History
Fast Facts
Host City: Nagano, JapanOpening date: Feb. 7, 1998
Closing date: Feb. 22, 1998
Nations: 64
Athletes: 2,302 (1,488 Men, 814 Women)
68 events in 12 sports
Japan was still trying to recover from the worst economic crisis in its history as the 1998 games opened. Wind, rain, fog, and lightning, with a mild earthquake thrown in, played havoc with Alpine skiing during the first five days and came close to forcing cancellation of the men's downhill.
Then good, winter-style weather suddenly took over and, when the games ended, the Japanese were unanimously hailed for their excellent organization.
Curling, snowboarding, and women's ice hockey were on the program for the first time in 1998. Perhaps the biggest news, though, was that the National Hockey League suspended its season for two weeks to allow professional players to compete for their countries.
That conjured up an image of the U. S. and Canada, both heavily stocked with NHL stars, meeting for the gold medal. But the American team failed miserably, the Canadians lost in the bronze medal game, and goalie Dominik Hasek led the Czech Republic to gold. Hasek, himself an NHL star, shut out Russia through regulation time and a shoot-out as the Czechs won the championship game, 1-0.
Meanwhile, the U. S. women's hockey team swept through its tournament undefeated, beating favored Canada, 3-1, for the gold medal.
Women's figure skating was a showdown between two U. S. athletes, Tara Lipinski and national champion Michelle Kwan. The 15-year-old Lipinski landed seven triple jumps in the free skating program to win, replacing Sonja Henie as the youngest gold medalist in Winter Olympic history.
U. S. speed skaters were shut out of gold medals, where Asian skaters dominated, and the only Alpine skiing champion was Picabo Street, in the super giant slalom. But freestyle skiers won three gold medals for the United States: Nikki Stone in the women's aerials, Eric Bergoust in the men's aerials, and Jonny Moseley in the men's moguls event.
Norway's Bjoern Daehle won four medals, including three golds, in cross-country skiing, giving him record totals of eight gold medals and 12 medals overall. Double gold medalists were Larissa Lazutina of Russia, in the 5- and 10-kilometer cross-country races; Marianne Timmer of the Netherlands, in the 1,000- and 1,500-meter speed skating events; Katja Seizinger of Germany, in the downhill and combined skiing; and Hermann Maier of Austria, in the giant slalom and Super-G.
