1992 Winter Olympics

Please help improve this article or sectionby expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk pageor at requests for expansion. (January 2007)

XVI Olympic Winter Games

The emblem is the Olympic flame
in the colors of the Savoie region.

Host city Albertville, FranceNations participating 64 Athletes participating 1801 (1313 men, 488 women) Events 57 in 7 sportsOpening ceremony February 8Closing ceremony February 23Officially opened by François Mitterrand
French President Athlete's Oath Surya Bonaly Judge's OathPierre Bornat Olympic Torch Michel Platiniand
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. The information below comes from the International Olympic Committee Vote History web page.

1992 Winter Olympics Bidding Results City NOC Name Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 Round 6 Albertville France19 26 29 42 - 51 Sofia Bulgaria25 25 28 24 - 25 Falun Sweden10 11 11 11 41 9 Lillehammer Norway10 11 9 11 40 - Cortina d'Ampezzo Italy7 6 7 - - - Anchorage, Alaska United States7 5 - - - - Berchtesgaden Germany6 - - - - -

1 Athletic Highlights
2 Medals awarded
- 2.1 Demonstration sports
3 Participating nations
4 Venues
5 Medal count
6 See also
7 External links

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.

Medals awarded

See the medal winners, ordered by sport:

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.

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.

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

Medal count

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

Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total 1 Germany10 10 6 26 2 Unified Team¹ 9 6 8 23 3 Norway9 6 5 20 4 Austria6 7 8 21 5 United States5 4 2 11 6 Italy4 6 4 14 7 France3 5 1 9 8 Finland3 1 3 7 9 Canada2 3 2 7 10 South Korea2 1 1 4