Host City: Salt Lake City, 2002
The Winter Olympic Games returned to the United States for the first time in 22 years after calls for the Games to be canceled following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. The Games were held in Salt lake City, USA, in 2002, between Feb 8-24. 77 Nations with 2399 participants competed in 78 events. There were 41 men's events, 34 women's events, and 3 mixed events.
For these Games the program grew to 78 events with the return of skeleton and the introduction of women's bobsleigh.
Trivia
- The Canadian men's ice hockey team won the gold medal 50 years to the day after the last time they'd done so. The Canadian women's ice hockey team also won, with USA second in both cases.
- There was a huge scandal over judging in the figure-skating, when the Russian pair of Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze were awarded gold on a 5-4 verdict ahead of Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, who by all other accounts were the best performers. Eventually, the IOC awarded a second gold to the Canadians.
- Norway's Ole Einar Bjørndalen won all four men's biathlon events.
- German Georg Hackl won the silver in luge, becoming the first athlete ever to win five medals in one event.
- German speed-skater Claudia Pechstein won two gold medals, thus taking home a medal in four straight Winter Games.
- Steven Bradbury won Australia's first Winter Olympic Games gold medal in the 2002 Salt Lake City 1,000 m Short Track event, when all of the other competitors spectacularly fell over on the last bend. (see video)
Olympic Biathlon- The first black athlete to win a winter gold medal was USA's Vonetta Flowers in the women's bobsleigh, at Salt Lake City in 2002. Also at these games, Canadian ice hockey player Jarome Iginia became the first black male gold medal winner.
- The Finn Samppa Lajunen finished the Games with three out of three in the Nordic Combined.
- The Croat Janica Kostelic won three golds in the alpine skiing, a triple feat only achieved previously by the greats Toni Sailer and Jean-Claude Killy.
Related Pages
- Videos from Salt Lake City 2002 Olympics
- Lessons from the 2002 Winter Olympics
- More Winter Olympics Host Countries
- Winter Olympics main page.
- Sport in the USA
Any comments, suggestions, or corrections? Please let us know.
Upcoming Events