1998 Winter Olympics

The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 ( ja, 長野1998), was a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Japan, with some events taking place in the nearby mountain communities of Hakuba, Karuizawa, Nozawa Onsen, and Yamanouchi. The city of Nagano had previously been a candidate to host the 1940 Winter Olympics (which were later cancelled), as well as the 1972 Winter Olympics, but had been eliminated at the national level by Sapporo on both occasions.

Nagano was selected to host the 1998 Games on 15 June 1991, beating Salt Lake City, Östersund, Jaca, and Aosta. This was the second Winter Olympics to be held in Japan, and the third Olympic Games overall, after the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo. The 1998 Winter Olympics were succeeded by the 1998 Winter Paralympics from 5 to 14 March. These were the final Winter Olympic Games under the IOC presidency of Juan Antonio Samaranch.

There were 2,176 athletes from 72 nations, competing in 7 sports and 68 events. The numbers of athletes and participating nations were, at the time, a record for the Winter Olympics. These Games saw the introduction of curling, snowboarding, and women's ice hockey. Professional players from the National Hockey League were allowed to participate in the men's ice hockey for the first time. Azerbaijan, Kenya, Macedonia, Uruguay, and Venezuela made their Winter Olympic debuts.

Germany topped the medal table with 29 medals, including 12 gold, followed by Norway and Russia, who won 25 and 18 medals respectively. Canada finished fourth with 15 medals, including six gold, making this their most successful Winter Olympics to date. The most decorated athlete was the Russian cross-country skier Larisa Lazutina who won five medals, including three gold. Norwegian cross-country skier Bjørn Dæhlie won four medals, including three gold, which took his total Olympic medal haul to 12, including eight gold, a record for the Winter Olympics. Ski jumper Kazuyoshi Funaki won two gold medals and one silver for host nation Japan. The Czech Republic won the gold medal in the men's ice hockey tournament. American figure skater Tara Lipinski became the youngest champion in Olympic history at the age of 15 years and 255 days.

Hosting the Games brought about improvements to Nagano's transportation networks with the construction of the high-speed ''shinkansen'' line, the Nagano Shinkansen (now the Hokuriku Shinkansen), between Tokyo and Nagano Station, via Ōmiya and Takasaki. In addition, new highways were built, including the Nagano Expressway and the Jōshin-etsu Expressway and upgrades were made to existing roads.

Host city selection

In 1932, Japan won the rights to host the 1940 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. At that time, organizers of the Summer Olympics had priority in choosing the venue for the Winter Olympics the same year. Several Japanese cities, including Nagano, prepared a bid. Sapporo was chosen; however, the games never took place because of World War II. In 1961, Nagano declared its intention to host the 1968 Winter Olympics but lost to Sapporo, the winning Japanese bid, who lost to Grenoble, France, and Sapporo eventually won the right to host the 1972 Winter Olympics.

Japanese private sector organizations, in 1983, began publicly discussing a possible bid. Two years later, in 1985, the Nagano Prefectural Assembly, decided to begin the process to bid, for its third time, for a Winter Olympics. The bid committee was established in July 1986, they submitted their bid to the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) in November of the same year. Other Japanese cities that were bidding were Asahikawa, Yamagata, and Morioka. 1 June 1988, the JOC selected Nagano in the first round of national voting, receiving 34 of 45 votes. In 1989, the bid committee was reorganized, with the Japanese Prime Minister as head of the committee. The number of committee members was 511.

On 12 February 1990, the bid delegation presented its candidature at the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne before Juan Antonio Samaranch. Other candidate cities for the 1998 Olympics were Aosta, Italy; Jaca, Spain; Östersund, Sweden; Salt Lake City, United States, and Sochi, Soviet Union (now Russia). The host city selection was held in Birmingham, United Kingdom, on 15 June 1991, at the 97th IOC session. After the first round of voting, Nagano led, with Aosta and Salt Lake City tied for last. Aosta was eliminated in a run-off against Salt Lake City. After the second round of voting, Nagano led with Salt Lake City in second, and Jaca was eliminated. Following round 3, Nagano continued to lead, with Salt Lake City in second, and Östersund was eliminated. Finally, Nagano prevailed over Salt Lake City by just 4 votes in the fifth round of voting, becoming the third Japanese city to host the games after Tokyo in 1964 Summer Olympics and Sapporo in 1972. Nagano, at 36°N, is the southernmost city in the Northern hemisphere to host the Winter Olympics ( 1960 Winter Olympics host Squaw Valley, California is 39°N). In June 1995, Salt Lake was chosen as the host of the following 2002 Winter Olympics.

Following a 2002 Winter Olympic bid scandal that occurred in the summer of 2000, Atlanta, host of the 1996 Summer Olympics, Nagano, and Sydney, host of the 2000 Summer Olympics, were suspected of similar improprieties in bidding practices. Although nothing illegal was ever done, gifts to IOC members were considered morally dubious. The Nagano Olympic bid committee spent approximately $14 million to entertain the 62 International Olympic Committee members and many of their companions. The precise figures are unknown since Nagano, after the IOC asked that the entertainment expenditures not be made public, destroyed the financial records, according to bid member Junichi Yamaguchi.

Organization

Five months after the city was selected, the Nagano Olympic Organizing Committee (NAOC) was created. Eishiro Saito, Chairman of Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) was selected as president of the committee. There were four Vice Presidents: Goro Yoshimura, the Governor of Nagano Prefecture; Hironoshin Furuhashi, president of the Japanese Olympic Committee; Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, the president of the Ski Association of Japan; and Tasuku Tsukada, the Mayor of Nagano City. In addition, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Tadashi Tsuda, served as director-general. Tsuda was replaced by Makoto Kobayashi in 1993.

The organizing committee recognized three goals for the games, which they referred to as "Games from the Heart": promote youth participation, coexistence with nature, create a festival with peace and friendship at its centre. To realize the first goal, a camp bringing together 217 young people from 51 countries was created, along with the program of "One school, one country" in Nagano Prefecture. This program organized cultural exchanges with other countries. In addition, more than 100,000 tickets were reserved for children. For the second point, the organizers attempted to minimize the impact on their nature and the local ecosystem. Regarding the third point, an international truce organized by the United Nations in 1997 was adopted during the games.

In June 1998, four months after the Games, the NAOC presented a donation of US$1 million to the Olympic Museum in Lausanne. This value come of the revenue of tickets sales and another actions from the committee. In October of the same year, NAOC also donated the 3-D high vision theater system that was inside the Olympic Village to the Olympic Museum.

In February 1999, one year after the Games, the IOC awarded the Nagano the Olympic Cup, and presented the city a replica of the sculpture of stylized athletes raising the Olympic Flag by the Swiss artist Nag Arnoldi.

Economic aspects

The costs of construction and of the land of the Olympic venues totaled ¥106.6 billion, approximately 914 million US dollars. Of this, the Japanese national government spent ¥51.1 billion, the Nagano prefectural government spent ¥29.6 billion, and the cities and towns of Nagano, ¥23.4 billion; Hakuba, ¥1 billion; and Nozawa Onsen, ¥1.1 billion; shared the remaining ¥25.5 billion. The most expensive venue was impressive M-Wave, the indoor rink which hosted the long-track speed skating events. It cost near ¥34.8 billion. The two ice hockey venues, Big Hat and Aqua Wing Arena cost ¥19.1 and ¥9.1 billion respectively. The White Ring (arena)

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