1998 Winter Olympics

It had been 26 years since the Olympic Winter Games had been held in the Orientthose also in Japan at Sapporo on the northern island of Hokkaido. Nagano had been an “upset” choice over the more favored selections of Salt Lake City and Östersund. But the Japanese typically put on a wonderful show. And it was much quieter in Nagano – there was no Tonya or Nancy for the locust-like media to descend upon.

The Games were severely hamperedhoweverby the weather of Nagano Prefecture. Snowrain and fog played havoc with the alpine skiing schedulecausing the men’s downhillone of the feature events of the Gamesto be cancelled and re-scheduled four times. Going into the second week of the Olympicsthere was some concern that the alpine skiing schedule could not be finished before the Closing Ceremony. One run of the four-man bobsled also had to be omitted because of weather.

A number of new events made their Olympic début in Naganoprobably foremost among these being women’s ice hockeywhich was won by the United States team in a mild upset over the favored Canadians. Snowboarding and curling also were new to the program. Snowboarding had four events – men’s and women’s halfpipe and giant slalom. In the men’s giant slalomthe biggest controversy of the Nagano Olympics occurred when Canadian Ross Rebagliati won the gold medalonly to be disqualified two days later when his doping test came back positive for marijuana. He and the Canadian team appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and Rebagliati was reinstatedand allowed to keep his gold medal.

In men’s ice hockeythe big story was the presence of the top professional players in the world for the first time ever. The National Hockey League (NHL) closed down its mid-season schedule for two weeks to allow all the pros to represent their countriesreminiscent of the “Dream Team” of NBA players at Barcelona. The difference in ice hockeyhoweverwas that the top players were not solely from one nationbut were spread among several hockey powers – CanadaUnited StatesRussiaSwedenFinlandand the Czech Republic. Canada looked to restore its lost dominance in the sport by having its pros bring back a gold medalbut it was not to be. The two favoritesthe United States and Canadawent out earlyand neither won a medal. The final came down to Russia against the Czech Republicand the Czechs won in a slight upsetaided by the superb goaltending of Dominik Hašek of the Buffalo Sabres of the NHL. Led by Hašekthe Czech team defeated successively the three greatest hockey nations in Olympic history – CanadaRussiaand the United States.

Norway’s Bjørn Dæhlie added to his list of Olympic records by winning four medals and three goldsto bring his overall Olympic total to 12 medals and 8 gold medalsall records for the Olympic Winter Games. Russia’s Larisa Lazutina won the most medals at Naganowith five in women’s nordic skiing. She and Dæhlie both won three gold medalsthe only athletes to pull off the trifecta in Nagano.

Also dominant at Nagano were the Dutch speed skaterswhose men won nine of 15 Olympic medalsand four events. Marianne Timmer also added two golds in the women’s 1,000 and 1,500. Germany’s Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann won three medals in speed skatingbringing her Olympic career total to eightequalling the Olympic speed skating record of her countrywoman Karia Kania.

In alpine skiingKatja Seizinger (GER) won three medalsthe third consecutive Olympic Winter Games at which she had won alpine medalsequalling the mark of Alberto Tomba of Italy. Tomba also competed at Naganobut failed to finish in both the giant slalom and slalomending his remarkable Olympic career that began in 1988 at Calgary.

Bid voting at the 97th IOC Session in BirminghamEngland on 15 June 1991.