1992 Winter Olympics

XVI Olympic Winter Games

The emblem is the flag of Savoy region
in the shape of the Olympic flame,
dancing above stripes representing
the flag of France.
Host city Albertville, France
Motto At the Peak of Performance (French: A la Pointe de la Performance)
Nations participating 64
Athletes participating 1801 (1313 men, 488 women)[1]
Events 57 in 6 sports (12 disciplines)
Opening ceremony 8 February
Closing ceremony 23 February
Officially opened by President François Mitterrand
Athlete's Oath Surya Bonaly
Judge's Oath Pierre Bornat
Olympic Torch Michel Platini and
François-Cyrille Grange
Stadium Théâtre des Cérémonies
1992 Winter Olympics

The 1992 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVI Olympic Winter Games (French: Les XVIes Jeux olympiques d'hiver), were a winter multi-sport event celebrated from 8 to 23 February 1992 in Albertville, France. They were the last Winter Olympics to be held the same year as the Summer Olympics,[2] and the first where the Winter Paralympics were held at the same site. Albertville was selected as host in 1986, beating Sofia, Falun, Lillehammer, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Anchorage and Berchtesgaden. The games were the third Winter Olympics held in France, after Chamonix in 1924 and Grenoble in 1968, and the fifth Olympics overall in the country.

Only some of the skating and the opening and closing ceremonies took place in Albertville, while the rest of the events took place in the villages of Courchevel, La Plagne, Les Arcs, Les Menuires, Les Saisies, Méribel, Pralognan-la-Vanoise, Tignes and Val d'Isère. Sixty-four nations with 1,801 athletes participated in the games, including the Unified Team which represented non-Baltic former Soviet republics. Germany participated as a unified team, while five newly independent European countries debuted, as did six "warm-weather" countries. Short track speed skating, moguls and women's biathlon made their debut as an Olympic sport. The games were the last Winter Games until 2014 to have demonstration sports, consisting of curling, aerials, ski ballet and speed skiing. It was the last Olympics to have an outdoor speed skating rink. The games were succeeded by the 1992 Winter Paralympics from 25 March to 1 April.

Norwegians won every male cross-country skiing race, with Bjørn Dæhlie and Vegard Ulvang both collecting three gold. Ski jumper Toni Nieminen, 16, became the youngest male gold medalist of a Winter Olympic event. Petra Kronberger won both the combined event and the slalom, while Bonnie Blair won both the 500 m and 1000 m speed skating events and Gunda Niemann took both of the longest races. Kim Kihoon earned gold medals in both men's short track events. Annelise Coberger of New Zealand won the southern hemisphere's first Winter Olympic medal—a silver in the women's slalom. Nicolas Bochatay was killed during a training session. Germany won the most medals and the most gold.

Host city selection

Mexican sculptor Abel Ramírez Águilar working on his gold medal piece in snow sculpture competition related to the Games

The vote to select the host city of the 1992 Winter Olympics was conducted on 17 October 1986, in Lausanne, Switzerland, at the 91st IOC Session. A record of seven different locales bid for these Games.[3]

1992 Winter Olympics bidding results[4]
City Country Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 (Run-off) Round 6
Albertville  France 19 26 29 42 — 51
Sofia  Bulgaria 25 25 28 24 — 25
Falun  Sweden 10 11 11 11 41 9
Lillehammer  Norway 10 11 9 11 40 —
Cortina d'Ampezzo  Italy 7 6 7 — — —
Anchorage  United States 7 5 — — — —
Berchtesgaden  West Germany 6 — — — — —

Mascot

Main article: Magique (mascot)

Magique (Magic) is the Olympic mascot of these Olympics and is a little imp in the shape of a star and a cube. It is created by Philippe Mairesse and was presented in 1989. His star shape symbolizes dreams and imagination. His colors come from the French flag, with a red hat and a blue costume.

Notable events

Sports

There were 57 events contested in 6 sports (12 disciplines). See the medal winners, ordered by sport:

Demonstration sports

This was the final time demonstration sports were included in the Winter Olympics programme.

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 (as well as the previously mentioned Croatia and Slovenia). It would also be the only appearance for both Honduras and Swaziland in Winter Olympics to date.

Venues

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

Medal count

(Host nation is highlighted.)

 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 (host) 3 5 1 9
8 Finland 3 1 3 7
9 Canada 2 3 2 7
10 South Korea 2 1 1 4

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

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "The Olympic Winter Games Factsheet" (PDF). International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
  2. ↑ "Albertville 1992". www.olympic.org. Archived from the original on 28 March 2010. Retrieved 12 March 2010.
  3. ↑ IOC Vote History
  4. ↑ "Past Olympic host city election results". GamesBids. Archived from the original on 17 March 2011. Retrieved 17 March 2011.

External links

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Preceded by
Calgary		 Winter Olympics
Albertville
XVI Olympic Winter Games (1992) 		Succeeded by
Lillehammer
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