1992 Winter Olympics

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XVI Olympic Winter Games
The emblem is the Olympic flame in the colors of the Savoie region.
Host city	Albertville, France
Nations participating	64
Athletes participating	1801 (1313 men, 488 women)
Events	57 in 7 sports
Opening ceremony	February 8
Closing ceremony	February 23
Officially opened by	François Mitterrand French President
Athlete's Oath	Surya Bonaly
Judge's Oath	Pierre Bornat
Olympic Torch	Michel Platini and François-Cyrille Grange
Stadium	Théâtre des Cérémonies

The 1992 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVI Olympic Winter Games, were celebrated in 1992 in Albertville, France. Other candidate cities were Anchorage, USA; Berchtesgaden, Germany; Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy; Lillehammer, Norway; Falun, Sweden; and Sofia, Bulgaria.

These were the last Winter Games to be staged in the same year as the Summer Games. They were also the first Games where the Winter Paralympics and the Winter Olympics were held at the same site. The opening ceremony was choregraphed by Philippe Découflé and was a show in itself.

[edit] Athletic Highlights

• Freestyle skiing event of moguls and short-track speedskating made their debuts as medal disciplines, as did women's biathlon.
• Norwegian skiers won every male cross-country skiing race. Bjørn Dæhlie and Vegard Ulvang each won three gold medals.
• Speedskater Bonnie Blair won both the 500 and 1,000 m events; Gunda Niemann took both of the longest races.
• Ski jumper Toni Nieminen, 16, became the youngest male gold medalist of a Winter Olympic event.
• Italian alpine skier Alberto Tomba won the Giant Slalom for the second time in a row.
• Austrian alpine skier Petra Kronberger won both the combined event and the slalom.
• Kim Kihoon earned gold medals in both men's short-track events.
• Annelise Coberger of New Zealand wins the southern hemisphere's first Winter Olympic medal—a silver in the women's slalom.
• Kristi Yamaguchi and Midori Ito of the United States and Japan respectively, became the first persons of Asian descent to win Olympic medals in figure skating.

[edit] Medals awarded

See the medal winners, ordered by sport:

[edit] Demonstration sports

• Curling, for the first time since 1924. It became a regular discipline in 1998
• Freestyle skiing, aerials and ballet, mogul skiing was already a regular event
• Speed skiing. The sport did not make a return to the Winter Olympics program since then after a tragic death during a training session.

[edit] Participating nations

A total of 64 nations sent athletes to compete in these Games. With the Collapse of the Soviet Union, six states formed a Unified Team, while the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had their own teams. Croatia and Slovenia, who were making their first appearance at the Winter Olympics, competed as independent nations after leaving Yugoslavia. The UN sanctions against Yugoslavia that saw them miss the 1992 Summer Olympics had yet to come into effect. The German team won most medals in the games, with a total of 10 gold medals, 10 silver and 6 bronze. It was the first time since the 1936 Winter Olympics that Germany competed with a unified team after the reunification.

Making their debuts were Algeria, Bermuda, Brazil, Honduras, Ireland and Swaziland. It would also be the only appearance for both Honduras and Swaziland in Winter Olympics to date.

[edit] Venues

The 1992 Games were as of today the last ones where the speed skating venue was outdoors.

• Albertville
  • Halle Olympique - Figure Skating and Short Track
  • Anneau de vitesse - Speed skating
  • Théâtre des Cérémonies - Opening and Closing Ceremonies
• Les Arcs - Speed skiing
• Courchevel - Ski jumping and Nordic combined
• Les Ménuires - Slalom men
• Méribel - Alpine Skiing Women
  • Méribel Ice Palace - Hockey
• La Plagne - Luge and Bobsled
• Pralognan-la-Vanoise - Curling
• Les Saisies - Nordic skiing and biathlon
• Tignes - Freestyle skiing
• Val d'Isère - Giant, Super G, downhill, combined men

[edit] Medal count

(Host nation is highlighted, greatest number of medals in each category is in bold.)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Germany	10	10	6	26
2	Unified Team¹	9	6	8	23
3	Norway	9	6	5	20
4	Austria	6	7	8	21
5	United States	5	4	2	11
6	Italy	4	6	4	14
7	France	3	5	1	9
8	Finland	3	1	3	7
9	Canada	2	3	2	7
10	South Korea	2	1	1	4

Further information: 1992 Winter Olympics medal count

(¹ combined team with athletes from 6 nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States; team only appeared in these Winter Olympics)

[edit] See also

• 1992 Winter Paralympics
• Olympic Games
• Winter Olympic Games
• International Olympic Committee

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

1992 Winter Olympics

• IOC Site on 1992 Winter Olympics
• Olympic Review - Official Results
• Pins collection on Albertville 1992 Olympic Winter Games