Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

sent a delegation to compete in the

Winter Olympic Games The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

for the first time at the

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 ...

Nagano Nagano may refer to: Places * Nagano Prefecture, a prefecture in Japan ** Nagano (city), the capital city of the same prefecture *** Nagano 1998, the 1998 Winter Olympics *** Nagano Olympic Stadium, a baseball stadium in Nagano *** Nagano Universi ...

, Japan from 7–22 February 1998. The delegation consisted of a single luge competitor, Iginia Boccalandro. In the women's singles she came in 28th place out of 29 competitors.

Background

Venezuela joined Olympic competition at the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

and has participated in every Summer Olympic Games since then. The 1998 Nagano Games were the country's first appearance at a

. Venezuela has, as of 2018, won 15 medals at Summer Olympics, but never won a medal at the Winter Olympics. These Winter Olympics were held from 7–22 February 1998; a total of 2,176 athletes represented 72

National Olympic Committees A National Olympic Committee (NOC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Olympic Committee, NOCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the Olympic Gam ...

. The only athlete Venezuela sent to Nagano was a luger, Iginia Boccalandro. She was the flag bearer for the opening ceremony.

Luge

Iginia Boccalandro was 36 years old at the time of the Nagano Olympics, and was making her Olympic debut. Before the Games, the

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

resident claimed that "I'm too old and fat"; she said her real goal was the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 ( arp, Niico'ooowu' 2002; Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; nv, Sooléí 2002; Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), was an internation ...

, by which time she would have had enough training to be a contender. The women's singles event was held over two days, 10–11 February. Each athlete took four runs down the course, two on each day, with the sum of the times of all four runs determining the rankings. On the first day, Boccalandro posted run times of 54.232 seconds and 53.962 seconds. After the first day of competition, she was in 28th place out of 29 competitors, with a time of 1 minute and 48.194 seconds. On the second day her run times were 54.133 seconds in the third run, and 56.990 seconds for her fourth and final run. Boccalandro's total time for her four runs was therefore 3 minutes and 39.317 seconds, putting her in 28th position. The gold medal was won by Silke Kraushaar-Pielach of

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in a time of 3 minutes and 23.779 seconds, the silver was taken by her compatriot Barbara Niedernhuber, and the bronze was won by

Angelika Neuner Angelika Neuner (born 23 December 1969) is an Austrian luger who competed from 1987 to 2002. Competing in four Winter Olympics, she won two medals in the women's singles event with a silver in 1992 and a bronze in 1998. Her younger sister, Dori ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. Boccalandro would achieve her goal and return to Olympic competition in her hometown four years later at the 2002 Winter Olympics.

References

{{Nations at the 1998 Winter Olympics Nations at the 1998 Winter Olympics

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...