Winter Olympics Tickets
These Games are controversial starting about three years before they begin, as it is revealed that several IOC members accepted inappropriately large gifts in exchange for voting to hold the Games in Salt Lake City. At least four IOC members resign, as do top Salt Lake City committee officials, in the midst of several investigations, and the IOC pledges to change the way host cities are chosen. Winter Olympics Tickets.
Also controversial is the United States' decision to include, in the Opening Ceremony, a flag that had been at Ground Zero in New York. This is seen by some as contrary to the Olympic spirit
These Games are also dominated by doping scandals. Spain's Johann Muehlegg and Russia's Larissa Lazutina and Olga Danilova are disqualified due to darbepoetin use; the first two lose gold medals, although all retain medals won before they were tested. Britain's Alain Baxter similarly loses his bronze slalom medal after a drug test, although the drug detected turns out to be a Vicks inhaler. Unknown to him, it has a different formulation in America than in the UK. A later investigation clears him of all moral guilt, but his medal is not returned.
Russian figure skating pair Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze win the gold over Canadian pair Jamie Sale and David Pelletier. The Canadians protest, the French judge admits to having been pressured to give the Russians a higher ranking, and, in an unprecedented ceremony, the Canadian pair is given gold medals, although the Russians retain theirs.
American Sarah Hughes gives the free-skating performance of a lifetime, nailing two triple-triple combinations and vaulting from fourth-place dark horse to gold medalist. This, too, has some measure of controversy, as a slight change in the judges' placement would have put Russia's Irina Slutkaya ahead, but that protest goes nowhere.
The International Skating Union votes to radically overhaul the scoring system for figure skating and ice dancing in future competitions.
The Canadian men's ice hockey team wins the gold medal, 50 years to the day after the last time they'd done so. Their women's ice hockey team also emerge victorious. In both cases, the Americans take the silver.
Skeleton is an event for the first time since 1948; for a change, John Heaton is not around to compete.
German speed-skater Claudia Pechstein wins two gold medals, taking home a medal in four straight Winter Games. Teammate Georg Hackl gets the silver in luge, becoming the first athlete ever to win five medals in one event. Norway's Ole Einar Bjørndalen wins all four men's biathlon events.
For the first time since 1968, female athletes are not tested for gender. There are 41 men's events, 34 women's events, and 3 mixed events. Germany, the United States, and Norway end up with the most medals, with Norway taking home the most golds.
1924 marked the year of the first official Winter Games, and for the first time events such as figure skating, speed skating, Nordic skiing, bobsleigh, and ice hockey were held at a separate celebration than the Summer Games. Taking place in Chamonix, France, 294 competitors were involved in the first official Winter Olympics. The number of athletes participating in Salt Lake City is projected to be over 2,300. Norwegian figure skater Sonja Henie made her debut at the 1924 Games, at age 12, and in 1928, 32, and 36 took home the gold medals. In 1937 Henie took advantage of her world popularity and appeared in her first movie. Her Hollywood career would last over 10 years.
With the world at war in the 1940s the scheduled games in 40 and 44 were cancelled. As punishment for their roles in WW2, Japan and Germany's absence from Olympic ceremony would continue into the 1948 games in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Twenty-eight countries participated enthusiastically, and it was clear that the games had survived both the world's conflicts, and the 12-year span between the last Olympics.
The Olympics have always reflected the political goings-on in the world, and for this reason, the 1964 games in Innsbruck, Austria were particularly noteworthy. The world was shocked when East and West Germany entered as one team. These games were plagued with a lack of snow, so in a panic, the Austrian army carved 20,000 blocks of ice from a mountaintop and rushed them to the luge and bobsled runs. They also hauled 60,000 m³ of fresh snow to the alpine venues.
The IOC awarded the 1976 Olympics to Denver, Colorado, but after two years of preparation and financial squabbling, the people of Colorado refused to fund the major event through public taxes. Innsbruck offered to host the Winter Olympics only twelve years since it last played the role, and the underplayed event went off peacefully and without excessive spending.
1984 saw the games in a communist country for the first and only time. Sarajevo, Yugoslavia hosted, and a record forty-nine countries and almost 1,500 athletes entered the competition. There were no signs of the civil war that would erupt only a few years later, in fact, in 1992 the bobsled run would be used as an artillery position for Serbian guerillas, and the site of the slalom races would serve as a Serb military installation.
Calgary's Olympics in 1988 were well received by both athletes and spectators, however, there were some concerns regarding the facilities, and the choice of competition sites. Calgary 88 also marked the first time in history alpine events were staged on artificial snow.
Up until Lillehammer in 1994, the winter games always fell in the same year as the summer events. A policy made by the IOC changed that pattern, and the games in Norway followed Albertville's hosting by only two years. Lillehammer was a great success. Through well organized planning and the Norwegians' overall love of winter sports, these Olympics had an invigorating purity to them. However, financially, the games were a disaster. Lillehammer ended up $850 million over budget, due to inflation, lack of facilities, and government over-building.
Nagano in 1998 was another successful celebration, and the games saw several new sports added to the itinerary. Snowboarding made its debut, and when Canadian Ross Rebagliati was stripped of his gold medal after being tested positive for traces of marijuana, controversy ensued. The snowboarder was awarded his medal back after the IOC's decision was reversed, and the hype resulting from the indecisive committee only seemed to heighten Rebagliati's popularity. Curling and women's hockey were also deemed official sports, and the general consensus was that Japan was a very gracious host.
Today in Salt Lake City residents, organizers, and officials are preparing for the first Winter Olympics of the new millenium. An estimated 26,000 volunteers are lined up to help put on the 2002 event, and two million tickets will be on sale to the public. In Utah, where locals claim the "best snow on earth" falls, the world will be watching not only the 19th Winter Olympic Games, but also observing all the pre-planned details, and keeping an eye out for event-related controversy.
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