The Japanese city of Nagano was chosen to host the 1998 Winter Olympics at the 1991 session of the International Olympic Committee in Birmingham. Prior to this, the Winter Olympics were held in Japan 26 years ago in Sapporo.
This Olympics in Nagano was the most massive of the previous Winter Games in terms of the number of athletes and participating countries. It was attended by 72 countries and more than 2,300 athletes. On the eve of the Games, the UN General Assembly called on countries to suspend all internal and international conflicts. The emblem of the Olympics was a snowflake flower with representatives of a particular sport depicted on each petal.
The main surprise of this competition was the magnitude 5 earthquake on February 20. Fortunately, none of the Olympians were hurt. An important event was the agreement between the NHL and the IOC, which allowed athletes from the strongest hockey league to compete at the Olympics.
Athletes at the XVIII Games competed in 14 sports. For the first time, the Olympic championship program included curling, snowboarding and women's hockey competitions. The Olympic competitions in Nagano were attended by athletes from exotic countries for winter sports - Brazil, Uruguay and Bermuda. Japanese woman Ionico Kasai made an exhibition ski jump, becoming the first woman to receive such an honor.
A record number of medals at that time was played - 68 sets. The greatest number of medals (29) were won by athletes from Germany, the second were athletes from Norway with 25 medals, the third were the Russians with 18 medals. Russian skiers managed to win in all disciplines. Larisa Lazutina won three gold medals, one silver and one bronze. The hosts of the Olympics took only 7th place in the medal standings.
On the eve of the Nagano Olympics, a new skate design with a breakaway heel was invented, which allowed athletes to rewrite their world records in speed skating. American figure skater Tara Lipinski, 15, won gold in singles, becoming the youngest ever winner of the Winter Olympics.
At the closing ceremony, a fireworks display of 5,000 high-altitude charges of rare beauty was launched.
