1992 Winter Olympics

Updated on Jan 16, 2024

Edit

Comment

Host city Albertville, France Opening ceremony 8 February		Nations participating 64

Motto At the Peak of Performance (French: A la Pointe de la Performance) Athletes participating 1801 (1313 men, 488 women) Events 57 in 6 sports (12 disciplines)

The 1992 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVI Olympic Winter Games (French: Les XVIes Jeux olympiques d'hiver), were a winter multi-sport event celebrated from 8 to 23 February 1992 in Albertville, France. They were the last Winter Olympics to be held the same year as the Summer Olympics, and the first where the Winter Paralympics were held at the same site. Albertville was selected as host in 1986, beating Sofia, Falun, Lillehammer, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Anchorage and Berchtesgaden. The games were the third Winter Olympics held in France, after Chamonix in 1924 and Grenoble in 1968, and the fifth Olympics overall in the country.

Only some of the skating and the opening and closing ceremonies took place in Albertville, while the rest of the events took place in the villages of Courchevel, La Plagne, Les Arcs, Les Menuires, Les Saisies, Méribel, Pralognan-la-Vanoise, Tignes and Val d'Isère. Sixty-four nations with 1,801 athletes participated in the games, including the Unified Team which represented non-Baltic former Soviet republics. Germany participated as a unified team, while five newly independent European countries debuted, as did six "warm-weather" countries. Short track speed skating, moguls and women's biathlon made their debut as an Olympic sport. The games were the last Winter Games until 2014 to have demonstration sports, consisting of curling, aerials, ski ballet and speed skiing. It was the last Olympics to have an outdoor speed skating rink. The games were succeeded by the 1992 Winter Paralympics from 25 March to 1 April.

Norwegians won every male cross-country skiing race, with Bjørn Dæhlie and Vegard Ulvang both collecting three gold. Ski jumper Toni Nieminen, 16, became the youngest male gold medalist of a Winter Olympic event. Petra Kronberger won both the combined event and the slalom, while Bonnie Blair won both the 500 m and 1000 m speed skating events and Gunda Niemann took both of the longest races. Kim Kihoon earned gold medals in both men's short track events. Annelise Coberger of New Zealand won the southern hemisphere's first Winter Olympic medal—a silver in the women's slalom. Nicolas Bochatay was killed during a training session. Germany won the most medals and the most gold.

Host city selection

The vote to select the host city of the 1992 Winter Olympics was conducted on 17 October 1986, in Lausanne, Switzerland, at the 91st IOC Session. A record of seven different locales bid for these Games.

Cost and cost overrun

The Oxford Olympics Study established the outturn cost of the Albertville 1992 Winter Olympics at USD 2.0 billion in 2015-dollars and cost overrun at 137% in real terms. This includes sports-related costs only, that is, (i) operational costs incurred by the organizing committee for the purpose of staging the Games, e.g., expenditures for technology, transportation, workforce, administration, security, catering, ceremonies, and medical services, and (ii) direct capital costs incurred by the host city and country or private investors to build, e.g., the competition venues, the Olympic village, international broadcast center, and media and press center, which are required to host the Games. Indirect capital costs are not included, such as for road, rail, or airport infrastructure, or for hotel upgrades or other business investment incurred in preparation for the Games but not directly related to staging the Games. The cost and cost overrun for Albertville 1992 compares with costs of USD 2.5 billion and a cost overrun of 13% for Vancouver 2010, and costs of USD 21.9 billion and a cost overrun of 289% for Sochi 2014, the latter being the most costly Olympics to date. Average cost for Winter Games since 1960 is USD 3.1 billion, average cost overrun is 142%.

Mascot

Magique (Magic) is the Olympic mascot of these Olympics and is a little imp in the shape of a star and a cube. It is created by Philippe Mairesse and was presented in 1989. His star shape symbolizes dreams and imagination. His colors come from the French flag, with a red hat and a blue costume.

Notable events

Freestyle skiing event of moguls and short-track speedskating made their debuts as medal disciplines, as did women's biathlon.

Norwegian skiers won every male cross-country skiing race. Bjørn Dæhlie and Vegard Ulvang each won three gold medals.

Speedskater Bonnie Blair won both the 500 and 1,000 m events; Gunda Niemann took both of the longest races.

Ski jumper Toni Nieminen, 16, became the youngest male gold medalist of a Winter Olympic event.

Italian alpine skier Alberto Tomba won the Giant Slalom for the second time in a row.

Austrian alpine skier Petra Kronberger won both the combined event and the slalom.

Kim Kihoon earned gold medals in both men's short-track events.

Annelise Coberger of New Zealand wins the southern hemisphere's first Winter Olympic medal—a silver in the women's slalom.

Kristi Yamaguchi of the United States and Midori Ito of Japan became the first persons of Asian descent to win Olympic medals in figure skating.

Midori Ito becomes the first woman to land a triple axel in Olympic competition.

The Swiss speed skier Nicolas Bochatay died on the morning of the speed skiing finals, when he collided with a snow grooming vehicle while skiing on a public slope outside the racing area.

Sports

There were 57 events contested in 6 sports (12 disciplines). See the medal winners, ordered by sport:

Demonstration sports

This was the final time demonstration sports were included in the Winter Olympics programme.

Curling – Competed for the first time since 1924. It became a regular discipline in 1998.

Freestyle skiing – While moguls skiing was an official discipline, aerials and ski ballet were still considered as demonstration events.

Speed skiing – A death occurred during a training session. The sport has not been included in the Winter Olympics program.

Participating nations

A total of 64 nations sent athletes to compete in these Games. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, six states formed a Unified Team, while the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had their own teams. Croatia and Slovenia, who were making their first appearance at the Winter Olympics, competed as independent nations after leaving Yugoslavia. The UN sanctions against Yugoslavia that saw them miss the 1992 Summer Olympics had yet to come into effect. The German team won most medals in the games, with a total of 10 gold medals, 10 silver and 6 bronze. It was the first time since the 1936 Winter Olympics that Germany competed with a unified team after the reunification.

Making their debuts were Algeria, Bermuda, Brazil, Honduras, Ireland and Swaziland (as well as the previously mentioned Croatia and Slovenia). It would also be the only appearance for both Honduras and Swaziland in Winter Olympics to date.