History

Cortina d'Ampezzo had been selected to host the 1944 Winter Olympics, but those Games were cancelled by World War II. The town finally got its chance 12 years later.

Although most of Europe was suffering through one of the snowiest winters in history, snow was scarce in the Dolomite Alps, where Cortina is located. Italian soldiers were mobilized to truck it in from higher up in the Alps.

Two feet finally fell shortly before the games opened, but it then began to melt in surprisingly warm weather. Injuries during practice runs kept a dozen skiers out of competition and a French competitor warned that the downhill event might literally be "a race to the death" if conditions didn't improve.

Again, the Italian Army came to the rescue, trucking in still more snow and rearranging what was already there.

The Soviet Union, entering the Winter Games for the first time, took national honors by winning six of the twenty-four gold medals and 16 medals over all, while Austria finished second with 11 total medals.

The biggest surprise was the Soviet Union's 5-0 record in the hockey tournament. That included a 2-0 upset of Canada in the earlier rounds and a 4-0 victory over the United States in the championship game.

The U. S. figure skating team was dominant, winning a total of five medals. Tenley Albright was the women's champion and Hayes Jenkins won the men's title. However, the U. S. claimed only two medals in other events.

The biggest individual star was Toni Sailer of Austria, who won all three men's Alpine skiing events.

For the first time, the Winter Olympics were carried on live television, with the RAI network of Italy providing coverage to eight European countries. But the Italian organizing committee didn't make any money on the deal. In fact, the network was paid 10 million lira to help defray its production costs.

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