History
Fast Facts
Host City: Salt Lake City, UtahOpening date: Feb. 8, 2002
Closing date: Feb. 28, 2002
Nations: 77
Athletes: 2,399 (1,513 Men, 886 Women)
78 events in 13 sports
Salt Lake City had tried four times previously to host the Winter Olympics. In 1932, the city lost to Lake Placid, New York. Forty years later, Salt Lake City was endorsed by the U. S. Olympic Committee (USOC), but Sapporo, Japan, was chosen instead.
In the next two attempts, other cities were endorsed by the USOC as America's candidates: Denver, Colorado, in 1976, and Anchorage, Alaska in 1992. Denver was selected as the host city in 1976 but was forced to withdraw when Colorado voters refused to allow the use of public monies. Salt Lake City then volunteered to serve as a replacement, but the IOC opted for Innsbruck, Austria, which had hosted the Games just 12 years before.
Finally, the IOC announced in 1995 that Salt Lake City had been selected to host the 2002 Winter Olympics. Even that led to considerable embarrassment. On December 10, 1998, it was revealed that some members of the IOC had been bribed to vote for Salt Lake City. Two leaders of the organizing committee immediately resigned. After an investigation, the IOC expelled ten of its members and ten others were disciplined.
With sponsor support lagging because of the scandal, Mitt Romney was named CEO of the organizing committee. The 2002 Games were facing a shortfall of $379 million when he took over; they ended up turning a profit of about $100 million. Romney's success helped propel him to the governorship of Massachusetts in 2003, and he will almost certainly be seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2008.
Once all the dust had settled and the Games began, Salt Lake City hosted the largest Winter Olympics ever: The most participating nations, 77; the most athletes, 2,399; the most sports, 13; and the most individual events, 78. Skeleton was on the program for the first time since 1948 and women's bobsledding was just one of several new events.
Gold medals went to athletes from a record 18 nations. Australia had never claimed Winter Olympic gold medal before 2002. In Salt Lake City, Australians won two golds, the first ever to go to a country from the Southern Hemisphere.
Australia's first gold medal was won by Steven Bradbury in 1000-meter short track speed skating through a very improbable sequence of events. Apparently eliminated in the quarter-final round, he was given a new life when Marc Gagnon of Canada was disqualified. The four other skaters in his semi-final heat collided, leaving Bradbury to cross the finish line alone. With Bradbury in fifth place in the final heat, it happened again, a four-man collision that he was able to avoid.
The other Australian gold medal was won by Alisa Camplin in freestyle skiing in a much more straightforward fashion.
China also got its first winter gold medal when Yang Yang (A) won the 500-meter short track speed skating event. She repeated in the 1000-meter event, becoming the first woman short track skater to win two individual events at a single Olympics.
Vonetta Flowers of the U. S., riding on the two-woman bobsled, became the first black athlete to win a winter gold medal and a few days later Jarome Iginla of Canada became the first black male to do it. Iginla was a member of the Canadian men's hockey team that beat the United States in the gold medal game. The Canadian women's team also beat the U. S. for gold.
In pairs figure skating, Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze of Russia were announced as the gold medalists, with Canadian skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier placing second. However, an investigation revealed that French judge Marie Reine Le Gougne had given the Canadian pair low scores as part of a vote-swapping arrangement between Russia and France. She was suspended for three years and duplicate gold medals were presented to Sale and Pelletier.
The Salt Lake City Games produced some big winners: Ole Einar Bjørndalen of Norway won all four men's biathlon events, Samppa Lajunen of Finland won all three Nordic combined medals, and Janica Kostelic of Croatia won four medals, three of them gold, in alpine skiing.
Germany's George Hackl won only a single silver medal, but set a record: He was the first athlete, summer or winter, to win a medal in the same event at five consecutive Olympics. Another German, Claudia Pechstein, won the 5000-meter speed skating event for the third straight time and also took a gold medal in the 3000-meter.
