The XVII Olympic Winter Games were held in 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway. Other candidate cities were Anchorage, USA; Östersund/Ĺre, Sweden; and Sofia, Bulgaria. In 1986 the IOC voted to change the schedule of the Olympic Games so that the summer and winter games would be arranged in alternating even-numbered years. Effectuating this vote, the Lillehammer Games were held in 1994, the only time the winter games have been staged two years after the preceding games.
A massive Norwegian crowd saw their relay team being beaten by the Italians in the final metres of the cross country skiing relay. The crowd fell silent, but only briefly.
A month before the games were due to begin, Tonya Harding's ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly clubbed fellow female figure skater Nancy Kerrigan in the knee. In the end Nancy Kerrigan went on to win the silver medal, behind Oksana Baiul of Ukraine. Tonya Harding finished 8th and was banned from the world of figure skating by the U.S. Figure Skating Association (USFSA) a few years later.
Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, ice dancing champions ten years earlier, competed again following relaxation of amateurism rules. (They had turned professional in the 1980s.)
Lillehammer won the right to host the event in September 1988 in Seoul before the opening ceremony of the 1988 Summer Olympics.
The LillehammerGames were held in 1994, the only time the Winter Games have been staged two years after the preceding games.
The Lillehammer Olympics are still considered to this day by sport specialists and Olympic officials as one of the greatest Winter Games ever, and it ranks among the greatest sporting events in history.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the hosts of the previous games, stepped in to organize the Games again, but the Games were cancelled in their entirety in November of 1939 because Germany had invaded Poland two months before.
The 1992Games were the last to be held in the same year as the Summer Games.
The LillehammerGames were the first Winter Olympics to be held in a different year.
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