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,
USA. 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.
USA 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.
Medals awarded
See the medal winners, ordered by sport:
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.'')
| 1 | | 12 | 9 | 8 | 29 |
| 2 | | 10 | 10 | 5 | 25 |
| 3 | | 9 | 6 | 3 | 18 |
| 4 | | 6 | 5 | 4 | 15 |
| 5 | | 6 | 3 | 4 | 13 |
| 6 | | 5 | 4 | 2 | 11 |
| 7 | | 5 | 1 | 4 | 10 |
| 8 | | 3 | 5 | 9 | 17 |
| 9 | | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| 10 | | 2 | 6 | 2 | 10 |
Participating NOCs
'Articles about Nagano Winter Olympics by nation:'
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ | | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ | | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ | | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ |
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