1998 Nagano

Nagano 1998

Alpine Skiing

Biathlon

Bobsleigh

Cross-Country Skiing

Curling

Figure Skating

Freestyle Skiing

Ice Hockey

Luge

Nordic Combined

Short Track Speed Skating

Ski Jumping

Snowboard

Speed Skating

Austria

Belarus

Bulgaria

Canada

Czechia

Denmark

Federation of Malaya Olympic Council

France

Germany

Great Britain

India

Italy

Jamaica

Japan

Kenya

Korea

Korean Unification Team

Netherlands

Nigeria

Norway

Romania

Sweden

Switzerland

United States

Uzbekistan

His first race at the Hakuba venue, on 9 February, was the 30km, staged under a thick shower of wet snow\. He was not at his best, gradually slipping back and finishing in 20th place, over six minutes behind Finnish winner Mika Myllyl&auml;\.

Bjørn Daehlie ends his Olympic career in style at Nagano 1998

The thrilling Olympic gold medal final featured fire on the ice, against historic adversaries Russia and the Czech Republic.

Nagano 1998 | Olympic Winter games

Originals

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Men’s Ice Hockey Final, Nagano 1998

At age 15 in Nagano, the American figure skater became the youngest winner of an individual event in Winter Olympic history.

Tara LIPINSKI

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Tara Lipinski’s History-Making Performance | Impossible Moments

The former circus acrobat won the first ever Olympic medal for China on snow in men’s freestyle aerials at the 2006 Turin Games.

Xiaopeng HAN

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Han Xiaopeng Breaks New Ground On Snow | Impossible Moments

After losing the Olympic ski jumping team gold four years ago, Masahiko Harada needed to find redemption for his team. 

Kazuyoshi FUNAKI

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Team Japan Jumps To a Historic Win At Home | Impossible Moments

Ice hockey is one of the signature sports in the Winter Olympic programme, and regardless of the Games, always seems to produce incredible moments of drama and action.
In fact, there have been so many great ice hockey moments at the Olympics that compiling a list of 10 was quite

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Crosby Ovie

10 of the most memorable moments in Olympic ice hockey history

Jayna Hefford was there at the beginning and 16 years later she was still there at the top when she bowed out, having helped transform the face and feel of her sport\. It is this, not the record medal haul she picked up along the way, that she is most

Ice Hockey's Golden Girl Jayna Hefford is still a trailblazer

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 Friday 13 February 1998, the Olympic downhill at the Hakuba Happo\-One resort on Mount Karamastu finally took place after three postponements due to the capricious weather conditions\. At last the sun was shining\! Hermann Maier, who had emerged onto the elite international skiing scene less than two years previously,

Hermann Maier: a spectacular crash in the downhill followed by two titles at Nagano 1998

The Olympic programme now features five snowboarding events for both men and women\. These competitions are split into races \(parallel giant slalom and snowboard cross\) and freestyle competitions \(halfpipe, slopestyle and big air\)\. It was snowboarding that led the way each time with the introduction of freestyle competitions at the

Twenty-two years ago, Karine Ruby became the first Olympic snowboard champion 

The story behind the Czech Republic&rsquo;s heroic upset at the Olympic Winter Games Nagano 1998 in men&rsquo;s ice hockey is featured in The Nagano Tapes, the first film in the Olympic Channel&rsquo;s signature series Five Rings Films\. Five Rings Films is a five\-episode series of incisive and entertaining documentaries directed

Olympic Channel’s Five Rings Films presents The Nagano Tapes documentary

The high\-altitude city of Eldoret in western Kenya is known as a hotbed for champion middle\- and long\-distance runners &ndash; the most famous being Kipchoge Keino\. Winner of two golds and two silvers at Mexico City 1968 and Munich 1972, he went on to build a high\-altitude training centre for

Philip Boit, Kenya’s first Winter Olympian

Scheduled to take place on the first Sunday of the Games, the men&rsquo;s downhill on Mount Karamatsu was repeatedly postponed due to adverse weather conditions\. By the following Thursday, the patience of the competitors, coaches and the media had been tested to the limit\. Every day they had dutifully made

Veteran Olympian Crétier signs off with surprise gold 

Canada played well from the start, but the USA simply could not get going\. In the round\-robin group stage, they did not only lose to the Canadians \(4\-1\), they also went down 4\-2 to Sweden\. Meanwhile their other old rivals, Russia were picking up momentum, and after a hard\-fought 2\-1

Czechs pull off heroic upset in the ice hockey

Norway&rsquo;s Bj&oslash;rn Dӕhlie was already an established star on the international cross\-country skiing circuit by the time he arrived in Nagano, with five Olympic gold medals to his name already\. However, like so many great sportsmen and women, one of his strengths was an insatiable hunger for success\. And the

Daehlie sets new Winter gold standard

Short track was making just its third appearance at the Winter Games in Nagano, but it had already created a few stars\. Perhaps the most prominent was Chun Lee\-Kyung of the Republic of Korea\. Chun had won the 1,000m in Lillehammer in 1994 at the age of 18\. She had

Chun bags double short track gold again 

For a country with a rich tradition in winter sport, France had endured a disappointing record in Olympic bobsleigh\. The country&rsquo;s athletes had never won a single medal in the discipline, but with one run remaining in the four\-man in

Ferriani’s naked ambition pays dividends

The pairs figure skating competition in Nagano featured a number of skaters who had come back from serious, and in some case life\-threatening, injuries\.

Figure skater Dmitriev rediscovers golden touch with Kazakova

No man or woman had ever retained the Olympic downhill title going into Nagano\. The margins were so tight, the courses so varied, the standard of skiing so high that back\-to\-back gold medals seemed a near impossibility\.In the men&rsquo;s event, the reigning champion Tommy Moe of the USA, could place

Seizinger seizes the day and makes history

Dutch speed skater Marianne Timmer arrived in Nagano with realistic hopes of a bronze medal in the women&rsquo;s 1,500m, but no more\. Germany's Gunda Niemann\-Stirnemann looked to be a well\-deserved favourite over the distance, while defending champion Emese Hunyady of Austria had returned determined to hold onto her crown\. It

Speed skater Timmer stuns the world with double gold

Canada&rsquo;s Annie Perreault was a veteran of the short\-track circuit\. She had taken part in her first Winter Games a decade earlier, when short\-track was a demonstration sport, and had won a gold medal in the relay four years later as it was included on the official programme for the

Patient Perreault clinches surprise short track gold

He was entered into four events in Nagano, starting with the downhill\. Faced with a difficult course, his adrenaline\-fuelled skiing style saw him crash spectacularly, flying through the air and appearing to land on his head\. He went through two lines of catch fencing\. It looked like a horrific accident

Hermann MAIER

“Hermannator” thrills Nagano

Most top athletes have to deal with injuries and then attempt to come back to their best\. There were plenty of competitors in Nagano who faced this challenge, including some who were still recovering in hospital just a few weeks before the Games\. But few had to deal with adversity

Bergoust bounces back for aerials gold

About 80% of the world's players came from those two countries and the rivalry between them was intense\. In the run\-up to the Nagano Games, the two rivals contested no fewer than 13 games, with Canada just edging the bragging rights by a score of 7\-6\.

US women strike maiden ice hockey gold

The Japanese have always loved ski jumping, and their athletes have always enjoyed enthusiastic support\. In Nagano, a new generation of Japanese jumpers was beginning to come through ready to take on the world, and leading the way was Kazuyoshi Funaki\.

Funaki leaves Japan jumping for joy

In the speed skating events in Nagano, a revolutionary new type of skate was being used for the first time\. The back of the blade was detached from the boot, with the front connecting through a hinge\. These modifications made a huge difference, allowing skaters to exert more power, and

Bladerunner Romme storms into the record books

Even before the curling competition in Nagano started, a bit of history had been made\. Not only was this the first full Olympic curling competition since 1924, it was taking place in Karuizawa, which had also been a host venue at the 1964 Summer Games, meaning that it became the

Swiss curlers stun Canada

Dutch speed skater Ids Postma arrived in Nagano as an established star of his sport\. A farmer by trade, he had won both the World and European titles the previous year and, earlier in the season, had become the first skater to break 1 minute 50 seconds in the 1,500m\.

Speed skater Postma turns disappointment into delight

Bobsleigh is a sport of exceptionally tight margins and wafer\-thin measurements\. Times are taken to hundredths of a second and it is often such fractions that separate the competitors over the four separate runs\.

Inseparable Italians and Canadians share bobsleigh gold

The women's luge in Nagano developed into an absorbing battle between two German soldiers, Silke Kraushaar and Barbara Niederhuber\. After four runs, the two compatriots were separated by just 0\.002 seconds, the equivalent of less than the length of your little finger\.

Kraushaar wins battle of the Germans in women’s luge

The Olympic downhill is always eagerly awaited, and in Nagano the sense of anticipation was especially prolonged, as bad weather meant the race was delayed three times and eventually took place five days later than originally scheduled\.

Cautious Crétier in seventh heaven

If there was one cross\-country skier in Nagano who could beat the legendary Bj&oslash;rn Dӕhlie in a straight fight it was his compatriot Thomas Alsgaard\. The two team\-mates had won a silver medal together in Lillehammer as part of the 4x10km relay team, and the two even lived on the

Alsgaard emerges from Dӕhlie's shadow

Since her breakthrough performance in 1994, Street had won a succession of World Cup downhills and had taken the overall downhill title twice, as well as enjoying success at the world championships\. However, her winning streak was then cut short by a bad accident on the slopes in Vail, which

Indestructible Street finds super-G force 

As reigning world champion and the World Cup frontrunner, France's Candice Gilg was the clear favourite for gold in the women&rsquo;s moguls\.

Inspired Satoya claims shock moguls gold

Hackl had focused his season entirely on the Nagano Games, refining his sled and clothing to eke out every possible hundredth of a second of speed\. His World Cup form in the run\-up to the Winter Olympics had been indifferent, but that was probably because he was so intent on

Georg HACKL

Luger Hackl completes golden hat-trick

Bulgaria had been sending athletes to the Winter Olympics since 1936, and while they had often featured prominently in competitions, the country had just one medal to show for their efforts\. That had come in 1980, when Ivan Labanov won a bronze in the cross\-country skiing\.

Dafovska strikes first gold for Bulgaria

Snowboarding was still a relatively new sport, having staged its first world championship in 1983, with its first international professional tour only launched four years later\. Yet by the time of the Nagano 1998 Winter Games it was growing rapidly, both in terms of athletes and popularity, across North America

Rebagliati wins landmark snowboarding gold

Nagano 1998 - Stories Mosaic

The story is told once every four years in Japan without fail, like a folk tale passed on from one generation to the next.
It goes like this:
At the Lillehammer 1994 Olympic Winter Games, the Japanese ski jumping team were on the cusp of a gold medal.
Going into

JAPAN - FEBRUARY 17:  SKISPRINGEN: NAGANO 1998 SIEGEREHRUNG TEAM K120 am 17.02.98, Hiroya SAITO/Takanobu OKABE/Masahiko HARADA/Kazuyoshi FUNAKI - JPN TEAM-GOLD - GOLDMEDAILLE GOLD MEDAILLE  (Photo by Frank Peters/Bongarts/Getty Images)

After a four-year wait, Japan finally struck gold in the team event before the home fans in Nagano.

We're in it together: How Japanese ski jumpers made team gold a reality

Picabo Street was already in tears minutes into the interview.
True to herself, 'Peek' was never one to hold back. She didn't as a skier, or as an Olympic champion, and now she hasn't when the time has come to tell her story in the movie 'Picabo' either.
"I have

JAPAN - FEBRUARY 11:  NAGANO 1998; Picabo STREET (USA) GOLD im SUPER-G - SIEGEREHRUNG -  (Photo by Lutz Bongarts/Bongarts/Getty Images)

Picabo STREET

Picabo Street exclusive: "I have excavated a lot of old wounds"

Reaching incredible speeds and dizzying heights, and always with a fierce competitive spirit on display, the Olympic Winter Games are full of historic (and, yes, crazy) moments.
From the so-called Herminator's (Hermann Maier) unbelievable comeback in Nagano in 1998 to the drama of the Canada/USA women's ice hockey dual in

JAPAN - FEBRUARY 20:  EISKUNSTLAUF: NAGANO 1998 Frauen Kuer 20.02.98, Tara LIPINSKI (USA) - GOLD - JUBEL  (Photo by Ruediger Fessel/Bongarts/Getty Images)

Tara Lipinski

Watch 10 of the wildest Olympic Winter Games moments

On 4 February, Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 will officially get underway, and the best winter athletes in the world will take centre stage.
We will no doubt see first-time Olympians on the slopes and ice of Beijing, while others will return to the Games on the hunt for another

Uzbek skier Lina Cheryazova after winning the gold medal in the women's freestyle aerials at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, 24th February 1994. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

Uzbek skier Lina Cheryazova after winning the gold medal in the women's freestyle aerials at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, 24th February 1994.

Look to the past: The three nations with a single Olympic Winter Games medal

This story starts at the end.
It starts at the finish line of the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, yet it doesn’t start when Norway’s cross-country superstar Bjorn Daehlie breaks the tape in first place in the 10km classic to take a record-breaking sixth Olympic gold medal. It

12 Feb 1998:  Bjoern Daehlie of Norway congratulates Philip Boit of Kenya after Boit finished the mens 10k cross country race at Snow Harp during the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan. Boit was the first Kenyan to compete in the Winter Games. Man

Olympic Winter Games Nagano 1998

Nagano 1998Stories

All Stories

We're in it together: How Japanese ski jumpers made team gold a reality

Picabo Street exclusive: "I have excavated a lot of old wounds"

Watch 10 of the wildest Olympic Winter Games moments

Look to the past: The three nations with a single Olympic Winter Games medal

On World Kindness Day a story of friendship between a Norwegian icon and a Kenyan novice