1992 Albertville

Albertville 1992

Alpine Skiing

Biathlon

Bobsleigh

Cross-Country Skiing

Figure Skating

Freestyle Skiing

Ice Hockey

Luge

Nordic Combined

Short Track Speed Skating

Ski Jumping

Speed Skating

Australia

Austria

Canada

Finland

France

Germany

Hungary

India

Italy

Jamaica

Japan

Netherlands

New Zealand

Norway

Switzerland

Ukraine

United States

Her grandfather had come to the country from Germany and had brought with him a love of skiing\. He established one of New Zealand&rsquo;s first ski equipment retailers, and the Cobergers were all keen skiers\.

Coberger strikes Winter Games first for Southern Hemisphere

Ski Ballet was a demonstration sport in the 1988 and 1992 Winter Games.

Cornelia KISSLING

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Conny Kissling | Ski Ballet at Albertville 1992

After faltering in her first attempt, Japan’s Midori Ito became the first woman to land a triple axel at the Olympic Winter Games.

Midori ITO

Impossible Moments

Originals

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Midori Ito Conquers the Triple Axel | Impossible Moments

Katarina Witt’s zest for sport brought two Olympic golds, now that passion is enriching the lives of youngsters with physical disabilities

Katarina WITT

Legends Live On

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Where are they now? Katarina Witt’s legend lives on

The first-ever Olympic moguls champion Edgar Grospiron is now helping others fulfil their dreams as a motivational speaker and fundraiser.

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Where are they now? Edgar Grospiron’s legend lives on

Alberto Tomba is an unusual Italian skier, and one of the greatest champions in the history of his sport, very different from his mountain\-born compatriots, many of whom are from the Trentino\-Alto Adige \(South Tyrol\) region, and generally taciturn in nature\. Tomba is a true son of Bologna, from a

Alberto TOMBA

When Alberto Tomba burst onto the Olympic scene 32 years ago…

On a foggy 16 February in 1992, on the challenging Face de Bellevarde in Val d&rsquo;Is&egrave;re, 19\-year\-old Kjetil Andr&eacute; Aamodt caused quite an upset\. The young skier, a last\-minute pick for the Norwegian team for the Albertville Games \(after Atle Skaardal was injured and had to pull out\), won a

When Kjetil André Aamodt started his golden quest

Grospiron is the subject of the Olympic Channel&rsquo;s first episode in the new season of Legends Live On, which will also feature athletes like Hicham El Guerrouj, who won the 1,500/5,000m double at the Olympic Games 2004; six\-time fencing champion Valentina Vezzali; Uschi Disl, winner of nine biathlon medals over

Grospiron wins inaugural Olympic moguls title before helping next generation strike gold

Four years earlier, the Soviet Union had won Olympic ice hockey gold with relative ease, but their build\-up to these Games had been stuttering, and they had finished only third at the most recent world championship, which was won by Sweden\.

Unified front yields gold on the ice

Yegorova was competing for the Unified Team, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and she was destined to be one of its star performers\. She was entered into five events and took gold or silver in each of them\.

Yegorova takes a full house of medals in the cross-country

Four years earlier, he had competed in the Calgary Games, taking a bronze medal in the 30km and coming fourth in the 50km\. Ulvang knew he had the potential to do even better\. More experienced, and skiing faster than ever before, he was entered into five different events in Albertville\.

Ulvang leads Norway’s cross-country charge

The 24\-year\-old cross\-country skier was already a star by the time he arrived at his debut Games\. He was the reigning world champion in the 15km and had also anchored the Norwegian relay team to a gold medal at the Worlds\. But it was Olympic success that he craved most

Björn DAEHLIE

The legend of Dæhlie is born

She was also versatile\. For many years she competed in both pairs and singles events\. In 1986, she won the US junior pairs title with Rudy Galindo, and then, two years later, the duo won the junior world title\. Yamaguchi also won the world junior singles title in 1988\.

Yamaguchi inspired to skating glory

The favourite for the inaugural women's 500m short track gold was Canada's Sylvie Daigle, who had previously competed twice as a speed skater at the Games before going on to win three world championship titles in short track\.

Turner on song in the short track after decade’s absence

That meant added pressure on the Dutch skating team\. But in the case of Bart Veldkamp that pressure served as a source of inspiration\. Veldkamp was a long\-distance specialist, whose best results had come in the 5,000m and 10,000m\. He was also something of a late developer &ndash; at 24

Late bloomer Veldkamp restores Dutch speed skating pride

Kirchner was hardly an unknown before the Games\. Although he was only 21 years old, he was already a double world champion and travelled to France as one of the favourites\.

Kirchner wins double biathlon gold

However, six months before the Albertville Games, she had endured a personal tragedy when her coach Alo&iuml;s Kahr had been killed in a car crash, along with another skier, Rudo Nierlich\.

Kornberger secures double triumph on the slopes

No Alpine skier in Olympic history had managed to win the same event twice\. Tomba&rsquo;s gold medal four years before had been the result of aggressive, fearless skiing, and he seemed to spend the next two years celebrating\. His form dipped notably and, after watching from the sidelines, the Italian

Tomba completes historic Alpine defence

Adding to the excitement was the fact that the athletes who finished first and second had not really been expected to figure among the medals at all\. Germany's Olaf Zinke was a one\-time youth footballer who had been switched to speed skating by East German sporting authorities\. Zinke was a

Zinke crowned king of the rink in 1,000m thriller

However, just three months before the Olympics, he was taken seriously ill and rushed to hospital\. Doctors said he would not be able to return to competition for the next six months, ruling him out of the rest of the skiing season, including the Albertville Games\.

Kjetil Andre AAMODT

Aamodt defies the doctors to take super-G title

In the large hill event, Nieminen was supreme\. His nearest challenger was another teenage star &ndash; 17\-year\-old Austrian Martin H&ouml;llwarth\. The pair were first and second after the opening jump, but Nieminen had jumped more than a metre further and held a handy lead\. H&ouml;llwarth produced another great jump in

Toni NIEMINEN

Teen Nieminen becomes Winter Games youngest ever champion

At the halfway stage the top three positions were held by Great Britain, Italy\-1 and Austria\-2\. The major surprise were the British pair of Mark Tout and Lenny Paul, who had been fastest in the first run, and then held on to top spot despite going only eighth quickest in

Weder and Acklin leave it late in the bobsleigh

As a medical student himself, Koss was all too aware of the gravity of his condition and that it was likely to take its toll on his skating performance\. But he remained determined to compete\.

Koss completes miracle journey from sickbed to top of podium

The memory stuck with her in later years, driving her on towards a place among Alpine skiing&rsquo;s elite\. But, having reached such a high level of competition, she struggled to make it to the very top\. During a decade of racing, she had taken just a single third place and

Gartner’s dream comes true

Women&rsquo;s biathlon may have been making its debut, but Reztsova was already a reigning Olympic champion, having previously competed at the Games as a cross\-country skier\. She was not the first athlete to straddle the two disciplines, but few have managed such a level of success in both as Reztsova\.

Reztsova’s golden gamble pays off

In the intervening four years Blair had lost her father, Charlie, and she had struggled to maintain her drive and focus\. However as the 1992 Winter Games grew nearer she managed to rediscover her best form\. It had been her father, after all, who had persuaded her to focus on

Bonnie BLAIR

Rejuvenated Blair turns tragedy into triumph

The Frenchman was one of the sport's real characters &ndash; charming, outgoing and also extremely talented\. He had placed third at the demonstration event in Calgary but had then gone on to win two world titles and racked up a string of World Cup victories\. His consistency over the previous

Grospiron turns on the freestyle

Austrian sisters Doris and Angelika Neuner had both discovered a passion for the sport at an early age\. And having risen through the ranks they featured in an Austrian team that came to these Games full of optimism and armed with the latest and most innovative equipment\.

Sister act from Neuner and Neuner in the luge

But going into the Albertville Games, Guy had hit his best ever run of form, winning four out of five World Cup events\. Suddenly he found himself heading towards his home Olympics as the surprise favourite for gold\.

Guy proves unlikely homegrown hero for France

In August 1990, while she was out cycling, she was knocked off her bike by a car\. There were even suggestions that it had been deliberate\. She was left unconscious on the road, and had to be helped to hospital by team\-mates\. When she regained consciousness, she discovered that she

Börner bounces back from the brink to win gold

And she would go on become one of a small group of athletes who competed in both the Summer and Winter Games\. As well as being a skilled speed skater she was also a gifted track cyclist, and went on to represent Japan in both sports\. This meant that, remarkably,

Speed skater Hashimoto’s flame burns bright

However, at the eleventh hour, the weather had a dramatic impact on the outlook\. The night before the skiers took to the course for the first segment of the event &ndash; the downhill &ndash; there was heavy snowfall and the start was delayed to allow workers to prepare the piste\.

Outsider Polig weathers the storm in the combined

Following Calgary, Hackl never lost his focus\. He spent nearly four years working on the perfect start, examining every movement of his body and working on each aspect of his fitness that would help him fly away from the buzzer\. His focus and dedication had seen him win world titles

Georg HACKL

Hackl’s eye for detail pays off in the luge

And it wasn't just the top three who were close: Germany's Markus Wasmeier was fourth, missing out on a medal despite finishing just a quarter of a second behind the winner\.

Ortlieb takes downhill gold by a whisker

Albertville 1992 - Stories Mosaic

Watch India's Chuni Lal take to the slopes in men's slalom and giant slalom events at the Olympic Winter Games 1992.

Lal CHUNI

Albertville 1992 | Olympic Winter games

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Chuni Lal competes at Albertville 1992

Watch the Indian alpine skier Nanak Chand in action at the Olympic Winter Games 1992.

Nanak CHAND

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Nanak Chand at Albertville 1992

Two years ago, when Nelson Christian Stokes was honoured by the Jamaican government for his contribution to the development of sport in the country, his wife organised an event to celebrate the achievement. On the invitation, in Latin, she’d had inscribed, ‘Non nobis nati sumus’.
“My wife recognised something in

Nelson Stokes 02

Beyond Cool Runnings: Iconic Jamaican bobsledder launches NFT collection

Several of the most popular sports that will be on show at Beijing 2022 began their Olympic journies as demonstration sports. Sports such as curling and short track made the cut and established themselves on the Olympic programme, while others did not survive the test of time.
Here are five

Olympic Winter Games Albertville 1992

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