History
Fast Facts
Host City: Innsbruck, AustriaOpening date: Jan. 29, 1964
Closing date: Feb. 9, 1964
Nations: 36
Athletes: 1,091 (891 Men, 200 Women)
34 events in 8 sports
Denied in its bid for the 1960 Winter Olympics, Innsbruck hosted the 1964 games. For the third time in four Olympiads, snow was in short supply.
As at Cortina in 1956, the army came to the rescue. trucking in more than 25,000 tons of snow from higher in the Alps. To prepare ski trails properly, six snow-making machines were flown in from the United States.
An English luger and an Australian skier were killed in practice runs, mainly because of the lack of snow, and another luger was injured shortly before the games began. Once they got underway, though, problems dissolved and record crowds turned out for the competition. Attendance totaled more than a million, a record at that time.
Innsbruck also set records for most nations, 36, and most athletes, 1,091. But there were even more media representatives. And, for the first time, television money became significant; ABC paid $1 million for American rights.
The Olympic venues were well spread out, some of them as much as 25 kilometers (about 15.5 miles) from Innsbruck proper.
Led by speed skater Lydia Skoblikova, the Soviet Union won 25 medals, including 11 golds. Skoblikova won four gold medals all by herself, setting three Olympic records in the process. Another Soviet woman, speed skater Klavdia Boyarskikh, won three golds.
Sixten Jernberg of Sweden won gold medals in the 50-kilomter cross-country race and the relay, giving him a career total of nine medals, four gold, three silver, and two bronze medals.
French sisters Christine and Marielle Goitschel starred in Alpine skiing. Christine won the slalom, while Marielle finished second. In the giant slalom, they traded places, Marielle winning and Chrsitine finishing second.
The U. S. claimed only six medals. The only gold medal was won by Terry McDermott, a barber from Michigan who scored a major upset in the 500-meter speed skating event.
One small bright spot for the American team was the bronze medal won by figure skater Scott Ethan Allen, just before his 15th birthday. The entire U. S. figure skating team had been killed in a plane crash in 1961, apparently demolishing the country's medal hopes. Allen remains the youngest athlete ever to medal at the Winter Olympics.
