Slalom)
• Kanbayashi Sports Park: Snowboarding Half-Pipe

Medal count

(Host nation is highlighted.)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Germany	12	9	8	29
2	Norway	10	10	5	25
3	Russia	9	6	3	18
4	Canada	6	5	4	15
5	United States	6	3	4	13
6	Netherlands	5	4	2	11
7	Japan	5	1	4	10
8	Austria	3	5	9	17
9	South Korea	3	1	2	6
10	Italy	2	6	2	10

Further information: 1998 Winter Olympics medal count

Participating NOCs

Articles about Nagano Winter Olympics by nation:

Andorra Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bermuda Bosnia and Herzegovina Brazil Bulgaria Canada Chile China Chinese Taipei Croatia Cyprus

Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Great Britain Greece Hungary Iceland India Iran Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan

Kazakhstan Kenya South Korea North Korea Kyrgyzstan Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg FYR Macedonia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Netherlands New Zealand Norway Poland Portugal

Puerto Rico Romania Russia Slovakia Slovenia South Africa Spain Sweden Switzerland Trinidad and Tobago Turkey Ukraine United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Venezuela Virgin Islands Yugoslavia

Media coverage

The games were covered by the following broadcasters:

• NHK, NTV, TBS, Fuji TV, TV Asahi, TV Tokyo (Japan)
• CBS, TNT, NBC (United States)
• BBC (Great Britain)
• CBC (Canada)
• SVT (Sweden)
• ARD and ZDF (Germany)
• NRK (Norway)
• Seven Network (Australia)
• YLE (Finland)

See also

• 1998 Winter Paralympics
• Olympic Games
• Winter Olympic Games
• International Olympic Committee
• IOC country codes

External links

• IOC Site on 1998 Winter Olympics
• Nagano 1998 Olympic pins

Olympic Games
Sports • Medal counts • NOCs Medalists • Symbols
Summer Games: 1896, 1900, 1904, 19061, 1908, 1912, (1916)2, 1920, 1924, 1928, 1932, 1936, (1940)2, (1944)2,3, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024, 2028
Winter Games: 1924, 1928, 1932, 1936, (1940)2, (1944)2, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022
Youth Games: 2010, 2012
Athens 2004 — Turin 2006 — Beijing 2008 — Vancouver 2010 — London 2012 — Sochi 2014

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